Early Voting Ends Today in Orange County as Florida's Ballot Count Passes 5.1 Million

Today is the last day to vote early in Orange County. The county's 27 early voting sites are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, November 1 — under the new standard time after the overnight clock change — and registered Orange County voters can use any of the 27 sites today. After tonight, the next chance to vote in person is Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, at each voter's assigned precinct.

Statewide, the ballot count has passed five million, though the two public trackers count it differently and the station reports both rather than blending them. The Florida Division of Elections' report compiled Saturday at 8:08 a.m. Eastern put early voting and returned mail ballots at 4,726,493: 1,915,934 cast by registered Republicans, 1,799,654 by registered Democrats and 891,062 by voters with no party affiliation — a Republican registration edge of 116,280 ballots, up 39,603 from the October 30 snapshot as the total rose 452,459 in a day. The On Point Politics tracker, compiled through October 31 from state and county election offices via civicAPI, counts 5,153,389 ballots cast — 3,257,540 in person and 1,895,849 by mail — with registered Republicans casting 40.7% and registered Democrats 37.6%.

Registration is not a vote choice, and neither tracker shows how anyone voted — ballots stay sealed until they are counted. What the trackers do show is pace: the civicAPI count puts Florida's ballots about 13% ahead of the same day of voting in 2022, with the Republican registration lead at 3.1 points against 7.4 points at the same point in 2022. Orange County's I-4 corridor turnout is watched statewide for exactly that reason, and today's 8 p.m. close is the last early-voting number the trackers will add before Election Day.