Florida Midterms: Democrats Outpace Republicans in Early Vote Counts

Florida voters headed into the 2026 midterm elections with a substantial portion of the electorate having already cast ballots. Before precincts opened Tuesday morning, the Division of Elections reported that 5.4 million of the state's 13.7 million registered voters had voted via mail or at early voting sites.

Democrats led the early voting totals with a 49 percent turnout rate among their registered members. The party recorded 832,000 mail ballots and 1.2 million in-person votes at early locations. In contrast, 38.2 percent of registered Republicans had voted by Monday. The GOP total included 1.5 million in-person ballots cast at early sites and approximately 679,000 mail ballots.

Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said the party was seeing high turnout rates in every county. Fried stated in an emailed fundraising pitch on Monday, “In every county in this state, Democrats are showing up at rates that we have not seen in years.” She added, “If we can keep that energy up on Election Day, I believe that we will take back Florida.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds anticipated a higher turnout on Election Day. Speaking on the Florida Unwired podcast, Donalds said, “I’m very proud of our efforts.” He noted, “We know there are going to be a lot of voters showing up on election day. A lot of Republican voters are going to show up on election day. We know that. So, we just stay focused.”

The 5.4 million early votes represent 69 percent of the total turnout from the 2022 midterms and 62 percent of the 2018 midterm turnout. Thirty-one percent of the state's 3.3 million unaffiliated registered voters have also cast ballots. This group includes just over 382,000 mail ballots and nearly 669,000 in-person votes.

Republicans have controlled the Florida Legislature since 1996 and the governor's mansion since 1999. They surpassed Democrats in registered voters in 2021. Fried won the last statewide election for a Democrat, serving as agriculture commissioner since 2018. In the 2022 midterms, Republican turnout exceeded Democratic turnout by about 600,000 votes.

Polls across Florida opened at 7 a.m. and remain open until 7 p.m. County elections officials are expected to post early vote and mail-in totals about 30 minutes after polls close. The state Division of Elections will begin posting election results after 8 p.m., once polls close in the western Panhandle counties in the Central Time Zone.