Polk County Early Voting Turnout: 140,000 Ballots Cast as Both Governor Candidates Campaigned There Monday
Polk County was supposed to be safe Republican ground. Instead it drew both candidates for governor on the last day before the election - because its early-vote tally, 30.53 percent of eligible voters, is much closer than its registration says it should be.
LAKELAND - Both men running for governor of Florida spent part of their final campaign day in Polk County, and the early-vote numbers explain why. More than 140,000 Polk residents had already voted as of 10 a.m. Monday - 30.53 percent of the county's 459,905 eligible voters, according to the unofficial Supervisor of Elections tally reported by The Ledger and read by this desk. Registered Republicans cast 57,179 of those ballots and Democrats 54,878, a margin of barely 2,300 votes in a county where Republicans hold a 42.2-to-29.2 percent registration advantage.
Democrat David Jolly rallied supporters at a church in Haines City on Monday, while Republican Byron Donalds met supporters at a sports bar in South Lakeland, according to Tampa Bay 28's report read in full by this desk. The attention follows Governor Ron DeSantis's social-media posts last week acknowledging that Republicans were underperforming in Polk despite that registration edge. Polk GOP chairman Sam Romain told the station the county's growth - new residents who work in Orange, Osceola and Hillsborough counties but live in Polk for the housing prices - is making the stronghold more of a battleground, and that Republican turnout on Election Day will be critical.
The candidates closed their Polk arguments on turnout itself. 'Florida didn't happen by accident. It happened because of consistent policy from consistent leadership. I represent that leadership going into Florida's future,' Donalds said in Lakeland, urging supporters to bring friends and family to the polls. Jolly, building a coalition pitch aimed at independents and crossover Republicans, answered in Haines City: 'Thus far, I think we're seeing a lot of Democrats show up, but I'm also encouraged by what I think is going to be the crossover vote among independents and Republicans. I feel very good about where we are.' Polk's polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the county's Election Day turnout - the variable both campaigns spent Monday chasing - will be counted with the rest of Florida's on Tuesday night.
