About a third of each major candidate's backers plan to vote early, the survey found. | REUTERS Poll: Neither has edge in early voting

Fifteen percent of registered voters have already cast their ballots, according to a poll released Tuesday .

Neither candidate has a particular edge among early voters nationally compared to those who will cast their ballots on election day, the Gallup survey found.


One-third of Barack Obama backers plan to vote early, as do 34 percent of Romney supporters. So far, 15 percent of Obama voters have shown up at the polls, compared to 17 percent of Romney voters. Romney leads among early voters 52 percent to 45 percent, a statistically insignificant difference from the 51 to 46 percent lead Gallup shows him having among all likely voters.

Forty-four percent of elderly voters and 43 percent of voters with post-graduate degrees plan to vote early. Those numbers decline steadily for younger and less educated voters.

The differences are more stark by region. A majority of Western voters — 55 percent — plan to vote early, joined by 40 percent in the South, and 23 percent in the Midwest. But in the East, a mere 9 percent are going to vote early.

The poll is based on interviews with 3,312 registered voters for Gallup’s daily tracking poll conducted Oct. 22-28. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.