"Election Day Begins, Goes All Month Long"

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Never mind the first Tuesday in November. Every day from now to Nov. 7 is Election Day somewhere in America. People in Nebraska and Arizona, with some of the fastest starting gates, began early voting on the midterm elections this week. Absentee ballots have been cast in states including Iowa and Montana since last month. And around the country, polling places in different states will gradually be opening for business over the next month.

With more and more states allowing some form of early voting, it's a phenomenon that neither party can afford to ignore and that has transformed the traditional push to the polls from a 24-hour sprint into a month-plus marathon - sort of the political equivalent of the movie "Groundhog Day."

The stakes are huge: In all, 35 states comprising more than half the nation's voting-age population allow either unrestricted early voting or absentee balloting, according to HelpingAmericansVote.org, a nonpartisan commercial service that tries to encourage voting.

With a particularly emotional and polarizing election in the offing, early voting could help to boost turnout this year, although longer-term early voting trends have not found evidence of increased participation, said Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20061006/D8KJDVRG0.html

[Bill McBlueState]

1. 15 states without absentee balloting?

"In all, 35 states comprising more than half the nation's voting-age population allow either unrestricted early voting or absentee balloting..."

That makes it sound like there are 15 states that don't allow early voting OR absentee voting. Are there really places where you can't vote absentee?

[Eric J in MN]

2. "unrestricted"

In some states, absentee ballots are only available to people who sign that they'll be out-of-town on Election Day or that they're handicapped.

[beyurslf]

3. I have only voted at the polls twice. The year I first voted (1994)

and in a primary a couple of years ago because I forgot to request a ballot be mailed to me.