[kabar]

Much of the early action is in Cuyahoga (Cleveland) and Hamilton (Cincinnati) counties. In Hamilton, absentee ballot requests are running ahead of the 2008 pace by 3 to 1, according to Board of Elections director Amy Searcy. As of this morning, her office had received 58,727 requests. Of those, 9,453 were from voters who requested Democratic ballots in primaries this year, and 17,824 from voters seeking Republican ballots. The rest were nonpartisan. The nearly 2 to 1 partisan split mirrors current registration in the county, which is about 98,000 Republican and 45,000 Democratic. ...

What I find interesting is that about 31,000 of the requests were nonpartisan, which is more than the combined totals for the Dems and Reps. Obama won Hamilton 225,000 to 195,000 and Cuyahoga 458,000 to 200,000. Obama won Ohio by about 227,000 votes.

[LS]

“Obama won Hamilton 225,000 to 195,000” =your money quote.

I have no idea what the Romney team/state GOP thinks is their “ideal” Hamilton Co. number, but I’d have to think it’s at least a 50,000 advantage. When you throw in Warren, that should amount to about an 80,000 advantage.

That leaves Romney needing about 45,000 vote advantage from all of the rest of OH combined. Do you think that’s hard?