Posted on 01/28/2008 9:13:04 PM PST by jerry557
BY GARY FINEOUT
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.
The boost in voters, a stark contrast from the 2000 presidential primary, coincides with the decision by the Florida Legislature to move up the primary date from March to Jan. 29 as well as highly competitive races in both parties.
Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Lester Sola said that, between early voting and absentee ballots, turnout has already matched the entire 2000 primary turnout. Nearly 10,000 people voted on Sunday afternoon and he said that points to plenty of voters showing up on Tuesday.
''We're expecting a busy day,'' Sola said.
There are 10.2 million registered voters in Florida. Of those who had already voted by Sunday, nearly 474,000 are registered Republicans and 405,000 are Democrats. An additional 109,000 voters -- who are either registered with other parties or are independents -- have also voted on the property-tax amendment on the ballot.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
A question I don't have an answer for.
That depends on whether or not the dead turn up to vote...
The NYT doesnt tell you that the other primaries and caucuses so far are all open. Iowa, NH, and Nevada are all open to a point to where you could almost walk in on election day and claim you are a resident and get a ballot. Some were accusing Obama of bussing in people from Illinois into Iowa to caucus for him. Same allegations of Hillary bussing people in from Vermont to vote for her in NH. And Nevada was a joke in my opinion. When you open caucuses at the places everyone works, of course you will have record turnout.
So just because Democrats have more votes now does not translate that they will have the same turnout numbers in their favor come November.
Overall, Florida is Republican, but the southeast is infested with Democrats.
Thanks for the laugh.
They have ruined a once upon a time nice place like Ft Lauderdale.
So does a high turnout benefit who?
With many elderly, a record turnout in FL favors conservatives......unlike most places where liberals usually benefit from a high turnout.
Although the state’s demographics is changing, FL still has a high % of elderly.
The weather should be nice statewide tomorrow, and that will help turnout. This will benefit Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee (esp w older evangelicals). Rudy will also get some boost.
McAztlan would be the one adversely affected
Who benefits? If the early voting helps Rudy G. win, then he gets the big mo! IMHO
McCain will discover tomorrow that while he was playing a game of checkers Romney was playing chess.
But it won't matter. The military vote will go strongly against McCain and for Romney.
That's my thoughts.
To all, Please stop McCain.
We all knew Rush would be great today. RUSH: Stop caring who the media likes. Screw them!
We have a lower property tax bill on the ballot. That is a big deal in Florida.
McCain and possibly Romney. This would offset what is likely strength in early early ballots that went to Rudy.
Just got through reading some poll internals and you’re dead on.
Lot’s of older voters and immigration and the economy are far and away the top issues.
After looking at a lot of data, I’m now read to say that Mitt will win by between 5-10%.
It will be good to see for once that the GOP will have a larger turnout for their primary than the Democrats. In the previous states, Iowa, NH and even South Carolina, more people voted in the Democratic Primaries than the Republican Primaries.
lot’s=lots
read=ready
time for bed
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