Early Voting
 

Not sure if it's available in all states, but those where it is offered, how many of you will vote early? and how were the lines?

I was off yesterday and went to vote around 10am and had a 10 min wait, my folks headed off to Florida and voted on the first day the polls were open and got there around 9am and waited 90 minutes. We arent in a swing state (TN) but the worker at the polls said they are staffing for a 70-75% turnout.

i generally vote early and the last time, the lines were nonexistant, but the place where i vote early is in a town of 15K people..my old history professor is the mayor..and since they have a fire department under his control...he's more qualified than palin....

I don't quite understand why everyone just doesn't request absentee ballots, instead of taking the time to go and mess around at a voting booth? Is it really only in the Pacific NW that most elections are done via absentee balloting? You get the ballot mailed directly to your house, along with a voter's pamphlet explaining all the choices, and then you mail it back in when you're done. Easy as pie.

Some of us like going to the polls. You see your neighbours in a political context and as equals. You might see your landlord or your boss at the polls, but right there, you're equal. And, as Rousseau said, it's the only day the people are in power. That's a good feeling. My kids enjoy the polls, too.

Having said all that, i voted early this time.

Plus, in some states, you have to have a valid reason to vote absentee.

Actually the company I work for gives us Election Day off. Most, including me, choose to work that day and use it later in the year.

My usual polling place is a small church and if there are more than 20 people in line goes out the door. It was raining and cold the last time I voted, so early voting it is....

I early voted and I waited much longer to early vote then I ever have for regular voting. Go figure....

Yes, so far only Oregon and Washington have mail-in elections. It's a lot easier. I've never voted at a polling place as a result, but I used to go with my mother when I was younger, and remember it being fun, but also crazy and crowded (and we lived in a fairly rural area at the time).

It's one of those things that if people tried it, they might find they like it, but they're not willing to try it, oddly enough. Oregon got into it by allowing local elections to start using vote-by-mail, and it became popular enough statewide that they passed an initiative to make it permanent and include the general elections in 1998 (2 years before I turned 18). It's a great system, because 1) you vote with a Scantron (creating a paper record), and 2) that Scantron is then scanned to be counted (creating an electronic record). There was an op-ed in the NYTimes in 2006 called "The Election Is in the Mail" by Ruth Goldway that outlines many of the benefits of vote-by-mail. I'd share it, but there's no permalink.

Most people who move here from out of state find it a little strange at first but then realize how nice it is to be able to vote at one's leisure.

So yes, I've already voted--got my ballot in Saturday's post, filled it out Saturday night, and dropped it off at the ballot drop site on my way to soccer on Sunday. I could've slapped a stamp on it and mailed it back, but there are TONS of ballot drop sites, and so it's easy to just pop it in a box while I'm out and about.

Georgia only recently started allowing "no reason" absentee voting

My county election office closes before I can get there for early voting. Next week they will have satellite locations that dont close til 7, one is near my house so I'll be going and hope the lines arent long. 4 years ago the voting early line was so long I was there for 3 hours

I'm voting early today!

I was essentially forced to vote early. There are a lot less places to vote this time around, and I got a dear John letter from my closest polling place. I voted last week.

After voting absentee at the last presidential election in Ohio (where absentee votes didn't seem to really count, grr), I'm definitely going to the polls this time. I've worked quite a few elections in Ohio and enjoy the atmosphere of empowerment and community participation. Crompsin and I plan on voting early in the morning - we'll put the horses out and possibly go stand in line at 7 am in our PJs before going to work/school.

Well, I guess I can understand that... I think I remember going to the polls once with my mom when I was really young, but no memory other than that (in WA state). I guess we knew our neighbors better, back then. But I haven't lived anywhere near my polling place (due to grad school, moving abroad, etc) in a very long time, nearly a decade now, so I don't know who my neighbors are, don't have a boss or a landlord, etc... so for me, it's really just about marking the piece of paper, nothing more.I didn't know this, and find it really interesting... again, as Snowy cleared up, I guess it's really only in WA and OR that absentees are the norm.Do you think you'll sign up to do that in the future, Shani?
-----Added 23/10/2008 at 12 : 42 : 56-----
Really?? What was the story there?

Early voting is on the ballot this year in Maryland, which I support; if it passes, I may vote early in subsequent elections for the forseeable future.

I had planned on voting absentee this year since I was supposed to have a work conflict on Election day, but now it's looking like that won't be the case. Still waiting for my ballot to arrive in the mail, though.

Ohio took forever to count and certify the votes from absentee and provisional ballots, and some voters who requested absentee ballots never received them (and I'd argue that most of the individuals requesting absentee ballots in the 2004 election were unable to get to the polls to cast a provisional ballot, so their votes were never included in the election). There were also a lot of issues surrounding provisional and absentee ballots - many were thrown out for voters not including their birthdate on the ballot, even though the inclusion was not required by law.

Essentially, the last election in Ohio was a cluster fuck. I don't want to be a part of that again.

I voted last night by mail. I never go to polling places anymore. My wife insists on it, because she likes the sticker/button thing. Which is cool, but I don't like lines.

Was just listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR, and the topic today is voting and problems with voting in previous elections. Neal Conan outlined Oregon's vote-by-mail initiative and asked why more states don't switch over to this method, as we've had no problems with fraud and an 80% turnout of eligible voters in the 2000 and 2004 general elections. Unfortunately, they didn't really get into it.

I'm in California, and I'm an absentee voter. All I had to do was check a box when I registered. I prefer voting by mail.

We'll see if that changes when I move.

I vote early everytime. First time I voted I had to wait in line several hours. Never again.

Don't bother...I'll just cancel you out anyway :D

;)

I'll be voting early tomorrow. Turns out Houston's a pretty populated place (go figure). That's moot anyways, because I'll be in North Carolina during the election anyways.

This was my first year doing the absentee ballot. I think it (no reason) just started this year in Florida.

I used to vote early, which would take maybe a half hour of waiting when I hit a really long line. My daughter voted today and spent over two hours in line during a non-peak hour (2 pm). She thinks it may have to do with the idiocy of the average Floridian. Since we've failed at chads and computers, apparently the ballots are much like the absentee ballots; black pen coloring in the ovals. Tough stuff.

I voted early this year because I'll be busy with GOTV on election day. My area has seen record turnout for early voting as well as a number of problems because of it. Grace period registration ended a few days ago and the clerk's office was also the early voting location at the local courthouse. The line on that day was, at one point, 2 hours long!

Ah, another (Democratic) politico. Good to know ya!

My state (Kentucky) makes it really hard to vote early--you can't do it "just because", you pretty much have to be out of town.

I'm usually the first one at my polling location because I'm always GOTV-ing or the like. This year, I'm part of a contingent of lawyers/law students who are monitoring the polls, making sure voting laws are being observed. (AKA, making sure people aren't being denied the right to vote illegally) There's something I like about voting on Election Day, though, even though I have to do it at 6AM.

How exactly do they know that you're out of town, btw? Do you have to provide tickets or hotel bookings or something??

And with all this early voting, why aren't we getting any results back yet? One would think that the early voting would provide all kinds of discussion fodder, rather than just polling potential voters about how they MIGHT vote. Does anyone have an answer about that, as I'm quite curious to know how people are voting right now...

If I'm remembering correctly, you have to sign an affidavit. Granted, I'm sure people lie.

Tennessee was like this until a few years ago. There was an affidavit that had to be signed stating that you would not be able to vote on that date due to being out of town. I voted that way in '88 when I was in college..

I dont think the results of early voting can be released before election day.

The only information that can be released is the party affiliation of early voters...and its overwhelmingly Democrats in most states.

GALLUP - Obama and McCain supporters voting early at about the same rate.

Complete Gallop article with charts Early Voting, Now at 11%, Could Reach 30%

Reports from many of the swing states dont bear that out....more Democrats have voted early than Republicans...it may even out in the last 12 days.

Assuming that they are (or will) voting early at the same rate is the biggest difference from the last election, where early voters were like 5-10% more Bush voters than Kerry voters.

Early voting at the same rate generally hurts the candidate who is behind (in this case, McCain)...it means less potential votes to swing at the last minute.

The best list I've seen so far of early voting:

2008 Early Voting

In many of the swing states, there are significantly more democrats (or signficantly more Blacks in some states)....IA, NC, NM, NV.

CO and FL are closer.

That is really cool, dc_dux. I was able to pull up a PDF issued by Oregon's Sec. of State giving me early return percentages. This is really interesting to me as everyone in my household has already voted, but we know everyone else has their ballots, and I wanted to know how many Oregonians are like me and like to turn their ballot in ASAP.

We had the cutest group of grannies come by our house this past Friday evening asking if we had voted. They were going door-to-door for Obama's GOTV campaign; they were so pleased to hear that we'd already voted AND turned in our ballots.