Early voting, new machines a boon for Utah

Utahns this year have what could come to be a groundbreaking voting opportunity. You can vote up to two weeks early for the first time. Early voting, as it is called, is going on now before the June 27 primary election.

It will be available again starting two weeks before the Nov. 7 general election.

Combining with early voting is the use of the new video voting machines. Actually, it is the federal government requirement that states convert to the costly video machines that brought about early voting.

The machines cost more than $3,000 each. And while Salt Lake County had around 5,000 of the old punch card balloting machines, County Clerk Sherrie Swensen says her office will have just over 3,000 of the electronic video machines.

The other 28 county clerks face similar numerical shortfalls with the new machines.

The last thing that elected county clerks and elected legislators, who set voting law, wanted was huge lines of angry voters come Election Day. And one way to cut down on long voter lines is to spread out the voting time.

And early voting is the natural result.

It often takes real fear for part-time legislators to act, especially for them to make changes to the electoral system through which they got elected in the first place.

I sat through interim committee hearings several years ago when then-Lt. Gov. Olene Walker — the state's official election officer — first suggested early voting as a way to reduce voter lines. Legislators were making supportive comments after Walker made her arguments until the discussion turned to how early voting could impact last-minute campaigning. You see, most legislative races run below the radar. You can still run a decent House campaign for $10,000 to $15,000, and much of that expense comes in the printing and distributing of mailers.

And usually those mailers are timed to hit voters' doorsteps or mailboxes the last week — sometimes the last weekend — before Election Day.

In some early-voting states, like Nevada, upward of half the voters use early voting. What would happen to legislative incumbents' re-election campaigns if half of their mailers were actually going to waste — coming too late to impact early voters? What if some smarty challenger figured out a way to get his campaign material to voters in a more timely manner?

The committee discussion quickly turned on Walker. And sure enough, efforts to adopt early voting in the next Legislature died.

But, true to form, fear is a great motivator. And in the 2006 Legislature, lawmakers were faced with either gulping and accepting early voting or being blamed for those long voter lines.