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* Mark Brown writes today about the 150,000 Cook County residents who took advantage of early voting and may have cast their ballots for candidates who are now out of the race…

When Democrat John Edwards and Republican Rudy Giuliani folded their campaigns last week, they essentially nullified the votes of hundreds if not thousands of their supporters in Illinois who had already cast a ballot.

Those voters don’t get a do-over today, and therefore won’t have a real voice in picking this year’s Democrat or Republican nominees (not that they were on a winning track in the first place).

It’s the chance those voters took when they went to the polls early. Obviously, there is no way to retrieve a secret ballot once it’s been cast. But for those who hadn’t really considered the possibility in advance, the result still stings.

“I feel kind of disenfranchised,” complained Naperville Township Republican Chairman Fred Spitzzeri, who tells me he eagerly cast a vote for Giuliani on the first day of early voting and urged others to follow suit, then was shocked as the former New York mayor withdrew from the race six days before our election.[…]

For now, at least, the better option for early voters in future elections might be to at least hold off a little longer, especially in presidential races where the field is fluid. For anyone who had waited, there were still two more days of early voting after Giuliani and Edwards dropped out.

* And, now, to the question: Should early voting be abolished at least for presidential campaigns? Or, should things stay the way they are? Explain.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:03 am

Comments

Things should stand the way they are. If the person you were going to vote for drops out, your vote wouldn’t have mattered so much anyway.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:14 am
that’s the risk you take when early voting. EV is a good thing, so I wouldn’t want to see it changed.

That said, a lot of states do separate their presidential primary from their other primaries.

Apparently, Illinois now has the earliest primary for non-presidential purposes ever.

Comment by jerry 101 Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:20 am
Early voting should last no more than two weeks and include weekends. Election day itself should be a Saturday (like the special congressional the Gov called).

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:24 am
I agree with Anon @ 10:24 - the early voting should still be an option, but maybe only for a week or two before election day. I was originally planning to vote for Guiliani and had planned a couple of weeks ago to vote early. Good thing I’m as disorganized as I am and didn’t get around to voting early after all.

Comment by KIZ Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:29 am
Oh, and Anon @ 10:24 - I’m not sure where you’re located, but in my precinct (in Chicago), the polling place for early voting has been open from 9 - 5 on Saturday.

Comment by KIZ Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:31 am
No change. Yeah, it may stink to have your candidate drop out but it was your choice to vote early. There’s no real problem with the system there, now as far as how ridiculously early and drawn out the primaries are in general… that’s another story. Let’s make the 4th of July the new “Super Tuesday”!!!

Comment by Learning the Ropes Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:39 am
The problem with early voting and even “absentee” voting is that they open the process to fraud, which I’d guess is much more systemic that we’d like to admit.

I have no pity for those who voted early and lost their vote. I’d make absentee voting as strict as possible.

Though it would be impossible (re: Constitutional change), I’d change election day to Sat & Sun.

I’d also offer a “reverse poll tax” where a voter gets a $50 or $100 tax credit if they can prove they voted.

Anything that opens the process to fraud should be abolished (provisional ballots come to mind), and even the most innocuous vote fraud should have mandatory jail time (double voting snowbird skanks) - with financial rewards for whistle blowers.

The nation is drowning in a cesspool of corruption, but it may just be too late to stop.

Comment by Bruno Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:45 am
It is very important to have a vehicle to be sure that voters have an opportunity to cast their ballots during an election. Rules should be modified to eliminate the problems discovered in each election cycle. Early voting may require some tweaking.

Personally I have reservations about the concept of what I refer to as boutique voting, where votes are cast early, for the heck of it, rather than in response to a need. Mr. Brown hits the nail on the head when he touches on the ‘lost’ vote, but there are other circumstances where the early voter allows themselves to be disenfranchised. e.g. a chosen candidate does or says something that changes an opinion, information becomes available or events occur which reorder the importance of issues.

Disenfranchisement can occur in many ways. When people do not play by the rules the voters of the fair playing voter are diminished. The increase in absentee voters also may be an indication of some types of voter fraud. An infrequently discussed topic is that of snowbirds and other seasonal residents who feel entitled to vote in both locations they have residence. While there may be validity in their opinions for their right to vote on local issues, it does not give them the right to vote on a federal level. The numbers don’t appear large, but there is no mechanism to determine whether a voter is voting only once in a federal election.

Someone needs to watch this to keep things fair for all. The hyper-polarization of Washington has brought the FEC to a halt. Who will watch?

Comment by plutocrat03 Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 10:53 am
Why was Naperville GOP Chair Spitzzeri shocked that Rudy 9iu11iani dropped out? Wake up, my man, wake up.

As others have noted, that’s the risk early primary voters take. All their other votes will likely count.

Comment by Rob_N Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 11:02 am
no change! If you were so smug to vote this way, you should deal with your voting decisions

Comment by Wumpus Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 11:23 am
I’d eliminate early voting; but make election day two days and move it to a Saturday and Sunday so that people have more time on more flexible days to vote.

Comment by Niles Township Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 11:25 am
I agree that a Saturday and Sunday primary date would be better than a Tuesday vote. You could still offer early voting for people who are on vacation, scheduled for surgery, have little kids (daycare, school, etc.) and work weird shifts.

Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 11:37 am
Stay with Tuesdays, or both Saturdays and Sundays - not one or the other.

With regards to early voters whose ballots are now meaningless due to dropouts — are you familiar with the phrase “thinning out the turkey herd”? No one with common sense should vote more than a day or two before an election; some of the juiciest scandals come out at the end, in addition to the dropout factor. So let the foolish ones cast their votes early — it magnifies the impact of the votes of those who vote late with the best information at hand.

Comment by capitol view Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 11:56 am
You always have the opportunity to cast a write in vote. It does not mean that you were dinenfranchised if you preferred candidate drops out early. If you voted early, you took a risk that your candidate might not make it to the primary.

Comment by Huh? Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 11:59 am
I’ve voted absentee for candidates who dropped out of the race on the day I mailed back the ballot. I was bummed, but not disenfranchised.

I vote early because I make up my mind early. If I voted for a candidate who eventually “dropped out,” I still made my preference known. And quite frankly, given one vote rarely makes a difference in outcome, it’s really the statement that’s more important.

Comment by the Other Anonymous Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 12:21 pm
Actually it’s those juicy last-minute scandals that most supports the concept of early voting. The point of waiting till the last minute to spring the scandal is to give the other side no time to recover. By having early voting commonly available and commonly used, it makes the tactic less appealing (and let’s face it, it is a bit unsavory) because one must consider the earlies.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 12:51 pm
For practical and logistical reasons, early voting is a necessity. I’m a consultant (insert joke here) that frequently travels on short notice. Eliminating my capacity to partake solely due to my profession is grossly unfair, and runs counter to the spirit of the process.

In addition, many people take comfort in the notion that limiting their opportunity to vote over the course of a single day does take into account numerous other unforseen events that may prohibit participation on said day.

Comment by The Doc Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 1:15 pm
No change. Caveat emptor.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 1:23 pm
I believe if you vote absentee and show up at the polls on election day, you can vote and your absentee ballot becomes null and void. There are rules to go by, forms the voter must fill out, and certain things the judges have to do to nullify the absentee ballot, which never leaves the sealed envelope it was mailed in. The nullified absentee ballot is NOT returned to the voter but instead the envelope then goes into a particular larger envelope and is only seen by the county election commission. I’m not sure if at that point it is ever opened or not, but my hunch is that it is not and is just kept for verification purposes and to make sure that both ballots are not counted. My memory on this could be a bit fuzzy but I do recall a way to nullify an absentee ballot. There’s really a lot an election judge has to do and if more people would get involved in the process, there would be a better understanding of all of the new rules and regs. Thanks to all of you judges putting in a very long day.

Comment by Little Egypt Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 2:30 pm
There should be no change with early voting system, and we especially should not shorten it to starting a week or two before the election. I had to vote early; otherwise I would have had to vote absentee. So, I still would have had to cast my vote early but in a more complicated manner.

If I had the choice, I would have voted today, because I knew there were risks. But unlike some people, I weighed the risks. I was tempted to vote for Edwards, but I knew that there was a chance he would drop out. I ended up voting for someone who’s still in the race.

Besides, aren’t we overlooking a small detail—the delegates. In this election, our votes count more so for electing delegates (which is more true for Republicans). If a candidate dropped out of the race, but they got enough votes, then at least some of their delegates go to the convention (it’s a long shot, I know, but it’s still a possibility).

You know what, there’s a chance that we could feel disenfranchised no matter who we vote for—whether our candidate drops out, loses, or fails to keep their campaign promises. All we can do is suck it up and try to keep our elected officials accountable for their actions.

Comment by Carrie Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 2:41 pm
How about the reverse question…should candidates be allowed to drop out? I was glad Edwards was on the ballot and might have voted for him and was planning to vote for one or two of his delegates. Edwards was moving into a position to be a broker at the convention. He might have had the delegates to make things interesting.

When you are on you are on! No backing out. Stay in until the end. Make the convention interesting.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 2:47 pm
Early voting should be eliminated. It is too susceptible to fraud. The length of time voting locations are open insures that there will almost never be an independent poll watcher at the location which opens the process to fraud. I realize poll watching had become a dead art here, however, there are places and circumstances where it is necessary and local campaigns will be recruiting poll watchers in the future. It is hard enough to recruit enough poll watchers for all precincts on election day let alone the two weeks prior to election day at multiple locations. For voters who plan to be absent on election day or think for what ever reason they will be unable to vote that day they should be allowed to vote absentee with no explanation necessary (which for all practical purposes was the case before.)

I fail to see the need that early voting fulfills. Does anyone have any figures on the increase turn out early voting has facilitated (I realize more and more voters are voting early, however, I haven’t seen any statistics which indicate early voting has actually increased voter participation)?

RWP

Comment by RWP Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 2:57 pm
Rich-

I see you didn’t like my post in Greek. I swear, there were no swear words in it:-)

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 3:18 pm
I think that the many advantages of “early voting” are substantial enough that it should still be kept. My candidates (Romney, for instance) chose to stay in the race so my vote still meant something. However, I will continue to wait until the last week before early voting ends before I cast my vote

Comment by Aaron Slick Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 5:17 pm
Hey, does anyone know if the Blagos voted?

Comment by Disgusted Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 8:02 pm