Absentee votes are being cast in the Council Chambers of the Eden Prairie City Center for the 2004 general election.
I see absentee voting as a good barometer of voter interest in an election. High absentee voting turnouts is a sign that the turnout on election day will also be high. Not that one causes the other, but there does seem to be a correlation. I view absentee votes not as votes that would have been cast on election day anyway, but as votes that probably would not have been cast at all had it not been for the absentee option.
Eden Prairie City Clerk Kathleen Porta is our chief elections official. She works on election issues all year long to plan and execute a fair and impartial election. Think it’s easy? Remember Florida in 2000? It might look easy, but running elections is anything but that.
Ms. Porta tells me that in 2000 her office process 2,395 absentee ballots. In 2002 they processed 1,963 absentee ballots. These numbers include military and overseas ballots too.
As of Wednesday morning, October 20th, her office had processed 2,413 absentee ballots for the 2004 general election. This total does not yet include military and overseas ballots. Considering there is over a week left of absentee voting, we are going to see a huge increase in absentee turnout in 2004. We’re all ready at a record level. It will only get bigger.
November 2, 2004 is almost upon us. Please vote.
For more information about absentee voting, you can check our City website at
www. edenprairie.org
