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Politics

GOP Closes Gap on Florida's Registered Voters

October 28, 2012 - 7:00pm

With early votingunder way across Florida, attracting record opening-day numbers in several more populated counties, the state Division of Elections reported the number of registered voters has grown nearly 6 percent since the 2008 presidential election.

With the growth, the Republicans have reduced the advantage Democrats have held among registered voters.

However, more people opted to register without a party designation than with the major parties during the last four years.

The state has 11,934,446 residents registered to vote for the 2012 presidential election.

See a county-by-county breakdown on registered voters here.

The number is 686,812 more than were eligible for the 2008 contest that had a 75.2 percent turnout (8,456,329 voters).

Already nearly 2 million have cast ballots for this years election through absentee ballots (1.3 million) and early voting (300,000), with record opening-day totals announced in a number of counties including Leon, Hillsborough and Miami-Dade.

As of Sunday morning, Republicans held a slight edge over the Democrats in the ballots already cast -- 684,744 (43 percent of all votes cast) to 658,434 (41 percent).

Among registered voters, the GOP -- which has grown by 181,690 since October 2008 -- has closed in on the Democrats, narrowing the difference between the parties from 657,775 in 2008 to 535,987.

Democrats added 59,902 voters to their rolls during the same time.

The attraction of not being part of either party drew 469,782.

The GOP holds the majority in 27 of Floridas 67 counties, two more than in 2008, with Gilchrist in the Big Bend area and Flagler along Florida Northeast coast shifting from Democratic majorities into the red category.

Democrats continue to hold the advantages in the most densely populated counties: Broward, Miami-Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Volusia and Polk.

Large Republican-dominated counties include Brevard, Lee, Pasco, St. Johns, Sarasota and St. Lucie.

Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.

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