As if to confirm all the scuttle surrounding GOP enthusiasm, how effective Romney’s ground game is, and reports from other states about Romney’s advantage in early voting, today the Tampa Bay Times reports some pretty phenomenal numbers. I should be noted that these are not complete numbers and most certainly could change. But as an early indication of enthusiasm, Team Obama should be worried:
Absentee Ballot Requests:
REP 855,344 (43.40%, +4.43)
DEM 767,968 (38.97%)
The votes don’t count until you return the ballot, and Romney has an even wider lead there:
Absentee Ballot Returns:
REP 12,323 (45.54%, +7.51)
DEM 10,289 (38.03%)
In North Carolina, Romney’s way ahead with absentee ballots. Of the 29,400 returned, 54% are registered Republicans, only 28% Democrats.
In Ohio, 691,000 absentee ballots have been requested, 30% from Democrats, 24% from Republicans, and 46% from unaffiliated. This might look bad (and the numbers could change), but in 2008, Democrats massacred Republicans in early voting by 19 points; now it’s only six. Romney is also winning Independent voters, so it’s not reasonable to believe that those Ohioans listed as “unaffiliated” could be going his way.
According to the website American Majority Action, that gathers absentee ballots counts from the college professors who track them…
The five largest counties in Ohio have all shifted at least 6 percent (and as much as 27 percent) to the Republicans since 2008. While the polls show an Obama lead, these real votes (assuming voters registered in a party vote for their candidate) demonstrate a significant Republican shift since 2008.
Obama won Ohio by 263,000 or 4.8% in 2008. Since then, Secretary of State Jon Husted removed over 450,000 deceased and duplicated registrations from the voter rolls. And we all know the only candidate that hurt was Barack Obama.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC