- Leon County voters made their voices heard in Florida's presidential preference primary.
- Turnout was relatively low, but statewide, Decision Desk HQ called Florida's primary for Former President Donald Trump.
- Watch the video to hear from a voter and learn why more people are expected to vote in November.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It was rather slow out here at polling places like this one in Southeast Tallahassee. Turn out only came out to 22 percent. For comparison, the last republican primary in 2016, the turn out was over 50 percent.
I sat in while election workers counted up the votes and spoke with a few voters as they left the polls.
Rick Moreno came out just an hour before polls closed Tuesday. "I did miss early voting so I wanted to make sure on Election Day that I cast my vote, it's very important these days."
He was one of just over 4,000 that came out to cast their ballot on Election Day in this year's presidential preference primary. In total: just under 23 percent of eligible republican voters in Leon County voted in the race.
I asked Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley why turn out was on the lower end.
"Unlike other presidential primary elections," Earley said, "this one has all the candidates except for one that have suspended their campaign. I think that's obvious why the turn out is low."
Of the people who did cast their ballot, only 34 percent came on election day to cast their ballot. Twenty-two percent showed up to early vote. When you look at turn out at specific polling locations, it follows the map of where republicans are concentrated in our communities.
The top three polling locations for turn out were all in the northeast neighborhood, north of I-10.
The most popular way among voters to fill out their ballot: by mail.
About 42 percent of the people who voted in the election used vote by mail.
"I think when the voters actually had the ballot in their hand they went ahead and did it, but I think the extra trip out to the polling location for those who hadn't requested it kept that number on Election Day low."
But Moreno says he still felt the need to have his vote count. "I have one candidates preference right now and I feel like that's going to make a difference right now so that's what really motivated me to come out here and have my voice heard."
