Dems outnumber Republican voters in 300K+ Miami-Dade ballots already cast

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Happy Election Day! By the time you read this, by the time 7 a.m. rolls around and the polls open, more than 300,000 voters have already cast ballots in Miami-Dade — that’s almost 50K more than all the people who voted in the August 2016 mayoral race, including on Election Day.

An astounding majority of the voters who have voted so far, according to state-provided numbers, are registered Democrat, who have already returned almost twice as many absentee or vote-by-mail ballots than Republicans and more than Republican AB and early voting ballots combined.

The figures show that 113,680 Dems voted AB while only 69,536 Republicans had. That’s a huge gap compared to early voting numbers which are almost neck and neck with Dems still winning, at 30,317 while Republican early voters number 29,184.

Read related: Polar opposite partisan caravans show mayoral votes are along blue/red lines

Some political observers blame the difference on Donald Trump’s early distrust of mail-in ballots. But Dems also out-requested absentee ballots. There were still a bunch out — 103,844 with Democrat voters and 58,881 with Republicans — and there is no way they are all going to come in on time. Whatever arrives in the mail on Tuesday or is delivered to the elections department will be counted. Anything that gets in afterwards, well, tough luck. Time it better next time.

The multiple efforts by Dems to increase vote-by-mail numbers — as well as the mailing of 700,000 request forms from the Miami-Dade Elections department — seems to have worked with a COVID-19 wary electorate that doesn’t to have to see anybody or touch anything.

But the early voting numbers are higher than 2016 also, when 46,254 voters cast early voting ballots in the mayoral race compared to 68,070 countywide right now.

Ladra predicts that the numbers will also be higher than expected for election day. Maybe not higher than 2016 if the AB and early voting numbers ate into those. But if the trend holds true, maybe.

So, if you haven’t already, get out and vote today. The polls close at 7 p.m. It’s possible that despite COVID-19, Miami-Dade can have the highest turnout in history — and a real mandate for whoever wins or moves on to the next round.