116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Dems voting early but GOP has registration edge
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The election of 2012 is well under way though election day is still more than a month away.
Democrats have the absentee ballot lead, with voters already returning 8,800 ballots to Republicans' 2,600 as of Friday. However, Republicans have a voter registration advantage and say they'll have a strong turnout on Election Day.
Early voting began Thursday.
Republicans took the voter registration lead in April, in part due to the 2010 primary for governor and the January caucuses that drew record GOP participation.
Part of the change also is due to a standard cleanup of voter registration rolls that involved confirming current addresses of voters by mailing notices.
The state had 89,000 fewer active voters in August than in January.
FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012, file photo voters wait for their ballots on day one of early voting for the November presidential election in Des Moines, Iowa. Five weeks to Election Day, President Barack Obama is within reach of the requisite 270 Electoral College votes needed to win a second term according to an Associated Press analysis. Mitt Romney can still prevail in the race to amass the necessary votes, but his path to victory has become much narrower. To overtake Obama, the Republican challenger would need to quickly gain the upper hand in nearly all of the nine states where he and Obama are competing the hardest. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
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