Republican congressman Cory Gardner may effectively defeat incumbent Senator Mark Udall before Election Day even begins. Udall’s hopes could be all but finished within a matter of hours, according to National Journal, if Democrats don’t shrink Gardner’s lead among early voters.
The number of ballots returned by Republicans as of Friday has outpaced the number cast by Democrats by nine percentage points, and if Democrats don’t narrow the gap to five or six percentage points today, it’s hard to envision Gardner losing, says National Journal’s Scott Bland.
Democrats did gain some ground this weekend, as the number of ballots returned on Saturday by Democrats outpaced Republicans by three percentage points, as noted by the New York Times. But the votes returned on Saturday came disproportionately from predominantly Democratic jurisdictions, which suggests the Democratic party still has considerable ground to make up in voting rates overall.