Early voting off to strong start
408,000 mail-in ballots are cast in the first 8 days, driven by closely watched races.
Almost half a million Californians have already voted by mail, with strong interest in state’s hotly contested congressional races.
SACRAMENTO — Early data from local elections officials show a surge of ballots being returned in the mail, especially in some of the most closely watched races this election season.
A report compiled by Political Data Inc. shows almost 408,000 ballots cast in just the first eight days of voting, with more than half of those arriving in local election offices Wednesday.
As The Times has reported before, election day in California is now more like an election month.
A majority of the state’s voters cast their ballots away from traditional polling places, and political professionals can closely monitor which voters in any given race have turned in those ballots.
The report also shows strong early voting in some of California’s most talked about congressional races.
In the hotly contested reelection race of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), more than four times as many ballots have been returned compared with the 2014 general election.
Even though Republicans have an eight-point registration advantage in Issa’s district, the ballots cast have skewed more Democratic.
Issa, facing a tough race against Democrat Douglas Applegate, recently sent out a campaign mailer trying to appeal to local voters who support President Obama.
Compared with the first few days of the 2014 general election, substantially more ballots have also been cast in the Central Valley races featuring Reps. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) and David Valadao (R-Hanford). In both districts, Democratic voters are outpacing GOP voters in early ballot returns.
While none of the data offer information on how those ballots were cast — these are only totals received by county officials — the early numbers may offer a glimpse at how energized some parts of the electorate are in this contentious campaign season.