Experts said the impact of the Hispanic vote helped to sway Miami-Dade County red.
Florida saw the third-highest voter turnout in the last 70 years on Nov. 5, when nearly 11 million residents cast their ballots, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
The data shows that 78.76 percent of eligible voters showed up to the polls this year.
The figure is not only higher than turnout for the 2020 election, it also represents the highest voter turnout by percentage since the 1992 presidential election, when Bill Clinton, then-Democratic governor of Arkansas, defeated incumbent Republican President George H.W. Bush in a race that saw 83 percent turnout in the state of Florida.
That puts 2024's voter turnout at third-most in Florida, behind 1992's figure and 73 percent turnout in 1968, when Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey.
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In 2020, when then-President Trump and then-Vice President Joe Biden faced off, 77 percent of people eligible to vote cast their ballots in Florida, data from the Florida Division of Elections shows.
Four years later, almost 2 percent more Floridians came out to the polls, and this time, succeeded in electing Trump and several other Republican candidates.
In Miami-Dade County, however, the turnout in 2024 was less than in 2020, 72.35 percent compared to 74.59 percent, respectively.
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That puts the county’s voter turnout as third-lowest in the whole state of Florida for the 2024 election. Only DeSoto County, with 63.91 percent, and Hardee County, with 62.68 percent, reported a lower turnout.
Broward County’s 77.04 percent turnout was also higher than it was in 2020, when 76.1 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.
But compared to Monroe County, which ranked in the top #10 for voter turnout with 85.59 percent in 2024, and brought in 84.91 percent in 2020, the rest of South Florida may have some work to do when it comes to showing up to exercise a civil right.
