Monday, October 20, 2008

Early Voting: The Rush to the Polls Is On

Well I usually go and early vote on the second day, giving the poll workers enough time to get the cobwebs swept off the voting machines. But today I wanted to get an idea what the turnout was going to be like, even though I can see the turnout report at all early voting locations tomorrow.

I’m a little impatient, you see.

And it looks like early voting in the general election is going to make the March primary numbers pale in comparison.

When I arrived at the sign-in point, I asked the geezer working that job about the turnout.

“How’s business today,” I asked.

“Very good,” he replied. “Too good.”

He read off of his machine that I was the 362nd voter to register on his machine on this day, and there was another one at the other end of the table, so roughly double that, 720, had shown up by 4:30 PM. He said, from past experience that the number could easily double by closing time, 7:00 PM.

Compare that prognostication to total Democratic early voters on the first day of early voting in the March primary: 1710. That’s 1710 voters county-wide. I was at just one of twenty early voting locations today.

So the message is clear, voters will be turning out in record numbers at early voting locations, and well they should. Polling locations on Election Day are going to resemble a zoo more than a Democratic process.

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