US Presidential Election: Obama takes early lead in key states

Chicago: Hours before the US Presidential polls , 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 percent in some states in order to prevail, Bird said, citing polling figures.

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-percent support among likely votes, the latest ABC News/Washington Post survey said.