NYT: Kerry Pins Hopes in Iowa on Big Vote From Absentees

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/politics/campaign/28iowa.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1096415110-3B1jRlVPs9NSqAhwDBX8dA&pagewanted=print&position=

They're off and voting in Iowa, even before all the corn has been harvested.

In the state's 20 most populous counties, which account for about 60 percent of the vote, more than 140,345 absentee ballots had been applied for as of last Wednesday, according to a survey of county auditors by The Des Moines Register. Under Iowa law, anyone can request an absentee ballot, no questions asked, and roughly three times as many Democrats as Republicans did so in the counties studied by The Register. Early voting began on Thursday, 40 days before Election Day.

Which is one reason Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, is optimistic about John Kerry's chances of carrying the state. Four years ago, Al Gore was outvoted at the polls; his entire 4,144-vote margin of victory in Iowa was from absentee voters.

If he is to win, Mr. Kerry can ill afford to lose states that Mr. Gore won, like Iowa and Wisconsin, two Midwestern battlegrounds.

Most polls show President Bush with a small advantage here (a Mason-Dixon survey, reported last week, had him up, 48 percent to 42 percent, with a margin of error of four percentage points), and both parties are still pressing hard.

[IADEMO2004]

1. One of his votes is on the kitchen table now

ready for the mailbox!

[Justice]

5. AMEN!

[expatriot]

6. Go, Iowa Go... my home state, forever my cradle!

Your post has brought a wave of sentiment over me. I love my home state of Iowa, although as a youth I disparaged it. Iowa is where it is at. Iowa will come through. It must.

[Just Me]

2. The new "early voting" initiative is THE BEST!!!!

It further empowers the people by ensuring their vote counts.

Damned shameful that any American citizen should worry about whether or not their vote counts,...in the 21st Century. Pisses me off!!!

[petersjo]

3. The two ballots from our household

went in the mail today. Great feeling to seal those envelopes. In this state, absentee voting is going to be huge.

[DU9598]

4. Two votes here

I am nervous that the Repukes are going to challenge a lot of the Democratic absentee ballots. The Repuke legislature passed a new law that sets the stage for disqualifying a lot of ballots, ie, not signed on the right line, not in the sealed secrecey envelope and placed inside another sealed envelope, etc.

Pray I am wrong.

[murielm99]

7. I pray you are wrong, too.

My daughter is casting one of those absentee ballots, so she can be working to get out the vote on election day.

I think Kerry will take Iowa.