“For millions of Americans, the election is no longer on a fixed date. It is increasingly becoming another item on the fall checklist, a civic duty steeped in the convenience of everyday life. The development is reshaping campaigns, with Election Day becoming Election Month for as much as 40 percent of the electorate this year, including voters in the vital swing states of Ohio, Florida, Colorado and others.” So wrote From Jeff Zeleny in the New York Times (“September, November: 40 Precious Days to Spend on Early Vote“).
He continued: “It has made the October surprises way less relevant,” said Jim Messina, the campaign manager for Mr. Obama, who has built the president’s re-election strategy around the growing trend of voting early. “In a close election, you can increase your number of voters in a very important way.”
From “Early voting alters presidential-campaign tactics” (The Seattle Times): “By encouraging our supporters to vote early, we can focus our resources more efficiently on Election Day to make sure those less likely to vote get out to the polls,” said Adam Fetcher, an Obama campaign spokesman. “We’ve made early investments in battleground states, where we’ve been registering folks and keeping an open conversation going with undecided voters for months.”
Using advanced technology, campaigns track, or “chase,” voters who request absentee ballots, often on a daily basis, until they are turned in. Then the campaign moves on. “You stop sending them mail. You stop calling them. You don’t need to knock on their door anymore,” said a senior Obama campaign aide, who requested anonymity because he is not an authorized spokesman.
The Obama campaign WANTS its supporters to vote early. It’s that simple. Let’s do it!