Bright spot for Rudy? Florida early voting numbers
Sunday, January 27th, 2008Port St. Lucie, FL — As Giuliani begins his final uphill 48-hour push for votes with a bus tour up the Florida east coast, campaign aides are finding some hope in early and absentee voting numbers released yesterday.
The GOP numbers according to the Republican Party of Florida:
Absentee Ballots Voted: 190,510 (301,425 requested)
Early Vote: 236,508
Total Absentee and Early Voted: 427,018
State party officials estimate that absentee and early votes will constitute about one third of the nearly 1.4 to 1.5 million Republicans expected to cast ballots.
The Giuliani campaign has been conducting a major get out the vote (GOTV) push for the last month as their rivals were campaigning in early states, and aides say they are confident that they are leading the early vote count. Absentee voting began in late December and early voting began on January 14, six days before McCain and Romney arrived in the state.
More than 1,000 campaign volunteers made more than 87,000 phone calls yesterday, campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said.
