Early Voting Results: Obama Has Turnout Lead
Early voting results show that roughly 30 million people have already voted by mail or in person in 34 states and Washington D.C. These Americans have braved the chaotic long lines and the unprepared polling places. While none of these votes will be officially counted until Election Day on Tuesday, some battleground states are stating the party affiliation of early voting results.
While people tend to vote along party lines, and thus it could be said that the early voting results favor Obama, the largest noticeable trend that can definitely be confirmed is that Democrats prefer early voting compared to Republicans who are apparently waiting until Election Day. Obama having a lead based upon early voting results is not certain, but this has not stopped both campaigns from trying to claim victory from the early voting results.
“What we’re seeing consistently… is that there is a general underperforming in places where President Obama needs to do well and there’s an over-performing in places where Governor Romney does well,” Romney’s political director Rich Beeson said on “Fox News Sunday.”
On the same show Beeson’s Democratic counterpart, David Axelrod, had this to say:
“I’m not suggesting we’re going to win by the same margin we won in 2008. They are comparing themselves to John McCain, who had virtually no ground operation in many of these states.”
Axelrod is speaking about how Obama overwhelmingly won the early voting results back in 2008. Axelrod continues:
“So, yes, they are going to do a little better than McCain did, and we may not do as well as we did in 2008, but we’re doing plenty well – and well enough to win this race.”
The following numbers were provided by thegazette.com:
Colorado
Votes: 1.6 million
Democrats: 35 percent
Republicans: 37 percent
Florida
Votes: 4.3 million
Democrats: 43 percent
Republicans: 40 percent
Iowa
Votes: 614,000
Democrats: 43 percent
Republicans: 32 percent
Nevada
Votes: 702,000
Democrats: 44 percent
Republicans: 37 percent
North Carolina
Votes: 2.7 million
Democrats: 48 percent
Republicans: 32 percent
Ohio
Votes: 1.6 million
Democrats: 29 percent
Republicans: 23 percent
When it comes to these early voting results, according to enstarz.com “[t]hese numbers were sourced from state elections agencies and the United States Elections Project at George Mason University. Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio are also among the nine swing-states which are considered the most competitive states among the candidates in the election. In connection with the findings, Politico predicted that President Barack Obama will win all the Electoral College votes available in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada and Ohio – a total of 39 electoral votes. In comparison, Politico predicted that Mitt Romney will receive all electoral votes from Florida and North Carolina – a total of 44. Their polling data is provided by RealClearPolitics.”
