More Than 2.7 Million Ballots Already Cast In Fla.
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Early voting is almost half-way over and between it and absentee ballots, nearly 2.7 million ballots have already been cast in Florida, according to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald.
Overall, early voting is skewing in favor of Democrats by a total of 118,000 ballots. This is in line with history as early voting often leans Democratic. However, absentee balloting is favoring Republicans by more than 69,000 ballots, according to the Herald.
But, Wednesday is the last day to request an absentee ballot before the election.
The roughly 49,000 ballot lead for Democrats may not be enough to hold up through Election Day.
In early voting, 517,909 ballots have been cast by Democrats while 399,687 have been cast by Republicans, according to the Herald. Independents have cast 182,016 early votes through four days of early voting, according to the Herald.
Republicans have cast 686,671 absentee ballots to the Democrats 617,053 along with 264,691 independent voters, according to the Herald.
Currently, Nate Silver's 538 Blog on the New York Times has Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama by an average of 0.6 percent and projects Romney to win the vote by a 0.8 percent margin.
If independent voters broke exactly along the overall polling average, the difference between the two candidates in early voting would be roughly 45,000 votes.
In 2008, Obama won Florida by more than 236,000 votes.
