Early voting starts Saturday in Leon County primary election

As early voting is set to begin in the Aug. 20 primary election, roughly 13,000 Leon County voters have already returned vote-by-mail ballots, pushing turnout to nearly 7%.

Early voting runs Saturday through Sunday, Aug. 18, at 10 locations in Tallahassee. Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley urged people to take advantage of early voting rather than waiting until Election Day.

"People that wait until Election Day, I understand a lot of people like to do that," Earley said. "It's a pretty traditional way to vote, but I consider that to be last-chance voting."

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Earley said his office gets a lot of calls on Election Day from people who are stuck in traffic or have had some other problem "and they just aren't able to get there. So don't wait until the last minute to vote."

Voters can also drop off their vote-by-mail ballots at any of the early voting sites during operating hours. All VBM ballots must be in the possession of the Supervisor of Elections Office (not merely postmarked) by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 20, to be counted.

Earley said his office has sent out more than 37,000 vote-by-mail ballots, which voters must request each election cycle because of changes in the law put in place by the GOP-led Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis. That's about 9,000 more than requested in the primary of 2018, the year Earley uses as a benchmark because COVID inflated VBM numbers in 2020 and 2022.

"Frankly, it's a little higher than we expected," he said.

Earley added that volume of vote-by-mail ballots could signal higher than normal turnout in the primary, perhaps approaching 40%. Two years ago, primary turnout landed at a lukewarm 33.1%.

Meanwhile, Democrats are outpacing Republicans slightly in their efforts to turn out members of their own parties.

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, some 7,734 Democrats — or 8.18% of the party's voters — had returned vote-by-mail ballots. Some 3,681 Republicans — or 6.90% of GOP voters — had returned VBM ballots.

In Leon County, Democrats make up slightly less than 50% of the electorate , with Republicans at about 28% and no party affiliated and minor party members at about 22%.

Democrats accounted for roughly 60% of returned vote-by-mail ballots, Republicans accounted for around 28% and NPA and others about 12% .

Leon County early voting locations, hours

Early voting runs Saturday, Aug. 10, through Sunday, Aug. 18. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at all sites except the Leon County Courthouse, which runs 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Leon County voters can cast ballots at any of the sites regardless of their precinct.

• Dr. B.L. Perry Branch Library, 2817 S. Adams St

• Eastside Branch Library, 1583 Pedrick Road

• FAMU Student Union, 1628 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

• FSU Student Union, 75 N. Woodward Ave.

• Fort Braden Community Center, 16387 Blountstown Highway

• Leon County Elections Center, 2990-1 Apalachee Parkway

• Lake Jackson Community Center, 3840 N. Monroe St.

• Leon County Courthouse, 301 S. Monroe St.

• Northeast Branch Library, 5513 Thomasville Road

• Woodville Community Center, 8000 Old Woodville Road

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Early voting starts Saturday in Leon, Tallahassee primary election