People ARE lining up to vote this time….
The early vote has been strong Democratic…
But Republicans think they can recover on Election Day …
They did in 2016 against Hillary Clinton…
Florida shattered its opening day record for in-person early voting Monday, with at least 350,000 people casting ballots and election officials continuing to count statewide late into the night.
The trend continues a record-setting pace in the battleground state that is viewed as a must-win for President Donald Trump. Voting by mail, which started earlier this month, racked up more than 2.5 million ballots headed into Monday, more than double the 1.2 million during the same timeframe in 2016.
More than 350,000 voters, some of whom were treated to pizza by singer Ariana Grande while they waited in line, easily surpassed 2016 numbers when 291,000 people voted on the first day of in-person early voting, which includes 52 of Florida’s 67 counties. All counties begin early voting on Saturday.
Democrats have a significant pre-Election Day lead, built by a more than 450,000 vote-by-mail lead, through Monday, but Republicans insist they are just “cannibalizing” their in-person vote. Put another way, they say Democrats are not gaining additional voters, but that voters in candidate Joe Biden’s party are just changing how they participate because of Democrats’ greater emphasis on voting by mail during a global pandemic.
“Democrats know they can’t compete with our unrivaled ground game,” said Trump Victory spokesperson Emma Vaughn.
Kamala Harris, a California senator and Biden’s running mate, held in-person rallies in Orlando and Jacksonville to boost enthusiasm on the first day of in-person early voting….