JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The state of Florida is on pace to set a record for highest voter turnout for a midterm election. That projection is based on the number of people voting early and voting by mail in Duval and most other counties.
By Saturday morning, more than 4.4 million people in the state had voted -- just over 33 percent of the 13.2 million registered voters in Florida.
By mid-week, more Floridians had voted than the number who voted early or by mail four years ago. There's reason to believe the numbers of people will continue to grow through Tuesday.
Duval County's supervisor of elections, Mike Hogan, where 196,182 votes were cast by Saturday morning, is predicting a 56 percent turnout when polls close Tuesday night.
"It is going to be long lines," Hogan said. "So it will be a big heavy day on Election Day."
In St. Johns County, where nearly 40 percent of registered voters had cast ballots by Saturday morning, supervisor, Vicky Oakes, is predicting a 60 percent turnout. Nearly 35 percent of Clay County voters had voted by Saturday morning.
Election workers are busy staffing early voting sites and checking in the mailed ballots as they arrived.
While no votes are counted until the polls close next Tuesday, the canvassing board in Duval County has been reviewing more than 1,500 questionable mailed ballots that have arrived where people have double-voted -- marked to candidates in the same race -- or their marking on the ballots were not clear. If two people on the board can decide if the voter's intention is clear, that the vote will be counted.
"Also, people are checking it or X-ing it," Hogan said of the voters' marks on the ballot. "That won’t pick up on the tabulator, so we have to reproduce all of those in the public's eye, and that takes a lot of time."
As a result of a judge's ruling in August, Duval County has two early voting sites on college campuses for the first time in this election, one at the University of North Florida and one at Edward Waters College.
Student Justin Dorsey said that has made it easier for him to vote.
"When you have that right to vote, go vote," Dorsey said.
Early voting will end Saturday in most of Florida, but several counties, including Bradford, Duval, Suwannee and Volusia will continue to hold early voting on Sunday. Due to an executive order from Gov. Rick Scott ii in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf and Jackson counties have added Monday to early voting.
Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
While no votes are counted until all the polls are closed, political observers closely watch the mix of who is voting. So far, Republicans have a 122,000-vote edge over the Democrats statewide. Perhaps a bigger factor is that nearly 805,000 votes have been received across Florida from voters with no political affiliation. Those so-called swing voters are likely to make a difference in the close races for governor and U.S. Senate.
Election supervisors also remind people who requested votes by mail to get them returned by Tuesday. Statewide, more than 1.2 million ballots that were sent out have not been returned.
“When you look at the return rate so far, it’s very low,” said Skyler Zander, with Americans for Prosperity. "I mean, there’s a lot of people that can still get out there and still have their mail ballots turned in.”
Under state law, candidates but not the general public can get a list every day of people who have requested a mail ballot. They also get a list of who hasn't returned their ballot.
Those who haven’t voted are getting reminders as the Election Day deadline to return the ballots gets closer. Both parties are ramping up their efforts.
“Because you get that list, you’re able to send out robocalls to ask them to turn in their ballots,” Leon County Republican Party chairman Evan Power said. "You send email to get them to turn in their ballots. And in the last case, the last couple days, you send walkers out to go grab the ballots for them or help them get their ballots turned in.”