JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As of Saturday night, more than 175,000 people in the Duval County have already cast their ballots, but Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan says they still expect the biggest crowds on Election Day.
The elections office is optimistic they'll still hit the projections despite possibly gross conditions outside.
"Be ready," said Hogan. "We think it's going to be a huge turnout. It's looking that way. We might have to go back to our crystal ball and move the others a little bit."
Hogan said two weeks ago when early voting started they were projecting about a 60% turnout or three out of every five registered voters.
With the way early voting has gone, he thinks Duval may clear that number.
"Yesterday [Friday], we had our highest turnout, 13,000," said Hogan. "We already have over 25% of registered voter. It's looking good."
That does leave more than 200,000 expected voters who have yet to cast a ballot with only one day left of early voting, and some less than ideal conditions for Election Day.
"If it rains, they disappear," said Hogan. "I guess they think if it rains, they're going to melt."
While the weather may be unpredictable, voters can rest assured that if they brave the elements to get to their precincts, they'll be open.
"We have extra generators," said Hogan. "We have prepositioned equipment in the field. If anything happens, we're ready for it."
Despite the strong early voter turnout, we are still a bit behind the 2018 midterm election.
With one day left, we'd need to see another 50,000 ballots to catch up to that total.