Ohioans: Vote Early, Rock Late

The National and The Breeders play a special Obama rally in Cincinnati, October 16, to try and get out the vote. Early voting starts next week (Sept 30) for Ohioans, while folks in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Kentucky and Virginia can cast votes even before the first debate this Friday.

Early voters, for the most part, consist of folks who have already made up their mind, so on the surface, it wouldn't seem to benefit one candidate over the other. But it can benefit the Democrats in that it helps alleviate the stress of huge voter turnout in densely populated areas (which lean Democrat). Ohio's Franklin County had too few functioning polling booths to handle the influx of voters back in 2004, with folks waiting 4-6 hours at some places to vote. It's been estimated that "between 20,000 and 30,000 people were deterred from voting because of the long lines."