Early voting is underway in Pinellas County ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, with unofficial figures showing 86,598 voters participating as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, representing 14.11% of the county’s 613,797 active eligible voters.

According to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, mail-in voting accounts for the majority of ballots recorded in the county’s voting-method breakdown, with 74,744 mail ballots compared with 5,902 early in-person votes.

Early voting began Monday, Oct. 19, with 5,345 ballots cast in person on opening day. Another 557 early votes had been recorded by midday Tuesday.

A breakdown by party affiliation shows registered Democrats accounting for 32,099 ballots, compared with 30,848 from registered Republicans, a difference of 1,251 ballots. Voters with no party affiliation accounted for 15,679 ballots, while another 2,020 came from voters registered with other political parties.

Those figures reflect voters’ party registrations, not which candidates received their votes.

As voting gets underway across Pinellas County, an Oct. 13 survey from St. Pete Polls offers a separate look at political sentiment among respondents in St. Petersburg.

The survey found that 92.5% of respondents said they planned to vote in the city’s mayoral election, while 7.5% were unsure.

When asked about Mayor Ken Welch’s job performance, 23.8% approved, 49.3% disapproved and 26.9% were unsure.

In the survey’s mayoral matchup between Welch and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, 48.4% of respondents initially selected Crist, compared with 26% for Welch. Another 25.6% were undecided or declined to state a preference.

When respondents leaning toward a candidate were included, Crist received 51.8%, Welch received 27% and 21.2% remained undecided or declined to answer.

The survey reflects voter preferences at the time it was conducted, rather than actual election results. It also focuses on St. Petersburg respondents, while the early-voting figures represent Pinellas County as a whole.

Early voting continues through Nov. 1, with Election Day scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

All turnout figures remain unofficial and are subject to change as additional ballots are processed.