110,000 Voters in Cuyahoga County Want To Cast Ballot By Mail

[liberal N proud]

CLEVELAND - More than 110,000 ballots have been requested in Cuyahoga County for the Nov. 4 presidential general election, according to board of election officials.

This sets a new record for the number of voters who have applied to vote by mail.

In the 2000 presidential election, 74,341 total voters applied to vote by mail.

BOE officials said there are advantages to voting by mail. They include:


No waiting in long lines at polling locations.
No bad weather concerns.
Voting in the privacy of their home.
Having extra time to study the ballot and research the candidates and issues.
Not missing the election because of work or time constraints.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26774841/

[Alter Ego]

1. Those people are smart voters--meaning they'll go overwhelmingly for Obama.

[Gman]

2. I dunno...

most absentee ballots are traditionally Republican. Obama will likely carry Cuyahoga County, but I don't think this is an indication of Obama strength there. It probably is more an overall indicator of a record turnout on election day.

[liberal N proud]

3. The Obama campaign is urging people to vote early

It is one of the standard prompts for phone calls or canvassing.

[WI_DEM]

7. the hallmark of the Obama campaign has been urging early voting even in the primaries

if this was a traditionally GOP county I would be worried, but as a strongly democratic county, I consider it a good sign.

[1corona4u]

4. I don't know....something about voting by mail worries me...

[Emit]

5. I recently found out that in our state, NV

the mailed-in ballots only get counted when the election is really close.

That's what folks at the Dem party office told us. I have no reason to doubt them, but I had never heard that before.

[1corona4u]

8. But, not only that, what if the mailed in votes are bogus?

[ellacott]

10. That's always been a concern of mine

I also heard that they weren't immediately counted in some areas. I remember during the primaries some states did count them on election night. MSNBC was mentioning this during their primary coverage. I considered using the mail-in ballot this time because I wanted to volunteer on election day.

[LynneSin]

6. After what happened in 2004 - that entire county along with the counties with Cincinnati & Columbus

should vote via mail.

Let's face it, the GOP will target those urban areas to suppress votes in order to win the state.

[blueclown]

9. great news.

the key to winning ohio is running up our margins in cleveland.

we want the people of cleveland to vote early and often so we don't run into the same problems we saw in 2004. like (intentional) long lines and understaffing polling facilities.

[wowimthere]

11. Axelrod and Plouffe are very smart. They see what is coming and have done things to

counter the Republican voter suppression tactics. Getting out the vote means telling people about the tactics that have been applied in previous elections.