Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook predicted more people would vote in 2016 than in any election before. | AP Photo Clinton campaign chief to Florida: Extend voter registration because of storm

Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook on Thursday called on Florida election officials to extend the voter registration deadline because of the encroaching Hurricane Matthew.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Mook said Gov. Rick Scott and others should move the deadline past Tuesday so voters in the critical battleground state could register to participate in November’s election in time while also staying safe as the storm that has already killed more than 100 in Haiti bears down.


The request came as Mook was explaining the importance of early voting, particularly in Florida, to Clinton’s White House bid.

Thirty-three days out from Election Day, the campaign’s chief predicted that more people would vote in 2016 than in any previous election and that more voters would participate in a form of early voting than ever before as well.

In Florida, 2.7 million voters have already requested a vote-by-mail ballot, compared to 1.8 million at this point four years ago, Mook noted.

The Democrat said he believes that in three key states the early process could even make the difference: “We actually think that states like Nevada, North Carolina and Florida could be decided before Election Day.”

So many voters in Florida and North Carolina cast their votes early — “such a big proportion of the electorate,” Mook said — that it helps predict voter turnout on Nov. 8. “In states that are won in the margins, it really is a turnout game, and we think we have a superior turnout operation than Donald Trump.”

Vote-by-mail requests among Florida Hispanics are up 77 percent compared to this point in 2012, he said, noting that Hispanics skew heavily toward Clinton this cycle.

Mook added that Republicans have historically won the vote-by-mail process in the state, which Barack Obama won in both 2008 and 2012, but that Clinton’s campaign is expecting to have a higher proportion of its voters participate in the early voting period than Obama did in 2012, putting it on track for a victory there.

Florida has been a neck-and-neck race between Clinton and Trump, but the Republican’s chances of winning the election are vanishingly slim if the Democrat takes the state.