New on the County Clerk's Web site is information about absentee voting and turnout by party. Through Thursday, the clerk's office has received 1,364 absentee ballots, in addition to the number of people early voting. According to the Web site, 3,517 Republicans have cast ballots and 1,425 Democrats. Only 677 other party members have cast a ballot. So far a fifth of the county's active electorate has cast a ballot in this election.
Wednesday and Thursday saw a little deceleration in the number of early voters at the county courthouse. On Wednesday, 779 people voted early, on Thursday 811 turned out, bringing the total number of early voters to 4,255, so far.
County commissioners proclaimed this week and next red ribbon week on Thursday. The folks at Drug Use is Life Abuse are distributing 8,000 red wrist bands in the schools.
If it's the weekend, the forecast must call for rain. The Weather Service issued a special statement this morning indicating that low pressure of the coast of British Columbia will send more moisture down late Saturday and into Sunday. Most of the rain looks like it will be north of us. It will also be pretty windy, with gusts up to 45 mph.
We had some issues with the comments, top jobs and other things on the Web site on Thursday that appear to have cleared up today. Also I hope that whatever was preventing people from reading the school board forum has cleared up as well. I was able to open it this morning in Explorer.