By Feb 1, 2.3 million Calif votes had been mailed in [View All]

[SoCalDem]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0201/p02s01-uspo.html

Early voting for a month prior to Super Tuesday could have skewed results, and should be looked at, if there's to be "sooooper-dooooper-delegate" intervention..

New jersey had early voting, so did Florida(even though they "don't count")

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How early voting may swing Super Tuesday results
Some states have allowed primary votes to be cast as long as a month ago. In California, for example, up to half of all primary votes may be cast early.

By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the February 1, 2008 edition


Reporter Amanda Paulson discusses states that allow voters to cast early primary ballots and how candidates' strategies have shifted to accommodate them.






Chicago - Illinois's primary – along with those of 21 other states – is this Tuesday. But Lou Smith and Sam Sirko cast their votes for Sen. Barack Obama a week ago, during a three-week period in which Illinois offers early in-person voting.

While Mr. Sirko says his choice was made some time ago, Mr.. Smith only decided recently. "I was more teetering," says Smith, a physical therapist. The New Hampshire and South Carolina campaigns were what "really turned me off to Clinton."

In a primary season in which momentum and timing are coveted, it can be hard for candidates to know when to target certain voters. Thirty-four states now offer some form of no-excuse early or absentee voting, including about half of the Super Tuesday states. In delegate-rich California, half of all primary votes may be cast by mail the month before Feb. 5.

"It's no longer just election day, it's 'election weeks,'" says Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.

With early voting a relatively recent phenomenon, it's unclear just how it will affect voters. Undecided voters will often wait until Election Day to make their decision, but even stalwart supporters may make an early choice that would have changed had they waited.

In Florida's primary, about a quarter of all ballots were cast early, which seemed to benefit Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. She won the state with 50 percent of the vote, compared with Senator Obama's 33 percent. But while absentee balloting favored Senator Clinton, exit polls showed a more even matchup between the two candidates among last-minute deciders.


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