Of course Obama stands to gain the most from early voting.

If another "red flag" (Ayers,Wright,Joe the Plumber, etc.)

pops up before election day, he still has the early votes; those people won't be able to change their minds.

Plus, all those 18 and 19-year olds who adore him, but aren't exactly reliable, can vote early, in case there's a party the night before the election. How convenient, Obama's thought of

everything hasn't he? He's had plenty of time, seeing how he's spent most of his life thinking about being president.

That way you won't have to listen to the fraudulent phone calls about your voting poll site being moved, or that cops will be their to arrest anybody with a parking ticket or warrant. Most of all you won't be a working stiff in line at 7:30 when they close the polls and lock you out. Remember, anything is possible. You have voting machines made by Diebold, who happens to have dubya's dad on their board, and whose machines also have the capability to escape voter count manipulation per a Princeton University study by their own elite computer programming department.

Expect computer crashes, delays due to vote challenges, lines around the block, and polls closing with hundreds still waiting. There were 5 hour waits in Denver last E Day. Many walked away. Don't let that happen to you.

@ohiopolitician

On McCain's side, older, scared voters can choose to go vote on a day when they know the weather's going to be good, plan a ride with a friend, when they're feeling physically well, when they know they won't have to stand in line for hours. Plus those votes can get in before the announcement of something game-changing for the McCain campaign.

This article is about Obama's push to get voters to the polls early, but early voting benefits both campaigns.

The main reason to vote early is that if you're black or hispanic, if you haven't dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" AND have the proper ID, you may be turned away. Especially in Georgia, Colorado or Indiana.

If they try to give you a "provisional" ballot. you have time to demand on site adjudication and you're more likely to get someone who can be held accoutable for their decisions.

The Republicans know that the easiset way to supress Democratic voters is to create barriers - voter ID laws that match social security numbers when they know that ONE in TEN African American and Hispanic voters don't have drivers licenses. It's not predjucice, it's working the demographic. (It happens to be systemically racist in it's effect, but that's secondary to the benefit of supressing the vote.)

If possible, vote in person. How do you know you're ballot won't simply be trashed if it's mailed? How many people handle your ballot before it gets to the election official? There are instances of counties losing tens of thousands of ballots in 2006.

Vote early, make sure you have all the neccessary documents and know your rights. 98,000 votes were "spoiled" in FL in 2000, before the first recount, from counties with large African American populations. The Supreme Court decdided that bush won by 537 votes. We can't let that happen again.

.. are you joking? McCain has wanted to be president since he realized he would never make admiral in the navy and equal his father and grandfather. This guy has serious paternal issues, just like the current occupant.

Btw, Obama went through the grueling democratic primary... what the hell do you think could possibly come up in the last 2 weeks that would change anyone's mind at this point?

The article says "half a million" votes and about 210,000 have been cast by African-Americans. Rounding up to 600,000 -- 200,000 means about a third of votes casted so far are from African-Americans. That matches up with the 30% Black population in Georgia from what I read.

What exciting times! I've been encouraging my Asian-American family and friends to register and vote. My brother, the political junkie in the family, is proud to be voting in swing-state Virginia for Obama.

I spent about twenty minutes during my lunch hour with some colleagues on Thursday casting my early vote over at NC State. Voters can register and vote in one stop here until Nov 1st. As we were leaving we noticed a large group of college students march up and get in line, led my a small band of Obama people. They had apparently been rounded up on campus and brought over to the polling site to register and vote. It was like nothing I have ever seen for a General Election.

With all the early voting - boy, I wish I could vote early in NYS - all the precise exit polling in the world won't reflect what's happening with the voting electorate. That's a good thing, I think. Polls have had too much sway on the body politic; one could vote for Nader in NY or TX in 2000 but not FL, e.g.

Even if you're dead.

Officials: FBI investigates ACORN for voter fraud

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081016/D93RT3100.html

"..took him and five other mentally challenged clients to vote and forced them to vote for Barack Obama"

http://www.walb.com/global/story.asp?s=9191440

There are many more similar stories, particularly about acorn.

Is this yet another example of "dismantling the constitution"?

Here in Ohio, there was a five-day window when people could register and early vote at the same time.

A new registrant isn't necessarily one who has never voted before. It could also be someone who has moved, or who hasn't voted in years.

A coworker and I went down to vote on the first day of early voting here. She had moved, and re-registered at her new address. Now the Republicans are forcing the Secretary of State to verify each new registrant. How? Through the DMV? The DMV doesn't have my friend's new address -- why pay to change a driver's license? She could produce a utility bill -- accepted as valid proof of ID in Ohio -- but who is she supposed to show it to? When?

This suppression of voting by the Republicans simply reinforces one salient fact about the party: they are not interested in democracy. If they were, they'd be driving busloads of people to the polls.

Oh, wait. They can't find a busload of supporters.