Voting Early Not Often

It seems like early voting in Ohio is not meeting expectations.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A weeklong period in which Ohioans could register to vote and immediately cast a ballot ended Monday with turnout that didn't quite match the expectations of election officials — or the campaign predictions that preceded it.

Early returns showed about 3,000 voters in Ohio's four largest counties took advantage of the disputed policy, a surprisingly low turnout to some elections officials.

The window was expected to benefit Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, as his campaign and advocacy groups pushed Democratic-leaning groups such as college students and low-income voters to the polls.

Through Sunday, 1,152 voters had taken advantage of the policy in Franklin County, which includes Columbus. In Montgomery County, home to Dayton, roughly 250 people had used it. And in Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located, about 454 voters had taken advantage of the window by midday Monday.

Another 1,000 or so were expected from Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and is the state's most populous county.

"With all the hoopla we were anticipating a whole lot more," said Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Steve Harsman.

That is encouraging news. One less method of possible significant vote fraud available. Part of it may be that an awful lot of attention was paid to early voting in Ohio so any shenanigans planned were called off. Of course since nothing happened the chances that there was a plan is a lot less likely baring other evidence. The short version: I got nothin'.