For U.S. early voters, everyday is election day

Source: Xinhua | 11-01-2008 08:59

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Although election day is still several days away, an increasing number of Americans are already lining up to cast their ballots to elect their next president.

Liz Murtha, a middle-aged white woman, is one of the 17 million U.S. early voters who decided to vote earlier due to personal or political reasons.

"I have waited for more than an hour here and it will be my turn soon," she told Xinhua in the lobby of an Arlington county government building near Washington D.C., -- one of the crowded, noisy early polling sites across the nation.

"But it is still a bargain to vote today, because I waited more than three hours to cast my vote on the election day four years ago, " said Murtha.

Another reason to join the growing army of early voters, she confessed, is a sense of urgency among her fellow Republicans triggered by the strong mobilization efforts of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"They are everywhere. But I should say they (Democrats) have a better organization," said Murtha.

Outside the lobby, several Obama campaign volunteers are holding banners and asking pedestrians to vote for Obama.

There is another Obama volunteer near the subway entrance some 40 meters away, guiding possible voters to go to the polling site.

But there is virtually no volunteer or sign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain around.

In fact, the Obama campaign is banking on increasing the turnout of early voters to increase his chance of victory.

"The Obama team's mobilization effort and Democratic voters' enthusiasm about their candidate is one of the reasons for the unprecedented number of early voters this year," Michael McDonald, an election expert at the George Mason University, told Xinhua in an interview.

McDonald estimated that the percentage of early voters could eventually reach 28 to 30 percent of the total voters.

In the 2004 presidential election, the portion of early voters was 22 percent.

"Early voting is a tendency everywhere," said Donna Patterson, deputy election registrar of Arlington county, Virginia.

Now the majority of U.S. states allow some forms of early voting, she said.

Among them, 32 states allow voters to cast ballot earlier without an excuse, but 14 other states and Washington D.C. require an excuse.

"The states are encouraging people to vote early, partly because it will ease the congestion and chaos on election day," said Patterson.

In Arlington, 15 percent of the 148,000 registered voters had already cast their ballots as of Oct. 30, the electoral official said.

"That is unprecedented and the figure has already far surpassed the total number of early voters in the last presidential election," said Patterson.

Cole Johnson, one of the county officials assisting voters in the lobby, estimated that the number of early voters this year has doubled that of the last presidential election.

"Everyday more people are coming in to vote," he said, pointing to the long line of early voters who crowded the lobby.

Despite early statistics showing that Democrats dominated the early voting, McDonald said people should wait to see which party gets the bigger portion of early voters.

Usually, the Republicans tend to launch their mobilization of early voters later, and the McCain campaign is also making efforts to increase the turnout of Republican loyalists, he said.

Editor:Xiong