More than twice as many Democrats as Republicans vote early in Maryland

More than twice as many Democrats as Republicans took advantage of early voting in Maryland’s general election, while overall turnout was up 40 percent from four years ago, the last time a governor’s race was on the ballot.

The numbers, released after the last of eight days of early voting on Thursday, provided some glimmers of hope for both the Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, and the Republican, Anne Arundel County businessman Larry Hogan.

Overall, 307,646 Marylanders cast their ballots in advance of Tuesday’s election, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. That’s about 8.3 percent of eligible voters statewide, up from about 6.3 percent in 2010.

Democrats voting early this year outnumbered Republicans, 189,175 to 87,035. The ratio was slightly larger than the advantage that Democrats hold in party registration in the heavily Democratic state. But Republicans were slightly better represented compared to four years ago. This year, 28,328 unaffiliated voters also voted early.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/more-than-twice-as-many-democrats-as-republicans-vote-early-in-maryland/2014/10/31/b65120c2-6100-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html