Tom Walker/Eyewitness News
Washington - If Indiana proves to be a swing state in this election, the deciding votes may have already been cast. But early voting is proving controversial in some places.
Voting early, either in person or through the mail by absentee ballot is happening more now. Voters who are going to be out of town on Election Day, or just don't want to wait in lines at the polls, are casting their ballot early.
In some places, early voting is happening a lot more.
"I think if I had to use a word, it would be, 'Wow'," said Virginia elections official Kitty Stevenson.
It has certainly stretched the concept of Election Day.
"We've gone from 'Election Day' to, in some cases, 'Election Month' or Election Six Weeks'," said Rosemary Rodriguez of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Some estimates predict as many as 30 percent of voters will have already cast their ballots by the time Election Day arrives.
The candidates know that and are re-shaping their campaigns to take advantage. Barack Obama was recently on the Internet urging people to vote now.
"It can't be easier, but you've gotta make the effort," the candidate said in an advertisement on YouTube.
Indiana is among the states the Obama campaign is targeting in hopes early votes can swing it his way. Some see a downside in all of this, including that mail-in ballots are more vulnerable to being tampered with.
"There is a worry that if we have people voting three or four weeks before the election that they're missing key information, they're missing the debates or key information that comes out about one campaign or the other," said election analyst John Fortier.
Nearly 44,000 Hoosiers have cast their ballots since early voting began Monday.
