Surge in Early Balloting Shifts Florida Races

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

BOCA RATON, Fla. — A surge of early voting by Florida Democrats and Republicans has startled officials here and injected additional complexity into the state’s presidential primaries on Tuesday.

Democratic candidates are not overtly campaigning here because of the Democratic National Committee’s decision to penalize the state for moving its primary to an earlier date than authorized by the national party, but the number of early votes cast suggests intense interest in the race.

The activity appears fueled in part by unofficial efforts by Florida supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.


Chip Litherland for The New York Times
Maria Puebla, left, and Josiane Simon unload absentee ballots at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department in Doral, Fla.

By Friday night, nearly 350,000 Democrats had cast early votes, either in person or by mail, and party officials predicted that about 400,000 will have voted by Election Day. By contrast, just 97,000 Democrats voted early in the 2004 presidential primary, which was not as intensely contested. There are 4.14 million Democrats registered to vote in Florida.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/us/politics/27florida.html?ex=1202014800&en=d08febe24b8109fb&ei=5043&partner=EXCITE

[RantinRavin]

1. No, the reason Democrats are voting en masse

is to defeat a property tax amendment to the state's constitution.

[demo dutch]

4. No so sure it will be defeated everyone I know is voting for it

[HooptieWagon]

5. Everyone I know

is voting against it, even Reps. I don't think it will get the 60% it needs to pass, may not even get 50%. Just my opinion.

[tsuki]

7. We (the dems) are voting against here, but the Republicans are gung-ho. nt

[demo dutch]

8. Everyone I know is a Dem and voting for it. As several Indies, are voting for it

[aquart]

6. They're doing it in the primary?

Other states are weird.

[FloridaJudy]

2. They've also made early voting a lot easier

It used to be that we had to go to the voter's registration office if we wanted to vote early - which is what I've done in the past if I knew I would be out of town on election day. This year you can do it at any Public Library in my town. In fact, you can register and vote at the same time if you have a valid ID. I discovered this when I went to the library to change my voting address: they switched my address and handed me a ballot. Quick and painless - and I avoided the parking hassles usual on election day.

[Not Me]

9. Too bad many of those libraries won't be around next time

if the Tax amendment passes.
Orange County Library System is looking at a $5 Mil budget deficit next year if the amendment passes.

[skooooo]

3. Anyone know Florida poll numbers?

I wonder how much things could shift before Tuesday?

[Scurrilous]

10. Florida primary turnout may set record

Early and absentee ballots are pouring in, suggesting that moving up Florida's primary to Tuesday is drawing more voters to the polls.

<snip>

"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."

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