LOGAN – The long-awaited “blue tsunami” predicted by Democrats doesn’t seem to have materialized in local early voting results so far in the upcoming midterm election.
The Cache County Republican Party announced that GOP voters are leading in early balloting results in Cache County by 58 percent, compared to 52 percent of ballots cast by Democrats.
Local GOP officials acknowledge, however, that trend reflects only the party registration of locals who have returned their ballots, not who or what those voters may have favored.
In local returns so far, registered Republicans have cast 4,726 ballots, compared to 3,419 ballots cast by Democrats, according to data supplied by civicAPI.org on Oct. 26.
APIs are application programming interfaces that connect computers or computers programs, allowing them to communicate, share data and work together seamlessly.
CivicAPI.org is a political website that offers up-to-the-minute data, race calls and election results for races around the world.
The local data indicates that Cache County Republicans are off to a strong start, but Cache GOP Chair Natalie Levi cautions that early leads don’t win elections.
“It only counts if every ballot get turned in,” she emphasizes, urging all fellow Republicans to return their ballots at local drop boxes or vote in person.
The slim lead in GOP voters reported by civicAPI.org seems to be trending statewide as well, according to Republican officials.
At state level, more than 100,000 registered Republicans have already returned their ballots, compared to some 93,000 Democrats and other party loyalists, giving the GOP a 52 percent margin.
Even in the court-ordered Democratic bastion in Salt Lake County, the predicted “blue wave” doesn’t seem to be happening.
Of more than 55,000 ballots cast so far in Salt Lake County, more than 30,000 came from registered Republicans compared to about 25,000 from Democratic voters.
The slim lead for Republicans in the early voting is perhaps predictable given the disparity between party affiliations in Utah.
As of Oct. 26, the office of Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson reported that that more than 912,000 Utah voters were active, registered Republicans compared to more than 255,000 Democrats, giving the GOP a nearly 3-to-1 advantage over its sole major political rival.
Utahns affiliated with other political parties include about 76,000 in the Independent American Party; some 18,000 Libertarians; about 6,700 members of the Constitution Party; about 2,200 in the Utah Forward Party; and some 1,300 who identify as Greens.
Another more than 513,000 Utahns have also registered as Unaffiliated.