The election is only six days away, but early voting continues in Texas through Friday. Many Southeast Texans have already cast their ballots and we aren't the only ones going to the polls early. There has been a lot of hype about early voting this election and in the U.S. 15% of registered voters have already cast ballots, according to Gallup Daily Tracking for the week ending on October 28th, 2012.
36% of voters across the U.S. Have either voted already or plan to vote early.
Early voting is strongly related to age as seniors the most likely to have already voted at 26%, while only 7% of those between the ages of 18 to 29 have taken advantage of early voting.
When you take a look at the parties, 19% of Republicans, 15% of Democrats and 12% of Independents have already voted. Thus far of Barack Obama's supporters 15% have voted already and 33% say they will vote early and 17% of Mitt Romney supporters have voted while 34% say the will vote early.
But thus far, according to Gallup, early voters do not seem to be swaying the election toward either candidate. Romney currently leads Obama 52% to 46% among voters who say they have already cast their ballots. But when you look at those who have not voted but intend to vote, the race is tied at 49%. Also according to this poll Romney leads 51% to 45% among the much larger group of voters who plan to vote on election day. But pollsters say, ultimately, despite the hype about early voting in this election, it doesn't appear that early voting will have a major impact on the U.S. popular vote or be much more prevalent than it was four years ago.
