Daniel Davis and Donna Deegan go down to wire in Jacksonville mayor race

The Jacksonville mayor race between Donna Deegan and Daniel Davis is coming down to the wire as Democrats racked up an advantage in early voting but Republicans are pulling out the stops to ramp up the election day surge they've traditionally enjoyed.

Rick Mullaney, director of the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute, said it really is a race that is too close to call with a number of factors in play such as the volume of election day turnout, how often people cross party lines for their mayoral choices, and how independent voters break down in their selections.

"Here's my prediction: the initials of the winner are going to be D.D.," Mullaney said.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for the runoff election between Davis, a Republican, and Deegan, a Democrat.

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Through Monday afternoon, about 19.2% of Duval County registered voters had cast ballots. Democrats had tallied 58,552 ballots and Republicans had turned in 52,486 ballots, followed by 14,257 by nonparty-affiliated voters and 1,436 by voters with other party affiliations.

Democratic voters traditionally show up in bigger numbers than Republicans in early voting. In the March election, about 4,900 more Democrats than Republicans cast ballots in the run-up to election day.

Republicans have dominated on election day. In March, nearly 12,400 more Republicans than Democrats showed up that day at polling places.

Mullaney said given the historical trends, Deegan and Democrats would probably have wanted a bigger lead than the roughly 6,000 vote turnout advantage by Democrats over Republicans in early voting for the runoff.

"I think the Democrats would've liked to have been up 8,000 or more," Mullaney said. "Having said that, there are a lot of variables here."

He said based on polls and anecdotal information, it appears more Republican voters are crossing over to support Deegan than Democratic voters are backing Davis. In addition, he said Deegan has had an advantage among voters who do not belong to either party.

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The Democratic Party has worked to boost its ground game for getting voters to the polls in an effort to close the gap with the Republican Party on election day.

Republicans have gone statewide to enlist phone bank volunteers. The state Republican Party entered into a partnership with Campaign Sidekick so Republicans across Florida can dial into the Jacksonville operation for getting out the vote.

"This is the first (of many) state efforts to help direct the power of the FloridaGOP towards assisting and winning local races across Florida," the Republican Party of Volusia County wrote in a message Monday to its members.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville mayor race too close to call on eve of election day