COLUMBUS — For thousands of voters across Ohio and the nation, it simply doesn't matter what the presidential candidates are saying about education, prescription drugs or other hotly debated issues.

        It's not that these voters don't care. It's just that many have already cast their votes - weeks in advance of the Nov. 7 election.

VOTING ABSENTEE

In Ohio, you may write or go to your county board of elections and request an absentee ballot. The request must be received by the board by noon Saturday.     In Kentucky, absentee ballots are available from your county clerk's office up to seven days before the election.

        Voters in the Tristate are requesting absentee ballots in record numbers, officials say, and thousands of people have already mailed in their choices.

        In Hamilton County alone, officials predict as many as 43,000 people will cast their votes before election day - up from 33,000 just four years ago. In Cuyahoga County, the numbers are even higher, with 80,000 or more expected to vote absentee - up from 62,000 in 1996.

        Although voters increasingly are voting absentee, they still represent a relatively small proportion of the electorate. In 1999, 7.2 mil lion were registered in Ohio and 2.6 million in Kentucky.

        “We're working seven days a week from seven in the morning until 10 at night,” said Irene Canny Lange, manager of the absentee voting department at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

        “We have many people voting absentee because they travel or they are college students. And we have a lot of people who want to vote now to avoid standing in line.”

        Other counties report similar jumps in absentee voting.

        Beverly Moore, Warren County elections director, who has worked at the elections board for 25 years, said she's never seen so many people casting their votes so early.

        She said 1,132 people have already voted in Warren County and 2,000 more have requested absentee bal lots. “That's a very high turnout,” she said. “Especially this early in the month.”

        Absentee voting is also running ahead of 1996 in Northern Kentucky, say county clerks in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.

        In Kenton County, for example, Clerk Bill Aylor said

        his office is “getting hammered” with requests for absentee ballots.

        “We've probably sent out 1,200 to 1,300 ballots already and we're still three weeks out from election day,” Mr. Aylor said. In 1996, about 2,100 absentee ballots were cast in Kenton County.

        Kentucky voters who won't be in the county on election day can either cast an absentee ballot in writing or come to the courthouse to vote on a voting machine, Mr. Aylor said.

        Since Friday, when the machines opened, 250 have voted, he said.

        Under Ohio law, people can vote absentee if they will be out of the county on election day, if they are ill, disabled, 62 or older or fall into several other approved categories.

        Regardless of why they can vote absentee, the fact that many people are doing so has party leaders in a frantic rush to reach them first.

        Democrats say they've mailed ab sentee ballots to 330,000 Ohioans over 62 and likely to vote Democratic. Republicans have mailed 901,000 absentee ballots to their likely supporters. And both sides have followed up with literature pushing their slate of candidates.

        “Absentee ballots have become a greater priority,” said J.B. Poersch, head of field operations for Vice President Gore.

        Although Mr. Gore will be outspent on television by a 2-to-1 ratio in Ohio this week, Mr. Poersch said Democrats continue to assume the presidential race is a dead heat here. “And if the race is decided by a mere percentage point in Ohio, it could be that in the end those who voted early decided who won,” he said.

        Bob Paduchik, executive director of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio, said absentee ballots take on more importance because those who request them are extremely likely to vote.

        “I would not run a campaign without an absentee ballot program,” he said.

        Despite the high number of people voting absentee this year, experts say turnout nationwide is still expected to be low.

        They say the only exception may be in battleground states such as Ohio, where candidates have visited often and are spending millions of dollars on television ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.

        “I would not be surprised if at least in states that are hotly contested, turnout is higher,” said Michael Delli Carpini, director of public policy for the Pew Charitable Trust. “Voters in those states feel they know more about the candidates and are important to the election.”

        Voters such as Joe Sonenshein, a 22-year-old college student at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., said the close race convinced him it was critical that he vote absentee back home in Miami Township in Clermont County.

        “I think it's pretty important with Ohio being a swing state,” he said. “Quite honestly, with the Supreme Court issues coming up and the possiblity that Bush would appoint pro-life judges, I really want to keep Al Gore in there.”

        Besides, he said, “I'm away at school and I don't have time to drive home to vote.”

        Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's office, said the high number of people choosing to vote absentee illustrates its convenience. He notes that Mr. Blackwell advocates allowing all Ohioans to vote absentee for any reason.

        “People have less time. You have both members of the family working,” he said. “Why shouldn't Ohio make its voting more accessible to its citizens?”

        Margaret Holtman, an 81-year-old retired factory worker, said she's been voting absentee for more than a decade - mostly because of illness in the family. “We couldn't walk so far to the gym so absentee voting is good,” she explained.

        A Republican from Batavia Township, Ms. Holtman said this year she still hasn't decided on a candidate so has yet to mail in her ballot.

        “I don't know know who will be the best on Medicare. That's what worries me,” she said.

        Despite the rave reviews about absentee voting, experts say there is one drawback for those who cast their votes early in a race.

        Thomas Patterson, a Bradlee professor of government at Harvard University, said most people who vote absentee are strong partisans not likely to change their minds.

        But, he added, “Obviously, if something huge happens in the last week of the campaign and you've already sent your ballot in, you can't ask to have it back.”

       Reporters Marie McCain and Patrick Crowley contributed to this report.
       

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