Absentee Explosion In Florida

If there's a race, they will vote -- even if there are no delegates.

For Democrats, the number of returned absentee ballots in Florida so far exceeds the total number turned in in the 2004 general election, and the number of Democratic early voters plus the number of absentees requested is more than the number of actual voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada combined.

This means that despite the fact that NO Democrat is campaigning in Florida, no Democrat is advertising in Florida (except on cable) and the DNC is ignoring Florida, Democratic voters in Florida are organically excited about the primary race and their party's prospects for November, 2008 -- and are voting despite the temporal meaningless of their vote. That's pretty impressive... and it also poses a philosophical quandary: if a million Democrats vote next Tuesday in a meaningless primary, did they actually vote? What does the media say about them? What if one candidate wins by a large margin?

The state Democratic Party says that 96,286 absentee ballots have been returned, up from 93,909 in 2004. 100,000 ballots have yet to be returned. Combining the number of early voters (121,693) with the number of absentees requested, you get 316,940 -- more than the total Democratic vote for each of the three early states.

The party projects a turnout of more than 1,000,000.

Comments

Those numbers are wrong - there were well over 100k democratic absentee votes in the 2004 general. They must mean the 2004 primary.

Posted by Anonymous | January 23, 2008 12:20 PM

100K? Ambinder is saying they were 96,000 returned and 100,000 still out... So it's superior.

Posted by Daniel | January 23, 2008 1:23 PM

I had the inspiration the other day that I could change my registration to Repub and do as much mischief as possible by voting for !RUDY. Unfortunately there is a 29day limit to new registration as well as changing affiliation.

There is buzz on 'Sirius TalkLeft' and NPR that the delegation we Fla Dems vote in will somehow be seated when the credentials committee emerges from the smoke-filled room. (Assuming there are smoke-filled rooms anymore.)

Posted by JohnMcC | January 23, 2008 2:33 PM

I would say voters are not only excited - they're engaged. Check out the grassroots organizations like Greater Orlando's Team Hillary (the largest Clinton "meetup" in the nation) that have sprung up to fill the vacuum left by the candidates. http://hrclinton.meetup.com/54

Posted by Jessy B Hamilton | January 24, 2008 10:19 AM