With pretty much all the votes counted, it's clear that turnout here in Florida yesterday was quite high on both sides. On the Democratic side, 1.7 million voters came out, or 47 percent of all those who cast votes yesterday. The GOP turnout was 1.9 million, or 53 percent of the total. This is big news for Democrats here in Florida, who regardless of what goes down with the delegates are trying to build their party in the long term so as to avoid a repeat of Election 2000. Democrats in the state came out in record numbers despite the fact that there was no campaigning here, no multi-million dollars dropped on the state by outsiders, and repeated claims by the press that the votes of Florida Democrats don't matter this primary. But it does matter in terms of getting voters here excited for November and committed to getting out the vote when that time comes.
What I've seen here among Democrats has been uplifting. Despite the situation, Clinton and Obama supporters were out on the street waving signs last night. The day before the election, they were calling registered Dems and reminding them to vote. The Obama group here had been going door-to-door since last July to talk to people about their candidate. Driving around the Tampa/St. Petersberg area yesterday I saw many people young and old out pushing for the Democratic candidates, while short of a few Ron Paul fans, I didn't see anywhere near the kind of authentic, grassroots support on the Republican side. All of the work for the other Republican candidates was going on by the official campaigns, which will pack up an go home today.
The real Floridians doing all the work for the Dems, though, are here to stay, and come November let's hope that pays off.
--Kate Sheppard
