dKos: ALERT: Early Voting in Swing States

[iconoclastic cat]

From Daily Kos:

ALERT: Early Voting in Swing States
by JustWinBaby
Wed Aug 18th, 2004 at 11:52:00 EDT

It is vitally important that those located in states where early voting is allowed use this new tool to its maximum effect. Today's free feature in the Wall Street Journal about the potential impact of early voting is a must-read for all of us. Here is the free link:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109280000506594531,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature

Brief excerpt:

Most of the potential battleground states in the contest between Mr. Bush and Sen. John Kerry will allow voters to cast ballots before Election Day -- without requiring a reason. In Iowa, early voting begins just three weeks after the Republican convention ends, on Sept. 23. In Arizona, where ballots can be cast as of Sept. 30, the Bush campaign calculates up to half the vote will be cast before Election Day, up from 37% in 2000. In Florida, where voting starts Oct. 18, the total of early voters could hit 30%, doubling the 2000 level.

In a race as close as this one, such figures mean the winner could be the candidate who draws more votes in September and October. In 2000, estimates Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, 15% to 20% of the presidential vote was cast before Election Day. (Only estimates are possible since some states don't keep separate statistics on early votes.) Such voting includes both absentee ballots, mailed or dropped off by those who won't make it to polls on Election Day -- and, increasingly, votes cast on standard election equipment set up at libraries or other locations specifically for early voters.

The potential implications of such growth in early ballots are enormous, if unpredictable. In Iowa, for instance, voting kicks off a week before the first of three scheduled Bush-Kerry debates. Pre-debate voting could lift the incumbent in a contest that Democratic strategists like to compare with the 1980 contest between President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, which broke sharply toward Mr. Reagan after a debate assured wavering voters of his competence.

At the same time, early votes might precede the sort of late-breaking events that many Democrats believe could help Mr. Bush -- such as the capture of Osama bin Laden, or a terror strike on U.S. soil.
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Note: Spread this around!

[MercutioATC]

1. Ohio's not one of them :(

[AirAmFan]

2. Great find! Here's the WSJ's list of early-voting battleground states,

which he says number about half of about 20 states that could go either way when votes for President are counted. Evidently, the date next to each state is the earliest day for early voting except in the case of Oregon, where it is the date absentee ballots are mailed out overseas:

OR Sep.18 (absentee ballots mailed overseas)
IA Sep.23
AZ Sep.30
WI Oct.4
NM Oct.5
WA Oct.13
WV Oct.13
NC Oct.14
NV Oct.16
AR Oct.18
CO Oct.18
FL Oct.18

[LuminousX]

3. Request November 2 off

Election day should be a mandated Federal Holiday, since it isn't, take it off. Make sure you get a chance to vote.

[AirAmFan]

4. GOP's targeting potential suckers among 16 million who registered

in 2000 but did not vote. They have a GREAT early-voting-info-by-zipcode page at http://www.ezvote.org . Just type in your 5-digit zipcode and you'll get the most thorough neighborhood voter info I've ever seen, including specific directions for voting early the easiest way possible in your area.

The 'Business-Industry Political Action Committee" (BIPAC) is the host of this page and the source of the graphic in the WSJ article. A press release on the BIPAC website is very informative:

From http://bipac.org/detail.asp?id=1298

"Census Bureau figures show that ONLY 12.2% OF REGISTERED VOTERS WHO DIDN'T GO TO THE POLLS IN 2000 SAY THEY HAD NO INTEREST. THAT LEAVES 88.8% OF REGISTERED NON-VOTERS -- MORE THAN 16 MILLION PEOPLE -- who might overcome the 'too inconvenient' or 'I forgot' barriers if an early voting option is easily available.

EZVote features a website that explains early voting and allows visitors to find information about its availability in their state simply by entering a zip code. The website is accessed through colorful links that participating businesses can post on their company websites. EZVote targets employees of thousands of businesses, including half of the Fortune 100, that now use a company website to communicate with workers about the importance of voting and about the candidates and issues that impact their jobs and industry.

For more information on the EZVote program, visit http://www.ezvote.org .
For more information on BIPAC, please visit http://www.bipac.org "

[9119495]

5. I'm in Iowa and Dems picked up more ballots than the GOP

in early voting by a 6 to 1 margin in 2000. Gore won by 5000 votes so this can make a difference. I'll be picking them up from Registered Dems after the 23rd.