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By Ed Tibbetts, Quad City Times

DAVENPORT Republicans and Democrats were sparring Thursday over the meaning of new figures that show the GOP gaining the upper hand in absentee votes, a milestone for a party that until this election season put relatively little effort into the practice.

For years, Democrats have gained an electoral edge by winning the absentee vote, but Republicans vowed this year to make an unprecedented effort to catch up. And on Wednesday, they did.

Figures released early Thursday by the Iowa Secretary of States office showed 105,347 Republicans had voted early, while 104,984 Democrats had cast ballots. At this point four years ago, Democrats led by roughly 16,000 absentee votes.

I dont believe anybody thought we were going to have this kind of success, an exultant state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann said Wednesday night, when it became clear that Republicans had gained the edge.

Democrats acknowledged Thursday the effort Republicans are putting into early voting, but they say the important thing is theyre still winning the battle to harvest voters who traditionally dont vote in midterm elections.

Democrats said that as of earlier this week, their data showed them to be about 12,000 ballots ahead of the Republicans among low-propensity voters.

Thats what matters, the party says. It does little good to get people who would have voted on Election Day to simply cast their votes early, they say.

Democrats are expanding the midterm electorate and are turning out non-midterm voters, said Christina Freundlich, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Democratic Party.

The party says 21 percent of its early voters are people who did not vote in 2010 and some who didnt vote in 2012, while 14 percent of the Republicans early votes this year didnt cast ballots in those elections.

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Democrats, Republicans spar over early vote milestone