64,723 Escambia County Ballots Are Already In: 31.21 Percent of the County Has Voted Before Election Day
Escambia County goes into Election Day with nearly a third of its electorate already counted as voted: 46,194 ballots at 10 early voting sites, 18,488 by mail and 41 provisional - and the busiest rooms in the county were Asbury Place, Bellview and the Extension Office.
Escambia County's Election Day starts from a deep base. As of Saturday's close of early voting, 64,723 ballots had been cast in the county - 46,194 of them in person across the county's 10 early voting sites, 18,488 by mail, and 41 cast as provisional ballots - NorthEscambia reported Sunday. That is a total turnout before Election Day of 31.21 percent of the county's registered electorate, the share every campaign's Tuesday arithmetic now has to beat, match or overcome.
The geography of the early vote is the county in miniature. The three busiest early voting locations - Asbury Place, the Bellview Branch Library and the Escambia County Extension Office - each drew more than 8,000 early voters. The north end voted lighter, as it is smaller: 2,540 early voters in Molino and 381 in Century. Election Day itself belongs to the precincts: polls are open Tuesday, November 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., mail ballots must be in the Elections Office's hands by 7 p.m. that evening rather than at a polling place, and anyone in line at 7 p.m. still votes.
What the 31.21 percent does not say is who is winning - the count records ballots cast, not choices made, and Escambia's remaining two-thirds include the Election Day turnout on which this station's statewide reporting has focused all weekend: a Republican early lead of about 3 points statewide against a Panhandle running softer than its usual share. Tuesday will supply the rest of the county's electorate, and with it the answers on the LOST renewal, the council and commission races, and Florida's statewide contests.
