Here are the latest figures out of Iowa.
Here are the cumulative numbers for the absentee ballot requests:
Dems 279,968 (43.46%)
Reps 198,383 (30.79%)
Inds 165,025 (25.62%)
Oth 814 (negligible)
TOTAL 644,190
Here are the new ballot requests since the last report:
Dems +7,153
Reps +5,978
Inds +6,285
Democrats crushed Republicans for the fourth straight day in ballot requests. Indies had another strong day for ballot requests. The percentage of Republican ballot requests dropped one hundredth of one percent. I love it when that happens.
And now, here are the numbers for actual ballots cast:
Dems 219,778 (44.16%)
Reps 159,866 (32.12%)
Inds 117,485 (23.60%)
Oth 596 (negligible)
TOTAL 497,725
Here are the ballots cast since the previous daily report:
Dems +10,028
Reps +8,859
Inds +7,992
It was another good day for Democrats in Iowa. Democrats now lead Republicans by 59,912 ballots cast.
In 2004, there were about 460,000 ballots cast before election day and at the end of the early voting period, we led Republicans by about 52,000 ballots. In 2008, there were about 545,000 ballots cast before election day and at the end of the early voting period, we led Republicans by about 94,000 ballots cast.
I will do an apples to apples comparison once we reach the 545,000 vote count, but it warrants repeating that we are running slightly ahead of the 2004 numbers and quite a bit behind the 2008 numbers. Still, I'm thinking we are in good shape in Iowa. Plus, do not forget that Iowa has same day registration on election day which could net us an additional 10,000 votes. Over 47,000 people registered to vote in Iowa on election day in 2008 and although I don't have any cold, hard facts, it is thought that same day registration tends to favor Democrats.
The important thing is that even to this day, Democrats have bested Republicans in ballots cast in every single day of the early voting period. And the past two days have been particularly awesome for our side in Iowa.
Here is a link to the Iowa report: http://sos.iowa.gov/...