Democrats take massive early lead in absentee ballot requests in key battleground states
BY SARAH EWALL-WICE
SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 / 2:08 PM / CBS NEWS
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democrats-mail-ballots-pennsylvania-north-carolina-florida/
Democrats in key battleground states are showing a big early advantage over Republicans in absentee ballot requests, as the first mail-in ballots begin to be sent to voters on Friday.
This year is expected to see record voting by mail amid health concerns over COVID-19. Currently, election data in states including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida show Democrats are doing more to take advantage of mail-in options.
The first ballots in the country are being sent in North Carolina beginning Friday. While military and overseas ballots take first priority at this stage, a state election official said absentee ballots for those who've requested them in the state will also start going out.
As of September 2, 618,842 absentee ballots had been requested for the November election in the state. By comparison, at this time in 2016, just 37,576 voters had asked for mail-in ballots. In 2020, 326,281 of those requests ? more than 52% ? have come from registered Democrats.
Just 98,6000 have been requested by Republicans, or less than 16%. Democrats have outpaced Republicans in absentee ballot requests in all but two counties across the state. Another 192,036 unaffiliated voters ? 31% ? have also requested absentee ballots.
This comes as a new Monmouth poll this week finds one in four North Carolina voters saying they're at least somewhat likely to cast their ballot by mail this year. This included 41% Democrats, 27% independents and 13% Republicans.