The countdown is on to the Aug. 30 primary, but Florida voters won’t be confined to solely voting that Tuesday -- in fact, they’ll have a full two weeks of early voting in some counties statewide.
Beginning next week, several Florida counties will offer early voting as soon as Monday morning. Early voting will be available in some counties until Aug. 28, giving voters ample time to cast their ballots and avoid long lines at polling places.
Some of the state’s largest counties, including Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade and Orange Counties will all begin early voting Aug. 15. A total of 24 counties will begin early voting Monday.
Other counties will begin early voting several days later, with the latest early voting dates beginning Aug. 20.
Most voting locations are libraries, elections offices, local community buildings and city halls. Each county must provide at least eight days of early voting and a minimum of eight hours of voting each day. All polls open at 7 a.m. and can extend hours all the way to 7 p.m.
Counties can offer a maximum of 14 days and 12 hours of early voting. Only one county, Charlotte County in southwest Florida, will offer the full two weeks of voting.
Early voting officially began in Florida in 2004, but laws limited the amount of time Floridians could cast their votes.
In 2013, Florida expanded early voting after reversing a previous law which lessened the time of early voting in Florida.
Early voting aims to make the political process easier for those who might not be able to make it to the polls on election day.
During this year’s presidential primary, early voting rates soared past the 2008 presidential primary participation in 2008. More than 2 million Florida voters (over 23 percent) cast their primary ballots before official voting even began in March.
Most of the state’s voters who vote early by mail or show up to polls for early voting usually tend to be slightly older and more educated, according to an analysis from the Washington Post. The majority of early voters vote via absentee ballot.
So far, nearly 280,000 Florida voters had returned completed "vote-by-mail" ballots. The majority of those ballots -- around 130,000 came from Republicans, while around 109,000 were sent by Democrats. Over 32,000 votes came from Florida voters with no party affiliation while nearly 7,000 came from people registered with minor parties.
Click here to see a list of early voting locations.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
