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Good news for Donald Trump? Butler County's absentee voting shows steady increase for Republicans
Donald Trump laid out his vision for the first 100 days in office of his potential presidency— and that list was pretty long. "I'm not a politician and have never wanted to be a politician. ... But when I saw the trouble our country was in, I couldn't stand by any longer," Trump said Saturday. SEE MORE: Here's Where Clinton And Trump Fall On Climate Change During a speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Republican nominee rattled off how he'd address corruption, immigration, tax reform and several other issues. "A constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress," he said. He then addressed immigration saying, "We will begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country." After that, he said, "We're going to suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur." If any of that sounds familiar, it's because it probably is. Many of the policies Trump talked about Saturday are part of plans already outlined on his campaign website. Trump has doubled down on his tax reform plan, saying he'd enact the Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act, which he says is designed to help American workers and add at least 25 million jobs "through massive tax reduction." SEE MORE: Fact Check: Do Undocumented Immigrants Pay More Taxes Than Trump? He also touched on all of the things he's considering repealing if elected, including Common Core education, the Affordable Care Act and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump is the first major presidential candidate this election to explicitly map out his first hundred days. Hillary Clinton laid out a less comprehensive hundred-day plan earlier this year. Trending stories at Newsy.com Google Searches Show Some Sanders Voters Are Still Feeling The Bern This Cannabis CEO Used To Be A High School Biology Teacher Al Gore's Concession Drama Is Nothing Like Donald Trump's
resumptive Republican nominee for US president Donald Trump arrives at his Trump Turnberry Resort on June 24, 2016 in Ayr, Scotland.
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HAMILTON, Ohio -- If you're trying to read the tea leaves, this could be very good news for Donald Trump: Absentee voting in Republican stronghold Butler County is up 9 percent this year compared to 2012, and 21 percent over 2008.
Two weeks before the election, the Butler County Board of Elections has seen 40 percent more requests from Republicans compared to 2012, and 51 percent more requests from Republicans compared to 2008.
For Democrats, the increase is about 60 percent compared to 2012, but a decline of about 36 percent compared to 2008.
And in terms of sheer totals, there have been almost three times as many absentee and vote-by-mail requests from Republican voters so far this year. In 2012, it also was about a three-to-one ratio, while in 2008, they were nearly equal.
While it's impossible to say how all those people are voting, Trump needs high turnout in Republican strongholds to win the Buckeye State. Tuesday's figures seem to show Trump's controversial comments about women haven't dampened the enthusiasm of his supporters, and that his claims of a "rigged" election aren't suppressing voter turnout as some have predicted.
There's been a 3 percent increase in in-person early voting, too, even though there are now fewer days to do it: In-person early voting opened 35 days before Election Day 2012, but 27 days before the election this year.
"Given the increase in overall absentee voting and early voting in particular, we continue to anticipate record turnout in November," said Jocelyn Bucaro, deputy director of the Butler County Board of Elections.
Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., campaigned for his dad in Butler County college town Oxford, Ohio on Monday. He blasted career politicians in Washington told the college crowd to bring their friends to vote, too.
"Get everyone else out to the polls and we're going to do this," he said. "We're going to win Ohio and we're going to win this country and we're going to make America great again."
The latest RealClearPolitics average of polls puts Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, ahead of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by 1 percent in Ohio.
