Election Day Becomes 'Just the Last Day to Vote'

By Maria L. La Ganga

Sept. 26, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Throughout the United States, the election process is undergoing a major face-lift, one that now allows nearly three quarters of the country’s voters to cast their ballots well before election day.

The number of states allowing some form of early voting without the excuse of travel, illness or age has tripled since 1996, as officials have increasingly allowed busy voters to cast ballots when it’s convenient and thereby ease the frantic pace of election day for poll workers.

An estimated 15% of Americans voted early during the 2000 presidential election, either through the mail or in person, a figure that experts said could more than double this year.

“Election day is just the last day to vote in this country; it’s not the only day,” said Brian Lunde, founder of the nonpartisan group HelpingAmericansVote.org.

Nearly all of the potential battleground states targeted by President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry allow voters to cast their ballots before election day, either in person or by mail, without asking for any special dispensation.

Balloting in Iowa began Thursday, a week before the first presidential debate. Arizonans begin voting later this week. In California, where anyone who is registered may apply to vote permanently in absentia, voters can request an absentee ballot starting Oct. 4. Oregon, the only state that has all-mail voting, will send out most of its ballots beginning Oct. 15.

Lunde said this was the first election in history where an overwhelming majority of the electorate -- more than 70% of all voters -- have the option to vote early.

Both major parties are eagerly chasing the nation’s early voters. In fact, the increase in early voting -- coupled with a tight race -- has forced the parties to change the way they campaign. They must spend more money, increase grass-roots efforts and start their outreach programs months early. They also must communicate with early voters while still running traditional get-out-the-vote efforts that culminate on the first Tuesday in November.

“As a general matter, you have to start your get-out-the-vote activities earlier,” said Kerry pollster Mark Mellman. “It used to be you could build to one day. Now you have to replicate those activities over the course of many days.... It’s more costly, because every day’s election day.”

Democrats hope relaxed vote-by-mail regulations will increase turnout among Latinos and African Americans -- groups that tend to support the party but might find going to the polls intimidating, particularly after the 2000 election, in which the ballots of black Florida voters were disproportionately disqualified. Republicans are counting on the changes to help them tap busy suburban parents.

Critics of early voting argued that it was flawed in ways both practical and philosophical. Because many early voting states allow nongovernment parties, such as unions, to collect absentee ballots, some believed that the process could lead to increased fraud or voter intimidation.

Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, released a study this month that looked at early and expanded absentee voting nationwide and concluded that it actually lowered overall turnout by a percentage point or two.

“The parties think it’s wonderful,” said Gans. But he said that what used to be concentrated efforts and spending to get out the vote “gets diffused over several days, weakening the impact of that money and effort.”

Bruce Ackerman, Yale law and political science professor and co-author of the new book “Deliberation Day,” argued that early voting cheated citizens of information and civic ritual. He said those who vote before the final weeks of a campaign might not see debates and couldn’t factor in events that could change their minds.

“What’s the point of voting?” he asked. “Is it just to cast a blind preference? Well then, if it’s just to engage in a mindless ritual in which people don’t think they have an obligation to listen to arguments on both sides and discuss matters with their neighbors and think about it, what’s wrong with voting two years ahead of time?”

But Jean Hessburg, executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, pointed to her state’s turnout as evidence of early voting’s benefits. In the 1998 general election -- the last before the parties began aggressively promoting early ballot casting, voter turnout was 55%. In the 2002 election, a comparable, non-presidential contest, turnout rose to 57%.

“I don’t think there’s any downside, if it gets more people to vote,” said Hessburg. “No matter what, an increase in voter participation is always good.”

As of Thursday, all registered Iowa voters were able to cast their ballots either through the mail, at authorized satellite voting locations or at the auditor’s office in each county. Hessburg expected 35% of the state’s voters would cast ballots early and was counting on her party’s efforts to bank 200,000 votes for Kerry before Nov. 2.

The 2000 presidential election in Iowa underscored the power of early voting. Though Bush got more votes on election day, Vice President Al Gore received more of the early votes and carried the state by one percentage point.

Clint Reed, who coordinates the Arkansas Republican Party’s campaign, argued that early voting was a benefit to both voters and the parties. In his state, balloting will begin Oct. 18, allowing voters to do their civic duty at their own convenience.

The benefit to the parties: efficiency. They can focus their grass-roots efforts in September and October on marshaling early voters. On election day, they will be freed to focus more directly on fewer people.

“Our most valuable resource, especially in the last 72 hours of a campaign, is time,” said Reed. “If you can touch bases with people that have not voted and spend that time not duplicating efforts that have already been done, it’s much more valuable to us.”

Technological advances allow campaigns and activist organizations such as America Coming Together, a pro-Democratic group, to run sophisticated tracking efforts to follow voters’ behavior.

In Arizona, for example, voters are sent ballot request cards based on their party affiliation. Both Democratic and Republican organizations send the cards to the 24% of the Arizona electorate with no declared party preference.

Voters will return those cards to the party or group that sent them, and they are then forwarded to election officials. After that, said Michael Frias, Arizona state director for America Coming Together, the counties would provide computer lists updated daily showing who requested an early ballot and who had voted.

“For those who have not submitted their ballot, you clearly want to do follow-up to remind them to turn in their ballot early,” said Frias, whose organization plans such follow-up both by mail and by phone. “We are aggressively facilitating voting by mail.... In an ideal world, everyone would vote before Nov. 2.”

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The longest day

More than 70% of all registered voters are eligible to cast their ballots before Nov. 2 either in person or by mail, changing election day into election season and requiring the political parties to change the way they campaign. Most states offer no restrictions on absentee voting by mail and/or early voting. A look at the exceptions:

Minimal restrictions

The states with minimal restrictions on absentee voting by mail and/or early voting:

Illinois

Louisiana

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

South Carolina

Virginia