Nosing through the Advocate this morning, I stumbled upon a bit of good news from 'round our way and thought you might enjoy it.
Early voting turnout comparable to 2008
Four days into early voting and John Couvillon, the Baton Rouge pollster, tracks turnout as similar to 2008, with 127,737 voters casting early ballots between Tuesday and Friday. During the first four days of early voting in 2008, a presidential election in which U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu was last re-elected, 137,223 votes were cast, Couvillon said.
Interestingly, voters casting early ballots had the same racial patterns: 67 percent white, 30 percent black.s
In 2010, when the Republican Party won control of the U.S. House, 66,503 had voted four days into early voting, of whom 78 percent were white, Couvillon said.
Comparable to 2008 and
unlike 2010. That's reasonably good news.
What, you want more good news? Okay, how 'bout this: There are still two more days of early voting left. Tomorrow and Tuesday, you can head down to your parish's early voting site and give Landrieu and the Dems a boost.
Now the less-than-good news: Though Landrieu is likely to win a plurality on the 4th, she will have to face Cassidy in the Dec. 6th runoff, where her chances are pretty dicey. The one bit of good news there is that, so far, voter enthusiasm is high and could well carry over to the runoff, especially as voters will not have to wade through dozens of charter changes, constitutional amendments, judgeships, etc. but will simply be voting on the runoff races.