After a week of in-person early voting in Miami-Dade County, only about 7% of registered voters have participated in the August primary election.
According to data from the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office (SOE), about 83,000 out of 1.3 million registered voters have cast ballots since vote-by-mail ballots went out and in-person early voting began Monday,
Registered Democrats account for the majority of early voting and mail-in ballots cast, with approximately 40,000 votes as of Friday. Republican voters follow behind with around 28,000 total votes between in-person and absentee ballots. Voters without party affiliation account for about 16,000 votes.
Dario Moreno, a professor of political science at Florida International University, said his expectation going into the midterms is that Democrats will see an advantage over Republicans, who control the White House, U.S. House and U.S. Senate.
"American midterms have historically, with two exceptions, have always favored the party out of power. So the expectation is almost certainly that the Democrats will take back the House of Representatives. The Senate is unpredictable right now," Moreno told WLRN.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade voters come out as in-person early voting begins
He points out that Democrats have the advantage that many voters are frustrated with increased prices and cost of living across the board, though in Florida Republicans have more infrastructure to get out the vote — not to mention far more registered GOP voters.
The latest statewide data shows that Republican voters outnumber Democratic voters by more than 1.5 million.
Some of the most active poll sites lie in the northern reaches of the county. North Dade Regional Library is far and away the busiest early voting site, with more than 1,100 voters casting ballots there as of Friday. The next two popular sites are in North Miami and Westchester.
Both the North Dade library and North Miami lie in Florida’s Congressional District 24, which is at the heart of a contentious race following the longtime Congresswoman Frederica Wilson's decision not to seek re-election.
The newly redrawn district shifts north, taking in more of Broward County, including parts of Hollywood, than the previous map, and stretches down into Miami-Dade County to include parts of Miami and all of Miami Gardens. It no longer includes Miami Beach.
The race has a packed field of 10 candidates, seven of whom are Democrats. Early polls show a heated back-and-forth battle between former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert and state Sen. Shevrin Jones in the Democratic primary.
Early voting runs through Sunday, Aug. 16. Primary Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 18. A list of voting sites and schedules can be found on the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections website.
