Florida early and mail voting surpassed 4 million ballots on Oct 29, with registered Republicans finishing Day 11 of in person voting ahead by 1.8 percentage points, or roughly 76,000 votes, after netting 25,000 ballots on the day. Earlier in the afternoon, when statewide turnout hit 29.2% across the 4 million milestone, Republicans held a 1.5 point cumulative lead, down from the GOP’s 11.7 point advantage at the same point six days before the 2024 election and its 6.6 point margin in 2022.
Despite an 11 percentage point statewide voter registration advantage for Republicans, registered Democrats widened their turnout rate lead to 9.4 percentage points by the end of Oct 29, up from 9.1 points earlier in the day when 37.5% of Democrats and 28.4% of Republicans had voted. On Day 11, Republicans won in person early voting by 10.5 points while Democrats led mail returns by 6.7 points; at the afternoon update, cumulative in person voting stood at R+8.5 and mail voting at D+7.8.
The 25,000 vote net gain on Day 11 followed a slower final tally for Day 10 on Oct 28, when Republicans netted 18,000 votes to add 0.3 percentage points to their overall margin. In person voting through Day 10 totaled 972,753 Republican ballots, 788,137 Democratic ballots and 449,703 from unaffiliated and other voters for an 8.4 point cumulative GOP lead, representing a 15.3 point shift toward Democrats compared with the 23.7 point in person lead Republicans held at the same stage in 2024.