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Iowa is 1st swing state to begin early voting

Residents waited for ballots in Waterloo, Iowa, on Thursday as early voting took place in a swing state for the first time in the 2012 election.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

WASHINGTON — Voters in a swing state went to the polls for the first time Thursday to cast ballots in the general election, as both presidential campaigns sought to capitalize on an early voting process that will soon be underway in more than half the country.

In Iowa, the first swing state to open the polls, voters were lined up to cast their ballots from a Mexican grocery store in Denison to the county auditor’s offices in Des Moines and Davenport.

Analysts said the early voting — in which voters can petition for satellite polling sites in their counties or take advantage of the more traditional form of mail-in ballots — could give an advantage to President Obama. He leads former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the polls and has a more extensive grassroots organization than his Republican challenger.

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Specialists predict that more early voting will take place this year than in 2008 — with as much as 35 percent of the total votes cast well before election day Nov. 6, including many before the three presidential debates next month.

The Obama campaign appeared to be making a more aggressive effort in Iowa, where the president won his first presidential contest during the 2008 Iowa caucus and prevailed over Senator John McCain by nine percentage points in the general election.

Nursing student Kim Boggus, 33, who volunteered for Obama in 2008, was one of the first batch of Obama voters who showed up at the Polk County auditor’s office in Des Moines.

“We got together for coffee and spoke about the importance of taking advantage of these 40 days,” she said. “We’re going to spend the next 40 days knocking on doors and calling people.”

While Romney is expected to do well in Iowa’s rural areas, Boggus said the Des Moines polling station had the feel of an Obama campaign rally.

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“There was not a single Romney person,’’ Boggus said. “There was cheering, we were taking photographs. Everyone was fired up and ready to go to cast votes for Obama. ”

Close to 200 people were lined up before 8 a.m. at the main Des Moines polling site, said Erin Seidler, the Obama campaign’s Iowa communications director.

Obama’s reelection campaign takes pride in having an extensive get-out-the-vote effort in the Hawkeye State, where he has 67 field offices compared to Romney’s 14. Not all polling places open early ; voters petition for sites in their areas.

In Linn County, home to Cedar Rapids, Obama supporters petitioned for early polling stations at a union hall, on three college campuses, and at an African-American church.

The Obama campaign is also enlisting actor Jason Alexander, of “Seinfeld” fame, to help roust voters in Iowa. .

Romney supporters, meanwhile, have petitioned for early polling places in more friendly territory such as Lutheran churches. Romney campaign spokesman Shawn McCoy told the Associated Press that the former Massachusetts governor’s supporters are making sure there are early voting locations “so that more Iowans have an opportunity to voice their support for Governor Romney.”

Romney has visited the state six times and spent an estimated $8 million on ads criticizing Obama’s record in a bid to win Iowa’s six electoral votes.

Early voting will take place in 32 states nationwide over the next few weeks and more than 44 percent of the electorate will have the opportunity to do so.

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Both campaigns see the early voting as a way to free up their most active supporters to volunteer on election day.


Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.