Massive Turnout

Want an idea of just how things have changed since 2004? Think over a million people already in both Florida and Georgia alone, standing in line for hours in some cases to get in their vote early.

Here in Summit County, the same: Wayne Jones of the Board of Elections notes the following numbers as of yesterday:

2004 Absentee cast: 33,000
2008 Absentee requested: 53,671
2008 Absentee returned so far: 36,055
2008 In-person voting: 28,133

Forecast by Tuesday PM: 100,000 early votes (a third of the expected total)

Now there are two items to consider over the weekend: how long can you stand in line Saturday, Sunday or Monday to do your civic duty or how long will you stand in line Tuesday when it's E-Day across the nation? The early in-person voting at The Job Center on East Tallmadge (make sure you aim for the east doors; that's where the voting machines are) is likely to be pretty busy with 12-4 hours over the weekend and morning through 8:00 p.m. Monday. Summit County elections workers are putting in extra effort to try and make sure voter lists are as up-to-date as possible but don't be surprised to see this topic play out after the vote counting Tuesday night and then as a repeated theme through 2010 when Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner goes before voters for re-election.

ACORN-issues aside, we probably ought to note it is a miracle much of the registration and vote counting happens at all in a system for a national election that depends on what every local outlet does. We vote as a nation, but governed by the home rules of every state and, in the case of Ohio, every county level charged with administering and carrying out the vote process. In Ohio's case we can't even make computer databases talk with each other to figure out the bad from the good -- who thinks it'll work that way across a nation?

Some might make the case the easy answer here is to register nationally; how such a list might eliminate the talk of multi-state registration, answer questions over where college students vote (and how often) but it flies in the face of our time-honored tradition of the individual and not the group. We consider ourselves Americans but it is as Ohioans and then Summit County voters we make our decisions.

Basic message: vote early, but not often is what we'll take out of 2008. The irony of much of the political fighting over the process in 2010 is that Brunner's name will probably be the key target race for all to watch in just two years and her actions in this election will be sliced and diced hundreds of different ways just waiting for the spin.