Presidential Polls 2012: Final Data Shows Obama Leading Romney
After months and months of a long and rigorous 2012 presidential campaign, Election Day has finally arrived in America.
Polls will soon begin to close across the country, followed by a wave of exit polling data that pundits and political commentators will use to try and predict the election's outcome as early as possible. But until those survey results are released, the country is left to use the most recent pre-election polling data to assess where the race stands.
The most recent rojections from The Huffington Post give Obama the advantage.
"The HuffPost Pollster tracking model created by Stanford political scientist Simon Jackman, which combines all available national and statewide polling data, finds that if polls fall within the historical ranges of polling accuracy, Obama stands a 91 percent chance of victory," The Huffington Post reported.
But the latest daily tracking data from national polling firm Rasmussen tells a different story. That forecast shows Mitt Romney ahead, but only slightly.
In that poll, Romney has support from 49 percent of registered voters surveyed nationwide, while President Barack Obama is behind by only one percentage point, with support from 48 percent of voters. Of the remaining respondents included in the poll, 2 percent planned to vote for a different, third-party candidate when they visited the voting booth today.
But of course, projections are not official, and anything could happen when hard voting results begin coming in.
"The remaining questions about the polling data are whether the final averages prove to be as collectively accurate as in past elections or whether some systematic error in the swing state surveys is concealing a hidden Romney advantage that will reveal itself when the votes are counted," according to The Huffington Post.
Political pundits will be using racial and ethnic data that comes from exit polling as an early indicator of how the race may go.
"One key to the outcome on Election Day will be the racial and ethnic mix of the electorate," according to a Rasmussen report. "In 2008, approximately 74 percent of voters were white. Among those who have already voted, 67 percent are white. Among those expected to vote today, 77 percent are white. The actual turnout by various racial and ethnic groups is significant in terms of projecting a winner because Romney attracts 58 percent of the white vote, while Obama has a huge lead among non-white voters."
