Between the polls and an avalanche of data about early voting and absentee ballots, both parties continue to say the election clues favor their side as Americans get ready to finish the 2012 race for the White House.
At the risk of drawing a lot of sharp jabs from partisans on each side, let's take a look at some of the data from key swing states so far:
FLORIDA - Over 4.3 million votes are already in from Florida, with Democrats enjoying an edge of over 130,000 when you combine both early votes and absentee ballots - that could be about half of the total votes from the Sunshine State. Lines were long all around the state for the last day of voting on Saturday, as a shorter period for early voting still produced a very large turnout.
Republicans claim they are doing better because the gap is smaller in early voting in 2012 than it was in 2008, when the Democrats held an 8% advantage in the early vote. The GOP has about a 5% edge in absentee ballots.
One worrisome sign for Democrats is that their early vote numbers are down in South Florida, especially in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. The President was in Broward County on Sunday - that one county gave him a 253,000 vote edge in 2008 - and early votes there were almost at the same rate as in 2008. Mr. Obama won Florida by 204,000 votes.
PENNSYLVANIA - This state wasn't on the Election Radar until just recently; Democrats say there is no way that Romney is going to spin an upset, while Republicans argue there is most certainly a chance. A Susquehanna poll from the weekend found the race was a tie at 47-47% as Romney stumped in Bucks County, northeast of Philadelphia, on Sunday. Republicans argue they have an advantage here in absentee ballots, but no official tally has been produced by the state to buttress that claim.
OHIO - Ohio is a perfect example of how both sides look at the same data and see something totally different; but there are clues here of a lower turnout for Democrats than in 2008 and an higher one for Republicans.
As of Sunday in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), 42,511 early votes had been cast in that county, which went overwhelmingly for President Obama in 2008, a drop of about 14% when compared to the same time four years ago; that year, 54,340 early votes were cast by voters in Cuyahoga County.
In 2008, 151,296 Democrats requested absentee ballots in Cuyahoga County - as of November 2, Democrats had requested 122,771, a drop of 6% - but Republicans had increased their requests from 36,232 to 52,535, a jump of 45%.
That same pattern can be seen in other key counties in Ohio, like in Franklin County (Columbus) where Republicans absentee ballot requests are up 6%, while Democratic absentee ballots are down 17%.
The difference is even more dramatic in Montgomery County (Dayton), where Republicans trailed in absentee ballots requested in 2008 by almost 5,000, but now they own the edge by over 6,000 - as Democratic absentee ballots in that county are off by 65% from 2008.
In Hamilton County (Cincinnati), Republicans have expanded their absentee advantage from 1100 ballots in 2008 to 3,000 - as both parties have increased their absentee requests in that important part of the state.
In Lucas County (Toledo), Democrats led by 5700 absentee ballots in 2008 but this year the GOP owns a 600 ballot request edge.
In Summit County (Akron) to the south of Cleveland, Democratic absentee ballot requests are down 70% - in 2008, Democrats asked for 22,000 more ballots, but this year the GOP has a 500 ballot edge.
Now one caveat about these figures - and this is a point that Democrats repeatedly make - you aren't registered to a specific party in Ohio - instead, the way you are classified as Democrat or Republican depends on which party primary you voted in last.
Still, the lower numbers in some key counties for absentee ballot requests by Democrats can't just be ignored. Whether they make a difference on Tuesday, we'll see.
NORTH CAROLINA - We have talked about how President Obama never went back to North Carolina after the Democratic convention, as Republicans are confident they will win the state on Tuesday - as of now though, Democrats own a hefty edge in the combined early vote and absentee ballot returns in the Tar Heel State.
So far, Democrats have registered almost 1.2 million votes to 800,000 for GOP voters in North Carolina, and another 511,000 unaffiliateds. That comes out to 47.8% for Democrats, above their 47.2% early vote in 2008 when President Obama won the state. Republicans are at 31.9%, almost identical to their 2008 performance of 32%.
So shouldn't that spell victory for the Democrats again in 2012?
While a Democratic leaning polling firm (PPP) has shown a tie twice in the last few weeks, other polls have had Romney winning easily in the Tar Heel State. It may be closer than many had expected on Election Night even if the President never went back to campaign in the last two months of the race.
VIRGINA - The Old Dominion may have some of the most head scratching data yet for President Obama's re-election bid, as absentee ballot returns for this year's elections are off dramatically in some counties carried by the Democrats four years ago, when Virginia went against the GOP for the first time since 1964.
A review of absentee ballot data compiled by David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report found several key counties for Obama in 2008 are simply not producing the votes that were seen four years ago.
In Arlington County, right next door to Washington, D.C., which delivered a 72-27% majority for Obama four years ago, so far there are 23,412 absentee ballots in - well short of the 34,232 that were sent in for all of 2008, about a 20% decline.
The numbers are about the same in Fairfax County, another key county for Democrats in the Washington, D.C. area that went 60-39% for Obama - back in 2008, 100,691 absentee ballots were returned - as of Friday, the numbers were only at 64,259.
Basically, the counties won by Bush in 2004 and McCain in 2008 are faring much better in terms of absentee ballots than counties won by Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008.
For example, Salem City, Virginia broke a record for early voting; that city went to McCain in 2008.
Is the drop in Democratic ballots because of a lack of enthusiasm from Democrats? Or did the bad weather from Hurricane Sandy, which shut down some polling centers, have anything to do with the lower numbers?
One thing we know for sure is that Virginia is almost a must-win for Mitt Romney.
COLORADO - - The Centennial State is another state where both parties keep claiming they are doing better than the other when it comes to early voting and absentee ballots, but a review of the available data seems to give an edge to the GOP.
Republicans have cast 37% of all early votes to 34.6% for Democrats - back in 2008, it was Democrats who had a slight edge.
Obviously the wild card is the high number of independent ballots that are already in - about 28% of the vote - and which side they back. Late polls from Colorado have shown Romney doing better with independents than earlier in the campaign.
And at least in early voting, the GOP has an edge in several swing counties like Arapahoe, Jefferson and Larimer.
Republicans also believe they have more voters who still have to vote on Election Day, labeling them "available high-propensity voters."
NEVADA - - The Silver State has been moving towards the Democrats again this year and you can see that in the early vote and absentee ballot data.
Overall early vote totals have been up in Nevada, as over 700,000 people have already sent in a ballot, compared to 561,776 four years ago, as 56% of all eligible voters have already voted.
The biggest county is Clark County, home to Las Vegas - also home to a substantial chunk of Democratic voters - and so far, it has been delivering for the party.
Already 231,350 Democrats have voted in Clark County - 53% of the total vote there. That's higher than the 52% from Democrats four years ago, and it's from a higher number of votes, over 485,000, up 20% from the 2008 elections.
President Obama won Clark County by 19% in 2008, providing more than his margin of victory of John McCain in Nevada - it could be a repeat of that on Tuesday, as Nevada should probably be seen as a likely state in the Blue column.
While Republicans keep talking about their gains in Washoe County, they are small when compared to the raw numbers from Clark County.
IOWA - The Hawkeye State is another state where both parties are dueling over what the numbers mean on early and absentee voting.
Back in 2008, Iowa Democrats did their job in early voting, running up a 18% edge. This time, their advantage is 10%, one reason why Republicans are so optimistic about winning the state's 6 Electoral Votes.
Democrats as of Monday have returned 42.2% of the absentee ballots, 32.1% for the GOP and 25.6% for Independent voters. When you break down the numbers on how many of their own ballots are back, Republicans have returned 92% of their requested ballots, Democrdats 88.4% and Independents/others 85.2%.
That's what I call "voter enthusiasm" - and that is what makes the outcome so difficult to predict.
