2012_early_vote

2012 November General Election Early Voting

Last updated: Nov. 6, 2012

This is a legacy page tracking early voting leading into the 2012 November general election. Statistics reported here may not be final.

Total number of ballots cast in all reporting jurisdictions: 32,311,399

Scroll down for a table of statistics on ballots returned and ballots requested or sent.

Resources

• • The Early Voting Center maintains a handy calendar that tracks the mail balloting and in-person early voting dates (see detailed spreadsheet).

  • The U.S. Election Assistance Commission reports in their 2008 Election Day Survey that about 91% of all requested domestic mail ballots were returned. Return rates vary among localities.

  • For comparison, see the 2008 early vote statistics.

About These Statistics

• • Election officials may not report early voting statistics. I attempt to collect as much of the information about these ballots as possible. However, I do not hound election officials for these statistics because they are busy doing the important work of preparing for the upcoming election. Sometimes data will be available only at the local level. I cannot continuously scan for local data, so I appreciate tips on where to find data.

  • Breakdowns of early voters by party registration, where available, are not votes for president. We do not know who a person registered with a party voted for; these early votes are tabulated on Election Day or after, depending on state law. That said, we might infer that a person registered with a party is likely to support their party's presidential nominee.

  • A county is listed if a state does not report statewide early vote statistics and the county does report early vote statistics.

Early Voting Statistics

Some numbers provided courtesy of the Associated Press Election Research Group or election officials. Can't say enough thanks to election officials for their assistance in the midst of an election.

^ In-person only

* Exercise caution in interpreting the Ohio early vote statistics!

The Nov. 5 Ohio Secretary of State's statewide reports are compiled from a survey of the county election officials conducted on Nov. 5. 53 of Ohio's 88 counties have reporting systems. For the statewide number I report here, I supplement the statewide report with local reports where a more current local report is available.

As with previous SoS reports, some counties are reporting fewer ballots cast than in the SoS report. Unlike past reports, the most discrepancies appear to be small and attributable perhaps to the timing of transmission of information to the SoS office. However, some counties' reports are out of date while the SoS reports larger and therefore what appear to be more current numbers. I report the SoS number for these counties, but it puzzles me why the county reports are out of date. I do not know if this is a symptom of some other problem or just another timing issue.

I cannot validate the 35 counties that do not have public reporting systems. So, keeping in mind the timing issues, proceed at your own risk when interpreting these numbers.

I spoke with Cuyahoga's media officer and confirmed that their report includes in-person votes even if it says "vote by mail." Generally, Ohio calls all ballots -- regardless if they are voted by mail or in-person -- absentee ballots. In-person votes are often identified in the county absentee reports as "IN OFFICE" or "OVER THE COUNTER".