Early Voting Going Nationwide?

By Matt Knipple

            I decided to concentrate my most recent blog on voting, in particular early voting.  After going out and performing exit polls on the many people that showed up it got me thinking about the rest of the states and how popular or unpopular early voting is.  To my surprise, as pointed out by this CNN article, early voting isn’t even in every state and in some states that it does occur in, you must have a valid reason to not show up to the polls and may have to get signatures from notaries and so on to prove you cannot make the election date to vote.  Here is a video showing people lining up to register and cast an absentee ballot in Ohio.  It was contested by Republicans saying that people may be performing voter fraud:

            In my opinion early voting should be mandated in all the states in America.  I feel as if people were able to cast mail-in ballots and go to the polls throughout the week prior to actual election day, there would be a much higher turnout at the polls and more people would be encouraged to vote. 

            If you click on this link, it takes you to an interactive map of all the states that have early polls and all that do not.  To my surprise, only 25 states have early polling with data available, six states have early polling with no data available, and the rest of the states do not have early polling.  In Colorado, early voting data shows, as of October 31, that 365,054 in-person ballots have been cast and 1,112,782 mail-in ballots have been cast.  That means a total of 1,477,836 have voted so far, which is roughly 30% of Colorado’s entire population, which also means an even higher percentage of actual voters have turned out since the entire population of Colorado will not and cannot vote. 

            Here is another video talking about the early voting going on in Ohio (you may have to watch a commercial at the beginning that sponsor’s the video, sorry).

            After watching these videos and reading the article, it amazes me why some states do not have early voting.  It seems like it would benefit all of the states and the United States as a whole, to have early voting to get more people out.  In states like New York, it would really benefit them as they have a huge, dense population that it seems pretty unrealistic to get all of those people out to vote on one day.  It would be much more efficient to have early voting and it would give America a clearer answer as to who people wanted as a President because more people, in my opinion, would be inclined to vote.

Technology and the Millennials

Today, the candidates in the Election 2008 can reach their supporters through the internet, email, and text messages in addition to television advertising and mail pamphlets. There are many networking sites on the internet such as MySpace and Facebook where the candidates can create their own pages and connect to their supporters, or where undecided voters can browse to see what the candidate’s policies and issues are. The Millennials are using technology and these websites to gain more information about the candidate’s for the Election 2008, and are coming out to voice their opinions.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain both have a MySpace and Facebook account, and I think it is very significant that they are both utilizing networking sites that many of the Millennials use. Through these web sites it is very fast and easy to spread information and it help’s to gain the support of the Millennials. It is important to notice the impact this generation can have. Carl M. Cannon stated, “This knack for pairing technology and activism is only one way the Millennials differ from their baby boomer and me generation parents. And with the disaffected Generation Xers now in their 30s, a new group is finding its political voice. Encompassing 47 million young adults between the ages of 18 and 29, the Millennials constitute the first generation to come of age in the 21st century. Ambitious, civic-minded, and socially engaged, they may well decide the next President of the United States.” The candidates need to work to get this generation supporting them, and using technology is a very intelligent way of doing it.

The Millennials believe the Election on 2008 is a very important election. According to Michael Hais and Morley Winograd, “…Forty-percent of Millennials believe that the United States will be better off as a result of the 2008 presidential election; only 23 percent feel that things will be unchanged, and only nine percent think things will be worse after November.” The interest is already there for the Millennials with this election, but it is up to the candidate’s to persuade them to their points, and using technology and networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are some of the best and most effective ways of reaching this generation.

The election is fast approaching and with the speed and impact of using the technology of these networking sites the candidates still have a chance to reach as many possible supporters with limited time.