Florida becomes latest state to overtake 2016 turnout just five hours into voting

Florida has become the latest state to surpass 2016 voter turnout, after less than five hours of voting.

The tally was announced at 11:47am, with the polls having opened at 7am.

Polls in the state do not close until 7pm.

In 2016, 9.4 million people, representing 75 per cent of all eligible voters, cast their ballots in Florida, according to state records.

By Monday almost nine million had voted, meaning that surpassing the 2016 total did not take long. The last day of early voting was Sunday, with “Souls to the Polls” events being held at Black churches across the state to try and encourage turnout.

Monday’s totals from the state’s Division of Elections show that through mail-in and early voting, 3.5 million registered Democrats have cast ballots compared with 3.4 million Republicans. Another 2.1 million no-party and third-party affiliated voters also have voted.

Most analysts also expect more Republicans to cast ballots on Election Day.

Four years ago, Hillary Clinton went into election day with a roughly 240,000-vote lead, but lost to Mr Trump in Florida by 113,000 votes because Republicans turned out in much larger numbers than Democrats in the final day of balloting.

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In Gadsden County, Florida’s only majority Black county, a steady stream of voters cast ballots during the first week of early voting.