Early voting in the city election is picking up, with about three of every 10 ballots that were mailed to voters having been cast.
Here’s the latest, with numbers as of last night:
A total of 66,908 ballots had been mailed to city voters. Of those, 20,315 ballots had been returned, which comes out to roughly 30 percent.
Party breakdown:
• 32,035 of those ballots went to Democrats; 10,133 of those ballots had been cast, for a return rate of roughly 32 percent.
• 20,903 of those ballots went to Republicans; 6,638 of those ballots had been cast, for a return rate of roughly 32 percent.
• 361 of those ballots went to Libertarians; 97 of those ballots had been cast, for a return rate of roughly 27 percent.
• 162 of those ballots went to Greens; 54 of those ballots had been cast, for a return rate of roughly 33 percent.
• 13,447 ballots had been sent to people who aren’t registered with any of the above parties; 3,393 had been cast, for a return rate of roughly 25 percent.
More thoughts on early voting here.
If you don’t have an early ballot yet, here’s how to get one.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
At-the-poll turnout is a significant wildcard this time, with all this interest in Prop. 200. Experts say it’ll be a little higher, but not by much. Complicating matters is the fact that support for 200 is divided among local Republicans, although the three Republican council candidates support 200, to what looks increasingly like their own peril.
Needless to say, it’s not looking good for any of them. The press on 200 is going to get worse. It was a terrible idea. Colin Zimmerman is a Democrat, and presently a major thorn in the sides sensible Dems who correctly think 200 is nuts. But its first victims may well be Steve K, Shaun M and Ben B-G. If 200 fails, and the present cast of ‘R’ turkeys go down with it, Colin Zimmerman could turn out to be the Pima Dems’ finest asset. I guess we’ll see. 🙂