The Republican party has learned to be very very good at this ground game business - in Wisconsin in 2010, it was the main reason for the Great Red Tide that swept in Scott Walker and a Republican Majority in the Senate and Assembly. Our process in Wisconsin of identifying and contacting Republican voters was futher perfected during the endless recall elections over the past two years.
The chair of Romney for Wisconsin was on Talk Radio encouraging everyone who could to vote early - that way the ground game on election day can be all the more targeted to make sure every voter gets to the polls.
And the architect of this process? None other than Reince Preibus, who now sits at the head of the RNC, spreading the word on how important an efficient ground game is to winning.
The Dems, on the other hand, use early voting for what I call Push-Pull-Drag. They literally drag people off the streets and push them to vote Dem regardless of what they know or don't know about the election.
It's a very good thing that they are behind in that effort, because you can only do so much of that on election day.
This is such a helpful explanation; thank you!
I’m not a registered Republican, so no one has contacted me about turnout (or about polling, either!). That must be why I’m out of the loop as to the “why” of early voting.
Over the last few days I’ve been tempted to go cast my vote early, but it’s just not the same as standing in line on Election Day. This will be the first presidential vote I’ve ever cast that will matter. (I lived in Baltimore before moving to Denver last year.) I can’t wait to hear that Romney has captured Colorado and has won the presidency!