Democrats claim strong early votes in swing states

BARACK OBAMA’S campaign said Democratic voters were piling up imposing early voting totals in battleground states, warning that John McCain must win big on election day to catch up.

“The die is being cast as we speak,” Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe said in a conference call with reporters, saying the Democrat was running strong in swing states Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and others.

“So Senator McCain, on election day is going to have to not just carry the day but carry it convincingly,” Mr Plouffe said.

He also said that the campaign would expand its advertising in the frenetic final days of the campaign into Republican McCain’s home state of Arizona, following polls which suggest the race had tightened there.

Mr Plouffe said that in the crucial swing-state of Florida, Democrats had built a 200,000-strong gap over Mr McCain after early and absentee voting — reversing the trend from 2004 when President George W Bush beat John Kerry in the state.

“In 2008, as of last night, we had just about a 200,000-vote edge over the Republicans, which is, obviously, a big change from 2004,” Mr Plouffe said.

Republicans went into election day that year with an edge of about 40,000 votes.

In the western swing state of Nevada, 43% of Democrats who voted early were either new voters or sporadic voters — a prized demographic as campaigns seek an edge in close-fought states, Mr Plouffe said.

In North Carolina, 19% of Democrats who voted early had never voted in a general election before, bolstering Mr Obama’s hopes of bringing large numbers of new voters into the process.