Obama, Romney pursue last votes in close race

In these Sept. 26, 2012, file photos, President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney both campaign in the battleground state of Ohio.
In these Sept. 26, 2012, file photos, President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney both campaign in the battleground state of Ohio.

One day left in their close race, President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are storming through a final exhaustive campaign push Monday that won’t end until the wee hours of Election Day in pursuit of every possible vote.

Both candidates say the winner will be determined by which of their operations can get the most supporters to the polls. “This is going to be a turnout election,” the president declared in an interview airing Monday morning as he pleaded with urban radio listeners to get to the polls.

“We have one job left,” and that’s getting people out to vote, Romney told more than a thousand people just off the tarmac at the airport in Sanford, Fla. The crowd chanted “One more day!”

With national polls showing a neck-and-neck race, the final day’s schedule showed where the two campaigns believe the race will be decided. Romney was in Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire, while Obama was trying to protect Wisconsin from an eleventh-hour challenge from the GOP before heading to Iowa.

And in an indication of just how important Ohio was once again to the future occupancy of the White House, both candidates planned to be on the ground in Columbus on Monday evening for dueling rallies seven miles apart.

Both candidates will also benefit from some star power Monday. Rock legend Bruce Springsteen is joining Obama at all three campaign rallies, and rapper Jay-Z will join him in Columbus. Romney planned a final rally in the last hour of election eve in New Hampshire with Kid Rock, while country rock performers The Marshall Tucker Band was joining him in Columbus.

Obama dispatched former President Bill Clinton to Pennsylvania on Monday for an eleventh-hour bid to keep the state in his column.

Meanwhile, about 30 million people have already voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia, either by mail or in person, although none will be counted until Election Day on Tuesday.

An early-voting location in Little Rock was drawing droves on Monday morning.

Read more in tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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