Democrats’ early voting still lags in Iowa, but catching up

[book_worm]

DES MOINES — Early voting in Iowa continues to lag behind the pace set in the most recent presidential election, more so for Democrats than Republicans.

But Iowa Democrats are rapidly closing their early-voting gap.

Eight days out from the Nov. 8 election, early voting — a combination of in-person early voting and absentee ballots returned by mail — is down almost 10 percent from the same point in the 2012 election, according to the most recent data from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office.

Iowa Democrats lead Republicans in early voting, but they are farther behind their 2012 pace than Republicans are from theirs.

Democrats had cast 198,736 early votes as of Monday. That’s down 10 percent from the same point in 2012.

Republicans had cast 155,425 early votes as of Monday; that’s just 3 percent off the GOP’s pace in 2012. And Republicans are ahead of their 2012 pace in absentee ballot requests.

Democrats, however, are closing their early-voting gap. Early this month, they had cast only half the number of early votes compared to the same point in 2012.

http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/elections/democrats-early-voting-still-lags-in-iowa-but-catching-up/article_a3717f26-aee1-54e6-bbb9-198408838258.html

[SharonClark]

1. Could it be because the party sent out the ballot request forms 2 weeks later this year?