Vote Early, but not Often

If you can still vote early or send in an absentee ballot, do it!

Early voting in Ohio has seen 2- and 3-hour waits. At the 4-hour BOE training last weekend, we were told that about 15% of registered voters have voted. If we get the predicted 75% to 80% turnout, that means we'll see about 500,000 voters on election day at 854 precincts in 534 voting locations (I'm responsible for 3 precincts and 18-20 poll workers).

Something new this year: The county board of elections has added a nifty new feature to the 200-page reference manual. It's called an "index".

This year, the Secretary of State's office has also sent poll workers a link to a training site and the BOE handed out a 10-page supplement from the SOS at the weekend training session. Franklin County is being held out as a pretty good model of how to get things done (unlike Cuyahoga County, where there's a lawsuit almost every election).

This year, we've added "greeters", whose job it is to make sure that voters are in the right place. If somebody shows up at the wrong precinct, we hope to identify them and send them to the right precinct without making them wait in line for 2 or 3 hours.

Something tells me there are easier and more efficient ways of earning $107 (before taxes).