As Of Today, It’s Already Election Day

First Read reminds us that a significant portion of the American population is already able to vote as of today:

Per NBC’s Kyle Inskeep, Idaho and South Dakota today are the first states to begin early-in-person voting. Also today, absentee voting begins in Minnesota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Georgia, Arkansas, Idaho, and Maryland. This brings the total number of states already accepting ballots to 12. Thirteen additional states (South Carolina, New Jersey, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Delaware, Virginia, Louisiana, and Missouri) will begin absentee or early voting on Saturday. So by tomorrow, half the country will be casting votes (battleground states in bold): AR, DE, GA, ID, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS,NH, NJ, NC, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WV, WI.

This is the point where “Get Out The Vote” efforts become important, and one reason why that turnaround that Romney needs to make should have come a lot sooner.

Of particular interest in this regard is an item in today’s  Wall Street Journal’s report that Iowa Democrats “have requested roughly 100,000 ballots, compared with 16,073 ballots requested by Republicans.”

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Console says:

    With all the money that the GOP has been raising, I’m definitely surprised at their lack of a ground game. I mean I know Obama has a head start on infrastructure. But you’d think Romney would have benefited from the same thing Obama did in 2008 (contentious and long primary season).

    I guess that whole “community organizer” thing is actually not bad to have as experience.

  2. Me Me Me says:

    Where are Mitt’s medical records?

  3. mattb says:

    @Console:
    As I posted on a different thread, Citizens United may have had this unexpected effect when you look at presidential politics. The SuperPac money, unless I’m mistaken cannot be used for ground organizing.

    The republican strategy so far has been to maximize SuperPac donations rather than campaign donations. Obama went the other direction. Time will prove which was the better option.

    BTW — This should not be construed as a defense of Citizens United. I suspect that in the cases of local and statewide races — where the very nature of the race means that ground games are always in place — SuperPacs can be very effective.

    I’m suggesting that SuperPac money cannot replace or overcome not having a mature ground game when it comes to a Presidential Election (which is a very different beast than local or even statewide races).

  4. Murray says:

    @Console: ” But you’d think Romney would have benefited from the same thing Obama did in 2008 (contentious and long primary season).”

    The 2012 GOP primaries were indeed long and contentious, but Romney had trouble defeating what was essentially a freak show whereas Obama in 2008 faced a formidable opponent in a historic race (first woman vs first African-American).

    In other words, the 2012 GOP race made Romney seem weak, whereas the 2008 Dem race made Obama strong.

  5. fjdkldsfads says:

    @Console: At least in Wisconsin, our ground game is huge. Much better organized than OFA, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.

  6. Console says:

    @fjdkldsfads:

    Wisconsin had the special election so that’s not hugely surprising to me.