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The election is a week away, and nearly a third of those who will cast a ballot are expected to do so early or absentee. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, early voting numbers suggest that for the first time, the GOP is turning out more voters than Democrats.

Traffic is steady at this North Florida early voting location. Leon County is heavily Democratic, but that’s not what our random sample of early voters found.

Statewide, Republicans are claiming an enthusiasm gap of 24 thousand more voters in the first days of early voting. Contrast that to 2008, when Democratic early voters nearly doubled the GOP.

Early voting traffic here is steady. On Sunday there were 815 voters.

Anger appeared to be a motivator for some early voters.

“I’ve just been ready to vote for quite sometime, since a couple of years ago, with the debt and all that going on,” Lief Dorn said.

But not a majority.

“No, early voting is a lot easier,” early voter Bob Kelshaw said.

“If anything happened though the next Tuesday, we would have it done,” voter Joy Kelshaw said.

“Get it out of the way,” early voter Bob Land said.

But Democrats need to be fearful of their own, including Rock and Liz Akom.

“I’m tired of higher taxes and I’m tired of the debt going up and up and up,” Rock Akom said.

Official statistics for Leon county show the Republican early voter turnout  is unchanged from the primary; Independents are up by four percent, and Democrats are down by the same amount.

While Democrats usually win early voting, Republicans usually do a much better job of encouraging people to vote by absentee.  However, Democrats have made inroads this year in encouraging absentee voting.