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Tallahassee, FL – Early voting began in Florida Monday morning, and candidates are rallying their supporters to cast their ballots now. Margie Menzel reports.
The primary isn't until Aug. 24, but as the polls opened, Floridians were electioneering statewide. Republicans cheered former Gov. Jeb Bush in Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa as he stumped for Attorney General Bill McCollum, who trails Rick Scott in the GOP gubernatorial primary. In Tallahassee, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink - the likely Democratic nominee for governor - spoke to the party faithful.
"You're going to go up and do some early voting here in a minute," she said, "but the message is really to all the voters around the state of Florida: to be thinking about going ahead, get it out of the way, take advantage of early voting."
Florida has gained roughly 500,000 voters since 2008. According to the Secretary of State's office, the Democratic Party gained more than 221,000 new voters, Republicans gained nearly 74,000, and registrations with no party affiliation grew by almost 200,000.