The early vote: If there's a GOP surge, Democrats don't see it [View All]

[DearAbby]

How good is early balloting for election prognostication? When parties are dying for a peek at the outcome, they'll analyze whatever they can get.

Sports buffs like to say that a win at the beginning of the season counts just as much as a win when the end of the season approaches. Would that elections were as simple as sports.

As more people take advantage of the growing number of states that allow early voting – casting a ballot before election day – the issue of what that vote means has moved to the fore, as has the question of whether it has a predictive value beyond the partisan propaganda of galvanizing voters.

The latest entry in the political hot-stove league is a memorandum, released Monday, from Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) that argues that Democrats are holding their own or are even ahead in some of the early voting in key states.



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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-early-voting-20101026,0,1323447.story?track=rss