Early Voting Favoring Republicans?

Democrats traditionally have advantage

After months of spin from the presidential campaigns some hard numbers are finally in - and they're not pretty for Team Obama. So far early voting totals show the Romney campaign doing considerably better than the 2008 Republican ticket, reports The Atlantic's Molly Ball.

"An objective analysis of early turnout can provide valuable tea leaves for Election Day," Ball writes. "In many states, election officials disclose how many Democrats and Republicans have voted thus far. We don't know who they're voting for, but in most states, this alignment is a good proxy for the candidates."

So far early voting numbers are a mixed bag - which is good news for Republicans. That's because Democrats traditionally have an edge in early voting activity.

"The early vote looks promising for Republicans in North Carolina, Florida and Colorado. But early voting in Iowa, Nevada, and (though it's tricky to assess) Ohio still looks strong enough for Democrats."

With as much as 40 percent of the nationwide vote likely to have been cast before the polls open on Tuesday, the numbers portend a late Election Night.

Via The Atlantic.

Do these early voting numbers tell us anything about who is going to win the presidential race?

[kirbstomp1]

Nope.

[TheLoneRanger]

I think early voting numbers are an indication of the overall election outcome. But I wouldn't put much into Republicans doing better in the early voting now than in 2008 because they were not enthusiastic to vote for John McCain. I however see the trend today going for Mitt Romney.

[kirbstomp1]

@TheLoneRanger - I see a trend of mitt Romney flip flopping and Obama and his flaws, I could care less to even have a debate about them, they are careless. They are politicians not citizens trying to better their country.

[Fishbone345]

@kirbstomp1 There are others who think that way brother.

[CanisCanemEdit]

@kirbstomp1 - I saids it before. I have to go to the polls this time and pull the lever for what I see as the lesser of two evils.

It just sickens me to have to hold my nose when voting.

[kirbstomp1]

@CanisCanemEdit - I'd like to hold my breath and close my eyes and hope these next four years don't ruin this country for good. At the rate were going we don't have a year to wait, much less 4 more. I personally want to thank all the greedy politicians that put us here, and im ashamed our country is ignorant to allow it to keep happening. We are the laughing stock of the world when it come to politics and ignorance.

[Dan_Tien]

The headline is a question mark and the statement that Romney is leading in early voting conflicts with every other report that I have heard so far.

[Dan_Tien]

Actually there is no statement that Romney is leading in early voting, only that Romney is "doing considerably better than the 2008 Republican ticket" in which McCain got trounced. Is this an example of "liberal-bias" in mainstream media?

[PNWest]

The race has been over for quite a while. Obama wins Ohio - Obama wins.
First Gingrich says so - http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/errant-email-n...
Now Paul Ryan - http://americablog.com/2012/11/paul-ryan-lose...
The media is trying to portray this as a close race to keep interest up.

[Zoe2012]

Obama could even get Strickland re-elected, what in the world makes you think the majority of people are goofy enough to vote for Barry? Governor Kasich has helped Ohio, he loves Ohio and Ohio loves John! Honda of Marysville is what I call a great company, not Obamamotors. We will never buy a GM product again and my husband is a union steel worker!

Ohio for Romney/Ryan!!!!!!!

[PNWest]

@Zoe2012 So you are praising a Japanese company (Honda) and trashing an American one (GM). Typical of a GOP voter.

Obama is going to win and he is going to win your home state of Ohio.
http://www.intrade.com/v4/misc/key-races/stat...
http://www.intrade.com/v4/misc/scoreboard/
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/

Hopefully some day you will become a better American and support American companies. That will make your husband's job more secure.

[Penn1699]

@PNWest when GM made the deal to ship part of its country overseas to China that's it as far as I'm concerned.
Not only that Gingrich is an old obsolete crackpot.
You can pretend you have the"facts" but what do any of us really have?
You will see oof O gets back in, nothing. Unfortunately. Hope I am wrong.

[kirbstomp1]

@Zoe2012 - Zoe, Zoe, Zoe....tis tis. You would rather send your money to corporate Japan than corporate America? Shocking. The ignorance of the average citizen is sickening. I need to get out of this country before it's overrun by brainwashed zombies.

[Lady]

@Zoe2012 Right on!!!!

[DominicSarno]

Eventually we will be voting through out the year, instead of on that one Election Day like it was done for centuries.

Early voting, voting by mail, all offer opportunities for fraud. Knowing how much of a hard time democrats have with the truth it's not beyond the realm of possibilities that those same democrats would use those opportunities for fraud. Unless the voter is a shutting, in the military or performing some other activity outside of the United States, voting should be done on one day at a predefined voting place.

[DominicSarno]

Democrats can't even tell the truth about the cause of the recession why wouldn't they use every opportunity to keep power, even fraud.

[DominicSarno]

That's a shut in not shutting.

[PuroChorizo361]

Like I've said before, most early votes are from ignorant ppl who were in a hurry to cast their votes for an incompetent candidate. I Think we know who that is. Rhymes with Kitten. More responsible ppl wait till election day to cast their votes. Yes I said most not all!

[wild_turkey6]

I voted early, because I am deploying to Afghanistan. I will not be at home on election day, and thankfully the state of Kentucky allows for this. I know several others in my unit that did the same thing.
Hopefully we meet your definition of "responsible ppl". I wouldn't want to be accused of hurrying to cast my vote for an incompetent candidate.

[PuroChorizo361]

@wild_turkey6 In your case that's a perfect excuse to cast your vote early. Very responsible Bud.

[Zoe2012]

We voted early for Romney/Ryan in Ohio! Hope to see him Monday at Port Columbus to offer our support. We also did the door-to-door in our area and received extremely positive support! People were basically stating they would vote early and on Election Day and at least half requesting yard signs, this was a month ago!

Ohio for Romney/Ryan.

Governor Kasich (R) is the job creater in Ohio and we love him too!

[DerivePI]

"Translation for Dummies" - How many newspapers will be thrown out for this election?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Defeats_Tr...

[cwi530]

But the left-stream media polls have Obama winning, parting the sea, ending fiscal responsibility, and with a wave of his arm spreading liberalism across the globe.

...And then we'll all skip hand-in-hand behind the great one.

[Dan_Tien]

Well, you got one out of four right.

[hybridlment]

@Dan_Tien Huh? Which one?

[Dan_Tien]

@hybridlment The one that said "media polls have Obama winning". The rest was hyperbole.

[martydotcom]

The same stategy exists for both parties vote early and as often and you can

[bsking]

yes either Romney or Obama

[wild_turkey6]

Can't argue with that logic.

[thejimbo]

Who Is Gary Johnson? And Why Is the GOP So Mad at Him?

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/01/who-is-g...

[jessejaymes]

I voted Libertarian and still will bet that Obama is re-elected. Why? Romney is the worst serial flopper in my 66 years. I have never seen a man who is a bigger liar within such a short span of time and then turn right around and look you in the eye and deny what he said yesterday. This man is a sock puppet for disaster.

[wild_turkey6]

With all the broken promises, economic woes, and fed up Americans, it looked like the GOP could not lose. Then I think they had a meeting, and said, "Challenge accepted." If they pull it off, it will be in spite of Romney's efforts.

[ir0nw0lfe]

At best they tell us that the polls are probably completely clueless since most are based on the 2008 turnout models where Dems had a 12 % advantage. There doesn't appear to be the same ground swell for Dems now. Answer: everything is probably still up for grabs.

[Calfkiller]

If Barry and Michele invented early voting how come Romney has almost a ten point lead?

[Thunderchicken]

Do these early voting numbers tell us anything about who is going to win the presidential race?

Considering I've read articles and heard news stories about how early voting always favors Democrats, this report does make me smile.

[hertz_doughnut]

Usually favors Democrats as they vote more than once.

[Jeff_Woehrle]

Barry's gravy train is over. He promised the moon and failed to deliver. Time for change.

[Paully]

How fast can you stop a fully loaded train(economy) when you can see your headed for a sharp turn and you don't have your glasses (assuming they are non reading lenses)? Also, how long would it take for said train to get going that fast? Now finally, how does one keep from falling and crashing when running downhill? Something that slows your speed so you don't trip over yourself(the bailouts). Ofcourse, this is a very crude example. It will be fixed, we are all arguing cimantics.....

[Javelina]

Voters now realize "hope and change" was a facade. We are not buying in again. Romney is going to win by an unexpected margin.

[hertz_doughnut]

This old Republican will wait for tuesday as in wisconsin there are many liberal buerocrats and if I have to push Republican button 1000 times I will not leave it at Obama's Nation. The machines are rigged. The card counters are in the evil ones camp. I will do what I can. My vote will count.

[jeb]

obama spends money we dont have is this the redistrbution of wealth he sought a change is all that will prevent usa bankruptcy

[naruhina89]

How is Obama redistributing wealth if he is spending money we don't have? Please explain how that works.

[jeb]

@naruhina89 spend now pay later but i certainly didnt collect any of the now however bloated govt is collecting ....the salaries of govt employees should be posted in print big enough to read ....last time i read fine fine print discovered roseville city council part time job (several hours month) received 179,000 yr

[Thegrif]

For those beating this Romney, flip-flopper thing to death. Keep in mind, the best thing that could have happened to, and for, America is if Obama had done a little flip-floppin himself.
Yeap, a little more doin the exact opposite of what he did and this election would only be for practice.
Guess he thinks America is so stupid that he can have 23,000,000 Americans unemployed, break promises like " if I can't cut deficit in half in 3 years then this is a one term proposition." If the last time he met with the house or senate Rep wasn't in July, if he had not ignored the constitution numerous times, if he had not went around the system and declared things under Executive Order so often, if he had not missed the last 9 security briefings leading up to the Benghazi attack, if he had not taken 716 trillion away from medicare to fund Obamacare and cutting benefits to those already on medicare, then early voting would be favoring him right now.