Senior Scott Lemmon won’t be voting this Election Day. He’ll spend Nov. 2 like he usually spends his Tuesdays: going to class, studying and heading over to Raleigh for his job.
But Lemmon isn’t apathetic about the election process. He simply decided to cast his vote two weeks early.
Tuesday night, Lemmon joined the thousands of Americans who have already submitted their ballots for the election this November. The Charlotte, N.C., native took advantage of his home state’s “One Stop No Excuse Absentee Voting,” a program that allows registered voters to cast absentee ballots at polling sites throughout the state from Oct. 14 to 30.
“There’s going to be such a high turnout this election—possibly as much 70 or 75 percent—that I just wanted to avoid the long lines and get it done,” Lemmon said while standing outside the Durham County Board of Elections office as other early voters trickled in the door.
Coupled with a surge in voter registration, the popularity and availability of early voting has soared to an unprecedented level this year. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, all states offer voters the option of mailing an absentee ballot, and 25 states—including North Carolina—provide an early voting option.
“I see this as a wonderful win-win thing,” said Mike Ashe, director of the DCBE. “If people want to vote, they have no excuse for not voting.”
In the 2000 election, 14 percent of U.S. voters cast their ballots prior to Election Day either in person or with a mailed absentee ballot. This year, election officials are expecting a record-breaking deluge of early votes. Ashe said 11,289 voters cast ballots, as of Tuesday night, in Durham County during the first six days of early voting. The number has already surpassed the 10, 600 total from the 2000 election—and he expects the number to triple in the last week of early voting.
“We are shattering every number we’ve ever had,” Ashe said.
He noted that one of the major benefits of early voting is the potential for attracting large numbers of voters who might have trouble making it to the polls Nov. 2.
“It is much more convenient for voters,” he noted. “It is the same ballot you get on Election Day, and it’s counted on election night like every other ballot.
“It’s more work for me, and it’s expensive, but democracy is priceless,” Ashe added.
Throughout the campaign season, President George W. Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., have urged voters to choose early voting options. Both candidates’ camps have used grassroots efforts to give voters information about how to cast early ballots. Sharon Castillo, a spokesperson for the Bush campaign, said volunteers have placed more than 9.5 million phone calls and made countless personal contacts with people who are likely to vote absentee.
Lemmon noted that problems handling voter turnout in swing states during the 2000 election incited the current campaigns’ focus on early voting.
“People were lined up out the doors after the time that polls closed, and some people were shut out of those elections,” Lemmon said. “This time people understand that to avoid those problems we need to get people there as soon as possible.”
Like Lemmon, many Duke students have chosen to cast their ballots before Nov. 2 to avoid missing classes or taking a trip home. Senior Crystal Sanders voted Oct. 16 near her home in Johnston County, N.C. Senior Kevin Fogg said he voted over fall break at home in Richmond, Va., instead of mailing his ballot because the process is “prone to go a little but more smoothly if you go on-site.”
Sophomores Brittany Rhodes and Eli Wolfe said they shared Fogg’s concerns about mailed ballots. Wolfe, a resident of Philadelphia, Pa., said he is still waiting to receive his ballot in the mail after requesting it three weeks ago. Rhodes, who lives in Sarasota, Fla., received her ballot Monday afternoon after ordering it in July.
“I would have just liked the mailing to be a bit more expedited because I feel the need to send it away tomorrow, right away,” she said.
Many voters have also expressed concern about the possibility of some early participants casting ballots again Nov. 2. Ashe, however, said he has full confidence in the early voting system.
“We may in a rare case not catch them on the front end, but we’ll catch them on the back end and prosecute that voter fraud,” Ashe said.
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