Early Voting Results: Turnout in Swing States Favors Obama
Early voting results reveal a larger Democratic turnout compared to Republicans, thus favoring President Barack Obama.
More than 30 million people have voted ahead of Tuesday's Election Day in 34 states and the District of Columbia, as reported by The Associated Press. Among the states that have released the party affiliation of early voters, most show a higher percentage of Democrats than Republicans.
While turnout so far seems to favor Obama, an Early Vote Tracker by The Washington Post shows that fewer Democrats made their selection for president early this year compared to 2008.
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In the swing state of Ohio, 29 percent of the 1.7 million early voters this year were Democrats and 23 percent, Republicans, according to data from AP. Florida saw a turnout of 43 percent Democrats and 39 percent Republicans.
The number of early voting days in Florida was cut from 14 in 2008 to eight this year. Florida saw a slight drop in early voter turnout from 4.51 million to 4.46 million.
Statewide elections figures released on Monday show that almost 40 percent of registered voters in Florida have already voted.
While Democrats have the edge in early voting, Republicans turned in more absentee ballots than Democrats did in the Sunshine State.
Most national polls show Obama and Mitt Romney tied. With such a tight race, Brendan James of "The Ticket" says "there's no way to tell what surprises are in store" in the battleground states, especially without a clear portrait of the independent vote.
