Obama takes early vote lead in key states?

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With more than 28 million Americans having already voted for the US Presidential polls that is described as too close to call, the Obama and Romney campaigns have started claiming that the numbers are favouring them.

In a conference call with reporters, top officials of President Barack Obama's campaign insisted that they were building a lead in key states that Romney would have difficulty overcoming.

"Our opponent is losing among early voters in nearly every public poll in every battleground state," Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign's field director, said yesterday.

Romney would have to win the election-day vote with majorities as large as 60 per cent in some states in order to prevail, Bird said, citing polling figures.

So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio - five states that could decide the election, if they voted the same way.

Republicans have the edge in Colorado, which Obama won in 2008, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, Romney campaign officials counter that Obama's margins have fallen below those that he achieved in 2008, suggesting that makes the president vulnerable to an election-day push by the Republicans.

The two sides also disagree over whether Obama's early-vote efforts have succeeded in turning out sporadic voters - those who only show up for some elections - or whether the campaign has simply drained the pool of available Democratic voters early, the report said, two days ahead of the November
6 Presidential polls.

Democrats insist the information they have gathered through voter contacts makes them confident that they are getting the sporadic voters they have targeted.

In a memo to reporters, Republican officials insisted the Obama campaign was merely 'cannibalising' voters who would otherwise have voted on Tuesday.

"Neither side can be absolutely sure of its numbers, of course, the early votes have been cast, but won't be counted until Tuesday. Instead, the campaigns draw inferences from the party registration of the people who have voted early and other information they have about the voters who have gone to the polls," the paper said.

Just 48 hours before election day, the presidential race is tied, with both Obama and Romney, receiving 48-per cent support among likely votes, the latest ABC News/Washington Post survey said.