Democrats leading the early voting surge, according to survey

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — With the excitement surrounding the election, it should be no surprise that early voting numbers are up.

In Marion County, the clerk’s office is averaging about 900 voters per day. At this point in 2012 it was closer to 700.

According to the WISH-TV/Ball State Hoosier survey, one particular party has more early voters.

When the 800 Hoosiers surveyed were asked who they plan to vote for, about 43 percent of them said Donald Trump, while 37 percent said Hillary Clinton.

But when asked if a person had already early voted the results flipped.

Trump had only 29 percent of early voters in the survey while Clinton climbed ahead to 59 percent.

After looking at other races in the survey, it appears democrats are casting their ballots earlier than republicans.

“It’s that energy. People are just excited to vote,” said Keith Potts, volunteer at the Hillary Clinton campaign office on Indy’s north side. “I voted on the first day of early voting this year because I just could not wait.”

Representatives with the Indiana Democratic Party said voting early in their party gets more popular with each presidential election. They also highlighted their feverish volunteer effort that’s dialing up blue votes across the state. “We are organized and we are getting people to the polls and people are seeing the importance in the election,” said Potts.

On the other side of town at the Indiana GOP Fall Dinner, republicans weren’t feeling any sort of pressure from the survey results.

“Just five days before the 2016 primary, there was a lot of the same type of talk of ‘will the republicans show up,’ and as you know Indiana made history, as republicans showed up in historic numbers all across our state,” said Indiana GOP Chairman Jeff Cardwell.

He added that his party is also hard at work getting people to vote early just like the democrats, as well as handing out a record number of yard signs. “We’ve distributed more signs this time around than we have in the last two presidential elections combined,” Cardwell said.

He’s confident republican votes will show up come election day. Because in reality it’s not about when people make it to polls but how many actually cast their vote that truly counts.