JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Monday is the last day to register to vote or change your party affiliation ahead of the Aug. 23 primary election.
Duval’s Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan told Action News Jax he expects a few hundred registrations to come in on the final day.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
“It’s like everything in life. People, they always wait to the last minute,” said Hogan.
If you still haven’t registered, your best bet at the time of this story’s airing will be registering online, but you’ll need to do it before midnight.
“Or you can go to any of the libraries citywide and we have a box there and also the forms there,” said Hogan.
Currently statewide, Republicans hold a voter registration advantage of 200,000.
In Duval, Democrats still hold the advantage with nearly 33,000 more voters.
Surprisingly, at both the statewide and local level, Republicans have returned more ballots than Democrats, even though Democrats have requested more mail ballots.
Read: Congress exploring ways to address election threats & improve security measures
“I think in a lot of ways, this is a return to normalcy pre-COVID,” said Dr. Michael Binder, a professor of political science at UNF.
Binder said that before the pandemic, Republicans generally voted by mail more than Democrats.
“I would expect that you’re going to see a push from Democrats once early voting opens up in a couple weeks and they start to make some gains back,” said Binder.
Unlike most Primary Elections, Duval’s independent voters also have issues before them on the Aug. 23 ballot, including the special election for sheriff and the teacher pay increase referendum.
Early voting officially begins in two weeks on Aug. 8.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
