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GOP leads Pinellas County early voting, Democrats lead by mail
As of about 11 a.m. Thursday, 86,454 ballots had been cast.
More than 86,000 Pinellas County voters have already cast ballots in the Aug. 18 primary election, with Republicans holding a substantial advantage among voters showing up in person even as Democrats maintain a narrow edge in overall ballots cast.
As of about 11 a.m. Thursday, 86,454 ballots had been cast, representing 14.28% of the county’s 605,325 active eligible voters.
The figures come from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections’ Turnout Quick View, which provides real-time turnout information for the current election. Because the dashboard updates throughout the day, the figures in this story reflect a snapshot taken at approximately 11 a.m. Thursday.
Most of those votes arrived by mail. The county had received 81,451 mail ballots, while another 5,003 voters had cast ballots in person since early voting began Saturday.
But the party-registration breakdown of those two groups differs considerably.
Republicans accounted for 2,645 early in-person ballots as of Thursday morning, compared with 1,742 cast by Democrats. Another 548 were cast by voters with no party affiliation and 67 by voters registered with other parties.
That gives Republicans about 53% of the early in-person vote so far, compared with roughly 35% for Democrats.
The advantage reverses among voters casting ballots by mail. Democrats had returned 33,737 mail ballots as of Thursday morning, compared with 32,518 Republicans.
As a result, overall participation between the two major parties remains nearly even. Democrats had cast 35,479 ballots by mail or in person, compared with 35,163 Republicans, a difference of just 316 ballots.
Another 14,209 ballots had been cast by voters with no party affiliation and 1,602 by voters registered with other parties.
The turnout figures identify voters by registration, not how they voted. They therefore cannot show which candidates are leading.
That distinction is particularly important in St. Petersburg, where voters are considering a six-candidate mayoral field that includes incumbent Mayor Ken Welch and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. The mayoral contest is nonpartisan, allowing voters to participate regardless of party registration. Florida otherwise operates a closed-primary system in which voters generally participate in their own party’s primary contests.
The geographic breakdown of early voting also shows a sharp difference between St. Petersburg and the county’s other two voting locations.
At the Supervisor of Elections office at 501 First Ave. N in St. Petersburg, Democrats had cast 883 early ballots as of Thursday morning, compared with 534 Republicans. Voters with no party affiliation had cast another 129 ballots, while 25 came from voters registered with other parties.
Democrats therefore accounted for 56.2% of the 1,571 ballots cast at the St. Petersburg site, while Republicans represented about 34%.
The pattern is reversed farther north.
At the Pinellas County Courthouse in Clearwater, Republicans accounted for 1,099 of 1,869 early ballots, or 58.8%, compared with 390 Democrats.
At the Election Service Center in Largo, Republicans had cast 1,012 of 1,562 early ballots, or 64.8%, compared with 469 Democrats.
Those figures describe where ballots were cast, not necessarily where those voters live. Pinellas County allows voters to cast a ballot at any early-voting location, meaning the St. Petersburg location figures cannot be treated as turnout exclusively among St. Petersburg residents.
Early voting continues through Sunday, Aug. 16. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Aug. 18.
