The GOP continues expanding its voter registration edge in Florida

Vote By Mail sign, Florida — Vote By Mail and voter registration sign in Pinellas County. By Seán Kinane/WMNF News (Oct. 2018).

The Republican Party of Florida in December continued to expand its voter-registration edge over the Florida Democratic Party.

Data posted Friday on the state Division of Elections website showed the GOP with 5,635,902 active registered voters, while the Democratic Party had 4,479,820.

That advantage of 1,156,082 voters was up from Republicans’ edge of 1,136,581 voters at the end of November.

As of Dec. 31, 3,710,036 active voters were registered without party affiliations, while 431,377 were registered with third parties, according to the new data.

After Democrats historically led in registration, Republicans have steadily built a large edge in recent years.

The GOP trounced Democrats in the Nov. 5 elections, with President-elect Donald Trump easily winning Florida, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., getting re-elected and Republicans holding supermajorities in the Florida House and Senate.

The new data was released a day before Evan Power was re-elected Saturday as chairman of the state Republican Party.