Iowa Democrats got a head start on canvassing and collecting vote by mail requests one by one this summer. But after sending absentee ballot request forms to literally every registered Republican in the state, the Iowa GOP has reduced the Democratic early voting advantage substantially. As of yesterday, Democrats lead Republicans in absentee ballot requests by less than 10,000 statewide, and by only a little more than 5,000 in absentee ballots already returned to county auditors.
Follow me after the jump for the latest early voting numbers statewide and in Iowa’s four Congressional districts. All data come from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. Click here for previous tables going back to September 22.
All 99 county auditors’ offices are open for in-person early voting during regular business hours. Larger-population counties also have satellite voting locations, often in public libraries or community centers. Click here (pdf) for the full list of Polk County satellite voting locations, with dates and hours. In my experience, voting early in person is fast and easy.
Absentee ballots requested by Iowa voters as of October 16, 2014
| Congressional district | Democrats | Republicans | no-party voters | Libertarian | Iowa Green | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IA-01 | 38,218 | 30,875 | 19,953 | 97 | 44 | 89,187 |
| IA-02 | 40,176 | 30,138 | 19,151 | 95 | 60 | 89,620 |
| IA-03 | 38,102 | 35,662 | 15,850 | 94 | 45 | 89,753 |
| IA-04 | 27,092 | 37,449 | 14,576 | 60 | 29 | 79,206 |
| statewide | 143,588 | 134,124 | 69,530 | 346 | 178 | 347,766 |
Absentee ballots received by Iowa county auditors as of October 16, 2014
| Congressional district | Democrats | Republicans | no-party voters | Libertarian | Iowa Green | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IA-01 | 21,826 | 17,363 | 9,158 | 43 | 16 | 48,406 |
| IA-02 | 22,415 | 17,480 | 8,414 | 39 | 31 | 48,379 |
| IA-03 | 20,173 | 19,032 | 6,579 | 39 | 16 | 45,839 |
| IA-04 | 15,337 | 20,648 | 6,605 | 28 | 12 | 42,630 |
| statewide | 79,751 | 74,523 | 30,756 | 149 | 75 | 185,254 |
3 Comments
These numbers are shaqping up.
Plus WaPO has another article about our GG.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
http://www.electproject.org/20…
I hope I am doing this correctly, as there are 2 outside links in my post. Evidence that the ground game is working.
okoboji-mike Fri 17 Oct 1:16 PM
getting people to return the ballots
is critical, as the first link notes. Also, the ground game can only make a difference if the Senate race remains close. I think it will be close, but if Ernst is able to get a 3-5 point lead, GOTV can’t compensate for that.
desmoinesdem Fri 17 Oct 2:42 PM
PPP has Braley 48 and Ernst 47 , this is good.
With the colleges being played well by Iowa Democratic/Nextgen the regular Braley army and the volunteers can just phone bank and deliver votes to the auditors office. I know in my heart that the ground game is worth 2.5%( 35,000) and that may be the edge we need. Iowa 3 is still strong for Appel, I hope there is an effort this weekend to increase it plus star power with the females with Liz Warren and Amy Klobuchar. visiting Des Moines does not hurt. My guy, Jim Mowrer deserves better, he is doing a great job, good message, war veteran, tough district.
okoboji-mike Fri 17 Oct 6:01 PM