hillary clinton speaks during a "get out the vote" campaign event in florida.  | ap photo/carolyn kaster by marc caputo 10/24/16 05:29 am edt miami <u+2014> from the complexion of florida<u+2019>s electorate to absentee-voting trends, hillary clinton<u+2019>s campaign boasts in an internal memo that it<u+2019>s in prime position to deliver the sunshine state to the democrat as in-person early voting begins today in most large counties. the memo by clinton<u+2019>s florida state director, simone ward, lists how the voter rolls are changing in the democrats<u+2019> favor and how the campaign plans to get people to the polls over the next two weeks as the two campaigns blanket the state . story continued below <u+201c>democrats successfully outpaced republicans in registering new voters, therefore expanding our electorate,<u+201d> ward wrote. <u+201c>in this year alone, nearly 754,000 new voters were added to the rolls, of which 259,000 were democrats and 206,000 republicans <u+2014> giving democrats a seven point advantage. in fact, democrats have added nearly 692,000 new voters to the rolls since 2012 versus 593,000 republicans <u+2014> and the trends continue to go upward in our favor.<u+201d> the voter rolls are also less white. and, polls show, a blacker and browner electorate increases the chances the state turns democratic blue for the third presidential election in a row. <u+201c>moreover, democrats have made significant gains in diversifying the state<u+2019>s electorate,<u+201d> ward writes. <u+201c>in october 2012, florida<u+2019>s electorate was 67 percent white versus 64 percent in 2016 <u+2014> a 3 (point) drop. similarly, in 2012 the electorate was 33 percent (and) was comprised of non-white voters versus 36 percent non-white voters today.<u+201d> also good news for the democrats: the data on absentee ballot returns. as of sunday afternoon, democrats continued to close the gap with republicans in returning vote-by-mail ballots when compared to the same period of time four years ago. gop vote-by-mail ballots (41.7 percent of 1.2 million cast) exceeded those cast by democrats by 1.6 percentage points. in 2012, the gap was about 5 points. another 1.9 million are outstanding. still, trump bragged about the data during a sunday stop near naples. <u+201c>numbers are looking phenomenal in florida,<u+201d> trump said. <u+201c>don<u+2019>t believe the media. but even the media's giving pretty good numbers. they can't help it. but the numbers are even better than what they're saying.<u+201d> without carrying florida, trump has little shot of winning the white house. as of sept. 30, the most recent date for which voter-registration numbers are available, active registered democrats outnumbered republicans by 2.4 percentage points out of the nearly 12.7 million active registered voters. the month before, the democrats<u+2019> lead was slightly smaller, 2.2 points. in the final days, the clinton campaigns says, its organizational advantages will come to bear <u+201c>by launching <u+2018>staging locations<u+2019> <u+2014> local hubs where volunteers come together to go out and knock doors, make phone calls and reach out to fellow floridians. these staging locations will add firepower to our existing 82 official campaign offices, hundreds of volunteer-homes and local community gathering spaces that ensure hillary for florida is active in nearly every target neighborhood in the state.<u+201d> the clinton campaign is also launching three bus tours with the congressional black caucus, a group called mayors for hillary, and former president bill clinton<u+2019>s just-ended jaunt through north florida. the campaign is also organizing college campus get-out-the-vote shuttles to get students to the nearest early vote sites; supporting the so-called <u+201c>souls to the polls<u+201d> events to encourage in-person early voting after church; and, for hispanics, <u+201c>caravanas and block parties <u+2026> where neighbors will <u+2018>march to the polls<u+2019> together." as in-person early voting gets underway, trump and clinton are each spending lots of time this week in the sunshine state. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton will be in hillsborough and palm beach counties on wednesday, the day after she campaigns in broward county, the clinton campaign announced late sunday night. the three counties are among those with the state's highest number of democratic voters. trump is barnstorming the state, too. following last night<u+2019>s rally in naples, he's at a campaign event this afternoon in st. augustine and another rally tonight in tampa. he's then campaigning tuesday afternoon at the million air hangar at the orlando sanford international airport before jetting off to another nighttime rally in tallahassee tuesday. marc caputo's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the sunshine state.
clinton campaign memo details get-out-the-vote plan, election advantages in fla.
marc caputo