Early voting in Florida and North Carolina favor Republicans

Early voting samples in North Carolina and Florida favor Republicans, in a reversal from 2008, while Ohio early voting samples are close.

While Obama dominated early voting in the states when he was elected, a reverse pattern is emerging less than 30 days before the election, according to an AP report. Early voting for the presidential election is now underway in 30 states, largely by mail and some in person as numbers trickle in. Early votes won’t be counted until Nov. 6; however North Carolina, Florida and Iowa report the party affiliation voters who have cast ballots. Other states are expected to release such numbers as early voting continues. In Florida, with only 14,500 cast so far, numbers greatly favor Republicans over Democrats by 53 percent to 32 percent. Obama held a strong lead in early votes throughout the election cycle in Florida in 2008. While the Romney campaign wouldn’t say Romney would see more early votes than Obama, a spokesman did say the 2008 Obama trend won’t happen this year. "They're not going to run up the same margins as they did four years ago," said Rich Beeson, political director for the Romney campaign. "It just isn't going to happen." In North Carolina where 29,400 voters have cast absentee ballots, 54 percent are registered Republicans and 28 percent are Democrats, according to the United States Elections Project at George Mason University. While voters may cross party lines when voting, the report shows a reversal of the state’s 2008 early-voting trend. Republicans are pleased, since John McCain lost the state's early vote by about 11 percentage points. "North Carolina was a place that they totally caught us flat-footed in 2008," Beeson said. "They jumped out to a lead and never looked back. You don't see that happening this time — Republicans have the lead." In the hotly contested battleground state of Ohio, Democrats have an edge over Republicans among people who have requested absentee ballots. However few completed ballots have been submitted. Among the 691,000 people who have requested absentee ballots in 49 of the state's 88 counties, 30 percent are Democrats, 24 percent are Republican and 46 percent are unaffiliated with either party, according to data collected by the AP. In 2008, Democrats overwhelmed Republicans in early voting by 32 percent, which doesn't appear likely to happen in 2012. Early voting party samplings are relatively small at this point in time; however look for timely updates as the early voting election cycle revs up leading to the Nov. 6 showdown.