Obama campaign targets early voters

URBANDALE, Iowa — Eager to signal its support for President Obama, the crowd of 10,000 at a campaign rally here hooted in derision at his first mention of his Republican rivals. But Obama cut the crowd off.

“Don’t boo,” he said. “Vote.”

This wasn’t a call to arms for Election Day on Nov. 6, but rather the starting gun in a race that begins this month when Iowa begins accepting in-person, non-absentee ballots.

The Hawkeye State, which opens ballot boxes first on Sept. 27, isn’t alone. Most states will offer limited early voting periods — both in person and by mail — for several weeks before the election and the amount of ballots cast will be significant enough that the Obama campaign believes they could play a decisive role in the election’s outcome.

In all, 40 million votes were cast before Election Day in 2008, nearly 30 percent of the total. In Colorado, another swing state where Obama will appear Sunday in Boulder, 77 percent of votes were made early, according to Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

In a 2012 campaign that polls and pundits suggest could go down to the wire, the president’s reelection team, which has an edge in field offices and campaign manpower, sees a window of opportunity to rack up an early advantage over Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

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