Absent Ballots: Romney Strong in Ann Arbor

Based just on totals from absent voter count boards, it looks likely that Mitt Romney will a decisive majority of Ann Arbor votes in the Republican presidential primary. In absentee ballots counted for all five wards, Romney received 55% of the vote compared to Rick Santorum at 20%. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich each received 10% of the vote. President Barack Obama was uncontested in the Democratic primary.

In Ward 1, Romney won with 43% of the vote (42 absentee votes), compared to Santorum with 24% (24 absentee votes), Paul with 21% (21 absentee votes) and Gingrich with 8% (8 absentee votes). In the Democratic primary, 95 votes were cast for Obama in Ward 1.

In Ward 2, Romney took 61% of the votes (207 absentee votes), compared to Santorum with 18% (60 absentee votes), Gingrich with 10% (33 absentee votes), and Paul with 6% (21 absentee votes). In the Democratic primary, 215 votes were cast for Obama in Ward 2.

In Ward 3, Romney took 46% of the votes (70 absentee votes), compared to Santorum with 26% (40 absentee votes), Gingrich with 11% (17 absentee votes), and Paul with 10% (15 absentee votes). In the Democratic primary, 167 votes were cast for Obama in Ward 3.

In Ward 4, Romney took 60% of the votes (162 absentee votes), compared to Santorum with 15% (42 absentee votes), Gingrich with 9% (25 votes absentee votes), and Paul with 9% (24 absentee votes). In the Democratic primary, 168 votes were cast for Obama in Ward 4.

In Ward 5, Romney took 50% of the votes (104 absentee votes), compared with Santorum with 22% (46 absentee votes), Paul with 11% (23 absentee votes), and Gingrich with 9% (19 absentee votes). There were also votes for Jon Huntsman (4), Herman Cain (2), and Rick Perry (1). In the Ward 5 Democratic primary, 224 votes were cast for Obama.

Absent voter count board totals reflect absentee voting totals across all precincts in the ward. Those totals are thus not as susceptible to reflecting an advantage a candidate might enjoy that is peculiar to just one precinct. Still, to a certain extent, these voters self-select to vote using an absentee ballot, and as a group are not a random sample of voters in the ward. So some caution is warranted in drawing conclusions based on these totals.