Robust Early Voting In Indiana, N.C.

The protracted Democratic primary battle may be taking its toll on the candidates, but it certainly doesn't seem to be dampening the enthusiasm of Democratic primary voters.

The Associated Press is reporting that almost "90,000 people have cast ballots for next week's Indiana primary, far outpacing the total number of absentee votes during the last presidential primary in 2004." (Four years ago, 57,000 people cast absentee votes.) The state doesn't measure in which primary these early votes have been cast, but with the GOP nomination settled, it's likely that the surge in early ballots is the result of the Democratic battle.

In North Carolina, meanwhile – another state with an imminent primary – more than 100,000 ballots have already been cast, according to the News & Observer. The vast majority of those votes have been cast in "one stop early voting," which began April 17th.

Turnout was far higher on the Democratic side than the Republican even before the GOP race was decided. "From January 3, the day of the Iowa caucuses, to February 5, i.e. Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states held nominating contests, more than 19.1 million Americans cast a ballot in a Democratic primary (or caucused as a Democrat), compared with just 13.1 million on the Republican side," according to US News.