Voting for the Aug. 18 primary surged over the weekend as the in-person “early voting” option became available statewide.

The Division of Elections reported Monday morning more than 900,000 ballots for the primary have already been cast: nearly 760,000 in mail ballots and almost 175,000 voters using early voting locations in their county.

As has been the trend since President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned voting by mail, registered Republicans in Florida use the early in-person voting method more than registered Democrats - 97,000 to 64,000 as of Monday morning.

Democrats accounted for more than 337,000 mail ballots, compared to almost 295,000 submitted by registered Republicans.

Although Florida’s primaries are closed, meaning only voters registered for a party can vote in that party’s primary, there is an exception when no other candidates are on the ballot. Also, there are non-partisan local elections set for the primary election, so registered voters with no party affiliation have cast 113,000 mail ballots and just under 12,000 in-person ballots.

In the 2024 primary, just over 2 million votes were cast prior to the day of the election, 1.4 million with mail ballots and 656,500 at early voting locations.

Republicans accounted for 572,000 mail ballots and 392,000 early votes in the 2024 primary. Democrats cast 625,000 mail ballots and 212,000 early votes.

Voters without a party affiliation cast 197,000 ballots in the mail and 47,000 at early voting locations in the 2024 primary.

Overall, a little more than 3 million Floridians, out of 13.5 million registered voters, participated in the 2024 primary.