Yesterday marked the start of the Early Voting program offered here in the state of Florida and 29 other states throughout the country (other states offer it with a valid reason). I can't implore you enough, vote early unless you're a traditionalist who likes to wait until the first Tuesday of November to cruise into your local precinct.
There's many reasons, but today's St. Petersburg Times provides an excellent example of why I believe it's important. In the relatively modest roll-out of early voting throughout the state, problems arose. Computer malfunctions caused giant lines at sites that still had the ability to vote, other sites were forced to turn voters away while they repaired their systems. Could you imagine if this had happened on Election Day? What if you don't have time to wait or the ability to come back before polls close? Reason #2, the Florida ACLU was pushing for provisional ballots to be given to registered voters who turn-up at the wrong precinct but the state supreme court put the nix on that. So, if your precinct has moved or you just don't know where to go, you better have the time to find out and get their or you don't get to vote. If you vote early, it doesn't matter where your precinct is as each early voting site is open for all precincts in your county. Reason #3, if you show up at an early voting site where they tell you you're not eligible (for whatever reason), you at least have two weeks to try to correct things before election day.
And the process can't be less painless. Just show up, present your registration card with a picture ID, you'll sign an affidavit saying that you're not going to try to vote again, and you'll be on your way with a ballot. During the primaries, I went in on a Friday afternoon and was out in less than five minutes (because it was a primary and I'm a registered Green, there were only three things for me to vote for).
So please, come out and vote. Unless you're still undecided, this is definitely the way to go!
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