Early Voting Breaks a Record, Harbinger of 2012 General Election?

A record-high 166,937 early votes have been cast in Hillsborough County, which breaks the previous General Election record, set in 2008, of 146,558 early votes, according to a news report from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office.

Coupled with the 143,829 votes this year that have been returned via vote-by-mail ballots and Hillsborough County is showing a 41.32 percent voter turnout with just days to go before the 2012 General Election.

"I think we're going to have an excellent turnout this year, we've already had a record number of early and vote-by-mail ballots," said Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Earl Lennard, in a phone interview Nov. 3. "I'm very grateful people are meeting their civic responsibility and taking time to vote."

More than one-third of the early votes cast in the eight days of early voting in Hillsborough County have been cast in the southeastern part of the county, according to figures released from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office.

As of Nov. 3, at 9:45 p.m., 56,887 early votes were cast collectively at the Bloomingdale Regional Library, Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center, SouthShore Library, Riverview Branch Library and Bruton Memorial Library, in Plant City. Those votes accounted for 34.6 percent of the 166,937 early votes cast.

The two sites in the Greater Brandon area alone — at the Bloomingdale Regional Library and at the elections service center — accounted for 24,924 votes, or for 15 percent of the early votes cast through Nov. 3 (see chart below).

Early voting for the 2012 General Election started Oct. 27 and ended yesterday, Nov. 3.

For more information, call the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office at 813-744-5900. Visit online at VoteHillsborough.org. Email: voter@hcsoe.org.

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2012 General Election Preliminary Early Voting Totals

10-27 10-28 10-29 10-30 10-31 11-1 11-2 11-3 Totals Jimmie B. Keel Library 1,879 2,045 2,055 2,143 2,099 2,332 2,406 2,727 17,686 Jan Platt Library 2,016 1,633 1,826 1,864 1,862 1,820 2,493 2,620 16,134 Elections Service Center 1,600 1,139 1,547 1,487 1,413 1,585 1,907 1,853 12,531 Bloomingdale Library 1,327 1,448 1,221 1,564 1,341 1,638 1,919 1,935 12,393 SouthShore Library 1,556 1,112 1,556 1,494 1,345 1,375 1,759 2,177 12,374 New Tampa Library 1,763 1,186 1,362 1,167 1,074 1,246 1,914 2,364 12,076 Temple Terrace Library 1,073 1,238 1,242 1,423 1,453 1,496 1,658 1,859 11,442 Town 'N Country Library 1,388 919 1,155 1,119 1,107 1,272 1,490 1,794 10,244 Upper Tampa Bay 1,468 983 1,139 996 1,005 1,195 1,615 1,805 10,206 Bruton Memorial Library (Plant City) 1,329 823 1,287 1,217 1,138 1,253 1,437 1,665 10,149 Riverview Branch Library 1,273 902 1,119 1,042 1,187 1,141 1,388 1,388 9,440 C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Library 1,266 1,163 1,049 1,171 977 1,157 1,114 1,389 9,286 North Tampa Library 1,051 504 853 796 844 903 1,387 1,632 7,970 West Tampa Library 1,086 521 820 769 833 823 1,321 1,686 7,859 County Center 667 344 698 676 694 778 1,456 1,834 7,147 DAILY VOTE TOTAL 20,742 15,960 18,929 18,928 18,372 20,014 25,264 28,728 166,937 Source: Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections