Early Voting Could Point to Hillary Clinton Victory Well Before Nov. 8

[DonViejo]

With early voting already underway in many of the states that will decide the presidency, Hillary Clinton is beginning to reap the benefits of years of Democratic efforts to target and register voters, even as Republicans steadily close their disadvantage in party registration.

The first wave of data from states like Florida and North Carolina shows preliminary signs that Mrs. Clinton was building a slight edge even before the revelation that Donald J. Trump had bragged about sexual assault roiled the race.

Democrats are requesting more absentee ballots in Florida than they were at this point in 2012, with increases of 50 percent in the heavily Hispanic areas around Miami and Orlando. In North Carolina, where Mitt Romney built enough of a lead in early voting four years ago to eke out a victory over President Obama, Democrats are requesting mail-in ballots in larger numbers than in 2012, while Republicans’ participation is declining.

These results will have more effect than ever this year, as record numbers of people are expected to cast their votes early. So many Americans will have voted by Election Day — more than 40 percent in swing states, according to the Clinton campaign — that the winner could be all but settled before November.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/us/politics/early-voting-registration.html

[stone space]

1. The headline makes me nervous.

Downticket races will need every single vote on Nov 8.

[spooky3]

2. In VA, and I assume elsewhere, early voters are given a ballot for ALL

races and referenda that will be on the ballot on Nov. 8.

We have an absentee voting system where there are many reasons allowable for qualifying. If you are out of the county to work on Election Day, for example, you can vote absentee. And many of us here in NoVA work in DC or otherwise outside of our home counties.

I think it will help all Dems.

(On rereading--I think I misunderstood your point--that Dem voters might stay home if they've heard Clinton had won before Nov 8. I hope that doesn't happen. I know our county Dems have a very strong GOTV operation and hope that's true everywhere.)