TAMPA, Fla — Saturday was the second to last night of early voting in Hillsborough County and Plant High School senior Charles Robb has officially cast his very first ballot.
“I just turned 18, actually, October 17th -- so I had to pre-register,” said Robb, who told us he voted Saturday.
His two friends just missed turning 18 in time for the election and will have to wait until next year. That’s why Robb feels so fortunate he gets to vote in this election.
“Because the two people running are such polar opposites, I knew my vote matters,” Robb said. “It was a really big decision and also because my beliefs are so strong now, I thought it mattered even more.”
And he’s not alone as experts predict an all-time high voter turnout for 2020, especially among young people.
“Florida has about 14.5 million registered voters and if we get to the numbers we're talking about this year will get over 11 million voters,” said 10 Tampa Bay Political Analyst Lars Hafner. “That means all the different groups including young people are actually motivated to go out and vote and our casting their vote.”
According to the U.S. Elections Project, at least 8.2 million votes already have been cast in Florida. More than 92 million votes have been received nationwide.
In 2016, about 6.6 million votes were received during the early voting period in Florida.
Amazingly, a majority of those 2020 votes have already been cast with early voting ending Saturday in Citrus, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands and Pasco counties.
Sunday will be the final day for the rest of the Bay area, including our biggest counties, Hillsborough and Pinellas along with Polk, Manatee, and Sarasota.
“There’s enthusiasm, there’s excitement, and there’s a lot of people that just want to get it over with,” Hafner said.
For those who decide to wait until election day, Hafner says there should be very few delays.
“There will still be some precincts that get slammed there’s no question about that," he said. "There will be backups because there will be a rhythm to the day but when you think that perhaps only a third of the votes are being cast that day and two-thirds have already been cast, it should move along pretty rapidly.”
As for Robb, he wanted to get his ballot in and counted early calling his first time through the process a breeze.
“I thought it would be a little bit more complex thing, but it was pretty easy,” Robb said. “I just showed my ID, voted, put in a little machine and it was pretty simple.”
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