U.S. voters getting early jump at the polls

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - More and more U.S. voters are casting their ballots before their state's official primary election day, blurring the calendar in a presidential nominating contest that once moved from state to state in prescribed order.

Election analysts say the trend favors candidates with fat wallets and strong organizations and creates the possibility of exit polling before the polls even open.

Only one state has already held its election -- Iowa, which kicked off the nominating process for the November presidential election last week. But campaign workers say tens of thousands of voters have already cast primary ballots in Florida, Missouri, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey and New York.

Ballots will be mailed on Monday to millions of Californians who will return them before the February 5 election in that state, the nation's most populous and biggest electoral prize.

"California has in effect an election month," Debra Bowen, California's top election official, told Reuters.

Many states used to restrict absentee balloting to those whose health or travel schedules prevented them from going to the polls. The rules have been eased in hopes that convenience will boost participation, which rose to 64 percent in the last presidential election in 2004 but is typically far less in the primary contests that determine the major party nominees.

Thirty-one U.S. states now let voters cast ballots in person before election day and 29 allow mail-in balloting with no excuses required, according to the Web site electionline.org, which tracks voting reform. California doesn't even call them "absentee voters" any more. By law they are now "vote-by-mail voters."

"It's been exploding," said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.