TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Capitol News Service) – With 15 days to go until the August primary, early voting has started in parts of the state. As Matt Galka tells us, casting a ballot early could help in a record-setting year.
It wasn’t a packed house in Quincy, Florida – about 30 minutes away from the state capitol – for early voting. But Mike Allen made it a point to cast his ballot.
“I work, and I wanted to vote on my off day early,” he said.
Allen says it’s important to make your voice heard even if the August election isn’t the big one.
“It’s very important because you have all your amendments, and you have to know as taxpayers how they’re using your money, and you want somebody in there who’s not going to let the money get wasted,” he said.
And early voting could play a pivitol role this year with a record number of registered voters in Florida heading into the August primary. More than twelve million people are eligible to vote in the primary election
Leon County and many others won’t open up early voting until Saturday. State law requires at least 8 days of early ballot casting from August 20-27.
“What early voting does is redistribute turnout. So as long as the election is below 65% we can handle early voting with the hours of 8 days, however, once you go over that number and you’re approaching 75, 80, or even higher you need the additional days for early voting,” said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho.
Counties were also given the option to add six more days of early voting…with four out of the five most populated counties opting for the additional time.
More than 592 thousand Floridians have already voted by mail with more than 1.6 million ballots not yet returned.