Nearly 64,000 Floridians signed up to vote during the week-long extension of the state's voter registration period. That number has the potential to swing the outcome of the November election in Democrats' favor.

  • Department of State has verified almost 37,000 applications submitted
  • In 2012, 181,000 registered to vote within last nine days of registration period
  • Republicans believe their efforts in this cycle will balance Democrats' gains
  • Florida Decides Voters Guide

The Florida Department of State reported Wednesday that it had verified 36,823 of the voter registration applications submitted over the extension period and is working to verify 26,773 more. Additional registration applications are expected to arrive by mail.

Four years ago, Democrats outregistered Republicans by a wide margin during the final days of Florida's voter registration period. The Florida Democratic Party, which filed the lawsuit seeking to extend this year's registration period due to inconveniences caused by Hurricane Matthew, expects similar results.

"In 2012, in the last nine days of the period of time for registration, 181,000 people registered to vote in Florida, so it had a huge impact," said FDP attorney Kevin Hamilton. "And that was a skewed population sample that were more likely low-income, more likely...minority."

The additional verified and pending voters roughly total Gov. Rick Scott's razor-thin margin of victory in his 2014 re-election. President Obama won Florida's 29 electoral votes by a similarly scant 74,000 votes in 2012.

If Democrats are giddy about their post-registration prospects, however, Republicans believe their aggressive multi-year Florida ground game will temper any Democratic inroads. The party has cut what four years ago was a Democratic registration advantage of more than 500,000 voters in half.

"Something we're doing different this time is really focusing on voter registration," said Ninio Fetalvo, a Tallahassee-based Republican National Committee operative. "We've flipped ten counties across the state and we now have a majority in 39 out of 67 counties across the state."

Meanwhile, Florida Democrats want a federal judge to impose new rules on the eve of the election that state officials are warning could create chaos.

The Florida Democratic Party is asking U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to order state election officials to allow people to cast a ballot during early voting even if their registration application has not yet been verified.

Early voting is scheduled to begin in some counties next Monday. Democrats say that some election officials have told them that they won't be able to verify all the new registrations in time.

State officials say they are working to verify all applications by the time early voting begins statewide.

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.