Ran across an interesting article via Yahoo! News today, from Newhouse News on June 22nd.
Experts Predict Big Rise in Early and Absentee Voting With Liberalized Rules.
The headline is tragically unhip, but the meat of the article suggests that as many as 30% of the votes cast in November's election could be early or mail-in ballots. Of particular interest was this paragraph:
Florida, one of the nation's most populous states, completely overhauled its voting procedures after the 2000 election plunged the nation into a protracted recount and court battle that left the presidential outcome up in the air for an agonizing period. This year, Florida will permit any eligible voter to vote beginning in October, by mail or in person.
And indeed, a quick check shows that Florida has this information available on the web. Apparently you will now be able to just walk into an office and vote as early as 15 days before the election, and the offices will even be open on weekends.
I'm a lot more politically aware than many people I know - dKos certainly helps with that - but I had no idea that in some states you can just walk into an office and vote two weeks before election day. (Not in my state, but apparently in many others.) Shouldn't we work to raise awareness of this? It certainly would help with some of the typical problems with voting, such as people who face the choice of either taking time off work to vote or getting crushed by the evening rush hour at the polls.