Surge of early voters favour Hillary Clinton over Donald TrumpBy Nick O'Malley
The Sydney Morning Herald
10/25/16
As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump shape up for the final two weeks of the election, over five million Americans already have voted, with a surge of Democratic voters coming out on Monday in Florida, a state that could decide the election.
According to the Clinton campaign there has been a 99 per cent increase in Latino voting in the state.
Without Florida and its 29 electoral college votes, it appears impossible for Mr Trump to win the election.Recent polling shows Mrs Clinton is supported by 65 per cent of the Latino population, compared to 17 per cent who support Mr Trump. Mr Trump launched his campaign calling Mexicans rapists and has alienated Latinos with his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border. His standing has also fallen among the traditionally conservative Cuban-American voters in Florida, who have been put off not only by his divisive rhetoric, but by the revelation that Mr Trump had broken the Cuban trade embargo.
"I'm voting for Hillary Clinton," one Floridian voter, Rafael Sanchez told
Fox News Latino earlier this year. "As much as I like to vote Republican as often as I can, the party itself has changed dramatically – to the point where I just vote Democrat."
Already a record 2.5 million voters in Florida have requested early voting ballots. Republicans are ahead in ballot requests, 43 per cent to 38 per cent, Associated Press has reported.
Though this appears to be a significant lead for the GOP, compared with the 2008 election it looks dangerously narrow.
At that time, the Republicans held a solid lead in requests, 51 per cent to 32 per cent, according to data analysed for the AP by Catalist, a Democratic firm that helped run data operations for Obama's 2008 race. In the end Obama won the state by 2.8 per cent.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/surge-of-early-voters-favour-hillary-clinton-over-donald-trump-20161025-gs9xca.html
