33% of votes are cast prior to election day

So I heard an interesting story on NPR yesterday morning... it was talking about early voting and interviewed Paul Gronke, the director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. 

Now I knew and expected that some people voted early via absentee ballots - this is what I did when I was in college during the 2004 election or traveling during the 2008 election - but I did not realize just how many people voted early.  According to the Early Voting Information Center:

• 30- 33% of the vote was cast early in 2008
• 35% of the vote - that one in three voters, or more than 46 million people - are expected to vote early in 2012
• 34 states currently allow early voting in one form or another

This early voting trend has been increasing with each election too.  In 2004 only 20% of the vote was cast before election day, and in 2000 only 15%.

So who are the people that vote early?  Its no surprise that the profile of an early voter is someone from either party - Democrat or Republican - who have already made up their mind.  Describing these individuals, Gronke said -

"They're partisan, they're ideological, and you flip that coin over and you see the kind of patterns we've seen for a long time in American politics. Better educated, higher income, and these have tended toward Republicans, but as the early electorate has expanded, it's also diversified. Particularly in 2008, we saw African-Americans flock to the early in-person polls in the southeastern part of the United States."

I think the early voting trend has an interesting effect on campaign strategies.  For example, campaigns have to mobilize quicker, and for a longer period of time - its not just about November 6th anymore.  People can hear someone on the news, make a decision and send in their ballot without waiting for the opponent or other party to react. 

After hearing all this information I was curious what Connecticut's policy on early voting is.  Here in CT we do not have early, in-person voting, but do allow voters to return their absentee ballots in person to election officials. 

Here's a link to a list of dates that allow early voting.