Ohio Early Voting

The Akron Beacon Journal reports that early voting is leaning heavily Democratic.

Democrats are dominating early voting so far, using a broad strategy to get as many ballots as possible cast ahead of Nov. 4's elections. Republicans have been using a more narrow approach, going after specific targets, such as young voters with hunting licenses.

In Franklin county, Democrats have cast 9,000 more votes than Republicans, for example. These votes will give Obama a lead going into the election but at this point it doesn't appear to be insurmountable.

I'm trying to find early voting numbers for each county now.

The Game's Still On in Ohio

The Columbus Dispatch summarized the 4,134 absentee ballots that were cast this week in Franklin County.



The early voters clearly favor Obama but there are two things of note. The first is the 668 voters who registered the same day they voted. It looks like we can expect these voters to total a couple thousand across the state by the time this period closes on Monday but probably less than 10,000.

The second was an almost throwaway line which initially may seem as bad news for McCain.

More than 80 percent of those who cast ballots and also voted in the March 4 primary were registered Democrats.

What makes this interesting however is that fact that you do not have to declare a party affiliation in Ohio when you register. In fact, half of Ohioans do not declare a party affiliation and only 31% are registered Democrats. In Ohio, only the strongest Democrats and Republicans register as such, the rest are undeclared.

Its clear it's these strongest Democrats who are voting early. These aren't Bush voters Obama is winning over or even fence sitters who McCain had a chance to win over. These are Obama's strongest supporters who he could always count on. He was always going to get these votes, be it on October 4th or November 4th.

There may still be a great groundswell toward Obama, but these results indicate that it hasn't happened yet. Not at the only place that counts at least: the ballot box.

Ohio's Early Voting Looks Light

Ohio's early voting on day one looks light, especially those who are registering and voting on the same day.

Franklin County (includes Columbus): 808, 72 also newly registered

Hamilton County (includes Cincinnati): 656, 54 also newly registered

Cuyahoga County (includes Cleveland): 558, 110 also newly registered

Lucas County (includes Toledo): 493 voted, 78 also newly registered

Montgomery County (includes Dayton): 363, 25 also registered

That means across Ohio's largest counties, around 3,000 votes were cast with about 339 registering on the same day. This should also be the high point as it included students busing in from the University of Toledo, camping from Ohio State, and union members in Cincinnati.

In the overall scheme of things, these are very small numbers. Now the number mailing in their absentee ballots could be another story.