Early-voting hours must be extended

The long lines of Georgians going to the polls early —- many in metro Atlanta are waiting three or more hours in line —- suggest a huge turnout that ought to be cause for celebration. And state and local election officials should be making every effort to accommodate citizens who obviously want to exercise their country’s most sacred right.

That’s why Gov. Sonny Perdue and Secretary of State Karen Handel should authorize early-voting precincts to stay open extended hours and over the weekend in places where the lines and waits may have already discouraged Georgians from casting their ballots. They should follow the lead of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who signed an executive order Tuesday that will keep the Sunshine State’s early-voting polls open for 12 hours a day through Saturday and for four hours on Sunday. Crist, a Republican, bucked his party’s legislative leadership, which in 2005 pushed through a law restricting early-voting hours. The Florida governor deemed the heavy turnout thus far an “emergency” and ordered the extended hours because he feared traditional voting precincts may be overwhelmed Tuesday.

While Crist’s order initially caused consternation among local election officials —- who worried they could not get enough workers —- almost all of them agreed to comply. Already 1.2 million Florida voters have cast ballots over the last two weeks. About 1.3 million Georgians have voted since early voting commenced in early October.

That unexpected early turnout has apparently left Handel and other elections officials thinking that Tuesday will not be problematic for the millions of Georgians who have yet to vote. But that’s wishful thinking.

Earlier this week, the state’s computer system for checking voter identification sputtered several times, slowing down the process and backing up lines of would-be voters. Election officials said those initial problems appear to have been fixed, and by midweek most of the long lines were caused by the volume of voters and a limited number of voting machines in the early-voting precincts. Tuesday night in Clayton County, for instance, the last voters, in line at 7 p.m., didn’t cast their ballots until nearly 10 p.m.

Despite the anticipated turnout and potential for severe backups on Election Day, neither Handel nor Perdue seem interested in making it easier for Georgians to get to the polls early. Handel claims there is no mechanism in Georgia law that would allow the secretary of state or the governor to order extended hours.

Interestingly, Crist said essentially the same thing a few weeks ago when asked by Democrats in Florida to do so. Florida’s law seems to be much more specific than Georgia’s regarding when polls can be open. Yet, based on the first seven days of early voting, Crist changed his mind.

“It’s not a political decision. It’s a people decision,” Crist said. “I have a responsibility to the voters of our state to ensure that the maximum number of citizens can participate in the electoral process and that every person can exercise the right to vote.”

Unfortunately, Georgia’s GOP leadership doesn’t share Crist’s broad view of encouraging voter participation. In recent years, the Georgia GOP has conducted a unholy campaign to make voting as difficult as possible by enacting a rigid voter ID law —- despite virtually no evidence of voter fraud at the polls. Already in this campaign season, Senate President Pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) has opined that early voting was a “mistake” and suggested the Legislature should enact tighter restrictions on it.

For her part, Handel is convinced extending early-voting hours isn’t necessary. She also thinks it would be a logistical nightmare for local election officials to find poll workers over the weekend and then move around thousands of polling booths and computers from where they are now to the regular precincts that will be open Tuesday.

From a practical standpoint she may be right. But state and local election officials should take a lesson from the election of 2008.

Georgians, when given the opportunity, want to participate in deciding their own future. We should make that process as simple and as easy as possible. In statewide elections where the turnout even weeks in advance is obviously heavy, there’s no reason why early-voting hours —- including weekend voting —- should not be extended.

—- Mike King, for the editorial board (mking@ajc.com).