Election news round-up: Multi-Poll-itics, high black turnout in South

By GottaLaff

• North Carolina official: "We're seeing historic numbers with a historic election year."

• St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9/Miami Herald poll finds: Obama 49, McCain 42

• Black turnout is strong in early voting in South:

Blacks are already surging to the polls in parts of the South, according to initial figures from states that encourage early voting -- a striking though still preliminary sign of how strongly they will turn out nationwide for Barack Obama in his campaign to become the first African-American president.

There have been predictions all year of a record black turnout for Obama. The first actual figures suggest that wasn't just talk:

--In North Carolina, blacks make up 31 percent of early voters so far, even though they're just 21 percent of the population and made up only 19 percent of state's overall 2004 vote.

--Roughly 36 percent of the early voters are black in Georgia, outpacing their 30 percent proportion of the state's population and their 25 percent share of the 2004 vote.

--Louisiana: More than 31 percent of the early voters are black, and Democrats are topping Republicans nearly 2-to-1.

--Florida: Nearly 55 percent of early voters are registered Democrats - well above their 41 percent share of the electorate in the Sunshine State.

• The Illinois senator now holds an 8-point lead over McCain in the latest CNN poll of polls, 50 percent to 42 percent. That lead is 1 point lager than it was in Wednesday's poll of polls.

• ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll: Three in 10 Plan Early Vote, Favoring Obama By Wide Margin

GObama!