In fact, in Ohio counties carried by President Barack Obama, the mail-in requests are down by roughly 12 percent. But in counties carried by Mitt Romney, they’re only about 7 percent lower. And while it’s certainly the case that early voters, especially those who cast ballots in person, generally favor Democrats, this year is a little more complicated.
For example, in Cuyahoga County, Democrats are only at 53 percent of their early vote total from the 2012 election, when the process started a week earlier. But Republicans already are at 95 percent, with two weeks to go. (Independents are at 76 percent.)