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.”
