Race for the White House: Initial voters give party a boost in Douglas County tallies (1 EC vote)

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10476074

Published Sunday November 2, 2008
Race for the White House: Initial voters give party a boost in Douglas County tallies
BY PAUL GOODSELL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Candidates Barack Obama and Jim Esch could start Election Day several thousand votes ahead in Douglas County, thanks to a surge of early voting this year that tilts in favor of Democrats.

A World-Herald computer analysis found that the early voting option this year seems to be attracting new and infrequent voters, particularly Democrats.

Democrats accounted for 49 percent of the 56,000 Douglas County voters who had voted early or requested absentee ballots by late last week, compared with 35 percent for Republicans.

If voters followed partisan lines, that would give Democratic candidates such as Obama and Esch, the Democratic candidate in the 2nd Congressional District race, a margin of more than 7,600 votes before the polls open Tuesday.

Tuesday's voters, of course, could erase that margin.

Across the nation, the numbers of voters casting ballots ahead of Election Day set records. And the early-voting trend is changing how candidates run for office and how voters make decisions.


FULL story at link.