Third Base Politics lets us know that Democrats in Ohio ought to be quoting Yogi Berra: “It gets late early out there.”
They’re voting already. And the absentee-ballot requests are already pointing in one direction:
A higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in Ohio’s three largest counties have asked for absentee ballots this year — an ominous sign for the party hoping to repel GOP forces on Election Day. Roughly three out of 10 registered Ohio voters live in Franklin, Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties.
With early voting under way this week, Republican voters in Franklin and Hamilton counties have requested more absentee ballots than their Democratic counterparts — hard evidence of a much different environment than 2008 when an avalanche of Democratic absentee ballot requests dwarfed Republican requests in both counties.
In Cuyahoga County, registered Democrats have requested 60,960 absentee ballots compared with 28,888 for voters registered as Republicans, according to the county Board of Elections figures through Tuesday.
Good news for Democrats?
Consider that Democrats hold an almost four-to-one edge in voter registration in Cuyahoga County, according to Ohio Secretary of State office statistics. Once that ratio is taken into account, the numbers show 33 percent of the Republicans in Cuyahoga County have requested an absentee ballot thus far compared with 18 percent of Democrats.
To use another Berra quote, it’s possible that Ohio Democrats have made too many wrong mistakes.
UPDATE: Elsewhere in Ohio: Lee Fisher, the Democrat who ran for lieutenant governor four years ago promising to create jobs, and who continues to tout that promise, may lay off 10 staffers.