Democrats Have Edge On Registered Voters In Florida

Florida Democrats now have a more than 600,000-person advantage in registered voters over Republicans, nearly double the gap between the two parties' registered voters since the last presidential election.

Voter registration closed in Florida on Oct. 6, but the final numbers of voters eligible to cast a ballot in the November election were released Sunday.

Democrats held a lead in registered voters during the last presidential election in 2004, when Florida voters chose Republican President George W. Bush. Since then, however, Democrats have added more than two and a half times the number of new voters to the rolls than Republicans have. Democrats increased their numbers by approximately 461,000 registered voters while Republicans increased their registered voters by approximately 172,000.

Republicans now have 4,064,301 registered voters and Democrats have 4,722,076, according to the Florida Division of Elections, giving Democrats an edge of roughly 658,000 registered voters.

In 2004, the state had 3,892,492 registered Republicans and 4,261,249 registered Democrats, for a gap of 369,000.

Overall, Florida now has nearly 1 million more voters than four years ago. The total, including people not registered with any party, is now 11,247,634 registered voters, up from 10,301,290 in 2004.

Florida has had a majority of registered Democrats since at least 1972. Still, the last time the state's electoral votes went to a Democrat was in the 1996 election, when voters sent Bill Clinton back to the White House for a second term. Before that it was the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter.

In 2004, President Bush won the election in Florida by about 380,000 votes out of more than 7.5 million votes cast.

Republican state party spokeswoman Erin VanSickle said the numbers don't worry her because Republicans have been good at getting their voters to the polls.

"There's no doubt about it we have been outregistered this year," VanSickle said. "When it comes to voter registration we are used to being the underdogs. Florida is a blue state when it comes to registration."

Democratic state party spokesman Eric Jotkoff said the party was "thrilled" by the numbers and that the party had learned from past mistakes in getting out the vote in the state.

"This isn't 2000 or 2004, times have fundamentally changed since then," he said.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman said in a statement that the party is "focused on making sure that every voter in Florida casts their ballot between now and Election Day for Barack Obama and other Democrats."