All Polk County residents can vote early at any of these one-stop voting locations, regardless of the precinct in which they are registered.

Polk County Board of Elections Director Dale Edwards says she is expecting a record turnout for one-stop voting this year. She says because of the economic problems and other issues and because it is a presidential election year, the voter turnout will likely be the highest in Polk history.

Edwards says voter registration is up this year and there seems to be more interest in this particular election, especially with newly registered young people.

Edwards says the county is making special efforts this year to encourage every resident to vote, including advertising one-stop voting for the first time. The county has placed signs throughout the county encouraging people to get out early and vote. Edwards says the more people who vote early, the easier election day is on poll workers as well as on voters who sometimes see long waiting lines to vote.

Edwards says she predicts a minimum of 40 percent of the people who will vote in this election will do so early.

In the last presidential election, 3,904 people voted early in Polk County, and Edwards says that number could be much greater this year.

The deadline to register to vote ended last Friday, but residents can still register if they take advantage of early voting. Both registration and voting can be done at the same time during one-stop early voting. No registration will be done at the regular polls on Nov. 4.

Polk County one-stop voting places will be open Monday through Friday from today until Oct. 31 and on a special Saturday, Nov. 1.

The board of elections is open from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. The Green Creek Family Life Center and Mill Spring Fire Department will be open from noon until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

All early voting locations will be open on Nov. 1 from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

The board of elections is also taking applications for absentee ballots. The last day to request an absentee ballot from the elections&squo; office will be Oct. 28. Those ballots must be returned to the board of elections office by Nov. 3.

See pages 6, 8 and 9 for sample ballots for the 2008 Polk County general election.