I'm trying to outfox the other voters. Early elections took place all last week at the library just around the corner from my house. I dropped by at different times throughout the week to judge the best time to go. With this research and observation, I dropped my wife off to vote at 2:45 on Thursday. She was done in two hours, 45 minutes; far better than the 4-6 hours of many others. But as I saw the statistics on early voting pouring in, I determined that I would be better off voting on election day.
Here's why: The highest voter turnout in the last 50 years was 64% of registered voters. At the conclusion of early voting in Georgia, 35% of registered voters had cast a ballot. So if numbers hold, fewer people are yet to vote than those who have voted. Then consider this: these long lines were the result of people from 10-15-20 miles away, coming to select polling centers. But on election day, you go to a precinct that serves a much smaller pool of people. One of our friends, who lives about 20 minutes away, came to our library to vote--she probably lives 10 precincts away!
I should note that I did not use my wife as a guinea pig so I could know when to vote; she "had" to vote early. We're leaving on vacation at noon tomorrow, on Tuesdays she teaches at our kids' once-a-week homeschool co-op. If we were going to hit the road at noon, she needed to vote early.
So tomorrow I'll drop by the polls before they open at 7, and if it's too crowded, I'll go to Starbucks and circle back around to wait in line about 9. Let's see if this works.
We did not have the luxury of early voting in my state. I plan to arrive at the polls around 6am and hopefully get through within an hour.
Posted by: Darnell Lamb | November 03, 2008 at 01:55 PM
I thought you were going on vacation on election day? I voted by absentee ballot.
Posted by: Susan C. | November 03, 2008 at 07:36 PM