Broward County Has Lowest Republican Primary Voter Turnout in Florida

Rich Abdill | February 1, 2012 | 6:45am

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As you may have already heard 3 million or 4 million times, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the Florida Republican primary last night with 46.4 percent of the vote -- though more than seven in ten Broward Republicans didn't even bother showing up to the polls.

Only 28.7 percent of registered Republican voters turned up in Broward County, the worst rate in all of Florida's 67 counties, according to the state's Division of Elections. The state's overall turnout was 41.2 percent; in Broward, though, more than 180,000 out of 253,000 Republicans stayed home instead, even if you count the near-28,000 absentee and early voters.

The ones who did manage to wander into a booth split along lines that mirror the rest of the state's voting fairly closely: Romney garnered 49.5 percent of Broward votes, with Newt Gingrich earning 30.5 percent and Rick Santorum with 11.9 percent. Ron Paul got 6.7 percent.

Hardee County (4,212 registered Republicans) was the only other county to bring out less than 30 percent of eligible voters; 39 counties brought out more than 40 percent, and more than 60 percent of Sumter County's 34,000 Republicans cast a ballot.

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Broward County Has Lowest Republican Primary Voter Turnout in Florida

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