Early To Rise, Early To Vote

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One of the trends that has been taking hold all across the American electoral scene is the advent of early voting. Here in Indiana, we have done this for the last several elections, however, is it a good idea or a bad idea?

There's been plenty of controversy surrounding various details of early voting, absentee voting and other voting issues prior to this year's November 4th election. In Florida, there have been lines going out the door and around the corner, in Ohio, there was controversy when Republicans complained about early voters being able to register and vote the same day.

Even here in Indiana, Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office was accused of improperly scrubbing a number of voters from Indiana voting roles, however, the New York Times which reported that story, did say it appeared to be a goof as opposed to something intentional.

But with the problems that could result, and have been resulting from early voting, what's the verdict? Good Idea

I'd say "fantastic idea," if I had a sound effect to say it. Or maybe "marvelous idea" or "the best idea you've ever had."

Why? For one, Election Day is going to be murder. This is probably the most paid-attention-to election since 1980, if not 1968. In an interview a few weeks back, Secretary of State Rokita told me before registration closed that Indiana was poised to have between 600 and 700,000 new and updated registered voters this year versus the 2006 mid-terms.

This Wednesday, Lawrence County Clerk Myron Rainey said that he's expecting it to be a long night for his crew, as far as getting in all the last voters, and getting everything counted. And, even at that, Rainey says he's seen pretty hefty turnout at the Lawrence County Courthouse already. Rainey says he's been averaging about 100 or more votes per day since early voting opened October 6th.

Here in Lawrence County, on Election Day, the Lawrence County Clerk's Office will be managing 39 precincts throughout the county, and they only have enough equipment for about 3 voting machines in each precinct. And since 2 of those 3 machines will be older machines that are out of production, Myron Rainey is really hoping there are no equipment failures, otherwise the lines that are already expected to be long will just be worse.

Me personally, well, being a journalist, I'm going to go ahead and take one for the team and vote on Election Day, just so I can tell you guys how long I had to wait, and how stressed out the poll workers were. And you can listen to that on Election Night 2008 on WBIW that Tuesday, starting at 5:30pm.

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