Early voting extended: Trick? Or treat?

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In a rare and unprecedented move, the Miami-Dade Elections Department opened this afternoon and extended the deadline to request absentee ballots — which blew by on Wednesday — for four hours.

Until 5 p.m., voters can go to the government office in Doral and request and fill out and turn in an absentee ballot. It’s being touted as an alternative to extending early voting hours in the wake of a lawsuit by the Florida Democratic Party challenging the new reduced number of days.

Ladra applauds the lawsuit. Early voting this week has been massive, with Disneyesque lines that go around the polling places — and then some. A lot of voters waited up to four and five hours to cast their yays and nays. Cutting early voting in half was a cynical move by Gov. Rick Scott, who clearly knows that early voting goes to the Democratic candidates (read: or someone near him whispered it into his ear), to supress the vote in a key election year. The long lines clearly show there is a need for more early voting hours, there is a market for it. If this were a business, early voting would last a month.

But this is politics. And while I would welcome more time for voters to participate,  it’s not so clear cut how much good this surprise four-hour window will do — and for whom.

I don’t applaud the action, which the Herald story said was taken after elections supervisors saw that voters were leaving while some stayed til 1 a.m. to cast their ballots. Um, duh! Did they just notice.

Let’s forget, for a moment, that there is something inherently wrong with the idea of “in person absentee voting.” Let’s forget, for a moment, that the actual deadline to request an AB past on Wednesday. Let’s forget, for a moment, that I have personally told people this when they ask me if they still have time, crushing their spirits. Let’s forget, for a moment, that others have likely told voters this, too. Now, suddenly, there is a new window of opportunity that nobody knew about on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and yesterday — when voters who did sacrifice their Saturday lives and routines to wait two, three, four and more hours to vote were told they had no other choice? That this was their last chance?

Who even knows that the elections department is doing this? How will the word get out to the voters? Well, likely through Democratic Party channels like the Miami Herald (which is one, whether its intentional or not) which posted a story online this morning. Or emails from the Democrats of South Dade. And that could skew the results. Intentional or not. I doubt that the Republican viejitos in Little Havana and Hialeah are going to find out — maybe after it’s too late. Again.

Republicans are crying foul. But so are Democrats. Facebook posts from Dem strategists and candidates say it is no coincidence that the only polling place open is in Republican-heavy Doral, surrounded by other neighborhoods with a good GOP voter base.

But early voting is owned by Democrats. And that is good for both President Barack Obama and the other donkey candidates. Numbers reported through Friday show that almost 45 percent of Florida’s 9 million voters cast ballots through early voting or via absentee mail-in votes. By the time Saturday’s numbers are tallied, I’m sure we’ll be closer to half. The numbers also show that Dems have cast the bulk of those votes — beating Republicans by tens of thousands in both Miami-Dade and Broward.

The Republican Party of Florida and its candidates need to jump on the gun and call their supporters now to get them to the elections department on 87th Avenue. Fair is fair. They need a head’s up, too.

And even if they don’t — and I expect they won’t in as big numbers as Dems, who have led the early voting charge in Miami-Dade and Broward — they need to use this example to get out the vote on Tuesday. Start now. Republicans need to know they are being played for fools on this one.

Maybe Ladra will take a walk over to the elections department and see who’s taking advantage of this four-hour early-voting-via-AB window the most. I expect to be there for a while.