General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPolk County Iowa turning out first-time and infrequent voters.
Polk County appears to be following the trend elsewhere in the country regarding early voting.
Lets start with the numbers here in Polk County. The deadline for absentee ballot requests was this past Saturday at 5:00 PM. When all was said and done, heres where we ended up:
142,018 total absentee ballot requests
81,257 Democrats (57%)
32,262 Republicans (23%) 27,719 No Party (19.5%) / 780 Other Party (.5%)
And the rate of return on absentee ballots was:
Countywide: 79%
Democrats: 84%
Republicans: 75% / No Party: 69% / Other Party: 70%
...As of Thursday afternoon, the number of Democrats in Polk County that voted early in the 2020 cycle had already exceeded the total number of early votes President Obama won in Polk County in 2012. When that happened last Thursday, there were still 12 days to go until the election.
But the numbers are showing that a higher rate of early voting is actually getting some of our infrequent, harder to reach, Democratic voters to vote. As Bleeding Heartland noted, "TargetSmarts analysis of early voting shows that of the Iowans who had cast ballots through October 20, an estimated 16.2 percent (92,003 people) did not vote in the 2016 election. About 26,012 of those were first-time voters. The rest were infrequent voters."
source: Polk County Democrats Weekly Update
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Ty!
Tom Rinaldo
(22,912 posts)Trump bet the farm on turning out infrequent rural voters to his cause. But Biden is the one pulling this off.
Wounded Bear
(58,648 posts)"GET RID OF THAT ASSHOLE TRUMP!!!"
madaboutharry
(40,209 posts)Iowa needs to vote Joni Ernst out of office.
rurallib
(62,411 posts)I am thinking the House may be in play. I believe we only need to turn 5 seats. One of those seems to have already conceded one. Sounds like they have abandoned Jeff Shipley in district 82 down by FairField.
madaboutharry
(40,209 posts)The Iowa legislature is a right wing sewer.
rurallib
(62,411 posts)has a great House races analysis today:
https://iowastartingline.com/2020/10/22/where-dems-are-spending-big-to-break-iowa-gop-trifecta/
ffr
(22,669 posts)Look out!
Ace Rothstein
(3,161 posts)Then we need to figure out how to consistently get these people to vote.