voter enthusiasm

Through Friday, nearly 47.4 percent of registered Riverside county voters requested a ballot through the mail. And as of Friday evening, still four days before the election, nearly 42.4 percent of those had already returned their ballots.

But Republicans were more assiduously returning their ballots early. Of the total ballot requests, Democrats had requested about 35 percent of the issued ballots and Republicans represented nearly 45.5 percent of the requested ballots.

As of Friday, 42 percent of the Democrats had already returned their ballot which represent 35.5 percent of all returned ballots. But Republicans had requested 45.6 percent of the ballots and already 48.8 percent had returned their votes.

Keep in mind that mail ballots voters represented 58.5 percent of all ballots cast in the June primary. For the 2008 election, vote by mail was only 41.5 percent of ballots cast.