The polls were open in Florida again, for better or for worse, as several states began early in-person voting Monday.
Some minor computer glitches caused problems with Florida's new touch-screen voting machines, which aimed to prevent the chaos that happened with paper ballots in 2000 when the election results were disputed for a month. A computer crash briefly took down Orlando's voting system, and poll helpers had difficulty confirming voter registrations.
According to University of Miami political science professor and noted conservative pundit Paul Crespo, the glitches are minor and nothing to worry about.
\I think there's been a couple of problems, and I think it's better that they happened today, with two weeks of early voting still left and the election two weeks away, than on Election Day,"" he said.
Crespo added Florida has a bad rap for voting problems after the debacle of the last election's recount, which, he said, could have happened anywhere.
""There were problems here, there were problems in a lot of other states, but nobody else had a statewide recount because no other state in the country was deciding the election,"" he said. ""If it was Arizona that was deciding the election, I guarantee that the same things would have happened there because voting is an imperfect process.""
Texas, Colorado and Arkansas also began voting today, while other states, including Iowa and Ohio, have had their polls open for some time.
Wisconsin does not have early in-person voting, but both the Bush and Kerry campaigns have encouraged voters to avoid long lines on Election Day by voting absentee, which does not require an excuse in Wisconsin.
Dhavan Shah, professor of journalism and mass communication at UW-Madison, said increased absentee voting might help decrease pressure on polling places Election Day.
""My sense is that there's going to be tremendous turnout in this election,"" he said. ""Both sides are trying to mobilize their bases and there are many new voters. So the degree to which we can ease any stress on polling places the day of the election is going to be a good thing.""
While they agree that turnout will be high, the professors have different opinions on how close the election will be. According to Crespo, early turnout in Florida favors Bush as the victor, while Shah said the underrepresentation of new voters in opinion polls could mean a 2 to 5 percentage point boost at the polls for Kerry.
