You might be an Iowa politics junkie if you are excited to see the new absentee ballot numbers in the morning. Follow me after the jump for tables showing the absentee ballots requested and returned statewide and in each of the four Congressional districts, updated to include the latest data from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office.
I’m compiling all the tables on this page to make it easier to spot trends in the numbers. Note that the number of ballots returned is still quite low, because most of the 99 county auditors are starting to mail ballots this week.
Yesterday, some Iowa Republicans were crowing about how much better their party is doing this year on early GOTV. Although Democrats have requested more ballots than Republicans, GOP ballot requests were up by a greater percentage than Democratic requests compared to the 2010 campaign. I suspect one factor is the Republican mass mailing of absentee ballot request forms, which hit mailboxes shortly after Labor Day and created a surge in ballot requests to county auditors.
The Iowa Democratic Party’s mass mailing of absentee ballot request forms reached supporters between September 18 and 20. Over the next week to ten days, I’ll be closely watching the Democratic numbers to see whether the “low-hanging fruit” produce a big jump in ballot requests. Since yesterday, Democrats added significantly more ballot requests than Republicans did in each of the four Congressional districts. Statewide, total ballots requested by Democrats increased from 57,869 as of September 21 to 63,485 as of September 22. Republican requests increased from 31,099 to 33,073.
Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of September 22, 2014
| Congressional district | Democrats | Republicans | no-party voters | Libertarian | Iowa Green | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IA-01 | 16,847 | 7,935 | 7,234 | 29 | 26 | 32,071 |
| IA-02 | 19,921 | 8,001 | 8,132 | 26 | 31 | 36,111 |
| IA-03 | 16,023 | 8,487 | 5,256 | 27 | 19 | 29,812 |
| IA-04 | 10,694 | 8,650 | 4,449 | 15 | 10 | 23,818 |
| statewide | 63,485 | 33,073 | 25,071 | 97 | 86 | 121,812 |
Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of September 22, 2014
| Congressional district | Democrats | Republicans | no-party voters | Libertarian | Iowa Green | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IA-01 | 131 | 139 | 47 | 2 | 0 | 319 |
| IA-02 | 53 | 19 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 78 |
| IA-03 | 233 | 275 | 48 | 0 | 0 | 556 |
| IA-04 | 45 | 66 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 124 |
| statewide | 462 | 499 | 114 | 2 | 0 | 1,077 |