WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush has opened up a commanding lead over Democrat John F. Kerry among voters in Florida, Tuesday's Gallup poll said.
Bush polled 51 percent of the vote in a three-way ballot test against Kerry and liberal independent Ralph Nader among registered and likely voters, Gallup said.
Among registered voters, Kerry lagged behind Bush by 9 points, 51 percent to 42 percent. Among likely voters, Bush's lead was 8 points, 51 percent to 43 percent. Nader polled 1 percent of the vote in both samples.
The data indicates that 17 percent of the 909 registered Florida voters surveyed Oct. 21-24 had already cast ballots in the presidential election.
The sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for registered voters and for the subset of 768 respondents Gallup determined were likely to vote in the November election.
