Progressive Iowa blog not bullish about early voting.
Not being a concern troll, but we should look at the data as it is.
"Iowa county auditors had received 557,432 completed ballots as of October 31, surpassing the 545,739 Iowans who cast early votes in the 2008 general election. In addition, roughly 118,000 Iowans had requested absentee ballots by October 31 but not yet returned them to county auditors. Democrats lead Republicans in both ballots requested and ballots returned, but Republicans have a better return rate, which means Democrats need to chase a lot of ballots over the weekend.
After the jump I've posted early voting numbers from the last three presidential elections in Iowa, along with the latest tables showing absentee ballots requested by voters and returned to county auditors. I'm updating the absentee ballot totals every weekday here.
I also posted information from Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz and Attorney General Tom Miller on absentee ballot laws and deadlines. Friday, November 2 is the last day to request an absentee ballot by mail. Monday, November 5 is the last day to vote early in person at a county auditor's office or satellite location. Voters who never got around to mailing back their absentee ballot can deliver it to the country auditor's office by 9 pm on November 6, or they can surrender the ballot to precinct polling officials on election day, receiving an ordinary ballot to vote in person.....
The Democratic ballot return rate is 83 percent, while the Republican return rate is 86 percent and the no-party return rate is 77 percent.
Iowa polls continue to suggest that President Barack Obama has a commanding lead over Mitt Romney among early voters. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Obama leading by 62 percent to 35 percent among the "45 percent of respondents say they have already voted early or plan to do so." The latest Public Policy Polling survey puts the president's lead at 64 percent to 35 percent among respondents who said they've already voted.
The absentee ballot totals don't reflect such a commanding advantage for Iowa Democrats, so either the polls are wrong, or most of the no-party absentee voters are backing Obama."
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