Given all the chatter of the Republican Party's enthusiasm gap over Democrats, here's a look at how Republicans, Democrats and other registered voters compare when it comes to early and mail voting so far in Pinellas. The comparison is made versus the 2006 election, the past off-year statewide election.

Basically, the Republican margin in Pinellas has increased 2 percentage points in Pinellas. It doesn't sound staggering, but it could be worth thousands of votes. After Thursday, voters registered as Republican have a 13,765 vote margin over Democrats. Such stats do not take into account how ballots actually have been filled out.