Florida early voting underway

Six days away from the election. Millions of Florida voters have already made their choice. New early voting numbers show that more than three and a half million ballots already cast statewide. Matt McClellan is live in the newsroom breaking down what we're seeing here in the Bay Area. Matt, good morning. Hey, good morning. This early turnout I think really illustrates how aware people are through all of the political advertising and calls they've been getting, how aware they are and how much they want to turn out and vote. These numbers look really different depending on where you live. In Hillsborough County, more than 221,000 people have already voted. In Pinellas, it's more than 182,000. And this morning, campaigns can see not only how many people have voted, but which of their supporters still have not. Now, the University of Florida Election Lab shows more than 3.5 million Floridians had voted early or returned a mail ballot through Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats nearly even statewide among these voters. But here in our area, there are some big differences I want to address. Registered Democrats who have voted, they do outnumber Republicans by nearly 16,000 in Hillsborough. Pinellas is a lot closer with Democrats ahead by about 2,700. In Pasco, Republicans lead by more than 7,600. And Polk is almost dead even. I want to let you hear the closing message from the two candidates running for governor. Can you afford your house? Can you stay in your house? Can you rent in the community in which you work? Where does your family get health care? And in a state that abandoned public education, where do you send your kids to school? Sure, along the way, this issue of data centers has cropped up and it represents a power inequality where people are saying, don't build it in my backyard. And our paid off politicians are saying, sorry, you're wrong. You want Florida to continue to be great? Go vote. Go make sure your voice is heard. Make sure you tell the Democrats and tell the crazies that they're not gonna get power in Florida. We've grown accustomed to defeating the left time and time and time again here in the great state of Florida. Now, I want to be clear here. The early voting numbers do not tell us how people actually voted, of course. They tell us their party registration. But for campaigns, this is really valuable information. They can now spend these final six days focusing more attention on those supporters who have not yet cast a ballot. And there is still time. Early voting is going to continue through this weekend in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota counties. It ends Saturday in Pasco, Polk, and Hernando. And then, of course, Election Day, when votes begin to be counted, that'll be Tuesday, Walter. Okay. Matt McCullough on the line for us this morning. We'll talk to you later.