More than 1.86 million Floridians have already voted before Election Day

Floridians have voted by mail or at early voting precincts in record numbers leading up to Tuesday night’s primary election – with even more voters participating than in 2016 – the last presidential election.

That’s significant because turnout is usually higher during presidential election years and lower during mid-term elections like this one.

A total of 1,861,524 people have already voted, according to the Florida Division of Elections website – slightly higher than the 1.82 million who voted by mail or in early voting before the August 2016 primary. It’s also bigger than the 1.2 million who cast ballots during last the primary race for governor in 2014.

What’s unclear is whether that means that there’s more enthusiasm among the Florida electorate this year, or that the trend of more people voting before Election Day is becoming more pronounced.

Of those who have already voted, 855,847 are registered Republicans, and 810,629 are registered Democrats. There are also 189,324 non-party-affiliated voters who have also participated in the election, though they are not allowed to vote in any Democratic or Republican primary races.

Miami-Dade, the largest county in the state, has had the most voters to participate with more than 183,000 voters. Pinellas and Broward were the counties with the next highest levels of early voting and voting-by-mail ballots.