AP: Dems, GOP working to capture early voters

Americans are casting early ballots in droves this year, and their reasons are as varied as their politics: Some can’t wait to register their opinions. Some like the convenience. Some just want to be left alone.

For others, it’s all about making sure their votes are properly recorded.

In New Jersey’s Somerset County, elections administrator Janice Hoffman says she’s seeing more people make the extra effort to personally walk their ballots in.

“No dangling chads on mine!” a satisfied Barry Burke pronounced after voting electronically this week in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Whatever the voters’ motivations, Democrats and Republicans alike are tracking their balloting day by day and county by county, hoping to turn the early-voting trend to their advantage. The big question for George W. Bush and John Kerry, whose campaigns have worked tirelessly to turn out early voters, is whether they are locking in new supporters or simply getting the same old voters out to the polls a little earlier.

“There’s a basic rule here: More is better,” said Charlie Baker, captain of the Democrats’ early vote operation. “We are seeing, in a number of states, significantly higher vote-by-mail and early-voting numbers than historically has been the case and that has to be a good thing for the Democrats.”