October 25, 2008

Vote early, miss the lines

Despite what I said below, if you're pressed for time on Tuesday the 4th you might want to vote early if your state allows it. You could be one of 7.5 million Americans who've already done so.

Early voting is on pace to break records in many states and for the country as a whole, said George Mason University Professor Michael McDonald, who runs the United States Election Project, an information source on the electoral system.

“Usually it starts as a trickle then … it gets greater and greater as we get closer to the election,” McDonald told the Online NewsHour of past early voting. “What’s curious here is a very high level of early voting in this election when we should be seeing a trickle.”

In just a few days, Georgia’s early voting turnout surged past 2004’s early voting tally. North Carolina is expected to overtake its 2004 tally in the next day or two of voting.

Pre-Election Day turnout is also high in such presidential race battlegrounds as Indiana, Nevada, West Virginia and Florida — to name a few.

If you were thinking you could vote on your lunch hour November 4, maybe you should think again.

Posted by Linkmeister at October 25, 2008 12:01 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I'm big for tradition. If one can't take the time to vote on a Tuesday, too bad for that person, not important enough, probably never studied the issues. I'd rather not see such a person vote. Also, changing from Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday would disenfranchise religious Jews and Christians respectively. No, I say keep Tuesdays for voting, and the Electoral College as well.

And as far as early voting, I think that's bad. Too much chance for fraud. And besides, the longer one waits to vote, the more likely there will be a carefully considered decision on that voter's part.

Posted by: bill frankl at October 25, 2008 10:33 AM

I imagine most other countries which vote on Saturdays have Jewish populations of some size and they've managed to accommodate them, so I don't think that's an insurmountable problem. In fact, I saw something at the Why Tuesday website somewhere about that, or maybe it was in the NYT op-ed (referenced below) the founders wrote.

Bill, when's the last time you worked for an hourly wage? People in those positions can't typically take several hours off during the day without forgoing income they may need pretty badly. So some number of them don't vote. That should be addressed, and the Saturday date could help.

Posted by: Linkmeister at October 25, 2008 11:11 AM

I don't really see what difference it would make to move the day. Saturday people have just as many issues with Saturday as Tuesday people and non-agrarians have with Tuesday. Besides, sadly...it's nearly moot anyway.

Posted by: Karan at October 26, 2008 07:01 AM