This year's U.S. presidential election will likely see a record turnout for early voting, with a similar record possible for overall voter turnout.
Michael McDonald, a voting and elections expert and associate professor at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va., is keeping close tabs on the number of pre-election day voters.
His United States Elections Project website reports that 16.1 million Americans have voted as of 3:45 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. And there are still five more days to go before the main vote on Tuesday.
McDonald, 41, predicts that as many as three in 10 Americans will vote early, compared to seven per cent of voters in the 1992 election, or 22.5 per cent of voters in the 2004 election.
If his prediction is accurate, it would "absolutely" be the highest pre-election voter turnout in history, he said.
James Hicks, research director at the Early Voting Information Centre in Portland, Ore., thinks the early voting totals could be even higher, with as many as one-third of voters heading to polls ahead of election day.
"I suspect that what's going on here is that there's a large amount of enthusiasm to just go ahead and vote," McDonald told Â鶹´«Ã½ Online.
Hicks said the numbers speak for themselves.
"I think people are very excited," he said Wednesday. "And people are coming out."
Both men expect that enthusiasm will continue on Nov. 4, even though that hasn't necessarily been the case in the past.
"We're seeing the composition of the early voters much different than we've seen in previous elections," McDonald said. "We're seen the numbers elevated above where we've seen them in previous elections as well."
McDonald also noted that Democrat Barack Obama's campaign has put special emphasis on early vote mobilization -- something that may explain the high numbers of registered Democrats who have voted in advance of election day.
"A much greater proportion of Democrats (is) showing up and voting early, which is unusual," he said. "We usually see Republicans have an advantage in early voting."
Republicans still hold an advantage in absentee voting by mail, McDonald said, which has traditionally been the case.
TV spots target those on fence?
But it's not as if Obama is relying solely on early-voting Democrats to make his case for president.
At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the Illinois Senator will air a half-hour television ad simultaneously on three major TV networks and several other channels.
Concordia University professor Graham Dodds, an expert on U.S. politics, told Â鶹´«Ã½ the late-campaign, prime-time blitz is likely an effort to reach voters who aren't yet ready to throw their support behind the 47-year-old presidential candidate.
"At this point, I think most folks have made up their minds," he said Wednesday. "I guess ... this is a way to seal the deal, or appeal to the few remaining, undecided voters."
With files from Â鶹´«Ã½ and The Associated Press
