Florida is voting today. Here’s what that looks like.

Braving what counts in Florida as a chilly March day, voters in Tampa Bay and across the state trickled this morning to churches, recreation centers and other polling places. Some voted in local elections, but most were there to reaffirm their support for one man: Donald Trump.

Other candidates were also listed on ballots for the state’s Republican presidential preference primary, like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but they’ve all given up their campaigns. Before Tuesday’s presidential primary in Florida, it was clear that Trump would be the 2024 Republican nominee for president.

But to thousands of his Florida supporters, Tuesday was meaningful nonetheless.

“Everyone one of us needs to stand up for what’s right,” said Jimmie White, a Trump supporter from Seminole. “It’s my duty to vote.”

Tuesday’s presidential primary got off to a smooth start, with few problems reported at polling places. A transformer blew in one county, requiring it to rely on a backup generator, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd said. But state officials haven’t heard of any voters being unable to cast a ballot.

As of the morning, nearly 808,000 Floridians voted early or by mail and nearly 37,000 more had voted today at polling places. (DeSantis, for his part, appeared to be laying low. His office did not return multiple emails asking whether the governor was planning to vote or had already voted.)

Although independents and Democrats had no presidential primary to vote in, voters of all persuasions could participate in local municipal elections. In Pinellas, where dozens of local races and ballot questions will be decided today, turnout sat at about 27% as of Monday afternoon. In Hillsborough, where just the presidential primary was on the ballot, turnout was at about 21%.

Some voters showed up to the polls hoping to vote only to be stymied.

Marie and James Gregor came to the polling site at the Marjorie Park Marina in Tampa because they heard on the news that people were voting today. They wanted to vote for President Joe Biden, only to find out he is not on the ballot. (The state’s Democratic Party canceled its presidential primary after placing only Biden’s name on the ballot.)

The Gregors plan to return to their polling place to support Biden in November.

James Goodrich of Largo values his political independence. He said he does not want a party to dictate his political fate, so he’s not affiliated with one. He arrived at the Starkey Road Baptist Church, his polling place, hoping to be able to vote on Tuesday. He was turned away.

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But for most voters, Tuesday was about Trump.

Many who said they supported the former president painted a dark picture of the country: unaffordable groceries and gas; porous borders that were allowing the country to be flooded with drugs and crime; rigged or stolen elections.

Lacey Canipe, who voted at the Port Tampa Park Community Center on Tuesday, predicted a landslide for Trump in November. But she said she worried about the Biden administration getting in the way of a fair election.

“They could do it by mass power outage, nukes or getting us into a bigger war,” Canipe said.

This is the third straight election cycle that St. Petersburg’s Jennifer Jolicoeur has voted for Trump, she said. It makes sense for her wallet.

It would take another situation like the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol for Trump to lose her vote this time.

“Making people feel that it’s okay to be violent or anything like that, that’s the one thing that would be the deal breaker,” Jolicoeur, 56, said. “I can’t afford the current president, but I also definitely can’t afford that type of violence in my country.”

Times staff writers Juan Carlos Chavez, Romy Ellenbogen, Lawrence Mower, Justin Garcia, Tracey McManus, Michaela Mulligan and Jack Prator contributed to this report.

This is a developing story that will be updated throughout the day.