Early voting, mail-in ballots mark the final stretch of midterm elections

Early voting, mail-in ballots mark the final stretch of midterm elections

2022-10-27T11:56:47-04:00October 27th, 2022|Economy, Miami, Midterms 2022|

Writer: Jerrica DuBois

2 min read October 2022 — Early voting got off to a slow but seamless start this week in Miami-Dade County. All 28 early voting locations in the county reported no wait times as of the end of day Tuesday. However, the pace is certainly expected to pick up as the countdown to Nov. 8 continues. 

Early voters are not only heading to the polls in person. Nearly 1.2 million Florida residents had already submitted their mail-in ballots before any early polling stations opened for voters on Monday morning. As of Sunday, Democrats had a slight lead over Republicans by 45,518 ballots. 

To have any hope of winning the top races, Florida Democrats need an advantage in mail voting and in-person early voting leading up to Nov. 8. On the actual Election Day, the results for the state typically go Republican, according to Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida.

Voters that return their ballots quickly are likely to be most committed to one party or its candidates, and generally will not be swayed based on events such as candidate debates or rallys. Out of the returned mail-in ballots, so far 42.2% are from Democrats and 38.3% from Republicans.

The objective for Republicans is to keep up in areas where Democrats have a strong presence. The three largest counties in the state, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, are heavily Democratic. In order to win the statewide races, the Democrats will need to win South Florida by huge margins.

Looking nationally, the Republicans are working to take away Democrats’ control of both chambers of Congress. In the House of Representatives, they only need five additional seats. 

In the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris became the tie-breaking vote when she took office and established a Democratic majority.

In the South Florida region, the focus for the Republican campaign is improving the economy and tightening U.S. immigration policy. The Democratic initiatives, however, include gun control, climate change and abortion rights.

Miami-Dade County boasts about 1.5 million registered voters. According to Christine White, Miami-Dade’s supervisor of elections, a voter turnout of 40%-50% is likely due to the race between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Charlie Crist.

In the first and only debate in the gubernatorial race, Gov. DeSantis and Crist met in Fort Pierce to garner support in the final two weeks of the election. Christ put Gov. DeSantis on the defensive on the issues of abortion and whether he would leave office, if elected, for a presidential run in 2024.

Gov. DeSantis, in response, largely stuck to his talking points and offered some push back to Crist, who also called into question the governor’s handling of the pandemic, specifically on when to close or open schools and businesses. DeSantis fired back with stats on Florida education, including the state ranking number three in fourth grade reading and number four in fourth grade math. 

Early voting sites are open in Miami-Dade County now through Nov. 6 from 7am-7pm. The deadline to request mail-in ballots is Oct. 29.

Share This Story!