Nov. 4 Isn't the Only Election Day

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Controversy Swirls Over Early Voting

Voters began casting absentee ballots Tuesday to take advantage of a disputed early voting law in the crucial swing state of Ohio.

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"I wanted to make sure people who wanted to vote didn't feel stressed out that day," Kidd said.

Downstate in heavily Republican Lebanon, Lori Viars has been part of a "chase" program that mails John McCain literature to likely supporters who asked the county for an absentee ballot. The McCain team has mailed out 1 million absentee applications, and now Viars coordinates with the banks of callers who are following up, hoping to secure early votes.

Yesterday, she said, her e-mail was full of reminders about early voting and appeals for volunteers to sign up and start working now.

The effort to turn out early voters, she said, "is bigger than I've ever seen it."

This is the first presidential election in which Ohio voters do not have to provide an excuse to get an absentee ballot. But in the West, early voting took root in the 1980s, when election officials wanted to attract new voters and retain those who had become discouraged by long waits and time-consuming ballots bloated with referendum issues.

With each election cycle, the practice has moved eastward as states have adjusted voting rules to accommodate voters seeking convenience.

Thirty-one states -- not including Maryland, Virginia or the District -- allow no-excuse early voting. Others allow absentee voting, by mail or in person, only with an excuse. In Oregon, all voting is done by mail.

Benjamin Ginsberg, a longtime Republican strategist, said that over the past few presidential races, "there has been a dawning awareness" of the opportunity early voting presents to campaigns.

Obama and McCain campaign officials wouldn't detail their strategies. But experts say that generally, early voting requires campaigns to recalibrate the pace of their spending, arranging big ad buys, literature drops and volunteer canvassing weeks before Election Day.

"As soon as the window opens, you have to move. You want to be reaching out with the full weight of your message," said Geoff Garin, a strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential run. "The idea of a closing argument is quaint, if not antiquated."

During Democrat John F. Kerry's 2004 campaign, close to half of the expenditures for field operations in Iowa went toward locking down absentee voters, said John Norris, who was Kerry's state director there. "Significant amounts are spent up front," he said.

Drawing out a campaign, however, can strain an operation.