The iVoteIsrael organization that helps expatriate Americans through the process of absentee voting, said on Wednesday that as many as 30,000 US citizens living in Israel have cast their vote in their home states and that exit polling indicates at margin of 49 per cent to 44 per cent in favor of Republican candidate Donald Trump. If the figures prove to be true it would represent a blow to the Israel-based Republican support group that has grown accustomed to far greater voter turnout and far more lopsided results in favor of the GOP candidate. At a recent Republican rally held in the Old City of Jerusalem, the group’s leader boasted a traditional inversion in Israel-based voting where the 80 percent are Republicans while in the US the 80 percent are Democrats. In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney took 84% of the Israel-based vote to President Obama’s 14%, a mere third of Hillary Clinton’s result; and even the lackluster John McCain won 76% in 2008. Partisan support groups have also suggested some 200,000 to 300,000 people living in Israel are eligible to vote. The most telling data to emerge from the exit polling is that even in Trump-friendly Israel the Republican lost the women’s vote (52% to 33%); and regarding battleground states, Trump won Florida among the Israeli voters but lost Pennsylvania and Michigan to Clinton.
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