As polls showed a tightening race, Donald Trump’s campaign and GOP officials said on Friday that their early investment in battleground states and targeting early and absentee voters were paying dividends. Republicans believe that has them outperforming in early voting and Democrats underperforming compared with the 2012 presidential race, pointing to ballot requests, return rates and early in-person voting in Florida, Iowa, Michigan and North Carolina. He also said Republicans have requested 20,000 more absentee ballots than 2012, but did not mention that Democrats had also requested more ballots. Earlier in the day, the Clinton campaign argued that they had built a firewall with minority voters in crucial battleground states such as Florida. Campaign manager Robby Mook said more Latinos in Florida have already cast ballots in early voting than in the entire election in 2012.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 05, 2016 01:06 UTC