After Day 4 of early voting, the rate of Democratic turnout finally pulled ahead of the Republicans. But not by much. As of last night at 8pm, 3.58% of Democrats and 3.56% of Republicans had voted. This gap of 0.02% is far smaller than the 2010 gap of 0.85%.

Any effort on Sunday to bring souls to the polls at African-American churches did not have a major impact. The state’s two majority-black jurisdictions–Baltimore City and Prince George’s–had turnout rates below the statewide level. Indeed, Prince George’s dropped one place in the county turnout rankings.

So far, the share of registered Democrats who have voted early is 52.0% of the 2010 number. The equivalent figure is 57.8% for Republicans, and 53.9% for unaffiliated voters.

Interestingly, the ratio of unaffiliated to Democratic turnout is relatively lower than in 2010. As polls show that Brown trails Hogan among independent voters, that would seemingly be good news for the Lt. Governor. Except that the share of unaffiliated voters has increased sufficiently that they are currently closer than the Democrats in reaching their 2010 turnout.

The best news for the Democrats is that Howard, an increasingly Democratic county, jumped three places in the turnout rankings. In contrast, Harford, a Republican bastion, fell three places. But all of this is small beer compared to Baltimore City’s and especially Montgomery’s consistent under performance.