Mail in and absentee ballots are beginning to trickle in, with as much as 9.6% of Iowa already voting, and 3.7% of Florida. Even though these numbers are still small, they may hint to how successful the Democratic "Bannock Street Project" might be. The Dems are sinking a lot of money and effort into getting more Dems to vote.
Here's the numbers from today, followed by the numbers from yesterday.
Oct 9
State % requested % returned % of 2010 total ballots
by party by party cast
Florida D 38.8 D 32.2 3.7
R 42.1 R 50.2
I 19.1 I 17.7
Florida 2010 total ballots returned by party D-36.5 R-49.2 O-14.3
Iowa D 44.8 D 47.6 9.6
R 35.4 R 36.4
I 19.6 I 15.9
Iowa 2010 total ballots returned by party D-43.7 R-38 I-18.3
Notice the difference in the requested ballots for Florida compared to votes returned in 2010. D's are up 2.3% while R's are down 7%! No enthusiasm gap in here. But the Dems need to get more of those ballots returned.
Something similar in Iowa where the D's have requested 1% more than they cast in 2010, while the R's have 3% less. The D's are doing a better job in getting those ballots returned this year. This might be due to the increased GOTV effort.
The Repubs have actually gotten much better at getting early votes banked than in the past, but the Dems seemed to have made some improvements.
Of course the big question is, are we simply bringing votes forward from election day, or are we banking some new votes? And if we're simply bringing votes forward, are we freeing up enough resources so we can bank new votes on election day?
We should be getting some numbers from other states very soon.
Here's yesterday's numbers for comparison.
Oct 8
State % requested % returned % of 2010 total ballots
by party by party cast
Florida D 38.8 D 31.5 2.3
R 42.1 R 50.4
I 19.1 I 18.0
Florida 2010 total ballots returned by party D-36.5 R-49.2 O-14.3
Iowa D 46.7 D 49.7 7.4
R 33.4 R 34.5
I 20 I 15.8
Iowa 2010 total ballots returned by party D-43.7 R-38 I-18.3
Thanks to
electproject.org for their work in gathering these numbers.