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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: redfish who wrote (55465)	11/1/2004 11:49:21 AM
From: redfish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Early voting to speed results Early voting and absantee ballots could give an earlier, bigger picture of the election. By VICTOR HULL victor.hull@heraldtribune.com Soon after the polls close Tuesday, Florida and the rest of the nation could get a snapshot of the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry here based on the unprecedented number of people voting early. Local elections supervisors on Friday began processing -- but not counting -- the absentee ballots that have been flooding in over the past week or so, storing data in the optical scanning machines that record the votes. After the polls close Tuesday, they will run the programs that tabulate the votes. In addition, in counties that have electronic touchscreen balloting, including Charlotte and Sarasota, supervisors can begin counting the votes recorded on those systems during the early voting that has taken place over the past two weeks. The e-voting results can't be tabulated until they are transferred to an activator that is kept under seal to ensure no one can access them ahead of time, Dent said. The counts will give voters an earlier and broader picture of the election because about 2 million people may have voted before Tuesday -- 20 to 30 percent of the total turnout, according to most estimates. Sarasota County Elections Supervisor Kathy Dent said she planned to read the early voting results first, followed by the absentee ballots, both shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday. After that, the results will roll in as they typically have, as the various precincts get their numbers in. "We've never had this many absentee ballots before," said Dent, estimating that twice as many people this year voted absentee compared with 2000. Supervisors have nothing to compare the early voting with: This is the first time Florida has allowed it. The public has taken advantage of the new voting option, with some voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots early. Both parties and presidential candidates have been encouraging their supporters to vote ahead of Tuesday. By Saturday, Sarasota County reported 30,000 people had come to the supervisor's office to vote early. Another 32,000 had returned absentee ballots. Charlotte County reported that 11,500 people had voted early in person and more than 16,000 had returned absentee ballots. Manatee County reported that more than 9,000 had voted early; absentee numbers were not available. Early voting will continue today in all three counties. Although that represents a significant number of registered voters, lines are still Continued 1 \| 2 \| Next >> heraldtribune.com