Trump takes big lead in Florida
President Donald Trump held a commanding lead in Florida on Tuesday night, bolstered by a strong showing in Miami-Dade County in a state that his opponent Joe Biden was hoping to secure.
Trump had 51% of the votes to Biden’s 48% with nearly every precinct reporting
Trump was buoyed by big gains in Miami-Dade, where Biden won by about 7 percentage points in a county that Hillary Clinton took in 2016 by 29 points. Trump did extremely well in Cuban American districts, seemingly consolidating a usually solid Republican demographic that had been soft for him in 2016.
The Miami-Dade margins ate away at some major gains Biden made elsewhere in the state, including a historic victory in Seminole County.
“Miami-Dade, Miami
Dade, Miami-Dade,” said Matt Isbell, an elections analyst who runs the MCIMaps website. “What’s clear is that Trump drastically outperformed in Miami Dade.”
It was still unclear, however, if the results in that key county were due to Democratic Hispanics not coming out or just an unexpectedly big turnout for the GOP, Isbell said.
“This is just a major Republican swing in the Cuban community and in the Hispanic community overall,” he said. “And it’s just eaten up all of the gains that were made elsewhere [by Biden].”
Voting statewide went smoothly on a gorgeous day with no rain and temperatures in the 60s and 70s, with relatively no long lines at polling sites.
That was due in part to the small number of people who actually voted on Election Day. About 9.4 million of the more than 10.8 million votes counted by 10 p.m. were cast either at early polling stations or by mail.
Turnout was lighter than expected, reaching about 75% by 10 p.m., equal to 2016’s 75% turnout but nowhere near the 83% modern day record set in 1992.
The only major glitch was reported in Osceola County, where the internet went out 10 minutes after the polls closed, resulting in elections workers having to deliver results to the elections office by hand.
The former vice president beat Trump by about 2.7 points in Seminole, the first time a Democratic presidential candidate won the longtime GOP stronghold since 1948.
Biden won Orange County with 60% of the vote, about equaling Clinton in 2016. But the Democrat was running a little behind Clinton’s 2016 numbers in Osceola, getting about 58% of the vote count that was running behind because of the internet problem.
Biden did well in other key counties in the state, flipping Pinellas and Duval from the Trump column and improving on Clinton’s margins in Hillsborough County.
Florida counties have been counting their mail-ins for weeks, so results came in quicker than in states such as Pennsylvania or Michigan where mail-in ballots can only begin being counted on Election Day.
One of Tuesday’s Election Day voters was Terrence Claggett, a 38-year-old cable installer and disabled veteran from Orlando.
He said he’s registered as a non-party affiliated voter and cast his vote for Joe Biden.
A former postal worker, Claggett said he chose to vote in person on Election Day because he likes the experience and doesn’t have confidence in mail-in voting.
“I don’t like the feeling of ‘Oh, mail it in and depend on the Post Office,’” Claggett said. “Not only that, I used to work for the Post Office. I’m not terribly crazy about our
processes.”
Did he have confidence his candidate would win the state? Only by a razor-thin margin.
“If he does, it will be by 10. Like, literally 10 people,” Claggett said.
There were relatively few long lines reported and few glitches. Lake County had early problems with a voter rolls list that was quickly resolved, and a precinct at a school in Osceola County shutdown briefly because of “criminal activity” nearby.
Roughly 62% of eligible voters cast ballots before Election Day, easing the demands on precincts.
At the Hope Lutheran Church on Dean Road in east Orange County, the wait outside the door was short at 8:30 a.m. By 9:20, the line had disappeared.
Bianca Ramos, 33, who voted at Hope Lutheran, said she’s “a minority and a mom” and concerns about COVID-19 and the economy are key for her this year.
She said she thinks Biden is the best person to address both. Trump’s handling of the pandemic has been “horrible,” citing a lack of guidance from his administration about the steps people should take to protect themselves.
“Everybody’s been left to do what they want and it’s clearly not working,” she said.
But she voted against Amendment 2, which would raise Florida’s minimum wage gradually to $15 per hour. She fears the effect that change would have on small businesses that can’t afford to pay their employees at the higher rate.
In Seminole, there was no line at the Seminole County East Branch Public Library, but a steady stream of cars kept entering the parking lot. Across the street, there were small groups of signwavers for Trump and Biden.
Chris and Michelle Tuozzo, a married couple from Oviedo, chose to vote in person on Election Day because they didn’t trust the mail-in ballot system.
But the Tuozzos differ on who should be president. Chris Tuozzo said he is voting for Trump because he’s “done great things.” Michelle Tuozzo wouldn’t say which candidate had her vote but specified it won’t be Trump.
“I think we respect each other’s politics…it’s probably what’s kept us together for over 30 years,” she said.
In Sanford, Lou Rivera cast his vote for Trump at the Westview Baptist Church.
Rivera was happy with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he said he thought was
“overstated” and used as a “scare tactic.”
“Not that I didn’t take it seriously,” Rivera added. “I think he did a great job, considering.”
In Osceola, voting was steady, but “maybe not as busy as I thought it would be,” Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington said by phone.
More than 10,000 voters came through in the first four hours, Arrington said.
While the day mostly went smoothly, there was one incident at precinct 84 at Cagan Crossings in Clermont in which protesters engaged in a megaphone shouting match.
One of the protesters was Williams Stanley Heart, 64, a street preacher who showed up at 10 a.m.
“This is a big election,” Heart said. “One of the biggest elections for Christians, you could say.”
Heart claimed Biden — a devout Catholic who attended a worship service Tuesday morning — was not a Christian. And even though he admitted that Trump was not a Christian, Heart said Trump aligns more with his beliefs.
Soon after 1 p.m., counterprotesters waving an LGBTQ flag showed up.
Ray Rothwell, 37, and his fiancee, Adam Meys, 35, responded to a friend who called them, saying Heart was harassing voters.
“It’s horrible what he’s doing,” Rothwell said, “Even if he’s 150 feet away.”
Rothwell and Meys brought their own megaphones to drown out Heart, who in turn raised the volume on his. A Lake County deputy eventually arrived and spoke to Heart, while Rothwell and Meys left.
While the rest of the country was worrying, waiting and obsessing on social media, a group of friends picnicked on Lake Eola on Tuesday afternoon.
The college students had Publix subs and were playing a party game called Cards Against Humanity.
“It’s a great distraction,” said Yorick Medina, 19, a University of Central Florida student studying social work.
He voted early by mail two weeks ago. Now, he was “just chilling,” he said.
His friends joked they were waiting for their pending doom.