First week of early voting in Ohio not living up to expectations

Take a look at this graphic of the number of early voters who have taken advantage of EV in Ohio so far (7 days into it) in its five largest counties: 28,466. Not very impressive. What’s even less than impressive is the number of people who took advantage of Ohio’s controversial same day/vote at the same time rule (the last day to be able to do that before the election was yesterday). Total number? 5,223.

There was an expectation that with all the excitement over the election that we’d see record turnout in early voting in key states like Ohio. It’s still early on in the game, to be sure, but I’d say from those numbers they’re not off to a good start. Time will tell.

This is all food for thought, but should at the same time be taken with a grain of salt. Jim Geraghty sums up:

Now, we shouldn’t read too much into this. It’s still possible that the Obama campaign is assembling the biggest, most advanced, and most awe-inspiring get-out-the-vote operation in American political history. But it would seem that if the Obama camp wanted to get a lot of voters out during this early voting period — and why wouldn’t they? Even if you wanted long lines throughout Election Day to justify keeping the polls open longer than scheduled, every voter who votes now is a vote you don’t have to worry about on November 4 — then in the first major test, their get-out-the-vote system… fell well short of expectations? Underperformed? Was AWOL? Wasn’t really utilized?

Keep in mind, at less than one half of one percent turnout across the state, the McCain camp appears to have dramatically underperformed, too. But that’s what makes this so weird. It’s the most covered, most hyped, most passionate election anybody can remember, in the most key of swing states… and neither side can move significant numbers of voters to early voting?

Something else to keep in mind: What about absentee ballots? Who do they generally favor in OH? Also, Ohio’s seen a 9% increase in voter registration this year and the Sec. of State anticipates an 80% turnout on election day. So it could be that what’s happening is that most voters there want to be a part of the action on election day. Sounds weird, but I know that’s the way I personally prefer to vote. Deroy Murdock argues that that’s the way it should be.

Stay tuned …

alchemist says:

October 8, 2008 at 8:27 pm

I’m voting early. I do like the excitement of voting on voting day, but hate the lines. Besides election day always falls on a day where I need a 10-hour straight stint in the lab. Never fails.

Uncommon Sense says:

October 9, 2008 at 9:45 am

The people who will vote early are the hyperpartisans – those for whom the decision is already made, and nothing that might happen in the next month will change it.

Despite the Obama-as-Messiah phenomenon, most Americans don’t fall into that category – even many of those who are quite certain for whom they will vote still have the lingering doubt. And given that both candidates, fundamentally, are weak/flawed, the vast majority of voters are going to wait as long as possible, and gather as much information as possible, before casting their vote.

That doesn’t necessarily mean waiting until election day, but I suspect will at least mean waiting until after the final debate.

Steve Skubinna says:

October 9, 2008 at 4:40 pm

Given the efforts of ACORN, I expect that of those 28,466 votes, at least 150,000 of them will be for Obama.

Great White Rat says:

October 9, 2008 at 10:20 pm

Probably, Steve. Especially with fraud like this going on: Ohio Woman Explains How ACORN Workers Pushed Her to Vote Multiple Times

But pointing out that people are only supposed to vote once is racist, dontcha know…

October 10, 2008 at 12:34 am

Ut oh…the nutroots won’t like this. A Federal judge has slapped down the Ohio Secretary of State (a Democrat, naturally) for trying to push through that same day register/vote gimmick despite what the law provides: Ohio Secretary of State Ordered to Verify Voter Registrations.

The horror!! Making sure people are actually eligible to vote before letting them cast a ballot? Another reason we need hopeychangeyness…after The One is elected, you’ll all be able to vote for him as many times as you want. And if you don’t, ACORN will do it for you.

Of course, it goes without saying that this court decision is racist…

October 10, 2008 at 9:20 am

Now the talking points in defense of ACORN point out that ACORN itself is not under indictment, only people employed by them. The organization itself is blameless.

Ah, this must be some of that nuance of which I have heard so much. So, say, we can’t really call the Mafia a criminal organization simply because some of its members engage in criminal activity? It isn’t fair to blame the Weather Underground for the misguided acts of a few bad apples? After all, those stupid cops that got themsleves killed would be alive today if they weren’t so dumb as to hang around bombs that were going off.

I suppose Mohammed Atta can’t be held responsible for the flight path of the airliner he just happened to be sitting in on 9/11.

Ah, the liberal concept of accountability. All they understand is blame, and all they know about that is that the Republicans get all of it for everything.