JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — First Coast News is monitoring Florida's election results live. The results are below.
UPDATE: The Associated Press called Florida for former President Donald Trump, who secured more than 5.5 million votes over Vice President Kamala Harris' 4.2 million. (These stats will change as more votes are counted)
Florida voted for Obama during both of his elections, but then switched to Trump in 2016 and 2020 by 1.2% and 3.36% respectively. While the state has gone back and forth between parties essentially since the 1880s, it is expected to stick with the GOP and vote Republican again.
When looking at figures from the Florida Department of State's website, numbers do not indicate that the Sunshine State is a swing state this election cycle. The number of registered active voters in Florida who are affiliated with the Republican Party are 5,455,480, while the number of registered active voters in Florida who are affiliated with the Democratic Party are 4,400,561.
The verdict on constitutional amendments that could protect abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana will indicate support for either party. Democrats have been advertising and advocating to vote "yes" on Amendment 3 to legalize recreational marijuana and "yes" on Amendment 4, which concerns abortion rights.
The text of Amendment 4, titled, "Amendment to limit government interference with abortion," reads, "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health as determined by the patient's health care provider."
Republicans have been campaigning against both of these amendments, one being Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The verdict will determine which party's campaign was more successful, and in this case, could show DeSantis' effectiveness in swaying Florida voters. The amendments need 60% of the vote to pass.
As with every even year, all 28 of Florida's congressional seats are up for grabs. Seventeen of those seats had previously belonged to Republicans, with 11 belonging to Democrats.
