Free Republic

MIAMI (AP) — More Floridians voted for John McCain than Barack Obama on Election Day, but the Democrat sealed his victory in the state by winning more early and absentee votes. An Associated Press study of 94 percent of the state's total shows that the Republican beat Obama by almost 5 percentage points on Nov. 4, but Obama trumped McCain by 11 percentage points in early and absentee balloting. Overall, Obama beat McCain 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent in Florida, becoming only the third Democrat in 11 presidential elections to carry the state.

Early voting in Presidential elections should be made illegal because it is against the Constitution that specifies one day to be Pesidential elections day which is the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. I strongly believe that one of the most important factors if not the most important factor that we lost this elections is due to early voting. It is a certain way for cheating and fraud. Most of the battleground states were lost because of the early voting. The democrats amassed the necessary votes in the early voting to win. That is how they won Ohio,...

In 2008, millions of early voters cast their ballots without being aware of relevant and possibly vote-altering revelations about Barack Obama that came out during the final few weeks. These would include the untraceable card contributions mentioned earlier; Obama’s previously unreported January statement that his cap-and-trade plan would “bankrupt” new coal plants; and his “spread the wealth” statement to Joe the Plumber, combined with subsequently disclosed similar sentiments going back at least 12 years. Not that you’ll ever get many voters to acknowledge that they made the wrong decisions — the marketers call that “cognitive dissonance” — but given the...

"The Obama camp recognized that something very different was going on here. It threw out many of the old political adages and assumptions, including the granddaddy of them all, Americans don’t tune into elections until after Labor Day. Obama’s campaign geared its online and off-line engagement and advertising to build on this unprecedented early interest and mobilized it into an effective ground game to get out their vote."

All of the MSM/Liberal University poll heavily oversample Democratic voters on the premise Democrats are so enthused over Obama they will turnout in record numbers, whereas Republicans are so discouraged and/or disgusted with Bush/McCain they will not vote in similar proportions. This is a critical assumption. If it is not correct, the polls will significantly overstate Mr. Obama's expected vote totals.Early voting data released by the Texas Secretary of State for the 15 counties with the largest population shows the MSM polling assumption is dead WRONG. In fact, the opposite of what should have happened under the MSM scenario took...

11.03.08-15:30: All polls are well within the margin of error and undecided voters. The +1.8 is the lowest lead Obama has held since McCain’s polling numbers went negative after the economic collaspe. - FlA FOX News/Rasmussen: 11/02 - 11/02 McCain +1 Reuters/Zogby: 10/30 - 11/02 Obama +2 Quinnipiac: 10/27 - 11/02 Obama +2 11.03.08-10:00: In all battleground states McCain is now within the margin of error and undecided voters +/-. RCP had a big shift to undecided voters, from NObama, in their EC projection this morning. The Florida early voting exit public polls are dramatically different, +Obama, than our internal...

Tuesday is the official election day, but nearly 1.6 million Coloradans have already cast their ballots, which amounts to almost half of all registered voters.

In a recent spate of op-ed pieces in the Jerusalem Post, Congressman Howard Berman (D-Cal), Clinton Ambassador Martin Indyk, Carter advisor Stuart Eizenstat and a who's who of other liberal Jewish Democrats claim Barack Obama is better for Israel than John McCain. They are all friends of Israel, but their allegiance to the Democratic Party seemingly takes precedence over their concern for Israel's safety. For Americans who have chosen to live in Israel, the candidates' Israel positions are not matters of party loyalty or cheap rhetoric. They are matters of life and death. That may explain why, in spite of...

Democrats are touting early leads in turnout for early voting in Florida. But a new poll that counts actual votes cast in the early balloting gives Sen. John McCain a four point lead among those who have already voted in the Sunshine State. The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll of early voters shows McCain ahead 49-45%.Democrats outnumber Republicans by 54-30% in the party identification of early voters, according to figures released by the Democratic Party of Florida. Those numbers are not showing up in the voting this far. More good news for McCain can be found in the the absentee vote...

-snip- Obama holds a wide lead over John McCain among those who say they have already voted (32% of all likely voters) or say they plan to vote before Election Day (7%). However, it is not quite as large as it was a week ago. More significant, the race is about even among voters who plan to vote on Election Day: 46% support McCain while 45% favor Obama.

So I went to go see what the DUmmies were up to... to give me an idea of McCain's place in polls..... someone posted this. http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2008.html the numbers are scary... any idea if they are true?

Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Marin Counties are expecting long lines again today for people wanting to vote early for the November 4 election. A record number of people are voting early this year. San Francisco Department of Elections reports that over 21% of registered voters for the November 4 election have already casts their ballots. This weekend lines have wrapped around county election offices with waits up to an hour to be able to vote. Offices will be open again today to handle the crowds of early voters.

the mass of rats who've come from under the woodwork and don't know anything about the issues and are voting because of the bandwagon effect....worries me.

More than a third of registered voters already have cast a ballot More than a third of El Paso County's nearly 400,000 registered voters took advantage of the chance to vote early, with record numbers casting ballots ahead of Election Day or sending them in by mail. Voters on long lines Friday that snaked through the lobby of Centennial Hall and past storefronts in The Citadel mall and Chapel Hills Mall praised election workers for how smoothly it ran despite waits of up to three hours to cast a ballot. The large numbers who voted early were no guarantee there...

Early and Absentee Votes November 4, 2008

The old records are on the floor, stomped into dust by a constant parade of early voters who, even before one vote has been counted, have made this an election year for the books. Early voting ended in North Texas on Friday much as it began 11 days ago, with long lines of people filing into polling places to cast ballots in what many called the biggest election of their lives. [Snip] With 967,000 registered voters, Tarrant [County] can boast that nearly half of them have already been to the polls. Mr. Raborn said his county was on pace to...

Big turnout meant big lines on the last day of early voting in Colorado. Thousands of people lined up at the three voting locations in Colorado Springs. Wait times exceeded 3 hours. "I'm shocked," said Lisa Schmick as she joined the line at Centennial Hall where the line stretched out the door. "I thought everybody voted on the 4th. I thought ...'we're going to beat the lines coming early'". The line there was so long some got frustrated and just gave up. "It's pretty discouraging," said Louis Spicciati, who decided to leave and come back on November 4th. "You've got...

I was on a random college football board and someone supposedly posted the numbers, so take it for what's its worth. Keep fighting hard for every vote! (no matter what the polls say)

A massive shift in younger and older voters is roiling the presidential race according to new data from the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll concluded October 28-29. Younger voters -- under 45 -- once Obama's base, now are evenly divided between the two candidates. But voters over 65 have shifted sharply to the Democrat in the past week. Voters under 45 supported Obama by 52-38 in the Fox News poll of October 21-22. But this week's survey indicates that they now break evenly with 45% supporting Obama and 46% backing McCain. On the other hand, voters 65 and over, who had...

AUSTIN — Early voting is big in Texas this year. Ten days into this year's 12-day early voting period, 2.7 million people in the state's 15 largest counties had cast their ballots, compared with 1.7 million who had voted at the same point four years ago. ....Democrats are turning out in bigger numbers than Republicans in Harris County, according to one analysis. Early voting historically has been dominated by Republicans. Leland Beatty, a Democratic consultant, said 42 percent of early voters had voted in Democratic primaries and 20.6 percent in Republican primaries. Republican pollster Mike Baselice said he thinks Democratic...

OBAMA'S EARLY VOTING LEAD IN FLORIDA IS ONLY 7.5% Based on the total early and absentee ballots casted so far(2,979,991.20), and based on both McCain & Obama getting all the party's support, and Obama getting 5% more of independents, according to the latest media polls, Obama is only leading with approx 7.5 % in early voting, while John Kerry led Bush by 16% in early voting and lost to Bush with 5%, and based on reports that Obama is supposed to get a huge lead among early voters and in voter turn out, Barack Obama is about to lose Florida...

First, the early numbers from Florida look good. Now Nevada. From The Campaign Spot. The guy doing the exit poll of those who have already voted, with 7,147 responses, puts Obama ahead, 50 percent to 48 percent. If Republicans were a lot more of the early voters, McCain would be nervous. If Democrats were a lot more of the early voters, Obama should be nervous. And if they were split even, a 50-48 Obama lead is in the neighborhood of what we would expect. In Clark County, "through Sunday, 55 percent of early voters were Democrats, 29 percent Republicans." "In...

This will cheer you. Democrats are beaming that their party is outperforming the Republicans in early voting, releasing numbers Wednesday that show registrants of their party ahead 54 percent to 30 percent among the 1.4 million voters who have gone to the polls early. . . . But party breakdowns for turnout aren't the same as final tallies, and at least one poll offered a different view for the campaign of Republican John McCain. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll gave McCain a 49-45 lead over Democrat Barack Obama among Floridians who have already voted. And Republicans continued to show a...

Poll gives McCain lead in Florida early voting

They never show up. Ever. Every year, Democrats say they will carry the election with record-breaking youth turnout. And every year they are disappointed. So unless Barry is giving away beer and ipods at the polls, he may be in for a rude awakening. From the Wall Street Journal. There still are warning signs, however, that new voters -- traditionally difficult to get to the polls on Election Day -- could be unreliable. Just 66% of those voters said they would definitely vote this year, compared with 90% of registered voters overall. Additionally, only six in 10 said they were...

2008 Early Voting Statistics Interesting for analysis. See link

Crist extends voting hours This is a very big deal: Florida Governor Charlie Crist, to the shock and dismay of Florida Republicans, just moved to extend early voting hours, a move likely to widen the Democrats' lead under a program on which the Obama campaign has intensely focused. "He just blew Florida for John McCain," one plugged in Florida Republican just told me.

Declaring a state of emergency in Florida because of long voting lines, Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday extended early voting hours across the state to 12 hours a day. The executive order comes after record early voting turnout has contributed to long lines at polling sites. Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours a day each weekday and for a total of eight hours during the weekends. With Crist's order, early voting sites will be open the rest of this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be open a total of 12...

The Texas Secretary of State reports early voting statistics for the counties with the largest population. A quick analysis of their data shows the following trends: There is a huge increase in Texas’ early voting turnout – about 65 percent – from 1 million at this point in the 2004 election to 1.75 million this year. After only one week, the early vote stands at 39 percent of State’s entire 2004 election turnout. The early voting increase is greatest in Houston area – up 110 % compared to 2004. This is likely due to in part to Hurricane Ike (people...

LAS VEGAS—Michelle Obama says a lot can happen between now and Election Day, so Democrats shouldn't consider her husband's bid for the presidency over despite polls and commentators saying he's ahead. Obama told crowds at a park and a plush Las Vegas nightclub Monday night that her husband, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, will be the underdog in the race until he "is sitting in the Oval Office."

Close to half of all California voters are expected to cast their ballots by mail this election. According data recently released by the California Association of Clerks and Elected Officials, at least 40 percent of the state's registered voters have already decided to vote by mail. That percentage, the association said, is expected to grow over the coming days. Voting experts say a majority of voters prefer voting by mail in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. In all 28 states allow residents to vote by mail. Santa Clara has the second highest percentage of mail-in voters in California, with...

Just heard on Rush Limbaugh program that early voting and mail in ballots in California of more then 200,000 cast show only a 1,000 advantage in party I.D. for Democrats. Again, this is CALIFORNIA.

County GOP chief expects 2-to-1 turnout ratio to moderate by Nov. 4 Democrats who voted early or requested an absentee ballot outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 in Franklin County, a trend that is "eye-opening, if not shocking," a national election expert said. "It cannot be good news for the GOP that early voting turnout is trending so heavily Democratic," said Paul Gronke, executive director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. "I can think of no good reason why Republican voters are holding their ballots that is good news." Of the 29,661 Franklin County residents who cast ballots...

I have been noting that national polls and some state polls may be way off based on optimistic voter turnout models which are historically nonsense (see posts here and here). One of the first indicators of whether Obama really is enjoying some massive lead is the early voting opportunities, which have not shown what Obama and the media have been saying is a huge democrat wave, like 2006. First there was early voting and registration in Ohio, where Obama’s campaign promised to make huge gains - only to fall 80% short of their mark. All the hype in Ohio was...

Early Vote Tallies in Colorado hold promise for McCain Nationwide, most polls show John McCain outperforming his Party ID in the Range of 2-4%. This fact is primarily due to a slight edge with independents along with more strength among Republicans than Obama enjoys with Democrats. The early vote stats, along with the active registered voters stats in Colorado are very revealing. 1. Inspite of Democrats having a 26,000 vote edge in the number of Mail In Ballots requested (580240-D to 554485-R) Republicans lead by 2500 in the number of ballots actually returned thus far (184475-D to 186956-R). Democrats lead...

California has begun early voting already as well as mail-in balloting. The number of people who have gone in to vote in person has been extensive. The results so far prove what we had always suspected. The polls are being proven as totally unreliable. Although the results of early balloting have not been disclosed,of course,how many Republicans and how many Democrats have voted has been revealed. The results are simply shocking. The polls showed Barack Obama with an 18 point lead in California just a few days ago. The results thus far are the complete opposite. In the most liberal...

A small number of early voters interviewed this week outside the Washington County Courthouse preferred Democratic nominee U. S. Sen. Barack Obama to be president. But this appears to be the minority preference in the Natural State. While national polling results appear to give Obama an edge in the presidential race, voters in Arkansas prefer U. S. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, to Obama - 49 percent to 36 percent, according to the 10 th annual Arkansas Poll, which was released earlier this week. "Barring a really significant turn of events, I don't think there will be any surprises...

California has begun early voting already as well as mail-in balloting. The number of people who have gone in to vote in person has been extensive. The results so far prove what we had always suspected. The polls are being proven as totally unreliable. Although the results of early balloting have not been disclosed,of course,how many Republicans and how many Democrats have voted has been revealed.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe released a memo today that pointed out that the early voting statistics in North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Florida and Iowa. 20% of all early voting Colorado Democrats had never voted in an election before, and have an almost 300,000 new voter advantage in North Carolina. In North Carolina 56% of the early votes were cast by Democrats, compared to 48% in 2004. In Nevada 53% of the early votes cast have been Democratic compared to 32% Republican. This is an increase of 8% for the Democrats and 4% for the Republicans. In Iowa...

DENVER — Slightly more Democrats than Republicans have voted in Colorado, either by mail or at early-voting polling places. State officials said Friday that 219,000 Democrats have cast their ballots, compared with 215,000 Republicans and 131,000 unaffiliated voters. Those totals represent 20.8 percent of registered Democrats, 20.2 percent of registered Republicans and 12.2 percent of unaffiliated voters. About 570,000 Coloradans total, including those registered with minor parties, have voted, a turnout of 17.7 percent. When “inactive voters” — who didn’t vote in 2006 and didn’t respond to a letter from county officials — are subtracted, turnout is Democrats 24.6 percent,...

105,277 - Democrats = 49.92% 105,615 - Republicans = 50.08% √ 338 = Difference between the two = 0.16% And remember: not all of those Democrats are voting Obama. We know 30 Democrats right here in Chicago who voted early — and voted Republican for the first time in our lives. We bet there’s a higher percentage of Democrats voting Republican in Colorado this year than any year in the past.

I just voted early in MN. Interesting thing - no middle names listed on the ballot for POTUS.

Thursday, October 23, 2008 Colorado Early Voting Shows a Close Race Despite the polls showing Senator Barack Obama with a significant lead over John McCain in Colorado, 9News reports that the early numbers for the first two days of voting show the race may be close. According to early voting statistics posted by Colorado’s Secretary of State on Tuesday, 96,104 mail-in ballots were returned by Democrats. Republicans turned in 99,306. When looking at the number of voters who showed up at early voting centers, 9,173 were Democrats and 6,309 were Republicans.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup Poll Daily tracking data indicate that about 11% of registered voters who plan to vote have already voted as of Wednesday night, with another 19% saying they plan to vote before Election Day. Roughly equal percentages of Barack Obama supporters and John McCain supporters have taken advantage of the early voting opportunity -- so far.

How many Dem "votes" are legitimate? This really smells bad.

From what I could tell, early voters are the best-informed, smartest, most responsible members of society. Twenty percent of them were supporting their candidate even before he decided to run; 12% planned to spend Nov. 4 volunteering at the polls. When I asked if they wanted to vote now for the next American Idol winner, 80% told me they don't watch the show. Two graduated from high school a year early. One was voting early so she "would be able to avoid crowds and take my time and read all the propositions carefully." These people were making such well-informed decisions...

I was going to do early voting yesterday but when I heard about all the machine problems on the news, I decided to go today. Well, today I went to a nearby library where they have early voting. A very long line stretching at least a hundred yards from the front door. I decided to see how fast the line moved and after about 10 minutes when it barely moved at all. I decided to leave and try again another day because I was facing a wait of at least an hour. In fact, someone handing out local vote pamphlets...

Voting early in the presidential election? Seems like a great idea to many Americans. For folks who have done their homework and believe themselves absolutely certain that their mind is made up about who they want to win an election, there is probably nothing to lose. For the person who reads all the information available regarding each of the candidates, even an October surprise will likely not come as a surprise. Rather, it will probably validate his or her existing beliefs about who should be our next president. “More than 100,000 people cast their ballots in the first week of...

Just want to remind all of you Florida FREEPers that early voting starts tomorrow in Florida. Since our side doesn't cheat, you only get one vote. But you can drag your family and friends to the polls. We need every vote we can get. If you know someone that is undecided, convince them on the issues and get them to the polls ASAP!!! Also, please remember to vote "Yes on 2" in order to preserve traditional marriage in the state of Florida. Obama will be in Tampa and Orlando tomorrow. FREEPers are showing up to both events with plungers, so...

Two weeks before Election Day, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is busily banking every early vote he can get in key states. Republican nominee John McCain is more selectively working to lock in the early votes of his most iffy supporters, figuring the rest will make it to the polls sooner or later. Voters in every state can now cast ballots through early voting or absentee voting programs. Results won't be released until Nov. 4, but a look at those who have voted shows the Democrats have been aggressive. In Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio, Democrats — or at...