Obama at the Polls

Michelle ended up submitting her ballot by mail, but Barack Obama symbolically thought it best to make a “small” jump 1,500 kilometers from a Florida meeting to finish up his public tour in his bastion, Chicago, where early voting started on Oct. 25, two weeks before the official Nov. 6 date.*

His gesture recalls one of the bizarre aspects of the American electoral system: in 34 states, including Washington, D.C., the election has already started. Iowa’s voting stations have even been open since Sept. 25; more than six million voters have already made their choice while the two candidates continue to pursue their crazy campaign marathons.**

Up until now, mail-in ballots have generally been limited to those citizens largely unable to go to the polls on actual election day. Early voting this year is more widespread than ever after the passage of new electoral laws in nearly a dozen states. The objective? To increase American voter turnout, which even during Barack Obama’s historic 2008 election was at a low 64 percent.

The official election day (that is, the first Tuesday of November) is certainly a workday, which constitutes a problem for the number of voters who work far from home or who are without a car. Early voting thus gives an advantage to even the most disadvantaged people, particularly the mostly Democratic black and Latino voters who are known for their lack of voter participation.

Thus, one can better understand the Republican determination to limit this option, especially in the swing states, where the votes are decisive and where this year the election could come down to a manner of points. Litigation for Mitt Romney’s campaign ended Oct. 5 in Ohio; South Carolina’s state assembly organized a real legislative blockade to prevent early voting.

This election certainly benefits the Democratic Party, in which the dedicated network excelled at organizing mass votes, loading black voters after Sunday Mass onto buses taking them to voting booths and assuring Hispanic registration on election boards. The increase in participation has so worried the Republicans that they have upped the number of “legal” restrictions in more than 20 states where they control the assemblies, limiting the hours of operation for polling stations on weekends and making new demands for forms of identification that are required on entry to polling stations. In other words, they are taking measures basically aimed at the minorities least familiar with local bureaucracy.

They are not succeeding: The first numbers from the exit polls confirm that Obama is 10 points ahead in Ohio and Iowa. A third of American voters, among them the most local and dyed-in-the-wool, must make their decision before Nov. 6, but the suspense will play out until the last day.

*Editor’s note: Early voting in Chicago began on Oct. 22.

**Editor’s note: Early voting in Iowa began on Sept. 27.