- Video shows early voting turnout in Leon County as of Wednesday afternoon, just over 6,000 total votes.
- Click or tap here for a by-the-hour update on early votes cast at each polling location.
- Watch now to find out which polling location has yet to register a single vote.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
With the Georgia Presidential Preference Primary wrapped up, a look into early voting numbers in Tallahassee.
I'm Alberto Camargo in the College Town neighborhood.
I'm bringing you a look at voter turnout throughout Leon County about halfway through the early voting period.
As of 3:30 in the afternoon Wednesday, over 1,600 neighbors across Leon County have voted early since polls opened Saturday.
More than 4,500 (4,537) have voted by mail.
Those numbers bring turnout for Leon County to just over 11% so far (11.34%).
Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley says that number is low, but about what the county expected.
"Given that the only race that's on the ballot is the republican nominee for president. Yeah it's going to be fairly slow."
Florida canceled their Democratic presidential primaries, with all their delegates going to the sitting president, Joe Biden.
So far, over half of the votes for the Republican side were cast at just two locations: the Northeast and Eastside Branch libraries.
"No line. I just went right in. Didn't take even five minutes."
I visited the Eastside library and spoke with Barbara Brandt.
She says...
"I think it's very important -- I even text my grandkids and say I'm not telling you how to vote, but it's important to vote. Make sure you do it."
Take a look at this map.
It shows how many votes Donald Trump got the last time Leon County held a republican presidential primary in 2016. Trump received just over 9,000 votes.
More than 30,000 votes in total were cast during 2016's primary.
Meaning many more people will have to cast a ballot to get anywhere near those numbers.
I checked in with the locations in my neighborhood.
The FSU voting location has been slow, and the FAMU location has been empty all week.
I spoke with polling staff, they tell me not a single vote has been cast here — and some volunteers have been told to go home.
Slow activity is no surprise given both schools are on spring break, but the sites remain open. Earley says...
"At this point, it's probably more costly to close the site down than to keep it open. Frankly, we've had some students drop in who were not necessarily eligible to vote because they're not Republicans. But still, they're seeing where the polling place is, they're getting a bit of an education."
All eight polling locations will remain open from 10 in the morning to 6 in the evening through Sunday for early voting.
Florida's Presidential Preference Primary is set for Tue., March 19.
