Iowans appear to be taking early voting seriously, but don’t confuse a few hours of heavy activity as a sign of things to come.
Today is the first day voters in Iowa, one of about a dozen swing states where the presidential election will be decided, can cast a ballot in person before Election Day. This morning, 200 to 225 people voted in Polk County or twice as many as the first day of early voting in 2008, according to The Des Moines Register.
Republicans and Democrats are doing what they can to gin up interest in early voting. Actor Jason Alexander of Seinfeldhelped out President Obama’s team today. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was on hand to give Mitt Romney and the GOP a boost.
Early and absentee voting are a crucial part of the get-out-the-vote game. In 2008, more than one-third of Iowa’s votes were cast early. State election officials expect 40% of Iowa’s votes to be cast before Nov. 6. Democrats have requested more than 119,000 absentee ballots in Iowa this year, compared with nearly 25,000 for Republicans.
Obama, who won Iowa in 2008, leads Romney by an average of about 5 percentage points in recent statewide polls, according to RealClearPolitics.
USA TODAY’s Gregory Korte has more in today’s editions about the importance of early voting and what the Obama and Romney camps are doing to get unlikely voters to the polls
( usatoday)
