TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – With 8.9 million Floridians having already cast their vote ahead of the final day of voting, only 450,000 voters would have to go to the polls Tuesday to match the turnout in 2016.
Florida is expected to see record turnout this year, but who will take the Sunshine State is still up in the air.
Republicans had been inching closer to Democrats' lead in votes cast over the past week but failed to surpass it.
With Democrats still holding a 108,000 vote advantage, Steve Schale with the Biden-backing Unite the Country PAC is feeling confident going into Election Day.
“I like where we are. I mean obviously, it’s trite to say it’s going to come down to turnout. It will come down to turnout tomorrow, I think Joe Biden has a real shot here,” said Schale.
But Republicans are confident they can close the gap with Election Day turnout.
“This is when we turn on the afterburners. This is when our voters, they prefer to vote in person on Election Day, traditionally. They’re going to come out in waves. I mean it’s going to be overwhelming tomorrow,” said Christian Ziegler, Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
About 63% of Florida voters have already cast their ballots. If 3.1 million show up to the polls on Election Day, the state will have surpassed the previous turnout record set in 1992.
“The more people that vote the better it is for democracy and frankly, the more people that vote probably the better it is for Joe Biden,” said Schale.
Polling shows Democrats hold the advantage among the 1.9 million independent voters who have already voted, but Republicans won the registration battle.
“I just think we have more voters on the table than Democrats did in 2016 and I think that’s thanks to the Governor investing in registering voters and putting us in a position where we’re able to turnout our voters and Democrats have already turned out their voters,” said Evan Power, Chairman of Chairs for the Republican Party of Florida.
When Florida’s race is called it could seal the fate of the election.
A Biden victory in the state would make a second term for Trump nearly impossible.
Both parties hope we’ll have an answer Tuesday night.
Polling averages from Real Clear Politics shows Biden holding a one-point advantage over Trump in Florida.
In 2016, Trump led by two-tenths of a point going into Election Day, but ultimately came out 1.2 percent ahead in the results.