Democrats off to fast start with absentee voting

It’s that time of year again, when Maine voters who serve in the military, who are living overseas or who just want the convenience of voting early can request an absentee ballot. This year requests for absentee ballots are on pace to top the number in the presidential contest of four years ago and according to reports, more Democrats are requesting them than Republicans.

In the 2012 election nearly 188,000 absentee ballots were cast, but election officials say this year the number could be even higher than that. They also say Democrats are doing a good job of getting their party members to request them. In 2012, Democrats requested just over 40% of the mailed ballots compared to 25% for Republicans. So far this year Democrats have requested 51% of the mailed ballots, compared to about 22% for Republicans.

Jim Melcher, a political science professor at University of Maine at Farmington says that’s good news for Democrats.

“Democrats have always put more emphasis upon early voting as part of their electoral strategy but the fact that they are ahead of where they have been in previous years is certainly a sign of enthusiasm among Democrats,” says Melcher.

Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2016/10/18/politics/democrats-off-to-fast-start-with-absentee-voting/?ref=regionstate