How many votes will have been cast absentee?

[Obamacare]

If Coakley had been leading by 15-20 pts up until this last week that the absentee balloting will heavily favor her.

Granted I am not too involved in what’s going on in MA BUT because of this Coakley should win and it won’t be too close too call.

[timeforpeace]

1. Yeah, which party controls the election commission there? Maybe, just maybe, there's a chance here.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. I would think absentee voters tend to be party loyalists

Absentee voting generally requires more work (or at least more thought) than regular voting. Motivated voters I would think are those who are generally loyal to a party and not undecided. I would think absentee voters would tend to be motivated voters who would tend to be partisan who would thus not be swayed in the final weeks of an election. That's just my hypothesis though.

[geek_sabre]

3. he is leading by 16% in absentee ballots last i heard

70,000 requested absentee ballots, not sure how many were cast/have been counted.

[Obamacare]

4. F*cking A

are you serious, he's leading by 16% absentee? This isn't looking good if Brown is leading even in absentee ballots, I was hoping those would be in Coakley's favor. If we loose in solid blue Ma, I hate to think about how other seats we will loose in Nov.:(

[FrenchieCat]

5. Your name is actually Obamacare?

damn....you don't even bother to hide, do you?

[Obamacare]

7. Is there a problem with my name?

:eyes: Anywho, I don't have a link, a previous poster mentioned Brown being up by 16% in Absentee ballots.

[JTFrog]

10. Yea there is a problem with it.

Does it really have to be pointed out that it's a right wing freeper teabagger term usually accompanied by some racist graphic to describe health care reform?

:shrug:

[Obamacare]

11. Well jeez I didn't know that

If its that serious I'll just change my username if I'm able to. I am not a teabagger I despise those people, I'm insulted that anyone would even suggest that I'm one. I don't frequent right wing blogs so I haven't seen these racist graphics you mentioned.

[JTFrog]

16. Here, let me google that for you......

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=obamacare

I don't frequent any right wing blogs either, but you'd have to be living in another dimension not to have seen or heard the term.

What in the world made you pick that name anyway if you'd never heard it before?

[Obamacare]

19. I heard the term before

It was used on myspace democrats a while ago, a site in which I'm a member of and not in a bad way either. And I'm not clicking that link because I'm not interested in seeing racist propaganda against President Obama. Like I said, I will change my user name, if it offends some folks. Actually, I tried to change my username and it didn't work.

[JTFrog]

20. Too bad for you.

Give me a link to any democratic group using that name. "and not in a bad way either"

I don't believe one exists.

[jefferson_dem]

9. Ha Ha.

Buzzword if there ever was one. Have you ever heard a fan of reform use that term? Ever? I haven't.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Do you have a link for that?

[MrsBrady]

12. where did you get that info n/t

[cally]

14. How would anyone know this??

They don't release results until the polls close. They may release results about party affiliation but with the high Dem registration advantage, I don't think you can infer much in this election from party affiliation.

[bergie321]

15. Diebold

Screwed up and accidentally released the election results early.

[Justice]

8. Absentee not counted yet.

[Jersey Devil]

13. Yeah, well, yes and no

When I was involved in local politics we could often get the absentee results before the polls closed for the day through contacts in the county clerk's office. No, they are not "counted" officially until the polls close but they do track them as they come in with running tallies. No one is supposed to see them, but well, you know, shit happens

[frazzled]

18. Well, it wouldn't work that way in MA, because there are no county govt's

Most Massachusetts counties currently exist only as geographic regions, and have no county government. All former county functions were assumed by state agencies in the late 1990's-early 2000. Sheriffs and some other regional officials with specific duties are still elected locally to perform duties within the county region, but there is no county council or commissioner.

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=mg2topic&L=3&sid=massgov2&L0=Home&L1=State+Government&L2=County+Government

[frazzled]

17. You have to have a reason to vote absentee in Massachusetts

You may vote by absentee ballot if you:

• will be absent from your city or town on election day, and/or
• have a physical disability that prevents your voting at the polling place, and/or
• cannot vote at the polls due to religious beliefs.

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ELE/eleifv/howabs.htm

In other words, you can't just vote absentee because you want to.

Not that anyone is checking, mind you ... but if a suspiciously large number of absentee ballots were to be cast, it could be an issue.