Early voting will benefit many Utahns

Political and election reform in Utah usually comes in tiny steps.

So let us celebrate an election change this year that may aid thousands of Utahns, making it easier for them to cast their vote.

Starting Tuesday, registered voters will be able to "early vote."

They will be able to go to a central location and cast their primary election ballot a full two weeks before Election Day.

One would think that state legislators made this change to help and encourage citizens to vote.

That reasoning may have been in the minds of a few legislators.

But it was the almighty dollar that ultimately led to early voting.

After the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election, Congress decided that there should be some kind of national assurances that elections were fast, fair and friendly. So, as they are wont to do, congressmen passed a new law, requiring, among other things, that balloting must meet certain standards.

Congress also gave some money to the states to pay for new electronic voting machines.

But as is usually the case with the federal government, not enough money was passed down to states to pay for enough of the new, expensive video voting machines.

County officials — whose responsibility it is to actually conduct elections — came to the Utah Legislature asking for more cash, warning that citizens may face long lines at the polls otherwise.

Lawmakers didn't open their wallets.

But they did, in some cases begrudgingly, agree to allow early voting — the theory being that enough voters would vote early that long lines, and angry voters, would not be seen on Election Day itself.

Utah legislators can at times be magnanimous and take actions simply for the good of all.

But rarely does that happen when it comes to their own elections, their own district boundaries, goodies paid for by lobbyists, campaign financing, etc.

And when then-Lt. Gov. Olene Walker — the lieutenant governor is officially the state election officer — came to legislators three years ago asking for early voting as one way of avoiding long lines on Election Day, legislators found all kinds of reasons to say no.

You see, legislators traditionally target the last two weeks of their campaigns for most of their activity. That's when they send get-out-to-vote notices, last-minute mailers or door-hangers and so on.

I got a kick out of sitting through several legislative committee hearings where Walker would make eloquent arguments for early voting to help voters, only to see leading lawmakers hem and haw about how it just wouldn't work.

And the early voting effort failed.