Absentee voting for nonbinding primary begins
By DERRILL HOLLY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Voters were hardly breaking down the door as in-person absentee balloting began Monday for the District of Columbia's presidential primary.

Within the first hour after the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics opened its downtown office, just three registered Democrats voted. By early afternoon, the number doubled to six.

" Washington, D.C., has become the Dixville Notch of the 2004 presidential primary season," said Timothy Cooper, referring to the New Hampshire township where voters cast their ballots just after midnight on the date of the state's presidential primaries.

"An end of an era has come, New Hampshire no longer leads the presidential primary pack," said Cooper, executive director of Democracy First, which advocates full congressional voting rights for the district. The city has a delegate who can vote in committees but not on the House floor.

Although the outcome of the Jan. 13 nonbinding D.C. Democratic primary has no bearing on the delegate selection process, Cooper and others who supported moving the contest from May to January said the outcome could help a winning candidate emerge from the pack of a crowded field.

"Iowa was an unknown caucus in 1976 and Jimmy Carter used the caucus to propel himself into the presidency," Cooper said after casting his ballot for Howard Dean. The former Vermont governor is among eleven candidates listed on the Democratic ballot in a city where 85 percent of all voters are registered Democrats.

"Any indication of voter support for president for the Democratic nominee is important," said John Capozzi, a member of the Democratic State Committee. "We have a number of great Democrats who could win the election against George Bush," said Capozzi.

Although Dean, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rev. Al Sharpton and seven lesser known hopefuls are listed, several candidates filed papers in November seeking removal from the D.C. ballot.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and John Edwards, Rep. Dick Gephardt and retired Gen. Wesley Clark sought to avoid threatening the traditional roles of New Hampshire and Iowa as the earliest contests in the presidential election cycle.

In-person absentee voting continues until the day before primary day. The DCBOEE has also mailed about 1,000 absentee ballots, of which about 200 have been returned.

"Absentee voting has never changed an election's outcome," said DCBOEE spokesman Bill O'Field.

The board plans to mail election notifications and polling information to registered voters next week. The turnout for the last two Democratic presidential primaries which were both held in May was extremely light. According to election records 8.4 percent of registered Democrats cast ballots in 2000, down from 8.8 percent in 1996.

Caucuses will be held in each of the city's eight wards Feb. 14. A slate of delegates and alternates who will attendJuly's Democratic convention in Boston will be chosen in March.