Can they track early voting results?

[YEM]

Does anyone know if they will report how the candidates are doing with regards to early voting? If so, that should be interesting. Will they tell us how many have voted early?

[zanana]

1. With what happened with early results in 2000, I doubt it.

When most TV outlets proclaimed Gore the victor, there was quite an uproar. (And those roaring were Republicans, so as they usually get what they want, I don't think we'll be tracking early votes).

[Jersey Devil]

2. yes and no

In some states they count the absentee votes as they come in (unofficially) and if you have someone in the election office from your party the information "leaks" to the party. My experience is that in my area the Repub vote is always somewhat less than the support shown for them in absentee votes. They have always done a better job with absentees. Early voting is not permitted in NJ.

[Boredtodeath]

3. Not publicly

But you can bet they'll be doing it privately. There is nothing stopping elections officials from reading and totalling the disks in the electronic voting machines every night.

That's the danger of early electronic voting - to develop a trend in the privacy of a partisan party office and counter it on election day.