Secretary of State website has the early voting numbers statewide and the results are...
It's complicated.
Total early votes in the state were just over 236,000, which is close to double the 2010 midterm's early vote total of 125,000. Yay, right?
Yes and no. While the early voting stats this year are extremely impressive for a midterm election, they don't come close to the numbers racked up in 2008 (292,000), when both Sen. Landrieu and a young fella named Barack Obama were on the ballot or the truly phenomenal 2012 early voting total of 356,603, a race featuring no Senate seat but that young fella again.
The "duh" takeaway: not having a young, African-American presidential candidate on the ballot is a bit of a bummer for Sen. Landrieu in racking up early votes statewide. Still, the breakdowns by parish (that would be county, to most of y'all) are pretty encouraging. East Baton Rouge had an impressive 22,522 early voters, with a Dem advantage of 11,333 to 8,392 over 'Pubs. Caddo Parish (Shreveport) racked up 7,280 earlies with Dems outpacing 'Pubs 4,021 to 2,475.
And Orleans, the Demmest congressional district in the country and home of the Landrieu machine, saw a whopping 23,828 early votes cast, a number only surpassed by the 2012 re-election and more than double the 2010 early number of 9,733. The party breakdown for Orleans was predictably lopsided at D 19,015 R 2,110 and "Other" 2,703.
These are very good numbers for Landrieu, as they show early GOTV strength in exactly the areas where she can gather the most votes.
How. Ev. Er... they do not show the strength needed to break through the polling wall indicating Landrieu will be stuck in a runoff Dec. 6 against Bill Cassidy, who is favored to pick up the minor candidates' votes and take the seat. Getting Landrieu home on the first ballot would take a miracle.
So... feeling miraculous?
I'm not going to post any donation links here, because, realistically, it's too late for the dough to move the needle. It's time for people. People to call, people to knock, people to drive, people to watch.
If you live in Louisiana and can spare any time between now and 8:00 Central on Tuesday, this is the link you should click. Now.
Thanks, And remember, there's another word for "miracle." It's called "people."