More than 60 percent of eligible Sumter County voters already have cast their ballots for the upcoming Nov. 3 General Election.
As of Sunday, 64,236 ballots had been cast from 105,605 active eligible voters, for a 57.77 percent turnout. Of those, 36,696 ballots were cast by Republicans, 16,608 by Democrats, 10,530 by those with No Party Affiliation and 402 by those listed as other.
In Marion County, 108,175 of the 264,614 eligible voters – 40.88 percent – already have cast ballots. Of those, 63,319 were received by mail and 44,856 residents took advantage of the early voting period.
Republicans are leading the way in Marion County with 50,031 ballots cast. A total of 39,879 Democrats already have voted, as have 17,147 listed as No Party Affiliation and 1,118 listed as other.
At the Marion County early voting location in The Villages – the Mulberry Grove Recreation Center – 3,582 Republicans have Republicans have voted, as have 979 Democrats, 871 with No Party Affiliation and 44 listed as other. At the Belleview Public Library, 3,761 Republicans have cast ballots, along with 1,314 Democrats, 969 No Party Affiliation voters and 57 listed as others.
As of Sunday, Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays hadn’t posted early voting numbers to his website at www.lakevotes.com. There’s a great deal of information posted about early voting, but the website indicates no voting totals will be released until after 7 p.m. on Election Day.
The high turnout of those taking advantage of mail-in ballots and early voting shouldn’t come as a surprise to area residents or elected officials. In fact, when President Trump visited The Villages this past Friday, he received a resounding round of applause when he asked how many people already had voted. He received a similar response when he asked how many had voted for him and a round of boos when he asked how many had voted for his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
