Presidential election 2024 live updates: Follow Florida election ...

Well, folks, it’s Nov. 5 — Election Day. Today is the (final) day to engage in one of the most important and powerful rights we have as American citizens: the right to vote.

Nationally, all eyes will be on a historical battle between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump as both sides anxiously await the results of what has so far been an extremely close race.

Florida voters will also be monitoring the results of six constitutional amendments, specifically amendments 3 and 4, which cover legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults and limited government interference when it comes to abortion laws in the Sunshine State.

2024 Florida election results: Click here for live results

2024 Escambia County election results: Click here for live results

2024 Santa Rosa County election results: Click here for live results

They will also have the chance to decide whether to retain two newly appointed Florida Supreme Court justices, Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso.

If you’re not one of the nearly 8.2 million Floridians who have already cast their ballots in the election, you’ll find everything you need to know in today’s live blog.

Presidential election prompts first-time voter in Florida | VIDEO

Pensacola citizen Tinisha Evans voted for the first time in her life Tuesday at the Fricker Resource Center. Her main concern was housing.

Four seats on the Milton City Council were on the ballot this year, and there were very clear alliances among the quartet of incumbents seeking to retain their seats, as well as within the group of challengers seeking to oust them.

The incumbents, Jeff Snow, Shari Sebastiao, Roxanne Meiss and Matthew Jarrett, joined at times by unopposed candidate Casey Powell, frequently appeared together in campaign videos and were even featured in political action committee flyers as almost a one for all and all for one vote.

Keep reading: All Milton City Council incumbents lose in huge upset

Santa Rosa voters refused adding an additional half-cent sales tax to the existing half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2016.

Because voters rejected the increase, which was expected to bring in an additional $16 million annually on top of the current $16 million brought in by the existing half-cent tax, the current half-cent tax will remain through the end of 2026.  

If passed, the referendum would have directed funds for building, constructing and maintaining roads, bridges and infrastructure.

Read more: Santa Rosa one-cent sales tax fails, but impact fee still expected

Rep. Alex Andrade will return to the Florida Legislature for a final two-year term.

The Pensacola Republican beat out Democratic candidate Haley “Hale” Morrissette and non-party affiliated candidate Kim Kline to win a final term to represent Florida House District 2.

Andrade had 52,933 votes, 57.74%, while Morrissette had 32,387 votes, 35.29%, and Kline had 6,395 votes, 6.97%, according to the preliminary election results.

Read more: Alex Andrade wins final term to Florida House, defeating two candidates

Toni "Teniadé" Broughton has won another term to the Pensacola City Council District 5 seat.

Broughton won in a landslide with 2,235 votes, 62.8%, to political newcomer Jenori Burroughs' 1,324 votes, 37.2%, with all precincts reporting.

Read more: Teniadé Broughton wins a second term to the Pensacola City Council

Jennifer Brahier wins reelection to the Pensacola City Council

Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier won a second term to the Pensacola City Council with a much stronger margin than her first race in 2020 when she only won with three votes.

Brahier won 2,694 votes, 64.07%, against first-time candidate Phil Nickinson who had 1,511 votes, 35.93%, with all precincts reporting.

Read more: Jennifer Brahier wins reelection to the Pensacola City Council

Don Gaetz has won the race for Florida Senate District 1 against Democrat Lisa Newell.

Gaetz has garnered 165,736 votes, 64.85%, to Newell’s 89,819 votes, 35.15%, with votes still being counted as of 7:35 p.m.

It’s the second go the Republican businessman has taken in the Florida Legislature after a 10-year stint in the Florida Senate from 2006 to 2016, where Gaetz reached the top post of Senate President.

Read more: Don Gaetz wins Florida state senate seat over Lisa Newell

Florida Amendment 3, which sought to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults, failed to get the 60% supermajority needed to pass. Florida voters came just shy of passing the amendment, with 55.7% voting yes and 44.3% voting no.

Escambia County half-cent sales tax passes

Renewal of a one-half cent sales tax benefiting Escambia County Public Schools passed Tuesday night, with preliminary results showing 68.81% support from voters with 76 of the 80 precincts reporting.

The 10-year referendum will take effect Jan. 1, 2028. The current referendum – passed in 2014 – expires on Dec. 31, 2027.

Read more: Half-cent sales taxes benefitting Escambia County Public Schools passes

Incumbent Michelle Salzman once again defended her state House District seat, beating her Democratic opponent Franscine Mathis. Salzman first took on Mathis in the 2020 election, where Salzman captured about 65% of the vote.

Read more: Michelle Salzman once again beats Franscine Mathis in Florida House District 1 race

Gaetz easily defeated Democratic challenger Gay Valimont on Tuesday. The Associated Press called the race for Gaetz at 7:14 p.m. As of 7:21 p.m., Gaetz had 195,418 votes, 65.64%, while Valimont had 102,283 votes, 34.36%, with only the early vote and mail-in votes counted.

Read more: Matt Gaetz defeats Gay Valimont to win another term to Congress

Preliminary election results for Florida's six constitutional amendments have started rolling in. Amendment 3 and Amendment 4 are both under the 60% supermajority required to pass with over 77% of the estimated vote in.

Amendment 1 - Partisan School Board Members election results

• Yes: 54.4%
• No: 45.6%
• Estimated vote in: 42.49%

Please note: These are preliminary results as of 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The final numbers will be different as more votes are counted.

Amendment 2 - Right to Hunt and Fish election results

• Yes: 67.5%
• No: 32.5%
• Estimated vote in: 42.77%

Amendment 3 - Recreational Marijuana election results

• Yes: 55.6%
• No: 44.4%
• Estimated vote in: 75.99%

Amendment 4 - Abortion Access election results

• Yes: 58.1%
• No: 41.9%
• Estimated vote in: 75.19%

Amendment 5 - Homestead Annual Inflation Adjustment election results

• Yes: 65.9%
• No: 34.1%
• Estimated vote in: 40.98%

Amendment 6 - Public Campaign Financing election results

• Yes: 50.4%
• No: 49.6%
• Estimated vote in: 40.44%

Florida polling stations have closed in the majority of the state. Some counties in the Florida Panhandle, such as Escambia and Santa Rosa, are in the central time zone, so polls will remain open until 7 p.m. local time.

There's a pretty good chance that we'll get a strong snapshot of how Florida feels about each of the six constitutional amendments on the ballot when results begin to be published at 8 p.m. ET.

Under Florida law, counties are able to begin tabulating their results as they come in, which means early voting and vote-by-mail ballot results will be available right out of the gate.

Those results will be unofficial, however. Counties have until noon on Nov. 18 to send their official returns. Strong early voting numbers could help the state call the results early.

Santa Rosa County voters have turned out in droves to cast ballots this cycle and poll workers who saw a large number of early voters in the run up to election day remained busy Tuesday afternoon.

As of 3:30 p.m. 104,982 of the county's 143,036 registered voters, or 73.4 %, had turned in ballots. That included 66,749 early votes, 16,845 votes by mail and 21,123 who had arrived on election day to vote. 

In the three precincts in which city of Milton voters were casting ballots in four contested council races, 5,191 votes had been cast as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, with 1,087 of those votes made on election day.    

We're in the home stretch of Election Day as polls set to close in just a few hours.

Anxious voters have been wondering when we’ll start seeing election results for the 2024 presidential election almost as soon as early voting began in October.

Florida law allows the state to begin counting early voting and vote-by-mail ballots pretty much right away. So, with nearly 60% of registered voters in Florida having already voted, the Sunshine State will likely get a good glimpse at which way the state is leaning.

What we aren't likely to see is a clear winner. There’s never been an election where ballot counting wrapped up by the end of election night, according to David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.

Former President Donald Trump cast his vote Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida, saying that he felt "very confident." First lady Melania Trump accompanied the Republican candidate.

Whether Trump could legally vote in Florida in the Nov. 5 election was a frequently pondered question after he was convicted of 34 felony charges in relation to falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money agreement to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Despite a push to restrict a 2018 Florida amendment, the Sunshine State does allow convicted felons the opportunity to regain their right to vote with a few stipulations:

• The convicted felon must not have been involved in murder or sexual offense
• They must complete their sentence, including probation and parole
• They must pay all of their restitution, fines and other fees in full.

If those conditions are met, they can simply register to vote and cast their ballot as anyone else would. Felons whose convictions involved murder or sexual offense must apply for a formal pardon from the State Clemency Board to have their voting rights restored.

U.S. Vote Foundation notes that a felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted. Which would apply to Trump's case.

Trump was found guilty in New York, and New York allows felons to vote as long as they are not actually behind bars. The former president has not yet been sentenced and has already promised to appeal, which could keep him out of any potential prison sentence for months or even years, well beyond the November election.

"Trump has neither been sentenced to incarceration nor is he actually incarcerated. He has the right to vote in New York, so he has it in Florida," Blair Bowie, attorney and director of the Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote project, told USA TODAY. "The only way he won't be able to vote is if he is actually in prison on Election Day."

Florida election: Education is a top priority for this Pensacola voter

"We're standing on elders' shoulders who died for this." Pensacola resident, Janie T. Watts, speaks on the importance of voting in Tuesday's races.

For years, Florida was often considered a "purple" state in presidential elections, but the state has been trending red for decades since its population began to rise over the past 70 years, according to 270towin.com, a nonpartisan poll aggregator.

However, even that statement is slightly misleading. The Sunshine State predominately leaned Democratic until about the mid-20th century, which coincides with the time when the Civil Rights Movement became a catalyst that sped up the two parties' ideologies being flipped as Black voters began backing the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party.

Over the next decades, Democrats would push for more social reform, which subsequently pushed out southern Democrats who began voting Republican.

In early U.S. history, the Republican party was considered the more liberal of the two parties, while Democrats were known for their conservative ideals. By the 1980s, the two parties had adopted nearly opposite values.

There was a period in Florida's history when it was considered a "battleground" state. The 2000 presidential election is a prime example, where it took a month before George W. Bush was declared the victor by just 537 votes.

"Influxes of Cubans, retirees, service workers to the theme park economy booming near Orlando and other groups resulted in a state much more diversified – both economically and politically – than many of its southern brethren. As a result, it went through a period where it was seen as the ultimate battleground state, its population a microcosm of the country as a whole," USA Today wrote in a recent report.

Obama won the state in 2008 by a 2.8% margin against John McCain and beat Mitt Romney in 2012 by just .88%, narrowly avoiding the .5% threshold needed for a recount.

However, Florida has voted staunchly Republican since 2016, when former President Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 1.2% and Joe Biden in 2020 by a wide 3.36%.

Swing states, also referred to as battleground or purple states, are defined officially as ones that are "considered to play a key role in the outcome of presidential elections" and where candidates of both the Democratic and Republican parties "have similar levels of support."

These states are unpredictable in presidential elections, which makes them critical spots for candidates during their campaigns. They are considered "must-wins" by both mainstream political parties to secure the 270 election votes required for the presidency.

Here's a look at this year's swing states:

• Arizona - 11 Electoral Votes
• Georgia - 16 Electoral Votes
• Michigan - 15 Electoral Votes
• Nevada - 6 Electoral Votes
• North Carolina - 16 Electoral Votes
• Pennsylvania - 19 Electoral Votes
• Wisconsin - 10 Electoral Votes

Altogether, this leaves 93 electoral votes up for grabs.

As of 11:45 a.m., more than 21,490 people have voted in person on Tuesday in Escambia County.

Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender said poll workers processed more than 6,000 voters in the first 30 minutes of voting on Tuesday.

After that initial morning surge, Bender said the county is averaging about 4,200 voters an hour.

Bender expects another surge of voters in the lunchtime hour and after 3:30 p.m.

"In August, we really saw a surge of voters after 3:30 p.m.," Bender said. "And we're adding a couple extra 1,000 more voters than we thought we'd have. So if we see something similar this evening, I think we will get closer to that 60,000."

If the county hits the 60,000 mark, the turnout may tie with the two highest turnout elections in county history of 1992 and 2008, according to Bender.

Bender said voting has been going smoothly, though one polling location had a check-in machine fail; it was replaced with a working machine.

Bender said the county election results page will go live before polls close at 7 p.m. Most other counties in the state, including Santa Rosa County, already have their election result pages live. Results from early voting won't be made public until after 7 p.m. when polls close.

Unlike early voting, Florida voters need to vote at polling stations within their precinct. Voters can find their precinct by entering their address into the state's precinct finder tool.

Not sure where to go? Here's a list by county. Each link will take you to the county's respective precinct lookup tool. From there, you'll enter your street number and address. Once that is entered, you'll be show your precinct number and the address.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, and you will still be given the opportunity to vote after 7 p.m. if you were already in line.

If you’re holding onto your vote-by-mail ballot because you think it’s too late to mail, you’re still in luck.

While it’s definitely too late to mail, you can deposit your ballot into a secure drop box at your local Supervisor of Elections’ main and branch offices until 7 p.m. on Election Day.

What time do polls open in Florida?

Polling locations throughout Florida will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, giving voters 12 hours to cast their ballots before polls close and results begin rolling in.

Where do I vote in Florida?

The Florida Division of Elections website has links to voter precinct information for every county. Simply click on your county and enter your address into the precinct finder tool. This will show you what precinct you’re in and where you can vote.

Escambia and Santa Rosa county voters can find their voting locations by clicking the links below:

What do I need to bring with me to vote?

Registered voters only need to bring a valid photo ID with signature. Any of these IDs will be accepted:

• Florida driver’s license
• Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
• United States passport
• Debit or credit card
• Military identification
• Student identification
• Retirement center identification
• Neighborhood association identification
• Public assistance identification
• Veteran health identification card issued by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
• License to carry a concealed weapon or firearm issued pursuant to s. 790.06
• Employee identification card issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the Federal Government, the state, a county, or a municipality.

If you don’t have a signature on your ID, you will be asked to provide another ID that has your signature. If you don’t have the right ID, you can still vote with a provisional ballot. Voters will have until 5 p.m. on the second day after the election to present further evidence of voter eligibility for their ballot to count.