Exit polls point to dramatic conservative surge

Looking at some of the early exit polls, there’s a fascinating one by NPR.

According to the public radio folks, 41 percent of today’s voters labeled themselves “conservative.”

Why is that important? It’s up from 34 percent in 2008, 32 percent in 2006. That’s a pretty dramatic shift, and points to how the final tallies are likely to go tonight.

It will be very interesting to see if we get some Jewish numbers on that question

In the recently released American Jewish Committee poll, only 28 percent of the Jews surveyed called themselves “slightly conservative, “ “conservative” or “extremely conservative,” and that was only slightly up from 25 percent in 2006.

Will there be more of a Jewish shift today? The experts say no, but the experts have been wrong on a lot of things this election cycle.

In another bad sign for the Democrats, exit polls point to heavier turnout by older voters.  Voters in the 18-29 year range comprised 18 percent of the voters in 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency – but only 10 percent today.