Polls, ballot requests suggest Romney overtaking Obama in Ohio
A new Rasmussen poll and early absentee ballot requests both suggest that President Barack Obama is losing his lead in Ohio after Mitt Romney’s performance in Wednesday night’s presidential debate.
A post-debate poll revealed Obama and Romney are essentially tied in Ohio, with just one percentage point separating the candidates. Earlier polls had shown Obama leading by up to eight points.
According to county data retrieved by the conservative nonprofit American Majority Action and reviewed by The Daily Caller, early absentee ballot requests also indicate Obama faces a tough battle in Ohio.
Compared to 2008, a higher percentage of Republicans have requested absentee ballots in the five largest counties in Ohio this year. Summit County saw a particularly large 27-point increase.
“Polls can be manipulated—real votes can’t,” AMA president Ned Ryun said in a statement.
So far, Ohioans have requested just over half the amount of ballots they did in 2008.
“So far, although it is early, the overall across-the-board direction of every single county in Ohio seems to be not just challenging the pollsters’ template that Obama is widening his lead, but is obliterating it,” Dr. Larry Schweikart, professor at the University of Dayton and New York Times bestselling author, told AMA.
“Given Ohio’s voting history, if the numbers are even close after early voting, Obama will lose, and possibly lose big,” Schweikart said.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has removed 450,000 deceased voters and duplicate registrations from the voter rolls in advance of the November election — the majority of them registered Democrats.
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