Only two days left to take advantage of early voting

With two days to go in early voting, turnout is at an average pace despite a longer-than-usual ballot including not only the local races but judgeship votes and state and federal primaries.

As of Thursday morning, a total of 3,476 people had voted early at the two balloting outlets located at the county government building on Locust Street. Balloting will continue there today, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and end Saturday after voting 9 a.m. to noon. The main election will then be held Thursday for those who did not vote early.

The early vote number is on pace with the August, 2002 election which was the last major election which included local races, as 4,307 voted early that year. The number may be a little behind the early voting numbers of this May?s primary when 4,709 voted early.

However, election officials point out the final days of early voting are generally the most heavily voted days, meaning total ballots could reach close to 5,000 by Saturday?s closing. The heaviest early voted election was the 2004 presidential race when 7,940 people voted early.

While about half of voters cast their ballots early on average, election officials have encouraged early voting this year due to the size of a ballot. Election officials are conducting early voting both upstairs in the election office and in the traditional voting room in back of the county government building to avoid long waits.

The potential for delay comes due to the five-page ballot in which voters are electing locally a sheriff, county clerk, trustee, district attorney, road superintendent, register of deeds, all 24 county commissioners, 11 constables and three school board members.

In addition to local races, there are about two pages of appointed appellate judges where voters are asked if they wish to retain them. There are also several races on both the Democratic and Republican primaries if voters decide to also vote in the primary.

While not a difficult ballot, the sheer number of races and questions on the ballot has slowed the average time voters are taking to cast their ballots when compared to the August elections of four years ago.

Whether the longer ballot will cause lines on election day is unknown. However, election officials did provide the second early polling place to offset the potential for longer-than-normal waits.