Romney Scored More Election Day Votes Than Obama in Iowa

Early voting was the only thing that gave Barack Obama victory in Iowa at the general election, new analysis of polls has shown.

Republican challenger Mitt Romney won the state by five percentage points on Nov. 6 — but by then it had already been lost, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“In the weeks leading up to the election, Obama had banked a big cushion of early votes, a total of 137,000 more than Romney got,” the Times reports.

The paper says the size of the early vote — 43 percent voted before Election Day — surprised officials in the Hawkeye State.

The Times says Republican efforts to curtail early voting in other key states such as Florida and Ohio, never took off in Iowa, and that allowed Obama to carry the state.

“Thanks to the size of the early vote, a state that many thought could go either way went for the president by a comfortable margin of nearly 6 percentage points.