Regardless of the problems with Florida - I think the absentee ballot request numbers are really good news.
By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 07, 2008
Though they've been snubbed by their party's presidential candidates, Palm Beach County Democrats seem to be more fired up about Florida's Jan. 29 primary than local Republicans.
One indicator: Democratic absentee ballot requests outnumber Republican requests by more than a 2-to-1 margin in the county.Barack Obama, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic White House aspirants have sworn off Florida campaign appearances (but not money-raising visits) because the state's primary is too early for the liking of national party bosses. Republican presidential hopefuls, particularly Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, have campaigned throughout Florida.
Through Friday, Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson's office had received 11,876 absentee ballot requests for the Jan. 29 election, which includes the presidential primaries and a referendum on property-tax relief. Democrats requested 7,520 ballots, or 63.3 percent of the total. Republicans requested 3,165 or 26.6 percent.
Overall, Dems make up 44.5 percent of the county electorate and Republicans, 30.1 percent. Republicans traditionally have been more likely to take advantage of absentee voting, though that trend has changed recently as U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, and others have played on electronic-voting fears to encourage Dems to vote on paper absentee ballots. Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans statewide, but there have been about 155,000 absentee requests from Florida GOP voters and about 118,000 from Democrats.
http://www.fladems.com/content/w/absentee_ballot_requests_pour_in_from_democrats