ORLANDO, Fla. – With the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats growing in Florida, Democrats are planning a million-dollar campaign to register voters, along with a tour in August.
The Florida Democratic Party launched the Take Back Florida tour Wednesday, with plans to stop in 18 counties in August to register voters and boost vote-by-mail requests as well.
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Democratic Chair Nikki Fried will head up the tour, which will stop in 18 counties, including Broward, Collier, Duval, Escambia, Gilchrist, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lee, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Santa Rosa, Seminole, St. Lucie and Volusia.
The party is planning to spent $1 million on voter registration efforts, including grants to local Democratic committees.
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Democrats continue to lose Florida registered voters in large numbers, expanding a widening gap with the Florida Republicans, who in 2021 took the lead in voter registration for the first time in more than a century.
According to Florida Division of Election records, Democrats had 4,721,471 active registered voters in June, compared to 5,263,269 Republican active registered voters – a difference of 541,798.
There were 14,182,364 active registered voters listed on Florida voter rolls in June.
In February, News 6 reported that Democrats lost 331,810 Florida voters between October 2020 and November 2022, at a time when Republicans gained 108,382 voters and no party affiliate voters in Florida increased by 239,699.
In our analysis, News 6 found 275,384 Democrats in that period left the party to join another party or become an NPA voter.
Democrats have lost active voters in every month this year so far, according to the state. In looking at the latest numbers in June, Democrats lost 93,744 active voters. The state also lost 48,096 active Republican voters in June, while active NPA voters fell by 101,479.
At least some of the loss, however, can be attributed to voter roll maintenance. Florida law mandates that counties have to conduct voter roll maintenance every six months.
In June, for instance, Osceola County announced it was going to label nearly 36,000 voters as “inactive” on its rolls.
The state said the county lost 35,017 active voters in June. Of those, 13,292 voters were Democrats, 4,081 voters were Republicans, and 17,539 were NPAs.
Voters are labeled inactive on the voter rolls if they do not vote for two federal election cycles and then does not respond to a request to update their status by a county elections office.
Inactive voters can easily update their status to active at any time by calling their county elections office and updating their registration. If they don’t after another two federal elections, they are removed from the rolls.
Voters are removed from the rolls if they have died, moved out of state, adjudicated ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction or mental incapacity, not a U.S. citizen, determined to be fictitious or ask to be removed.
So far this year, Florida Division of Elections said it has registered 248,070 new voters, removed 133,389 active voters and removed 6,803 inactive voters.
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