At 5:30, ABC’s Rick Klein tweeted out this bit of early exit polling, which excited Barrett supporters:
Obama leads Romney 51-45 among #WIrecall voters, regardless ot today’s vote, per early exit polls
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) June 5, 2012
What they don’t realize, is that in polling done before the election, voters favored Obama by a lesser margin, and still gave the election to Walker:
Among all registered voters the margin is six points, with Walker at 50 percent and Barrett at 44 percent. The registered voter sample has a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points.
In the presidential race President Barack Obama received 51 percent to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s 43 percent among likely voters.
Other pre-election pollsters noted the curiosity, and it would seem that some on the center-left and middle who would otherwise vote Democrat, have simply gotten tired of the recall, and are voting for Walker.
For whatever reason, while liberals are taking this early exit polling as a good sign, given the trends in early polling before the election, this bodes badly for Barret, and could mean more than a 6-point margin win for Walker.
Stupid liberals!!!
UPDATE: MORE EXIT POLLING RETURNS:
From the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal:
Preliminary exit polls Tuesday underscore just how sharply union issues are dividing voters in the Wisconsin recall fight.
There is little middle ground in how Tuesday’s voters feel about Gov. Walker’s handling of the collective bargaining issue.
About eight in ten voters either strongly approve or strongly disapprove of the way Walker has handled the issue, and they are roughly evenly divided between pro and con, according to exit polls.
Only two in ten voters expressed milder feelings, saying they “somewhat” approve or “somewhat” disapprove.
Not surprisingly, the issue represents a deep dividing line between voters backing Walker and those backing Tom Barrett.
Nine out of ten Walker voters approve of his handling of the issue.
Nine out of ten Barrett voters disapprove.
Almost eight in ten Walker voters have a negative view of government-employee unions.
Nine in ten Barrett voters have a positive view of government-employee unions.
Voters overall are fairly evenly divided over the collective bargaining issue and the governor’s handling of it, the exit polls show.
These exit poll findings are preliminary and could change over the course of the evening as more data comes in from interviews with people voting later in the day.
And more from Rick Klein:
stunning 88% of voters said they made #wirecall decisions BEFORE last month. Lots of wasted money.
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) June 5, 2012
Again, this is a great sign for Walker, as most hopes for Barret came in him seemingly gaining momentum in the weeks leading up to the election.
And just as a curiosity:
tea party slightly more likely to be viewed negatively than positively among #wirecall voters, per early exit polls
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) June 5, 2012
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http://twitter.com/SirKneeland John Kneeland
