First day of early voting in Florida sees long lines, website crashes

ORLANDO, Fla. — The first day of early voting in Florida on Monday saw sizable lines outside Central Florida libraries, elections offices and other voting sites, with would-be voters waiting longer than 45 minutes at one location in Winter Park.

The presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is the headliner, but heated local contests and two high-profile state ballot initiatives — one that could legalize marijuana, another that would help protect abortion rights — likely helped draw people to the polls.

Donald Maloney, 86, drove his golf cart to an Orange County polling site on Lee Road on Monday morning. Concerned about border security, he said he voted to return Trump to the White House.

“We need to straighten out the various things the Biden Administration has done,” he said.

Cedric Bronson, 44, who cast a ballot at the same polling place, said he voted for Harris.

“I feel like a woman should have the right to decide for herself,” Bronson said, listing reproductive rights as an important issue for him. “I also just like good people, and I feel Kamala is and Donald Trump is not.”

The initial group of early in-person voters Monday leaned Republican, said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor, who pulled real-time data from elections offices in all 67 Florida counties.

But Democrats should see better numbers as voting continues, he said. “It’s what I would have expected to see for Florida, which is that lots of Republicans are showing up to vote in person early on the first day that it’s available,” McDonald said, noting that Nevada and North Carolina saw similar early-voting trends.

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats more often voted early or voted by mail, and Republicans — influenced by Trump, who slammed both options — preferred to vote more on election day.

This year, Florida Republicans have pushed both early voting and voting by mail.

Republicans voting early could benefit Trump, whose get-out-the-vote organization has faced scrutiny after it was largely farmed out to billionaire Elon Musk, because it means his campaign doesn’t have to worry about reaching those voters, McDonald said.

But in the days ahead, more Democrats likely will head to the polls, he said.

“Souls to the Polls will happen on the Sunday before the election, that will be a very heavy Democratic day,” McDonald added. “That last week before the election, that’s when we also start seeing young people start voting at higher rates. … They may not register as a Democrat, but they’re going to be at least Democratic-leaning.”

Statewide early voting numbers weren’t yet reported on the Florida Elections website as of Monday afternoon.

But Democrats did have a slight lead in mail-in ballots returned in Florida, with nearly 500,000 sent in compared to Republicans’ 427,000. Another 219,000 independents have also returned mail-in ballots.

The question, McDonald said, is whether the Republican trend continues or peters out.

“If we get to the end of the early voting period and registered Democrats don’t have a lead in both the mail ballot and the in-person voters, it’s almost an assured sign that Trump and [U.S. Sen.] Rick Scott are going to win the state,” he said.

Some county elections websites were down on Monday morning due to heavy traffic, including Lake and Osceola, though they were back up by the afternoon. Osceola saw 2,787 early voters by mid-afternoon, Lake saw 4,463, and Seminole had about 5,700.

In Orange County, about 7,480 voters had voted early by midday Monday. Lines stretched outside the elections office on Kaley Avenue in Orlando and the South Creek Library Branch in Hunters Creek. At the Winter Park Library, some would-be voters waited more than 45 minutes.

About a dozen voters were lined up at the Fairview Shores branch of the Orange County Public Library on Lee Road when it opened its doors. A steady stream trickled in over the next few hours, some carrying voter guides or homemade “cheat sheets” to remind them how they wanted to vote.

Elizabeth Rogers, 52, staffed a Democratic Party table near the entrance of the shopping plaza, handing out the party’s voter guides and cheerfully enduring drive-by taunts of some Trump supporters.

One slowed to ask Rogers if she was a “damn Democrat” and Rogers said, yes, she was.

The woman then called her a Communist and shouted, “Democrats are ruining the country.”

On X, the Republican Party of Florida and GOP leaders urged their party faithful to vote early.

“Let’s send President @realDonaldTrump back to the White House and re-elect @SenRickScott,” wrote Jimmy Patronis, the state’s chief financial officer.

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