Flea Markets, Checkout Lines Among Voters’ Options : Electorate: Hoping to boost turnout, officials are getting creative with programs such as early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, retail voting and mail-in voting.

If you’re an old-fashioned type who thinks voting is something you do on Election Day, think again.

By the time polls open Nov. 8, up to one-third of all Texas voters will have cast their ballots--at flea markets, stores and in church parking lots.

In California, an estimated one in five voters will vote before Election Day, without ever setting foot in a polling place.

And in two Washington counties, nobody will go to the polls on Election Day. Island and Ferry counties are running their elections entirely by mail.

Hoping to boost America’s chronically low voter turnout, election officials and legislators are getting creative, trying to make voting more convenient with programs such as early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, retail voting and mail-in voting.

“Convenience sells, no matter what business you’re in,” said Art Hyland, auditor in Island County, which has mailed ballots to every registered voter.

With the innovations, however, come concerns that tinkering with democracy’s most sacred rite may have unwelcome results, including higher costs, increased risk of fraud, and a loss of community spirit.

Gary King of Olympia, Wash., got a ballot in the mail two weeks before the state’s Sept. 20 primary. Olympia is in Thurston County, one of seven Washington counties that for the first time this year conducted the primary entirely by mail.

“There was absolutely no sense of community,” said King. He enjoys voting at a polling place, where he can see neighbors, punch his ballot in secret, then drop it with satisfaction into the ballot box.

Voting by mail felt “like paying a bill,” he said.

The new age of innovative voting dates at least to 1977, when California ended its requirement that only disabled voters or those who would be away on Election Day could use absentee ballots.

Now any Californian can vote absentee and, in recent years, Republican and Democratic party leaders have made a science of identifying supporters and encouraging them to vote absentee. In the June primary, absentee ballots made up 20% of all votes cast.

At least three other states--Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington--have similar “no-excuse” absentee balloting.

Seven states take the idea a step further. Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas offer some form of early voting, allowing or encouraging voters to cast “in-person absentee ballots” at polling stations before Election Day.

Since 1991, Texas’ most populous counties have provided satellite and mobile voting stations starting 20 days before Election Day.

Bexar County, encompassing San Antonio, has 32 satellite polling stations at retail sites. Five voting vans roam the county, parking at churches, flea markets, senior centers and corporate headquarters.

In the 1992 presidential election, 52.5% of all Bexar County votes were cast before Election Day.

But early voting has drawbacks, said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, based in Washington, D.C.

Gans sees problems in early voters basing their decisions on different information from those who wait. Debates and media coverage can tarnish a candidate’s image in a campaign’s final days, and early voters may regret their choices by Election Day.

Early voting also is expensive, Gans said, and there’s no proof it boosts voter participation. Turnout in Texas was up 3.6% in 1992 over the 1988 presidential election.

In Washington, there’s no question that mail-in voting increases participation. Statewide turnout in the September primary was 35%, compared to 53% in counties voting by mail.

But there are other complaints.

Even though they had the option of hand-delivering completed ballots, some voters said the 29-cent stamp required to mail them was a poll tax.

Washington election officials say they watch for fraud by checking every ballot against on-file signatures. Voters sign an outer envelope, which contains the unsigned ballot envelope.

And to those worried about tradition, Washington’s Secretary of State Ralph Munro says elections must change with changing times.

“People are on the move, and a lot of them can’t get to the polls like they used to,” Munro said. “When people aren’t participating because government officials have been too stupid to make voting convenient, it’s our job to change that.”