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Weeks of voting will conclude with Tuesday's Florida primary

 
After leaving service at New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Geraldine Twine, 80, prepares to cast her ballot on the last day of early voting at the C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library in Tampa on Sunday. "I wanted to early vote today to get ahead of the storm that may be coming this way," said Twine. The primary elections will be held Tuesday. [OCTAVIO JONES   |   Times]
After leaving service at New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Geraldine Twine, 80, prepares to cast her ballot on the last day of early voting at the C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library in Tampa on Sunday. "I wanted to early vote today to get ahead of the storm that may be coming this way," said Twine. The primary elections will be held Tuesday. [OCTAVIO JONES | Times]
Published Aug. 30, 2016

TALLAHASSEE — Florida voters who go to the polls today will have the last word in a low-turnout statewide primary election that began more than a month ago.

Through Sunday, the last day of early voting, 1.7 million people had cast ballots, two-thirds of them by mail and the rest at early-voting centers. Voting by mail started the last week of July and early voting began in many urban areas on Aug. 15.

After enduring an onslaught of TV ads, mail and phone calls, voters will choose six members of Congress, dozens of state legislators and scores of county officeholders.

They also will nominate candidates for U.S. Senate and decide a ballot proposal to add a property tax break for solar energy equipment to the state Constitution.

Turnout has been slow but steady and is expected to exceed the total in each of the past four statewide primaries.

In the most recent primary in a presidential election year in 2012, turnout was 2.3 million, or 20.5 percent of the electorate.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, noted Monday that after a month of voting, 13 percent of voters in Hillsborough had cast ballots.

"We have had a month of vote by mail and two weeks of early voting," Castor said. "We can do a lot better. People need to value their right to vote, and they need to get out there Tuesday and exercise their right to vote."

The race that drew the most statewide interest — and it wasn't very intense — features primaries in both major parties for U.S. Senate, with polls showing Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy favored to defeat their challengers. It's the first Florida Senate race in memory in which neither party's candidates participated in any TV debates.

But that's likely to change. Wins by Rubio and Murphy will set the stage for a highly competitive November contest that will help decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate with a new president.

Republican Jeanne Coffin, 55, of St. Petersburg said she voted for businessman Carlos Beruff, a real estate developer who's challenging Rubio's bid for a second term.

"I like Marco Rubio. I like how he speaks. I like his appearance. But I don't like that he didn't show up for his job," Coffin said, referring to Rubio's many missed votes, which Beruff sought to exploit.

Denise Rodgers, 46, a nurse from St. Petersburg, supported Rubio over Beruff.

"I was torn between the two, but I kind of like his immigration policy," she said.

Miami-Dade, the state's most populous county, reported the highest number of early voters Monday and ranked second to Pinellas in mail ballots.

Many voters were exasperated by a daily barrage of mail pitches.

In a hard-fought four-person Democratic primary for a Tampa Bay Senate seat, Robert King of Gulfport complained about the constant flow of mail from St. Petersburg personal injury lawyer Augie Ribeiro.

"Every day I was getting this color advertisement from him that must have cost millions of dollars," said King, 69, who cast his ballot for former Rep. Betty Reed of Tampa.

"I just voted for her because she's a woman," King said. "I think that overall, women tend to be better at governance than men, to tell you the truth."

Voting by mail has become increasingly popular as election supervisors promote it as a convenience. But some voters still prefer to vote in person.

Rosalyn McGill, 67, of Tampa, a retired educator, said early voting gives her peace of mind.

"I wanted to make sure I wrote my vote out, put it through the machine and see that it was counted," she said. "I don't want anything to come up on election day and hindering me from exercising my right to vote."

As of Monday's totals, the five counties with the most mail ballots were Pinellas, Miami-Dade, Lee, Hillsborough and Broward, and the five with the most early voters were Miami-Dade, Duval, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today. The state Division of Elections will report returns starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time because much of the Panhandle is in Central time.

Times staff writers Paul Guzzo and Jack Suntrup and Herald staff writer Alex Daugherty contributed to this report. Contact Steve Bousquet at bousquet@tampabay.com. Follow @stevebousquet.