Here are the latest figures out of Iowa.
Here are the cumulative numbers for the absentee ballot requests:
Dems 272,815 (43.67%)
Reps 192,405 (30.80%)
Inds 158,740 (25.41%)
Oth 776 (negligible)
TOTAL 624,736
Here are the new ballot requests since the last report:
Dems +14,310
Reps +11,193
Inds +12,212
Democrats crushed Republicans for the third straight day in ballot requests. Indies had a very strong day for ballot requests.
And now, here are the numbers for actual ballots cast:
Dems 209,750 (44.55%)
Reps 151,007 (32.07%)
Inds 109,493 (23.26%)
Oth 551 (negligible)
TOTAL 470,801
Here are the ballots cast since the previous daily report:
Dems +17,315
Reps +15,916
Inds +13,907
Since the last report, 47,215 votes were cast, making this the single biggest early voting report of the election cycle in Iowa so far.
Democrats now lead Republicans by 58,743 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.
So where does that leave us? It looks like we are running ahead of the 2004 numbers, but not by a huge margin. We will know more in the next few days. In any case, by the time election day gets here, it is possible that 50% of total eventual voters in Iowa will have already cast a ballot.