In droves, Floridians choose to vote before Election Day

By HILARY ROXE
Associated Press Writer   30 October 2004

MIAMI More than 1.8 million Floridians cast their ballots through early or absentee voting in the days before the long anticipated general election, the result of a frenzied effort to get people to the polls before Tuesday.

The early turnout is nearly 2 1/2 times the 720,453 ballots cast before Election Day in 2000, when early voting wasn't an option in most places.

This year, polls opened two weeks before Election Day, and one message has been consistently delivered by Democrats, Republicans and state elections officials: Vote early.

It's been preached by visiting celebrities and Florida luminaries, from former President Bill Clinton to Gov. Jeb Bush. The idea of early voting is to ease the burden on polling places on Election Day, but it's also a way for political parties to make sure their die-hard supporters' votes are cast.

Nearly 900,000 voters had gone to the polls by the middle of last week, just shy of the number that had sent in absentee ballots.

With many of the about 1.6 million requested absentee ballots still outstanding, and the polls open in most places until Monday night, it's likely that thousands more Floridians would follow suit before Tuesday.

"It looks like the All-American tradition of voting on Election Day is going out the window," said Fred D. Galey, elections supervisor in Brevard County.

On the ground, early voting translates into a greater confidence that votes will count.

Odette Derosier, a Haitian immigrant who voted for the first time in 2000, said she went to the polls early because "everybody says if you vote early you've got more chance."

"The other time I vote, my vote maybe goes in the garbage," said Derosier, who lives in Miami. "Now, I'm satisfied."

Early voting, introduced in Florida after the 2000 election, took hold across the state.

Long lines form at some polling places, but many undeterred voters wait for hours to cast a ballot. Political rallies end with shuttle buses headed to the polls. Political speeches include exhortations to vote early. And nonprofit groups are renting vans that travel from central locations to the polls and back with voters who don't have another ride.

In Miami-Dade County, which has the second largest voter population, officials project about a third of registered voters will cast their ballot before Nov. 2. In Washington County in the Panhandle, more than 20 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots by Thursday.

There have been glitches at polling places since early voting began on Oct. 18. A crew planting a palm tree near a Volusia County voting site sliced a phone line this past week, disrupting communications to headquarters. For seven hours, poll workers were forced to verify registrations with cell phones.

In other places, machines have shut down and not restarted. Lines have snaked out of buildings, forcing some voters to give up when they don't have time to wait.

But these are exactly the problems that interest groups prefer to cope with before Election Day. Early voters who are thwarted by election glitches can always try again - voters don't have the same luxury on Nov. 2.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who oversees elections, and other county officials have supported early voting, urging Floridians to get to the polls as soon as possible. But some object to the perception that a vote cast early is safer.

"From the first absentee ballot we issued to the last vote on election night, they're all going to count the same," said Pat Hollarn, Okaloosa County's elections supervisor.

With several days left to mail in absentee ballots, many counties already had collected more than they did in the 2000 election. Four years ago, 2,480 voters in Hernando County voted absentee. This year, about 12,000 already have done so.

But not everyone has faith in the absentee process. Prompted by hundreds of complaints from voters who never received requested ballots, Broward County this week re-sent thousands of absentee ballots by overnight mail. Other counties are also fielding complaints about absentee ballots that never arrived.

Diana Davidson, a substitute teacher and registered Republican from Orlando, requested but never received an absentee ballot. So she went to the polls, waiting more than 1 1/2 hours to cast her ballot.

"I was afraid I wasn't going to get to vote, so I decided to come out just to be sure," she said.

In a a tight election, absentee ballots could become a focus of legal challenges, some experts said. Comparing the signatures on voter registration forms with those on the ballot could replace examining hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads, said Susan MacManus, a professor at the University of South Florida.

Historically, Republicans have been more likely to vote by absentee ballot than Democrats or independents. Though many counties have not broken down the party affiliations of people voting before Election Day, the trend seems to be playing out in some counties.

In heavily Republican Sarasota County, for example, about 26 percent of Republicans and 24 percent of Democrats had voted by Friday, three days before Election Day. More Republicans, 15 percent, had chosen to vote by absentee ballot than at the polls, where 10 percent cast their vote. Meanwhile, Democrats were more evenly split, with nearly 12 percent voting at the polls and about the same number voting absentee.

Demographics present another significant pattern in pre-Election Day voting. Older people and those who are passionate about their choices tend to vote early, while younger voters and undecideds have waited, said Susan MacManus, a professor at the University of South Florida.

This has also affected campaign strategies, with many campaigns featuring younger people in advertisements since voting began, she said.

"This last-minute massive amounts of money spent on television advertising are really aimed at a very narrow part of the electorate," MacManus said.

As elections officials scramble through the final days of early voting, they're still preparing for the traditional onslaught of voters on Tuesday.

"It has changed the dynamic because Election Day has really turned the election into two weeks," said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for Miami-Dade's supervisor of elections about early voting. But he added, "There will be hundreds of thousands of people on Election Day."