The Official Absentee & Early Voting Reports Thread

[Tender Branson]

http://reed.edu/earlyvoting/calendar

http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2012.html

[greenforest32]

Any forecasts on what percent of the total vote(s) will be done in September and October?

[Tender Branson]

North Carolina starts exactly in 3 weeks on September 6/7.

Which is right after Obama's speech at the DNC (which is also held in NC).

So, if Obama got a bounce from the DNC, it should show up in the early absentee voting numbers.

Even though Obama's NC absentee numbers from 2008 will be very hard to beat ...

51% of NC early votes were Dems, just 30% were Republicans.

http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2008.html

[Tender Branson]

Any forecasts on what percent of the total vote(s) will be done in September and October?

Check out my link above.

I guess Prof. McDonald will create a 2012 page soon.

[Tender Branson]

In 2008, 60% of all voters in NC voted before Election Day.

So, we should definitely track the partsian composition of these early voters there.

[Tender Branson]

The partisan makeup of the NC voters hasn't changed much in the past 4 years.

In August 2008, 45% were Dems and 33% GOPers.

Now, 43% are Dems and 31% GOPers.

[greenforest32]

Any forecasts on what percent of the total vote(s) will be done in September and October?

Check out my link above.

I guess Prof. McDonald will create a 2012 page soon.

Thanks. You can really see the dominance of vote by mail in Colorado there. I think they may become the third postal voting state.

[King]

Yet this election still feels dead in the water.

[Tender Branson]

The share of Blacks among NC registered voters has increased from 21% to 22% in the past 4 years. The share of Hispanics has increased from 1% to 2%.

I don't know if we get daily updates, but this will be interesting to watch.

[krazen1211]

North Carolina is a state where the Democrats should feel confident in their voter registration. Same as Nevada, although there are many fewer Democrats in Clark County than October 2008 close of registration.

[zorkpolitics]

So many people will vote before the debates, and potentially before a possible Iran attack or other October events...

Call me old fashion but I think voting should be a national statement of opinion as of a single day or so (except for valid traditional absentee voting from people who cannot get to the polls on election day).

I would prefer a weekend vote with polls open 6 AM to 9 PM.

[Tender Branson]

Bump !

We should be able to track the daily absentee returns in NC, starting on Saturday or so. Maybe it takes a bit longer though for the ballots to be returned, so maybe some time next week.

But their site says:

General Election Absentee reports will be available after 09/07/2012.

http://www.ncsbe.gov

[yourelection]

I have a bit of a split opinion about absentee voting. It is, on the one side, important for those unable to go to a polling station. And you should have enough time to send your ballot in. On the other hand it spreads out the timespan where people are voting.

I definitely makes more sense to have elections on the weekend. No hassles about squeezing in a trip to the polling station for working people.

Europe does this. Still there is also a strong trend toward absentee voting in Europe as well.

All in all I would like to see more people actually going to the polls.

[Tender Branson]

BUMP !

Absentee ballots are mailed out starting today in North Carolina.

[Lief]

Yeah, I'm all for making voting as easy as possible, but this voting two months before the actual election day business is nonsense.

On another note, New York doesn't have in-person early voting? What a dumb state I moved to.

[Tender Branson]

Prof. Michael McDonald now has his 2012 early voting site up:

http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2012.html

Can any of the moderators sticky this please ?

[Big DaddyTX]

Stickified

[Tender Branson]

Stickified

You actually unstickied it, because someone else already stickied it ...

Can you sticky it again, please ?

[Big DaddyTX]

Psh, always my fault, isn't it?

[Tender Branson]

The first mail ballots have been sent to North Carolina voters. As of Friday mid-morning, election officials have mailed 5,085 ballots to 17,724 voters who submitted requests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-p-mcdonald/early-voting-has-started_b_1864741.html

[Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Is there a party breakdown for the requests? or just the mailed-in ballots at the tail end of the process?

[Tender Branson]

Is there a party breakdown for the requests? or just the mailed-in ballots at the tail end of the process?

I think they only track the returned ballots by party breakdown.

At the end of the early voting period it was about 51% D and 30% R in 2008.

So, we have to wait until the early voting period is over this year to make comparisons, because all the days will have different breakdowns.

[Vasall des Midas]

Absentee / by-mail voting, except for a few select groups, makes no sense whatsoever, has massive secrecy issues, and should be flat-out outlawed. By the SC if necessary.
Early voting has all its advantages and no such problems, though two months seems way excessive.

[Senator Sbane]

Voting before the debates is silly. I think early voting should be restricted until the debates are done.

[Minnesota Mike]

And the first votes are cast.

North Carolina returned Military Absentees.

1 White Republican
1 Unaffiliated African American

http://ftp://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/enrs/absentee11xx06xx2012_counts_county.csv