TW: Newsweek's George Will rightly excoriates the increasing use of early voting in the US. This issue gets little attention but has significant implications. Amongst other problems, voting weeks before the actual election creates a material void into which new events can intervene. For instance, I believe there is a material chance "Dave" Palin withdraws (assuming it is technically feasible) before the election. One could think of a hundred more.
From Will:
"...in 1980, only 5 percent of the votes were cast before what really was Election Day. If this year, like 2004, produces an increase in early voting, close to 30 percent of the votes will have been cast before Nov. 4...'the academic consensus is that mail and absentee-ballot voting "has little or no effect on voter turnout except in low-turnout elections'...A word describes most of the people who will vote only if a ballot is shoved through their mail slot: "slothful." What kind of people will not bestir themselves to exercise their franchise if doing so requires them to get off their couches and visit neighborhood polling places? People who are barely interested, and hence probably are barely informed."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/161202
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