2012 Election Snapshot Florida

2012 Election Snapshots

Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week.

2012 Election Snapshot - Florida

During the November presidential election, the spotlight was again on Florida’s election procedures, as reports of voters waiting more than seven hours to cast a ballot quickly became national news.

According to data from the Survey of the Performance of American Elections, the state had the country’s longest average wait to vote, 45 minutes.

Furthermore, Florida voters cast almost equal numbers of absentee ballots—approximately 2.3 million—and early in-person ballots—2.4 million. Combined, nearly 55 percent of the state’s voters cast ballots before Election Day.