From Michelle with love

WASHINGTON, USA – US First Lady Michelle Obama cast an absentee ballot on Monday, twinning a campaign push for early voting with an affectionate morale boost for her husband who was hunkered down at debate camp.

“Hey, @BarackObama, I just dropped my absentee ballot in the mail — I couldn’t wait for Election Day! Love you! —mo,” the first lady wrote on Twitter.

The president, locked away in a Virginia resort ahead of his debate with Republican Mitt Romney Tuesday, quickly tweeted back, in an apparently orchestrated move, saying he would go home to vote later this month.

“I’m following @MichelleObama’s example and voting early, on October 25. If your state has early voting, join me … —bo,” Obama tweeted.

The first couple add their initials to tweets when they, rather than campaign workers have composed them.

The Obama campaign released a photo of a smiling Michelle Obama holding her absentee ballot, and she reminded voters in a press release that many states allow early voting of voting by mail.

“It means you don’t have to worry about your schedule filling up, or getting sick, or having to work late on Election Day. And more than anything, it means you can act right now to move our country forward,” she said.

The Obama campaign is pushing early voting in a bid to build up its margins over Romney in key battleground states, in a strategy designed to concentrate resources in driving every possible voter to the polls on November 6. – Agence France-Presse