JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Jewish vote: Obama 77-22 (UPDATED)

By Eric Fingerhut · November 5, 2008

The first exit poll on the Jewish vote is out, and it has Barack Obama bettering John Kerry's Jewish vote total from four years ago.

The preliminary poll, which could be updated tomorrow, has Obama receiving 77 percent of the Jewish vote, to just 22 percent for John McCain. (An earlier version of the poll had Obama winning by a 78-21 margin.) Kerry garnered 74 percent of the Jewish vote in 2004, and Al Gore won 79 percent of the Jewish vote (with a Jewish running mate) eight years ago. The Jewish vote was 2 percent of the poll sample.

If those numbers hold up, it would vindicate Jewish Democrats like Rep. Robert Wexler, who claimed this summer -- to skeptical reporters at the Democratic convention -- that Obama would hit traditional levels of the Jewish vote for Democratic presidential candidates. At the time, Obama had been totaling slightly more than 60 percent in polls of Jewish voters.