SurveyUSA: Obama is losing FL and what you can do

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Friday October 17, 2008 · 1:00 PM PDT

2008/10/17 · 13:00

Well, you already KNOW what to do; but for all you Floridian Kossacks who were hoping to rest for the next 2-1/2 weeks, think again.

More, um, "motivation" at the jump.

Bad news in Florida per the latest SurveyUSA results released today (bolding mine):

In an election for President of the United States in Florida today, 10/17/08, absentee balloting underway and early voting about to begin, Republican John McCain edges Democrat Barack Obama 49% to 47%, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for WFLA-TV Tampa, WFOR-TV Miami, WKRG-TV Mobile-Pensacola, and WFTX-TV Cape Coral. The outcome is within the survey's margin of sampling error. Both candidates have an excellent chance to carry the state.

Yes, it is very close here in the Sunshine State, but one of my fellow volunteers pointed out some sobering info per this same poll:

...53% of those who say they support McCain also stated that they have already voted for him via vote by mail compared to only 45% of those who said that they support Obama having done so.

His analysis was backed up by SurveyUSA's more detailed poll information, which points out an unusual trend:

Unique to Florida, and unlike other states that SurveyUSA is polling: those in Florida who tell SurveyUSA they have already voted disproportionately back McCain. The sample size is small, so caution is warranted, but unlike SurveyUSA findings in Ohio, New Mexico, Georgia, Iowa, and North Carolina, where early voters disproportionately favor Obama, in Florida, McCain leads by 8 among those who have already voted, and is tied among those who have not yet cast a ballot but who are determined by SurveyUSA to be likely to do so.

Eeep.

My husband and I have already voted by mail, and we were never surveyed by this or any other poll. We're a part of that infamous "semi-young voters' group" without access to a land line, surviving only on our cell phones for non-face-to-face spoken communication. However, I'm taking for granted, lest I don't follow Obama's advice to "not get cocky," that the SurveyUSA poll's results are close to being accurate.