From the Election Day edition of the Morning Jolt:

A Quick Roundup of Some Early-Voting Numbers . . .

Colorado

Let me blow your mind: As of the afternoon of Monday, November 3, an astounding 1,463,766 voters had returned ballots in Colorado. Out of that total, 590,653 are registered Republicans; 469,900 are registered Democrats.

That’s a 40.3 percent to 32.1 percent split in favor of the GOP and a 120,753-vote margin. That’s amazing.

If you have a hand in Colorado GOP’s get-out-the-early-vote efforts, I want to shake your hand.

Georgia

It’s just one “exit poll” of early voters, but it sounds pretty plausible and in line with late general polling:

The Hicks Evaluation Group and Apache Political conducted an exit poll of early voters in Georgia about their selection in three statewide races: US Senate, Governor and State Superintendent of Schools. The survey found both Deal and Perdue in the lead and with slightly more than 50 percent of the vote and Richard Wood with a slight lead over Democratic Nominee Valarie Wilson in the race for Georgia’s top educator. Both Democratic candidates, Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are within striking distance, however, it appears that support for the Libertarian candidates is falling and coalescing around Republicans.

“This survey is positive and troubling for both parties. What we are seeing is regular voters voting early, not new voters. This shows that the faithful in Georgia still lean Republican, but to a much smaller degree than in the past,” said lead pollster and President of the Hicks Evaluation Group, Fred Hicks.

Georgia has good news, bad news, more good news, and perhaps more bad news for Republicans. The good news is Perdue is leading. That bad news is that reaching 50 percent is a tall order with the Libertarian candidate in the mix. The good news is that Perdue will be heavily favored in the runoff. The last bit of bad news is that if Republicans need Georgia to get control of the Senate, they’ll have to wait until January 6.

Iowa

Don’t you love the inevitable “your early vote is just your base that would have voted anyway, while our early vote is a demonstration of our ability to motivate new voters” arguments?

As of Thursday, Democrats held a narrow lead over Republicans in early voting: 40.9 percent to 39.2 percent, also according to the United States Election Project.

Iowa Republicans are encouraged by those results because historically, Democrats lead early voting by a much wider margin. Republicans credit their success to a concerted effort to prioritize early voting, arguing GOP voters are more motivated to turn out for Ernst than Democrats are for Bruce Braley.

But Democrats say they remain confident. Iowa Democratic Party Communications Director Christine Freundlich said the GOP’s “reliable voters who vote on Election Day are now just voting early” instead.

North Carolina

At first glance, this looks astonishingly dark for Thom Tillis . . .

Registered Democrats made up 48 percent of all early voters, Republicans 32 percent, and unaffiliated voters comes in at 20 percent.

A total of 1.1 million people took part in early voting.

Jay Cost makes the argument that the early vote actually looks ominous for Hagan — for example, 52 percent are above age 60 (!) and another 29 percent are 45 to 60. In short, that’s a very gray electorate in North Carolina so far. In 2012, Romney carried the 65-and-older vote in North Carolina, 64 percent to 35 percent. The 45-to-64 vote split for Romney 53 percent to 47 percent. Just 5.1 percent of the early vote is 29 or younger.

There are still a lot of votes coming today, though. In 2010, 2.6 million people voted in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race.

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-s...rs-jim-geraghty