Early voting begins

Early voting begins

Some people are planning to get a head start on voting and will be in line early today to cat their ballot.

Early voting for the November 4th election starts today, Monday Oct. 20.. The chance to vote early in the Presidential race plus other key races ends November 2, just two days before the nationwide Election Day.

During that two week time period, the early-voting sites will be open up to eight hours each day. Early voting is convenient for many reasons, including avoiding the crowd on regular Election Day. This year, Florida voters requested more than 1.6 million absentee ballots.

Hundreds of thousands of voters have already cast their ballots nationwide. Voting began last week in Illinois and North Carolina. This week, those states will be joined by Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

With just about two weeks to go in the election, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are stepping up their campaigns in Florida. On Sunday, Senator Joe Lieberman stumped for McCain in south Florida and this week Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama will make separate trips into the state.

Early voting started in Florida in 2004. Absentee voting used to only be used for people unable to make it to the polls on Election Day.

Nationwide, experts predict that up to a third of voters this year will register their choices early, in person or through the mail, up from about a fifth in 2004.