Absentee votes flood in before Democratic caucuses in the State of Washington

[BigBearJohn]

An unprecedented surge in absentee votes is contributing to an expected turnout of about 200,000 in Saturday’s Democratic caucuses.
But about 35,000 have voted in advance, using what amounts to an absentee-ballot system. The deadline to send in the absentees was last Friday.

It’s an unprecedented surge in the use of so-called “surrogate affidavits” — forms by which Democrats attest they’re unable to attend a caucus due to work schedule, illness, disability, military service or religious observance.

In addition to the 35,000 absentee votes, about 72,000 people had preregistered for the caucuses as of Wednesday.

Given those early numbers, Ravens said “a comfortable estimate” is that the caucuses will draw about 200,000 voters total. That would be short of 2008’s record-setting Democratic caucuses, which drew 250,000 and saw then-Sen. Barack Obama defeat Clinton.

In addition to emails, the Clinton camp sent a mailer to tens of thousands of voters, which included an appeal from former President Clinton along with affidavit forms and a postage-paid return envelope.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/absentee-votes-flood-in-before-democratic-caucuses/

[eridani]

1. The reason that it is unprecedented is that this was the first year when work schedule--

--was allowed as a valid reason for a surrogqte affidavit. Previously, they were allowed only for religious reasons, being active duty military or disability.