Report: 48,000 More Republicans Than Democrats in Florida’s First Coast Vote Early

Around 48,000 more Republicans than Democrats have already voted in Florida’s First Coast region, which encompasses five counties around Jacksonville.

Local station WOKV reports that Republicans are leading Democrats in early ballots, and over 40,000 independent voters have also voted early. That’s 19 percent of unaffiliated Florida voters in the counties of Clay, Dvual, Nassau, and St. Johns. Thirty-three percent of registered GOP voters in that area have already voted, along with 28 percent of Democrats. Baker County, the fifth county in the First Coast region, doesn’t put its vote totals online.

All told, First Coast registered Republicans sent in 20,000 more absentee ballots and cast 28,000 more early votes than Democrats in those five counties. WOKV notes that while Duval County has around 20,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, the other four counties have thousands more registered Republicans.

When looking at Florida as a whole, the Tampa Bay Times reports that Democrats are lagging behind:

Four years ago, Democrats led by about 13,000 in ballots cast at this point, whereas today Republicans lead by nearly 9,000 votes. The great news for Hillary Clinton/lousy news for Donald Trump is that the Hispanic vote has soared—as in nearly 100 percent—since four years ago. The bad news for Clinton/good news for Trump is that African-Americans and millenials are voting considerably lighter—so far—than four years ago.

While polls released Sunday by Gravis and WSJ/NBC/Maris showed Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by one percentage point in the Sunshine State, two others—Remington Research and NY Times/Siena—showed him leading her by four percentage points.