Turnout for early voting has been particularly favorable for the Republican Party and for one county, that veered from traditional trends.
According to the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office, the numbers speak for themselves.
“The trend does seem to be changing a bit in Miami-Dade," said Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Christina White.
As of Monday, Miami-Dade County saw a 31% voter turnout. That includes early voting and mail-in ballots. Supervisor White said that is a typical trend. But what is not the norm, is the lead Republicans have over Democrats.
According to the department, as of Monday, more than 182,000 Republicans and over 178,000 Democrats have voted, a difference of nearly 4,000 between the two parties. There were more than 109,000 ballots cast by those with no party affiliation.
“Republicans have never done well in a place like Miami Dade,” explained Darryl Paulson. “So, people are wondering what the heck is going on?”
Paulson is an expert on US Government. He shared that one of the biggest reasons a typical Democratic cornerstone might have moved is due to Latino immigration, specifically from the Venezuelan population.
“They don’t like what they see in Venezuela; that’s one of the reasons so many of them have come to the United States,” shares Paulson.
He continued, “Republicans have long keyed into this message of socialism, Communism, dictatorship in these South American countries and saying we don’t want that in the United States. And a lot of these immigrants say the same thing.”
Paulson predicted with this a-typical lead, Tuesday’s results are already clear for the county.
“The last four governor's elections in Florida have been decided by a half percent margin, so you can’t get closer than that,” stated Paulson. “My expectation is that Ron Desantis is going to have an easy victory tomorrow, which will be the first time for Republicans in two decades. And he’s going to win by probably 10% of the vote. That’s a landslide win in a state like Florida.”
However, those like White, with the elections department, are still canvassing and accepting mail-in ballots. White said no decision is final until all ballots are counted.
