Mail-in ballots pour in as early voting starts

Absentee Ballots

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida has surpassed the 1 million mark in mail-in ballots cast for the general election, as early-voting locations opened Monday in most counties.

County elections supervisors reported that more than 1.2 million votes had been cast through vote-by-mail ballots as of Sunday afternoon, with 500,632 by Republicans and 483,019 by Democrats.

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Another 31,507 ballots had been cast by people registered with minor parties and 188,191 by Floridians without any party affiliation.

Another 1.95 million vote-by-mail ballots had been mailed out but hadn't been returned by voters. In the 2012 presidential-election year, 2.38 million people voted by mail, 2.4 million used the early-voting option and 3.74 million went to the polls on Election Day.

All but 17 of Florida's 67 counties were scheduled to open early-voting locations on Monday.

Early voting is mandated from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5. However, county elections supervisors have the discretion to begin sooner and to keep early-voting locations open on Nov. 6.