In Florida, registered voter partisan gap has narrowed

More Floridians take registered to vote every bit Republicans than Democrats since the 2016 presidential elections, standing a tendency seen in previous presidential cycles and sharply narrowing the Democratic Party's advantage, according to a Pew Research Heart analysis of Florida land government data.

There currently are five.30 1000000 registered Democrats and 5.17 million registered Republicans in the state – an edge of about 134,000 voters in favor of the Democrats. But the size of that margin has fallen from 327,000 in 2016 and 658,000 in 2008.

Democrats and Republicans now make upwardly like shares of Florida's registered voters (37% and 36%, respectively), compared with 26% who accept no party amalgamation. In 2008, the Democratic share of voters was 6 percentage points higher than that of Republicans (42% vs. 36%).

For this report, we analyzed the number of people registered to vote in Florida, including their distribution past political party amalgamation and county of residence, based on information from the Florida Partition of Elections.

There has been greater growth in the number of Floridians registered to vote as Republicans than as Democrats since 2016. The number of Republican voters has risen by about 619,000, compared with an increase of 426,000 voters amid Democrats. However, the biggest increase during this menstruum has been amongst those who are registered with no political party (+663,000).

While the unaffiliated make upwards 26% of Florida'south registered voters in 2020, relatively few voters cast a election for third-party presidential candidates in the land's elections. In 2016, Donald Trump narrowly beat Hillary Clinton in Florida, 49% vs. 48%, with third-party candidates winning iii% of the vote.

A perennial battleground land in presidential elections, Florida has added one.six million registered voters since the 2016 election, which is substantially more than the two previous presidential election cycles (929,000 between 2012 and 2016; 687,000 betwixt 2008 and 2012). These figures are as of Florida's "book closing" date on Oct. 6 and correspond terminal voter registration figures for the Nov. 3 general election.

When it comes to those eligible to register as voters in Florida, demographics have shifted in recent decades as the number of Hispanic eligible voters has grown faster than other groups. In addition, the state has i of the largest immigrant eligible voter populations in the nation. (Eligible voters are not the aforementioned as registered voters. Eligible voters are adult U.S. citizens, just non all eligible voters have registered to vote.)

In most Florida counties, Republican registered voter gains have outpaced Democratic gains since 2016

In 49 of the state'southward 67 counties, the increase in Republican registered voters since 2016 exceeded that of Democratic and unaffiliated registered voters.

Nevertheless, in a bulk of counties with large registered voter populations (i.e., counties with the 20 largest registered voter populations), the biggest increment has been amidst those who are registered with no party affiliation. For example, in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Hillsborough – counties with the four largest registered voter populations, accounting for 33% of the state'southward registered voters – more than people have registered with no party affiliation than every bit Republicans or Democrats since 2016.

Luis Noe-Bustamante is a research annotator who studies race and ethnicity, Hispanic trends and migration/immigration at Pew Research Center.