MOUNT VERNON — To say the Knox County Board of Elections has been busy is an understatement. More than a quarter of the county’s registered voters have already cast their ballot for the 2008 presidential election.
As of 3:35 p.m. on Thursday, 10,165 voters had made their decision through no-fault absentee voting at the elections office on High Street. By 4:30 p.m. Friday, that number increased to 10,528.
Rita Yarman, director of the KCBOE, said she had predicted between 10,000 and 12,000 voters would select their choices prior to Tuesday’s poll opening.
“We are surprised by it,” Yarman said. “It’s the most we ever had.”
She expects an 85 percent turnout for the presidential election. Knox County has over 38,800 registered voters.
“This is the first presidential [election] where Ohio has had no-fault absentee voting or early voting as some people like to call it,” Yarman said. “We expected a greater number [of turnout]. Especially with the length of the ballot, anyone who calls asking questions about the election, we encourage them to vote absentee.”
Although a big chunk of the county’s voters have already performed their civic duty, Yarman cautions that lines could be slow moving Tuesday based on the number of issues and length of the wording.
“The length of the ballot alone will slow the lines down, let alone the volume of folks out there voting,” she said.
Eight machines are set up for the Gambier precinct, six more than the precinct had in 2004, when some voters waited until 3 a.m. to vote.
“We’ve done a lot of things to remedy lines,” Yarman said. “A great many of those folks [in Gambier], over 20 percent of them, have already voted absentee, so that should help quite a bit.”
That percentage could grow as Kenyon students have been shuttled in, or arrived on their own, to cast their vote. Students from Mount Vernon Nazarene University have also been taking advantage of the early voting process, Yarman said.
With a higher turnout expected, Yarman had to bring in more workers.
“We are required to have extra poll workers because we are making more available paper ballots and machines, and voters have a choice of choosing either one. We wanted to also offer more poll workers so we could manage the lines a little bit better for the presidential election,” she said.
Countywide, each precinct will have enough paper ballots on hand for 25 percent of its voters, for those who prefer them.
On Election Day, voters will need to provide some form of identification. Acceptable forms include some form of government ID with a picture, a driver’s license, an Ohio ID card, a utility bill or bank statement with current name and address, any government check or a military ID with name and address.
For those who have yet to make their final voting decisions but who have requested an absentee ballot, the best bet to make sure their vote counts is to turn the ballot in to the board of elections.
“Election Day [ballots] have to be back here by close of polls. Actually, the new law says as long as they are postmarked Monday’s date they can be accepted afterward. But we don’t encourage people to take that chance,” Yarman said. “Depending on when you put them in the mailbox and what time they are time-stamped, they may not be acceptable. So, if you are really, really serious about getting them here, we encourage you to deliver them.”
Even with all of the pre-election day voting, there’s still a possibility voters could wait at the polls.
“You might, and the reason is the length of the ballot,” Yarman said. “If people go to this election, and people go every presidential year expecting to vote for president only, and they get in there to find that all local issues and statewide candidates and other federal candidates are on the ballot, they are almost overwhelmed with the length of the ballot. That will slow things up, especially if they are determined to vote for everything and read all the text on the statewide issues. That’s usually the biggest problem we have on Election Day.”
For those with health concerns, child care issues or have appointments or a tight schedule on Tuesday, Yarman suggests they vote on Monday at the board of elections.
“There will be shorter lines here Monday than there is going to be out there Election Day, even with all the turnout we’ve had here already. Again, because some come out to the polls unprepared.”
Monday at 4 p.m. is the deadline for those looking to vote early with no-fault absentee.
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7:30 p.m.
