Early Florida Voting Drove Obama's Win

MIAMI — More Floridians voted for John McCain than Barack Obama on Election Day, but the Democrat sealed his victory in the state by winning more early and absentee votes.

An Associated Press study of 94 percent of the state's total shows that the Republican beat Obama by almost 5 percentage points on Nov. 4, but Obama trumped McCain by 11 percentage points in early and absentee balloting. Overall, Obama beat McCain 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent in Florida, becoming only the third Democrat in 11 presidential elections to carry the state.

The results reflect the Obama campaign's heavy emphasis on early voting in critical states such as Florida, which had the most electoral votes of any swing state _ 27 _ and decided the presidency for George W. Bush in 2000.

The AP analyzed election results reported by 55 Florida counties, separating the absentee and early ballots from the votes cast on Election Day.

More than 2.6 million of Florida's 11.2 million registered voters cast their ballots in the early period between Oct. 20 and Nov. 2. Florida's total turnout for the presidential election was 8.4 million voters; it was not yet clear how many voters mailed in their ballots.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist had signed an executive order Oct. 28 extending early voting hours as record numbers of voters waited for hours in long lines. Democrats hope to make those extensions permanent when the state legislature meets next year.

Democrats also added 461,000 voters to their rolls, compared to 172,000 more Republicans.

In 2004, the difference between Election Day results and early and absentee balloting was negligible for both John Kerry and Bush, according to an AP analysis of election results. Bush carried Florida by 381,000 votes and bested Kerry by about 4 percentage points in the early voting and about 5 percentage points on Election Day. Bush won the state overall, 52.1 percent to Kerry's 47 percent.

More than a third of the votes cast in Florida in that election were cast early or by mail, taking advantage of a 2000 rule change allowing absentee ballot requests without having to prove that voting in person would be a hardship.

Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173.

Comments

[robiform]

I'm also a Florida voter who happily stood in line to early vote for our next President, so I say "you're welcome" to all the thankful commenters! That's the good news--the bad news is that Amendment 2 (Florida's version of Prop 8) passed, and the person who represents my district in the U.S. House of Representatives was re-elected (Lincoln Diaz-Balart--yecch!). It will be interesting to see what, if any actions the Florida legislature takes about early voting when they next meet!

[Harmony1812]

Yay, I voted early in Florida, too. I so happy we all got it right this time!

[Mabila]

Thank you guys. Great job and thanks to studious community organizing.

[kellygrrrl]

after watching these people stand in hours-long lines for 2 weeks, it seems pretty obvious that there is no possible way they could have all been accommodated on Nov. 4th. I really don't understand what the problem is in some of these states.
Here is CA., the only early voting is absentee ballot, and NO ONE stands in line to vote. Seems there is a polling place in every neighborhood.
I hope we can do some serious Election Reform before '12

[flabingo]

Crist also allowed level 1 felons the ability to vote. Good Governor!

[jeffrey678]

This is why President Obama needs repair the voting system on a national level. The Republicans have been using the voting booth as a choke point . Early voting, vote by mail on a national level. Increase penalties for voter suppression. This needs to be done in the first 100 days

[Coinyer101]

my early vote for barack , was in arkansas. i think we were ahead after the first day. then the good ole boys got over their weekend cowboy drunk, by wednesday, and it was all downhill for barack from then on.i'm surrounded by red. now i get to hear every complaint by these maroons for the next 8 years.

[gopSTEALSyourTAXmoney]

How can you stand living there?
GAWD----I LOVE CALIFORNIA----AND MIAMI!

[aramos]

And 62% of those early voters chose to ammend the floridian constitution to say Marriage is between a man and a woman. I guess they were colorblind and homophobic as well. Good job with early voting.

Why don't we just have open voting thru 2012...

[DuVal Dem]

I'm so glad I can say that we're a BLUE STATE. I'm also glad that the Reploblicans are moving further to the right. I hope they never discover a man like Gov. Charlie Crist. He's a good Governor and a moderate. Let them nominate the Sarah Palins and Huckabee's and Gingrich's in 2012.

Crist appeals to Reps, Dems, and Independents. I hope he runs for re-election in Florida...He'll win hands down.

[Harmony1812]

shhhhh... they'll hear you.

[JayeSF]

Yup...every vote counts....that was just a brilliant strategy by Obama/Biden. Just brilliant !!!!

[iBlog4Fun]

Agreed with many of you, Cris deserves Lifetime Membership to Disney World.
Seen as how he dissed a McCain's rally to go there during the election....

[dbdzen]

That's why Charlie Crist is now a semi-loathed figure in the GOP, some Republicans wanted to challenge him for exceeding his authority on this. He put Country First.
In the end, Obama would have won anyway without Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

[roshni]

Crist was disgusted with McCain/Palin. It was obvious when he went to Disneyworld instead of campaigning with McCain. He did put country first. People should be able to exercize their right to vote without such severe logistical hardships.

[Chironomid]

Charlie Christ showed himself to be a man of decency. He deserves our congratulations, and not in the sense of simply aiding Obama's victory. That was a step toward repairing FL's tawdry voting reputation.

[sharonh]

Thank you Rep Gov Charlie Crist. Thank you FL voters (patting myself on back). Charlie, you can call off the wedding now--he didn't pick you.

[dadw5boys]

You guys in Flordia need toi force the whole state to use one ballot and make it easy for people.

Watch out for the guy in Daytona who had the computer program written to steal electronic votes.

[Topfeeder]

We Rock Florida!!!

[TakLoufer]

Only we Floridians who voted for Obama and against Amendment 2 rock, honey.

[Topfeeder]

True. I'm golden on both counts.

[Harmony1812]

Yay! I rock!

[StringOfLights]

Early voting was fantastic. The line was long, but I waited less than 10 minutes. Although I can't say that I think this would have changed the election or not. I voted early but I would have waited all day on election day to vote, and so would everyone else I know who voted early (and Democrat). The Dems won in the early voting because they pushed it so hard and the Repubs didn't. The Dems did that to avoid Election Day shenanigans, and I can't say I blame them.

I also don't know that the changes to early voting will be made permanent. Crist is very moderate, but the legislature isn't. The districts are so hopelessly gerrymandered that I have no expectations that will change any time soon.