Nearly 50,000 more Republicans than Democrats have voted so far in First Coast

Maybe this isn't the biggest surprise considering how You Decide 2016 has gone.

Our research into ballots cast so far throughout the First Coast indicates a big local trend towards the GOP with eight days to go before Election Day.

That includes Duval County, where there's nearly 20,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.

It should be noted that Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties all have tens of thousands of more registered Republicans than Democrats.

When we factored in those four counties, we found that there's over 48,000 more registered Republicans who have voted at this point compared to Democrats.

Baker County does not provide vote totals online.

We also found that 33% of registered GOP voters have already voted compared to 28% of Democrats and 19% of non party-affiliated or other party affiliated voters.

Over 40,000 independents and other party voters have also cast their ballots.

Those numbers include mailed-in ballots, early voting and provisional ballots in all four counties as of yesterday (October 30th).

Local Republicans have also cast over 20,000 more absentee ballots and nearly 28,000 more early votes compared to Democrats.

Early voting ends this weekend in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns.