Early voting in Maryland?

Maryland is a solidly blue state in presidential elections, and the state's governor and legislature are elected in non-presidential years. So, aside from 1st Congressional District residents who are deciding whether Republican Andy Harris or Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. will be their new representative, in 2008 in the Old Line State, there's just not much electoral excitement.

But there are also two statewide ballot questions, dealing with slot machines and early voting. Slots have received a lot of attention over the years, so in this column I'll be examining Question 1, the early voting measure.

The measure would amend Article 1 of the state constitution to allow voters to cast votes up to two weeks in advance of Election Day, and would also allow for casting votes outside one's home precinct. The latter votes would still count in the precinct of residence; the provision is intended to let voters opt for more convenient locations, such as near their workplaces.

The General Assembly passed early voting legislation in 2005 and 2006, but an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge ruled those measures unconstitutional. The legislature responded last year by passing an amendment for ballot approval. If adopted by the voters Nov. 4, the amendment will constitutionalize the right to cast early or out-of-precinct votes.

Regular readers of this column might suspect my lock-step support for any amendment that is generally supported in the legislature by Democrats and opposed by many Republicans. But I'm wary about early voting, and my concern has nothing to do with partisanship. It's simply this: The election isn't over two weeks before it's over.

Because the messages and actions of candidates and parties are not complete, voting early seems fundamentally undemocratic - or, at the very least, dangerously nondeliberative. Early voters would also be making decisions without the benefit of any media reports, exposes and candidate profiles that are published in the final days of the election.

Imagine if judges decided cases before hearing the closing arguments. Heck, imagine if judges on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars refused to watch the last 30 seconds of a routine before deciding! And yet voters in some states - including Ohio, a pivotal swing state - are already voting even though the presidential debates are not finished.