Heavy turnout is being reported at polling stations in and around The Villages.
Nearly 900 people voted Monday at the early voting station at the Lady Lake Library. A line has been backed up at the library’s elevator as voters wait for their turn to go to the second floor and cast their ballots.
At the polling station on Wednesday at Laurel Manor Recreation Center, candidates and their surrogates were on hand to greet voters making their way in to vote.
Villager Joe Elliott, a candidate for Wildwood City Commission, was among those at Laurel Manor.  He faces incumbent Commissioner Robby Strickland.
Surrogates for incumbent Sumter County School Superintendent Rick Shirley and his rival, Preston Morgan, were out with their signs at Laurel Manor.  In a contest that has become increasing bitter, signs held by Morgan’s backers urged that the the school superintendent be appointed rather than elected.
Although early voting began in the state of Florida on Monday, voter data has already been made public by the Florida Division of Elections and the trends lean red.
In the local tri-county area (Marion, Sumter, Lake), more than 90,000 mail-in votes and early votes have already been cast.
Sumter County early voting data show that 4,905 registered Republicans have casts their votes through Tuesday. That number is more than double the 1,985 registered Democrats who have cast early votes. Those registered with no party affiliation or to a third party outside of the major two have cast 1,436 early votes thus far.
Mail-in votes in Sumter County also showed an advantage for Republicans, with 7,093 votes submitted by registered Republicans contrasted with 4,010 votes from Democrats and 2,491 from those registered as “other” or “no party affiliation.”
In Lake County, the numbers showed a similar trend, with 9,409 mail-in votes cast by voters registered as Republicans, followed by 5,932 registered as Democrats and 2,954 registered as other or no party affiliation. Results from early voting were much closer, showing 5,918 registered Republicans casting votes compared to 4,677 registered Democrats and 2,373 registered as “other” or no party affiliation.
Finally, in Marion County the mail-in and early voting totals also painted a similar picture, with 19,050 registered Republicans casting their votes compared to only 13,301 votes by registered Democrats and 6,010 votes by those registered as “other” or no party affiliation.
State-wide totals show a much closer race, with 832,106 total early and mail-in votes by registered Republicans compared to 826,376 early and mail-in votes by registered Democrats. The state-wide numbers also show that roughly 20 percent of all the votes cast thus far (369,299) have been by those registered as other or no party affiliation.
The Florida Division of Elections will be updating their website daily throughout early voting, so check back to see how the numbers have changed in the days leading up to the election. And remember to get out and vote!
