A.G. Gancarski
As voting by mail continues in Jacksonville, the trend is still with Duval County Republicans.
As of 9:05 a.m. Wednesday, there had been 68,475 vote-by-mail requests with the Supervisor of Elections office, with 21,874 ballots cast.
Just under half of the votes (10,863, or 49.7 percent) cast so far have been by Duval County Republicans. The remainder is split between Democrats (8,166) and NPA voters (2,812).
In the actual results (not the party identification turnout numbers) for the 2011 race for mayor, the Republicans had a pronounced advantage in votes by mail, with Mike Hogan beating Alvin Brown 19,198 to 10,894 in absentee ballots. Brown overcame that advantage in early voting and Election Day tallies, suggesting that even though the GOP has a turnout advantage, it’s not an insurmountable one.
With a couple of meaningful endorsements still in play, including that of 2011 Republican mayoral candidate Audrey Moran, who has until now maintained a public silence, and Bill Bishop, who has stayed neutral thus far, there are still a number of plot points in this campaign between now and the two mayoral candidate debates on May 12 and 13.
