I plan to vote early...
Fla. Voters to Begin Casting Early Ballots
1 hour, 24 minutes ago
By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Election Day is still two weeks away, but voters across the state have the option Monday of beginning to cast their ballots early in this pivotal battleground state.
AP Photo
Early voting also occurs Monday in Texas, Colorado and Arkansas. Other key states this year have already begun in-person voting, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Early voting was introduced in Florida after the 2000 election, in which this crucial state decided the result by only 537 votes and introduced topics such as butterfly ballots and hanging chads to the national debate.
Both President Bush (news - web sites) and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry (news - web sites), arranged campaign swings through the Sunshine State over the weekend to coincide with the start of early voting.
"There are probably a lot of people in Florida who are ready to cast their ballot," said Mindy Tucker Fletcher, senior adviser for the Bush campaign in Florida.
Some groups are urging voters to cast a paper absentee ballot because of concerns over the state's new touch-screen voting machines and any potential recounts. Others are touting it as a chance for busy voters to avoid waiting in line Nov. 2.
"It's going to be changing the way candidates campaign because they have to get their message out to people two to three weeks earlier than in the past," said Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LePore.
Some have criticized the concept of early voting, saying it increases opportunities for vote fraud without significantly boosting voter participation. Still, most states offer the option of early voting.
Across Florida, Democratic college students camped overnight at election offices to be the first in line Monday. The state's congressional black caucus is traveling to five cities over four days to emphasize early voting and voter protection. State Rep. Anne Gannon, a Delray Beach Democrat, is hosting a get-out-the-vote barbecue.
Gov. Jeb Bush disagrees with a plan to open only one early-voting place in downtown Jacksonville to cover all of Duval County, and Secretary of State Glenda Hood urged the county Saturday "to increase accessibility" to early voting.
A Jacksonville city attorney has said it is too late to open new sites even though the city council has committed more money to the idea. With 500,000 voters, Duval is the state's most populous county with only one site.
For voters in Palm Beach County, home of the infamous butterfly ballot, many are still upset about Al Gore (news - web sites)'s loss in 2000. The get-out-the-vote effort has attracted record attention, said Fred Dibean, vice president of the county's Young Democrats.
"The problem happened here last time, and we don't want it to happen again," he said. "We want to be the ones to fix it."
Election officials say that although the early-voting efforts create more work in a busy election year, they're pushing for voters to get to the polls and make their voices heard any way they can.
"As long as people vote, we're happy," said LePore, who lost her re-election bid in August. "But if something really bad happens about a candidate two days before an election, you can't change your vote."
Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) chairman Terry McAuliffe said he and the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (news - web sites) and other prominent black Democrats plan visits to urge people to minimize the possibility for trouble by voting early.
"It's very important," McAuliffe said. "We are encouraging them to vote early just to get it done." |
