Joel Engelhardt
In-person early voting ended Sunday for the Aug. 20 primary. Combined with mail-in ballots, more than 121,000 Palm Beach County residents have cast ballots.
Democrats cast more than half of those votes as of Monday morning, almost 67,000 ballots. Republicans cast nearly 38,000. Voters registered with no party submitted nearly 14,000 ballots.
- Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Palm Beach County by 324,081 to 276,730. Another 267,610 voters are members of other parties or no party at all.
Why it’s important: Both parties have contests on the ballot for sheriff, state attorney, U.S. senator and, in some districts, state Legislature, Congress and County Commission. Voters of any party or no party at all are eligible to vote for public defender, school board and on a referendum to extend a business recruitment tax break.
- In-person early voting drew 32,121 voters in Palm Beach County. About 45 percent were Democrats and 45 percent Republican.
Mail-in voting continues. Ballots must arrive at the elections office no later than 7 pm Tuesday (5 pm at branch offices).
Statewide, about two-thirds of early votes as of Sunday were cast by mail rather than in person. Even though registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 1 million in Florida, about 30,000 more Democrats submitted vote-by-mail ballots.
Yes, but: Republicans statewide took advantage of in-person early voting, accounting for 62 percent of those voters. Democrats accounted for 30 percent.
- Palm Beach County had received nearly 90,000 vote-by-mail ballots as of Monday morning, 59 percent from Democrats, 26 percent from Republicans.
A vote-by-mail ballot. (Photo: Joel Engelhardt/Stet)
Behind the numbers: After decades of encouraging vote-by-mail, Republicans appear to be shunning it even as Democrats embrace it.
In 2020, vote-by-mail grew in popularity for voters seeking to avoid personal contact during the COVID pandemic. Former President Donald Trump made absentee voting a centerpiece of his false claims that the election had been rigged against him.
The low turnout for early voting concerned Palm Beach County elections chief Wendy Sartory Link, who worried that changes in state law would confuse voters who expected to be sent a vote-by-mail ballot.
But she noted that primary turnout can’t compare to a November presidential election. In 2020, five times fewer voters took advantage of early voting in the March primary, as COVID took root, than in the November general election.
“For a lot of voters who can’t get out, (vote-by-mail) is an easy and convenient way to vote,” she said. “I’m hoping (the lower early voting numbers) are because it’s the primary, which never is as popular as the general election.”
The county lets you track your vote-by-mail ballot here.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
