Obama Leads Early Voting In NC

It's a small window, and probably an unrepresentative one, but a window nonetheless.

In North Carolina, which allows "early voting," the most recent Survey USA poll had Obama leading by 65%-31% among those who had already voted. It's a small number--only 5% of the polling sample indicated having already voted (and 2% of those were reported as "undecided"--hard to figure that one out!) Still, this follows a similar pattern in NC's primary voting, where polls showed a close race, but Obama ran away with the early votes and in the end it wasn't very close.

Survey USA also notes that black voter turnout is the true key in NC, stating that an increase in statewide turnout among African-Americans from 750,000 (in the last Presidential election) to 850,000 would probably mean victory not only for Obama in the state, but also for Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue.