Source: Associated Press
Mitt Romney routed Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary, rebounding from the previous week’s defeat with a commanding victory and taking a major step toward the Republican presidential nomination.

REPUBLICAN (58% reporting)(100% reporting)

MCCAIN: 35% 36% –>Winner! [declared]

ROMNEY: 31%

GIULIANI: 15%

DEMOCRATS (58% reporting)(100% reporting)

CLINTON: 51% 50% –>Winner! [declared]

OBAMA: 31% 33%

EDWARDS: 15% 14%

From the Miami Herald:

Nearly one million Floridians have already cast early and absentee ballots in the state’s primary, a sign that moving up the date of the presidential primary will likely yield a record turnout on Tuesday.

The last time there was a contested presidential primary on both the Republican and Democratic sides, only about 19 percent of Florida voters, or 1.34 million, cast ballots. But numbers assembled by the political parties show that more than 988,000 people had voted by Sunday.

And thousands more voted Sunday afternoon in the seven Florida counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, that were still conducting early voting. Lines at some early voting sites in South Florida snaked around buildings and stretched out onto sidewalks.

It’s also worth noting that this will be the last time voters in Florida will use touch screen voting machines. With the exception of disabled voters, all future voting will be done via paper ballot.

-Chris Jones

Rudy Giuliani has staked his campaign on a strong showing in Florida after largely ignoring other states that kicked off the party nominating process to determine candidates for the November U.S. presidential election.

But polls have shown Giuliani trailing both nationally and in this state with a large population of retired New Yorkers as rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney picked up momentum from wins in states that voted earlier this month.

Rudy suffered a major setback this week when popular Florida Governor, Charlie Crist, decided to endorse John McCain.

Voting is scheduled to wrap up at 7 p.m. EST in most of Florida and an hour later in the northwestern part of the state.

-Chris Jones