Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today as voters pick between Republican Nick Howland and Democrat Tracye Polson for a seat on Jacksonville City Council.
Any voter who is in line at their precinct or has their mail ballot reach the Supervisor of Elections Office by the time the polls close will have their vote counted.
You can find your precinct at this link on the supervisor of elections website.
In mail and early voting, Democrats voted in bigger numbers than Republicans, but their lead could be tenuous considering Republican turnout tends to be heavier on Election Day. Democrats will need to outperform their turnout from the December primary in order to win today.
Here are the details:
- Nearly 78,000 ballots have already been cast — between mail and early voting — for At-Large Seat 3. About 4,000 more Democrats have voted than Republicans — 47.3% of voters compared with 42.1%.
- The Democrats' lead includes 3,000 more mail ballots and 1,000 more early votes.
- A total of 17,210 Democrats have voted early, compared with 16,150 Republicans and about 3,000 voters with other or No Party Affiliation.
- In the December primary, 9,277 Democrats voted early, compared with 7,753 Republicans and under 1,400 other and NPA voters. That means Democrats made up 50% of early voters in December, three percentage points higher than the current runoff.
- In mail voting, Democrats are also running behind their December benchmarks. Although mail ballots will be accepted until the polls close on Election Day, Democratic voters currently make up 47.2% of canvassed mail ballots, while they made up 52.4% of mail ballots in the first election.
Republicans generally outpace Democrats during in-person voting on Election Day. In December, Republican turnout dwarfed Democrats, making up 55% of in-person voters compared with 37.1% for Democrats and under 8% for NPA and third-party voters.
In addition, a recent UNF poll shows Polson and Howland neck-and-neck in the race, but that same poll also has NPA and third-party voters breaking for Howland by nearly two-thirds.
Polson would need to outperform the polls with non-Democratic voters, or Democrats would need to turn out at a higher rate than the previous special election to claim victory.
The Dec. 7 primary saw 12.7% of eligible voters cast a ballot, with nearly 43% of all ballots being cast on Election Day.
Turnout in the special election runoff is already at 11.9% after early voting, and most mail ballots having been counted, with that number likely to nearly double after Election Day.
