Andrew Gillum supporters join officials at UCF rally as early voting opens today

Democrats rallied in support of Andrew Gillum at the first early voting site at the University of Central Florida in four years as the casting of ballots kicked off across Central Florida on Monday.

The UCF site was one of 16 locations in Orange that opened, along with 10 in Lake County and seven in Seminole, with six more opening County.

But the location at the Live Oaks Event Center at UCF could be one of the most important voting sites this year, as Gillum aims to make young people and college students a key part of his strategy to win the governor’s race in the Nov. 6 election.

A rally at UCF in August with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, was considered a key turning point in Gillum’s come-frombehind win in the Democratic Friday in Osceola primary.

The decision to open a voting site at UCF came after a judge ruled in July that a state-imposed ban on on-campus early voting sites in place since 2014 was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said in his decision the ban appeared to have been done to stop younger voters from casting ballots.

By late afternoon Monday, however, the UCF site had one of the smallest totals of any of the Orange County early voting sites, with 218 voters compared with six sites with more than 600 apiece. Overall, more than 8,000 people had voted early in Orange.

Democrats have usually done well in early voting in Florida, while Republicans have traditionally had the advantage with mail-in ballots and election day voting. Statewide, nearly 1 million votes had been cast by Monday via mail.

Early voting continues until