Big Push for Early Voting Means Election Day Lasts Weeks

By Robert Struckman, 10-05-08

Absentee ballots have become a major get-out-the-vote tool for both parties in recent elections, and the practice is changing the way candidates and parties spend money and campaign, reports John S. Adams in the Great Falls Tribune today.

Monday is the first day absentee votes can be cast by mail or at elections offices, where polls will be open until Nov. 4.

The sheer number of early ballots cast has been rising sharply, election by election. 

Bowen Greenwood, spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Johnson, said there are more than 90,000 people on the permanent absentee list statewide.

“While we haven’t made any kind of official prediction yet, we would not be surprised to see the total number of absentee voters go as high as 150,000 — perhaps even higher,” Greenwood said.

Some Democrats estimate that absentee ballots could account for up to 60 percent of the vote this year, depending on voter turnout.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, 29 percent of the votes cast in the 2006 general election were by absentee ballot. That number jumped to 34 percent in the June 3 primary election.

Hotly contested elections have spurred voters to the polls, and so have the campaigns.

Democrat Barack Obama, who launched a field operation in the state in April, has 20 field offices and more than 40 volunteers working throughout Montana. Obama’s campaign staff, along with a small army of volunteers, has been busy identifying supporters, registering them to vote and encouraging them to vote early.

“We’re going to be pushing people to take advantage of the early vote option. Starting Monday, we will be encouraging our supporters to get in and cast their ballot,” said Caleb Weaver, Obama’s Montana spokesman. “It’s a way of making sure that people get to the polls and cast their ballot. This way, they have a month to do it, not just one day. We want to make sure they don’t miss their chance to vote.”

An informal survey of elections officials in 35 counties found that the significant portion of new voter registrations are the result of efforts by the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign.

Yellowstone County election clerk Barb Cox told the Billings Gazette that her office is receiving about 100 registration cards a day from the Obama campaign. Cox said Republicans are turning in between 50 and 100 cards each week.

It all adds up to a sense of last-minute-campaigning, starting Monday and lasting until the first Tuesday in November.

“It’s had a huge impact on campaigns,” said Jake Eaton, executive director of the Montana Republican Party. “It’s changed the old method of where we start campaigning the day after Labor Day, and we save up our money and blast the air waves in October (with campaign ads).”