2012 vs. 2008 Ohio Absentee Ballot Requests

	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	K
1	UPDATE: The counties that don't have any data are probably not going to respond to my requests by election day. Because some counties are missing, the "Total" number is not going to tell you which party is requesting more ballots. What it will tell you is if the party is over/under performing vs. 2008 Per a reader suggestion, the "Totals" only include counties where both 2008 and 2012 party ID data are available for a better apples2apples comparison of the same geographic area. These numbers are requests for absentee ballots in Ohio (not returned ballots). Note that the 2008 totals include every absentee ballot request received, whereas the 2012 numbers are only ballot requests received so far. Ohio does not have partisan registration. The "D" and "R" are identified by the board of elections by the last primary the person had voted in at the time of the election. Click on the individual county links to view source data (some data was only available by email request from the board of elections, email me the county and I can forward it to you) Some counties have not provided data on their websites for 2008 and/or 2012. I've sent emails requesting data where it is missing, and many offices are responding. Keep checking this page for updates, and help me pester the boards of elections for counties that haven't provided data. For questions or suggestions email rockets.stats@gmail.com or tweet me @ningrim
2	County		Total Absentee Ballot Requests	D	R	D	R	Difference	NOTE: A CAVEAT ABOUT THIS DATA FROM DR. MICHAEL McDONALD OF THE EARLY VOTING PROJECT http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2012.html

3	Total	2008	1386683	477388	260416	34.43%	18.78%	15.65%	If you are not aware, Ohio does not truly have party registration, it is simply a record of the last party primary a voter participated in. For a number of reasons then, a comparison of 2008 and 2012 "party" is not particularly informative. Another important change is that all registered voters have been mailed an absentee ballot request form - something I applaud SoS Husted for doing since the larger Democratic counties were the ones that tended to do this in 2010. As a result of that change from 2008, I expect mail ballot requests to increase. Finally, Ohio considered in-person early voting to be a form of mail balloting in their reported statistics.The numbers are going to change considerably once in-person early voting starts, particularly closer to Election Day when more people (particularly Democrats) tend to vote in-person early. For these reasons, I do not think the absentee ballot stats are particularly informative at this early stage as to what will happen in Ohio, much like I do not think the wildly pro-Democratic Iowa statistics are informative as to what will happen in that state. I suppose if you want to do a better apples to apples comparison for Ohio, you might run the 2008 numbers for the same point in time prior to the 2008 election. That might give us some sense of the overall level of early voting to be expected in the state. But I would again caution about drawing inferences about "party" as I have seen some do with your numbers. I do not think these numbers tell us the Ohio polling is incorrect. We need more information before we can draw that conclusion.
4		2012	1372336	390691	298403	28.47%	21.74%	6.72%
5	Adams	2008	2905	843	1321	29%	45%	-16.45%
6	updated 10/12	2012	1757	410	814	23%	46%	-22.99%
7	Allen	2008	11653	2008 Data Not Available
8	updated 10/22	2012	9810	1241	3258	13%	33%	-20.56%
9	Ashland	2008	6155
10	updated 10/12	2012	4470	1049	1946	23%	44%	-20.07%
11	Ashtabula	2008	8953	1789	1940	20%	22%	-1.69%
12	updated 11/4	2012	11234	2638	2463	23%	22%	1.56%
13	Athens	2008	9240	4393	1054	48%	11%	36.14%
14	updated 11/4	2012	8963	2753	1040	31%	12%	19.11%
15	Auglaize	2008	5897	437	1502	7%	25%	-18.06%
16	updated 10/24	2012	4389	338	1251	8%	29%	-20.80%
17	Belmont	2008	14175						Absentee Ballot Request Totals From Ohio Secretary of State (No Party ID)
18	updated 10/22	2012	13038	5335	2397	41%	18%	22.53%	2008
19	Brown	2008	3851	605	1016	16%	26%	-10.67%	2012
20	updated 11/4	2012	4482	700	1313	16%	29%	-13.68%
21	Butler	2008	43111
22	updated 10/22	2012	23638	1979	6883	8%	29%	-20.75%
23	Carrol	2008	3630	620	1061	17%	29%	-12.15%
24	updated 11/1	2012	3513	682	1023	19%	29%	-9.71%
25	Champaign	2008	5109	1653	1820	32%	36%	-3.27%
26	updated 11/1	2012	4747	571	1699	12%	36%	-23.76%
27	Clark	2008	18037	7403	3803	41%	21%	19.96%
28	updated 11/4	2012	20328	3580	5008	18%	25%	-7.02%
29	Clermont	2008	27558
30	updated 10/25	2012	23469	1073	7084	5%	30%	-25.61%
31	Clinton	2008	5449	1366	2039	25%	37%	-12.35%
32	updated 11/1	2012	4991	469	2030	9%	41%	-31.28%
33	Columbiana	2008	7836	2678	1912	34%	24%	9.78%
34	updated 11/4	2012	10414	1910	2517	18%	24%	-5.83%
35	Coshocton	2008	5644	457	1244	8%	22%	-13.94%
36	updated 11/1	2012	5746	510	1523	9%	27%	-17.63%
37	Crawford	2008	5791	2018	1695	35%	29%	5.58%
38	updated 10/24	2012	5041	873	1550	17%	31%	-13.43%
39	Cuyahoga	2008	283752	151296	36232	53%	13%	40.55%
40	updated 11/4	2012	291254	145690	52807	50%	18%	31.89%
41	Darke	2008	5542	743	1966	13%	35%	-22.07%
42	updated 11/1	2012	5798	697	2310	12%	40%	-27.82%
43	Defiance	2008	4715	620	1196	13%	25%	-12.22%
44	updated 11/1	2012	5364	731	1641	14%	31%	-16.96%
45	Delaware	2008	34428	2008 Data Not Available
46	updated 10/22	2012	28594	2799	8754	10%	31%	-20.83%
47	Erie	2008	14235	5720	2262	40%	16%	24.29%
48	updated 11/4	2012	13617	3894	2745	29%	20%	8.44%
49	Fairfield	2008	26641	2008 Data Not Available
50	updated 10/22	2012	21070	5475	7984	26%	38%	-11.91%
51	Fayette	2008	3192	880	946	28%	30%	-2.07%
52	updated 11/1	2012	3046	282	589	9%	19%	-10.08%
53	Franklin	2008	269801	48811	40334	18%	15%	3.14%
54	updated 11/4	2012	233433	34664	36526	15%	16%	-0.80%
55	Fulton	2008	5355	552	1653	10%	31%	-20.56%
56	updated 11/1	2012	4929	523	1783	11%	36%	-25.56%
57	Gallia	2008	3331
58		2012	1400
59	Geauga	2008	13939	1378	3840	10%	28%	-17.66%
60	updated 11/4	2012	15892	1534	4594	10%	29%	-19.25%
61	Greene	2008	23752	7826	6817	33%	29%	4.25%
62	updated 11/4	2012	26962	3648	9316	14%	35%	-21.02%
63	Guernsey	2008	4146	698	1041	17%	25%	-8.27%
64	updated 10/12	2012	3261	563	904	17%	28%	-10.46%
65	Hamilton	2008	102102	16763	23677	16%	23%	-6.77%
66	updated 11/4	2012	118647	18119	26602	15%	22%	-7.15%
67	Hancock	2008	12000	Data for 2008 not available
68	updated 10/22	2012	5448	921	2309	17%	42%	-25.48%
69	Hardin	2008	3702	1132	1423	31%	38%	-7.86%
70	updated 11/1	2012	3495	533	1404	15%	40%	-24.92%
71	Harrison	2008	1857	763	355	41%	19%	21.97%
72	updated 11/1	2012	2132	506	440	24%	21%	3.10%
73	Henry	2008	4427
74	data requested	2012	1161
75	Highland	2008	6000
76	updated 10/12	2012	1895	289	590	15%	31%	-15.88%
77	Hocking	2008	4504	Does Not Provide Party ID Info
78		2012	1800	Does Not Provide Party ID Info
79	Holmes	2008	3199	408	1079	13%	34%	-20.98%
80	updated 10/24	2012	2701	279	899	10%	33%	-22.95%
81	Huron	2008	6756
82	updated 10/12	2012	4954	1405	1443	28%	29%	-0.77%
83	Jackson	2008	3818	460	1316	12%	34%	-22.42%
84	updated 10/24	2012	3529	489	1385	14%	39%	-25.39%
85	Jefferson	2008	8126	2763	1546	34%	19%	14.98%
86	updated 11/4	2012	9969	3842	2132	39%	21%	17.15%
87	Knox	2008	10968	2008 Data Not Available
88	updated 10/12	2012	6566	882	2442	13%	37%	-23.76%
89	Lake	2008	51266	7343	10275	14%	20%	-5.72%
90	updated 10/30	2012	37590	6345	8597	17%	23%	-5.99%
91	Lawrence	2008	7042
92	updated 10/22	2012	6336	548	1626	9%	26%	-17.01%
93	Licking	2008	29208	9798	9906	34%	34%	-0.37%
94	updated 11/4	2012	29017	5375	9773	19%	34%	-15.16%
95	Logan	2008	6238
96	updated 10/12	2012	3484	361	1153	10%	33%	-22.73%
97	Lorain	2008	49492	Data for 2008 not available
98	updated 10/22	2012	40384	10903	7337	27%	18%	8.83%
99	Lucas	2008	69166	34824	10249	50%	15%	35.53%
100	updated 11/4	2012	62969	29148	10881	46%	17%	29.01%