Some stunning mail voting numbers are being reported today ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in Florida. They show mail voting numbers in the Sunshine State are way ahead of 2018 primary levels, and even 2016 primary levels, with Democrats voting in far larger numbers than Republicans — reversing recent trends. In fact, it appears that Donald Trump’s bogus scare tactics about mail voting are tamping down voting with the only people who still actually listen to anything that be blurts out of his fat, lying mouth: base Republican voters. As the Tampa Bay Times reports:
Nearly 2.3 million Floridians have already cast ballots four days before Tuesday’s primary as counties across the state see a surge in mail voting.
Democrats have taken the lead in the number of mail ballots cast so far, a reversal in the historic vote-by-mail edge held by Republicans.
Nearly 960,000 Democrats have voted by mail as of state data through Thursday, compared with more than 670,000 Republicans. Additional mail ballots cast by minor party or no-party-affiliated voters has brought the total mail ballots cast to 1.9 million.
That’s a nearly 300,000 vote margin in favor of the Dems vs. GOPers so far for the primaries. The 1.9 million mail ballots cast in the state so far this year are already nearly 570,000 votes higher than the final numbers for the 2018 primary elections and nearly 620,000 votes higher than the final numbers for Florida’s 2016 primary elections.
This jump in pre-election day primary voting numbers is due in large part to an increase in voting by Democrats. In the final numbers for Florida’s 2016 primary elections, Republicans had an advantage of more than 147,000 votes in total early voting (early voting in person + mail voting); in the 2018 primaries, Republicans held an advantage of more than 36,000 votes. As of Tuesday, Dems had an advantage of nearly 200,000 votes for combined early voting in person + mail voting.
As the Tampa Bay Times notes, Trump is succeeding in discouraging mail voting in Florida — by Republicans.
Elections officials, political parties and others have been aggressively promoting mail ballots in recent months as a safe alternative to in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. That pull toward mail voting has particularly resonated with Democrats and no-party-affiliated voters this year, said Daniel Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida.
In part, that’s because attacks on mail voting by President Donald Trump appear to have deterred some Republicans from that voting method. Trump, who himself has voted by mail, has repeated an unfounded claim that expanded mail voting opens up a “tremendous potential for voter fraud.”
The newspaper interviews one moron Trump voter who confirmed that the Big Orange One has scared her away from voting by mail.
Tampa resident Meri Lee Tranthem, 77, said she decided she didn’t want to take a chance with voting by mail for the August primary.
Tranthem, a Republican, cast her ballot at an early voting site this week. She said she’d considered voting by mail, but then started worrying about the ballot getting lost or not counted — and about fraud. She said comments by the president validated those concerns.
We have a lot more work to do if we’re going to win Florida in November. We all know that Ron DeathSantis will do everything he can to make sure that his idol Trump gets re-elected in the state, but these primary numbers offer a ray of hope.
