Just got back from early voting in my little corner of NC. There's good news and bad news.
First, a little background on the area. There's a small but active liberal contingent here, mostly associated with the strong presence of the Methodist church. Lots of retired minsters, their families etc. The wider area is fairly rural and fairly conservative. Very little minority presence.
The good news is that turnout was still very high. A longer line than I've ever seen for early voting; a man in line behind me said he'd seen actual election day voting with fewer people than we had early voting today. So for all of us who value democracy and voter involvement, huzzah.
The bad news is, it looked like the voting was overwhelmingly conservative. The Dems and Repubs were handing out their very different-looking voter guides in the parking lot, and I'd guess 75-90% of the voters in line had the conservative guide visibly displayed.
Just a snapshot of a single moment at a single polling place. But I'd have guessed this area would run 60-40% Repub to Dem, not the 75+% Repub that seemed to be the case. Romney may seem laughable to us, or terrible, but this election will be close - probably closer than a lot of us would like to think.
Don't be complacent, and GOTV.