Ohio must have different laws than Florida. Here, NO ballots are counted before election night. Absentees and EV all get counted at the same time as regular..........
They have not been counted yet, but we have reliable historical information on how counties vote, and what party a voter belongs to when they request an absentee ballot. For example, I live in Putnam County, which went 77% for Bush in 2004 and 70% for McCain in 2008. We know how many early votes were cast in Putnam County this year, so we have a pretty good idea of margins based on likely voting percentages.
The key takeaway is that Democrat heavy counties, like Cuyahoga (Cleveland) and Franklin (Columbus) are showing significant declines in early voting over 2008, and GOP heavy counties (like Warren) are showing significant increases compared to 2008.
If Obama does not have a significant lead in early voting, he loses, period.