More than 86,000 people have voted in Hillsborough County so far in Aug. 30 primary

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

As of Thursday morning, a total of 86,605 people have voted already in the Aug. 30 primary election. The majority, 69,579 have voted by mail, while an additional 17,026 have voted early at one of the polling locations located throughout the county.

With nearly three full days of early voting to go, those numbers look favorably compared to the final totals in 2012. That year a total of 40,637 voted by mail, and 20,213 voted early.

Nevertheless, it still means that the majority of registered voters haven’t participated in the primary, and probably won’t. The percentage of people who voted in the August 24, 2012 primary in Hillsborough County was just 16 percent.

 

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected].