DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. — The video above was originally published on Oct.19,2020.
With six days to go, Duval County has already surpassed all early and mail votes cast before 2016's Election Day, a sign of how much voters are turning out early this time around.
In 2016, when Duval saw 75 percent turnout, just under 300,000 ballots were cast before Election Day, either by mail or by voting early in person.
By about 11 a.m. Wednesday, Duval hit the 300,000 ballot marker, surpassing the 2016 total.
While Duval has 76,000 more active registered voters than it did in 2016, that doesn't account for just how much higher turnout is at this point compared to four years ago.
While Republicans have cut into Democrats' turnout lead in recent days, Democrats make up a higher share of early and mail votes than they did in the past.
Duval has voted for every Republican candidate for president since Ronald Reagan in 1980, but in 2018, Andrew Gillum, Bill Nelson and Nikki Fried, all Democrats running for statewide office, won the county.
Part of Barack Obama's winning strategies in 2008 and 2012 involved keeping Republicans from winning Duval County by the double-digit margins that George W. Bush did in 2000 and 2004. Obama kept the race close here, and although Hillary Clinton largely ignored Duval in 2016, she performed better than any Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden's respective campaigns have focused on Jacksonville, with Trump hosting a rally here last month and Kamala Harris coming to Duval on the first day of early voting.
By 11 a.m., a slim majority of Democrats had voted in Duval County, and 48 percent of Republicans had, too. Yet Duval County has more registered Democrats than Republicans, which means Democrats make up 46 percent of ballots cast, while Republicans make up 38 percent, and independent and third-party voters make up the rest.
Democrats have cast 25,000 more ballots than Republicans have in Duval so far.
In 2016, Democrats and Republicans made up roughly the same number of mail and early votes, while Republicans made up a larger share of Election Day votes.
Political analysts expect Republicans will still make up a larger share of Election Day votes, but they will start Election Day with a larger turnout deficit than in the past.
Northwest Jacksonville's predominantly Black neighborhoods still have lower turnout than the rest of the city, though those neighborhoods often see a surge of early voting on Sundays when churches and activists push "Souls to the Polls" voter drives.
Click here to read this article from the Florida Times-Union.