作为破纪录的提前投票周期佛罗里达的风力减弱此外，唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和前副总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)之间的总统竞选在该州仍势均力敌，两个竞选团队都希望在最后几天从候选人的支持者中挤出尽可能多的选票。
结合邮寄投票和提前亲自投票，超过820万张选票已经在佛罗里达演出了根据佛罗里达选举部门的数据，截至周六上午，超过了2016年总统选举的660万张早期选票选举。
在注册选民投票率方面，民主党比共和党领先116，051票，这是该州民主党为鼓励选民在选举日之前通过邮件投票而进行的长达一个月的运动的结果。但共和党人一直在缩小差距，在早期投票期间，亲自投票超过民主党52.8万人。
许多县的提前投票只剩下两天了(有些县只有一天)，共和党正试图利用这一势头，以便更好地准备在周二赢得胜利，这个州历来以微弱优势获胜。
“民主党人在让他们的选民登记缺席选票方面做得很好，然后让这些选民退还这些选票也做得很好，”特朗普在佛罗里达州的一名竞选顾问告诉美国广播公司新闻。"我们非常努力地注册了比以往任何时候都多的共和党人。"
根据佛罗里达州选举官员本月公布的数据，共和党人将选民登记赤字从2016年的327，483人减少到134，242人。
为了争取这些选民，共和党人依靠的是佛罗里达州民主党人在20世纪90年代基本避免的竞选方法冠状病毒大流行:亲自接触选民，在全州范围内举行拥挤的(大多是无面具的)集会。
“我知道人们喜欢在集会上翻白眼，但他们确实给选民带来了活力，”这位竞选顾问表示。他说，官员们提供面具，鼓励社交距离，但与会者很少遵守指导。“人们喜欢说他们给基地通电——他们没有。他们激励选民，有时选民是基础，但并不总是如此。”
威尔弗雷多·李/美联社
就民主党而言，他们表示，从现在到选举日之间，以强大的亲自投票率来补充他们的邮件投票优势是很重要的。
佛罗里达州拜登竞选活动的高级顾问卡伦·安德烈(Karen Andre)说:“显然，我们正在推动选民尽早投票，但我们将确保一旦我们在周日晚上意识到所缺少的东西，我们将确保我们在周一也能脚踏实地。”。“我们将确保尽可能多地获得选票，但有一个现成的计划可以在选举日当天一路推进。”
拜登竞选团队和民主党组织者已经在全州范围内发起了无数的投票活动，从高尔夫球车在乡村游行美国最大的老年退休社区波多黎各社区的音乐和节日传统。
拜登的佛罗里达州竞选团队还招募了一大批代理人，如说唱歌手科伦和拉丁美洲女演员亚美莉卡·费雷拉，以及共和党支持者，如前共和党州参议员保拉·多克瑞，在该州进行巡回竞选，以确保选民有计划提前投票。
本周，前总统巴拉克·奥巴马被他的前副总统难住了根据皮尤研究中心对美国人口普查局数据的分析，沿着4号州际公路走廊，是佛罗里达州摇摆选民竞争最激烈的地区之一，波多黎各人是那里最大的拉丁美洲社区。
奥巴马说:“奥兰多，我们只有一周的时间，一周——一周——离我们一生中最重要的选举还有一周。”。“你不必等到下周二才投票。”
根据佛罗里达选举部门的数据，多达170万张选票由独立或无党派选民投出。尽管在结果公布之前不可能知道他们投了谁的票，但两党都认为有机会讨好无党派选民，他们的政治偏好可能不会如此鲜明。
佛罗里达州民主党策略师史蒂文·沙尔(Steven Schale)一直在分析早期投票数据，并认为虽然注册共和党人可能会在接下来的几天里继续缩小投票率差距，但民主党人有机会赢得无党派选民，有时被称为NPA。
61岁的大卫·奥登瓦尔德(David Odenwald)是杜瓦尔县杰克逊维尔郊区大西洋海滩(Atlantic Beach)的一名无党派选民，他在2016年投票给特朗普后，提前投票给了拜登。
“我已经准备好(在2016年)改变，”为优步开车的奥登沃尔德告诉美国广播公司新闻。“我和特朗普没有任何关系;我根本没打算投票给希拉里·克林顿。彻头彻尾的谎言，欺骗。全家都是为了自己。”
丽贝卡·布莱克威尔/美联社
但是特朗普对冠状病毒大流行的处理对奥登沃尔德来说太多了，他以前在卫生保健部门工作。“这场流行病是真实的，数字在上升，他试图假装它快结束了。这还远远没有结束，”他说。
至于特朗普的集会?“他们就像一个超级传播者，他不在乎，”奥登沃尔德说。“对我来说，他要对很多人的死亡负责。”
沙尔说，由于人口统计的原因，拜登可能比无党派选民有优势。
沙尔说:“越来越多的年轻有色选民注册为不结盟运动党，因此与10年前相比，无党派选民在党派取向上可能更加民主。”
根据沙尔的说法，21%的无党派选民是西班牙裔，7%是黑人。其中超过四分之一是新的或零星的选民。他说，其中许多人是波多黎各人。
在北迈阿密的一次驾车集会上，奥巴马抨击了总统对2017年摧毁波多黎各的飓风玛丽亚的处理。
“当飓风摧毁波多黎各时，总统应该帮助它重建，而不是扔纸巾，扣留数十亿美元的援助，直到选举前夕。我们有一位总统实际上建议出售波多黎各，”他说。
德鲁·安格雷尔/盖蒂影像公司
然而，奥巴马发言的迈阿密戴德县目前的投票率令民主党人感到焦虑，他们担心拜登无法以足够大的优势拿下这个民主党占主导地位的县。
民主党数据分析师马修·伊斯贝尔(Matthew Isbell)对美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)表示:“民主党人最大的担忧是迈阿密戴德区西班牙裔选民的投票差距。”
据Isbell称，该县西班牙裔民主党人的投票率落后于2016年的数字。
“这非常重要，”伊斯贝尔说。“我认为，这终于开始在下面的一些不同的民主党组织中敲响警钟。”
民主党数据和技术公司霍克菲什的首席执行官乔希·门德尔松说，佛罗里达是一场“投票战”。他说，一切都将取决于哪个候选人能够在尚未投票的选民中赢得支持。
“竞选团队应该调整自己的方向，利用这样一个事实，即他们现在可以缩小他们试图提出的最后一个有说服力的论点——众所周知的终结论点，”他说。
Democrats hold turnout edge in Florida, with Republicans nipping at their heels
As a record-breaking early voting cyclewinds down in Florida, and with the race for president between Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden remaining close in the state, both campaigns are hoping to squeeze as many votes out of their candidate's supporters as possible in the final days.
Combining mail-in votes and early in-person votes, over 8.2 million ballots havealready been cast in Floridaas of Saturday morning, according to the Florida Division of Elections, surpassing the 6.6 million early votes in the 2016 presidentialelection.
Democrats hold a lead by 116,051 votes over Republicans in turnout among registered voters, a result of a monthslong campaign by the state Democratic Party to encourage voters to vote by mail ahead of Election Day. But Republicans have been closing the gap, out-voting Democrats in person by 528,000 during the early voting period.
With only two days left of early voting in many counties (and just one in some), the GOP is trying to capitalize on the momentum so it's better poised to earn a victory on Tuesday in a state that has historically been won by thin margins.
"[Democrats] did a great job of having their voters register for absentee ballots, and then did a great job of having those voters return those ballots," a Trump campaign adviser in Florida told ABC News. "We worked very hard to register more Republicans than had ever been registered before."
According to data released this month by Florida election officials, Republicans narrowed their deficit in voter registration to 134,242 voters, down from 327,483 in 2016.
To turn out those voters, Republicans have relied on campaign methods that Democrats in Florida have largely avoided during thecoronaviruspandemic: in-person voter contact and packed -- mostly maskless -- rallies across the state.
"I know people like to roll their eyes at the rallies, but they do energize the voters," according to the campaign adviser, who said officials provide masks and encourage social distancing, though attendees rarely adhere to the guidance. "People like to say they energize the base -- they don't. They energize voters, and sometimes the voters are the base, but not always."
Democrats, for their part, say it's important to supplement their vote-by-mail advantage with strong in-person turnout between now and Election Day.
"Obviously we are pushing our voters out for early vote, but we'll make sure that once we have a sense come Sunday night what's missing, we'll be making sure we keep our foot on the gas Monday as well," said Karen Andre, a senior adviser for the Biden campaign in Florida. "We're going to make sure we're banking as many of our votes as possible, but have a readymade program to push all the way through the end of the day on Election Day."
The Biden campaign and Democratic organizers have launched a myriad of get-out-the-vote events throughout the state, fromgolf cart parades in The Villages, the largest senior retirement community in the nation, to "parrandas to the polls," a musical and festive tradition in the Puerto Rican community.
Biden's Florida campaign has also enlisted an army of surrogates -- like rapper Common and Latin American actress America Ferrera -- and Republican backers, like former Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery, to criss-cross the state and make sure voters have a plan to get to the polls early.
This week, former President Barack Obamastumped for his former vice presidentalong the Interstate 4 corridor, one of the most hotly contested regions of swing voters in Florida, where Puerto Ricans are the largest Latino community, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Data.
"We got one week, Orlando, one week -- si se puede -- one week until the most important election of our lifetimes," said Obama. "And you don't have to wait until next Tuesday to cast your ballot."
A whopping 1.7 million ballots have been cast by independents or unaffiliated voters, according to Florida's Division of Elections. Although it's impossible to know who they voted for until results are released, both parties see an opportunity to court the unaffiliated voters, whose political preferences may not be so cut and dry.
Florida Democratic strategist Steven Schale has been analyzing early vote data and thinks that while registered Republicans might continue to close the turnout gap in the following days, Democrats have an opportunity to win over unaffiliated voters, referred to sometimes as NPAs.
David Odenwald, 61, an unaffiliated voter in Atlantic Beach, a suburb of Jacksonville in Duval County, voted early for Biden after casting a ballot for Trump in 2016.
"I was ready for a change [in 2016]," Odenwald, who drives for Uber, told ABC News. "I had nothing to go on with Trump; I just was no way going to vote for Hillary Clinton. The outright lies, deception. The whole family is out for themselves."
But Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic became too much for Odenwald, who used to work in health care. "This pandemic is real, the numbers are going up, and he's trying to play like it's almost over. It's far from over," he said.
As for Trump's rallies? "They're like a super-spreader, and he doesn't care," said Odenwald. "To me, he's going to be responsible for a lot of deaths."
Schale said Biden may have an edge with the unaffiliated voters due to their demographics.
"More and more younger voters of color are registering as NPAs, so the non-party affiliate voters are probably a little bit more Democratic in their party orientation than they were 10 years ago," said Schale.
Twenty-one percent of unaffiliated voters are Hispanic and 7% are Black, according to Schale. Over one-fourth of them are new or sporadic voters. Many of them, he says, are Puerto Ricans.
At a drive-in rally in North Miami, Obama took a shot at the president's handling of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.
"When a hurricane devastates Puerto Rico, a president is supposed to help it rebuild, not toss paper towels, withhold billions of dollars in aid until just before an election. We've got a president who actually suggested selling Puerto Rico," he said.
Yet turnout so far in Miami-Dade County, where Obama spoke, is causing anxiety for Democrats, who worry that Biden is not in position to carry the heavily Democratic county by a large enough margin.
"The biggest cause for concern for Democrats is the gap in Hispanic voting in Miami-Dade," Matthew Isbell, a Democratic data analyst, told ABC News.
According to Isbell, turnout by Hispanic Democrats in the county lags behind 2016's numbers.
"That's pretty significant," said Isbell. "I think it's finally starting to spark some alarm bells among some of the different Democratic organizations down there."
Florida is a "war for turnout," according to Josh Mendelsohn, CEO of Hawkfish, a Democratic data and technology firm. He said it's all going to come down to what candidate can rally support among voters who have yet to vote.
"Campaigns ought to reorient themselves to take advantage of the fact that they can now narrow those last persuasive arguments they're trying to make -- the proverbial closing arguments," he said.
