Mitch Perry
It’s an admittedly small sample, but a new poll shows that among the early and mail-in vote in Florida, 28 percent of registered Republicans already voted for Hillary Clinton.
Conversely, only 6 percent of registered Democrats have voted for Donald Trump.
That’s according to a TargetSmart/William & Mary survey. It also shows that with a week before the election, Clinton leads Trump 48 to 40 percent. That’s a dramatic contrast to several recent polls putting the race much closer.
The RealClearPolitics average in Florida now favors Trump by one percentage point.
Clinton’s lead increases to 55-37 percent among those who said they have already voted.
The survey reached 311 respondents who voted early in the 2016 general election, either absentee, by mail or in-person, according to data from Florida’s secretary of state that was matched back to the TargetSmart voter file.
The survey reached 407 respondents who had NOT voted early in the 2016 general election, either absentee, by mail or in-person, using data from the Florida secretary of state that was cross-matched with the TargetSmart voter files.
Complete poll results are scheduled to be released later Wednesday.
The poll shows Marco Rubio leading Patrick Murphy in the U.S. Senate race, 49 percent to 43 percent. Among early voters, Rubio has a much bigger lead, 51 percent to 39 percent.
As of early Wednesday morning, 1.79 million Republicans have voted, as well as 1.77 million Democrats.
