Tucson Region

Demos now ahead in number of early ballots

Tucson Democrats have, for the first time, taken the lead over Republicans in the number of early ballots cast for Tuesday's City Council election. The latest count of returned ballots shows that 8,239 Democrats had voted early as of Tuesday, double the number from a week ago. "We've done our job, and those numbers show we've done it well," said Paul Eckerstrom, chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party. Republicans had cast 7,277 ballots as of Tuesday, up 2,408 over the last seven days. Republicans had a 747-ballot lead over Democrats last week; now Democrats have a 962-ballot lead over Republicans. "We're not troubled by it," said Judi White, Republican Party chairwoman. "We have a plan, and we're right on schedule." White added that the party is waging a "huge" get-out-the-vote effort right up until Election Day. Eckerstrom conceded "crossover" Democrats played a crucial role in the re-election of Republican Mayor Bob Walkup in 2003. But he predicted that won't happen this year. "We will win both seats and beat two incumbents," he said. He said the Democratic get-out-the-vote effort is reaching out to all party members and the growing ranks of independents. "We're hitting everybody," he said. Next week's election pits Republican council members Fred Ronstadt and Kathleen Dunbar against Democratic challengers Nina Trasoff and Karin Uhlich. Ronstadt and Dunbar each won more than 12,000 early ballots in 2001, or about 47 percent of their respective total votes. Early votes for them meant the difference between victory and defeat. The regularly updated early-ballot totals kept by the City Clerk's Office include mail-in early ballots and early ballots cast at three satellite polling places. The latest count shows that 36,394 early mail-in ballots were requested by the Oct. 28 deadline, and 800 ballots had been cast at the polling places. As of Tuesday, 16,081 mail-in ballots, or 44 percent, had been returned. The returned-ballot total includes 1,187 from independents and 14 from Libertarians. Democrats have returned 42 percent of their requested ballots, Republicans 50 percent, and independents 30 percent.