Republicans ahead of Dems in Colorado early voting, Obama surrogates still confident
Data released today from the Secretary of State's office shows that in Colorado's early voting period, more Republicans have cast ballots than Democrats. The GOP says there's no getting around the numbers -- the facts show they will take Colorado. But Obama's surrogates here have a different spin: The state will still go blue, but it will be closer than 2008.
Big photos below.
Most polls at this point show that Colorado is a toss-up -- making the early voting data particularly of interest to pundits and members of the media trying to predict which candidate will earn the highly sought after nine electoral votes Colorado has to offer.
Since Colorado is one of the swingiest of swing states just four days before election day, the Republican team here is actively promoting the numbers from the Secretary of State's office that show them ahead at the voting booths.
Photo by Eric Gruneisen Barack Obama in Boulder last night.
Based on figures sent out this morning, the voting score is: 547,150 Republicans, 509,091 Democrats and 390,875 listed as unaffiliated. With the other third parties collectively capturing a total of 15,047 votes, that comes out to 1,462,163 ballots cast so far in the race.
Today is the final day for voters to hand in ballots as part of the early vote period.
Using the latest numbers, 38,059 more Republicans than Democrats have voted in Colorado -- which, according to an e-mail sent out this morning from the Republican National Committee, is a sign that Romney ultimately is going to take Colorado.
RNC officials sent out this excerpt from an Atlantic article for their spin:
Who's leading the early vote: Republicans, 38 percent to Democrats' 35 percent.In basic registration numbers, Colorado has always been a clear battleground, since the state is split roughly into three even slices between the Democrats, Republicans and those who are registered as unaffiliated. That last group, based on the latest registration data, is the largest, with 1,293,987 voters who aren't aligned with either party. Behind that group, Republicans have a very slight edge, with 1,157,373 registered voters, over the Democrats, at 1,151,198.
How significant is it: Very. Nearly 80 percent of voters voted early in 2008.
The spin: Democrats say they are leading among "non-midterm voters" who are voting early. But there's no getting around it: Republicans -- who lost the early vote in Colorado by 4 points in 2008 -- are winning it this time, and the early vote is a huge majority of the total vote in this state Obama won by 9 points in 2008.
Who's really winning: Republicans.
As Obama surrogates have pointed out, the Democrats outpaced Republicans in new registrations in the final weeks of the race.
With 3.6 million total voters in the state, roughly a third have actually voted. That fact, combined with the unknown choices of the unaffiliated voters, creates a good amount of uncertainty.
Continue for the Democrats' spin on the early vote numbers.
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