Partisan Trends: 34.3% Republican, 33.1% Democrat (!!!)

Rasmussen Reports ^ | 11/1/11

[freespirited]

The number of Republicans increased by half a percentage point in October, while the number of Democrats decreased by a similar amount.

During the month of October, 34.3% of Americans considered themselves to be Republicans, up from 33.9% in September. The number of Democrats fell to 33.1% from 33.7% the month before. September marked the smallest gap between the parties in nearly nine years of monthly tracking.

[freespirited]

Holy moly!

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[Tulane]

That is good news indeed.

[goldstategop]

With the parties at rough parity, this leaves the election outcome up to independent swing voters. The bad news for the Democrats is they have been soured on Obama. They are the kind of voters that powered Scott Brown to victory in 2010 and helped the GOP regain the House. And they will be decisive in securing a GOP takeover of the Senate and to help elect a Republican President.

[Tulane]

With the parties at rough parity, this leaves the election outcome up to independent swing voters. The bad news for the Democrats is they have been soured on Obama. They are the kind of voters that powered Scott Brown to victory in 2010 and helped the GOP regain the House. And they will be decisive in securing a GOP takeover of the Senate and to help elect a Republican President.
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In addition to what you write, I have seen several commentators over the years (Scott Rasmussen, Charlie Cook, etc.) state that Democrats never have the same turnout as Republicans (they have more registered voters, but Republicans show up in higher percentages)...meaning the registered electorate needs to favor dems by at least 4 or 5% points to have a close election. At the numbers listed in the poll, it would be a wipe-out in favor of Repubs.