With the presidential primary schedule being moved up earlier and earlier, voters who vote by mail may be voting as early as the first week of the January 2008. In California, election officials will begin mailing ballots on December 27th, 2007. Those voters could cast their votes before the Iowa and New Hampshire are even decided.

New Jersey and Tennessee will begin mailing their ballots the first week of January and early voting begins January 10th in Arizona. Weeks before those dates, absentee ballots for military personnel will be mailed. States have been making it easier for voters to vote by mail.

Twenty-nine states, allow “no-excuse” absentee voting by mail and 31 states allow early voting in person before Election Day without requiring any reason for doing so. According to Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Oregon’s Reed College, thirty six million voters will cast their ballots early in the next presidential election, that is thirty percent of the one hundred and twenty million Americans expected to vote in 2008. In the last presidential election twenty-one million voters, voted early.

Fat Tuesday, the final day of Mardi Gras, will become the largest Super Tuesday to date, with voters in twenty-one states voting for presidential candidates or participating in nominating caucuses on Feb. 5. Currently Wyoming Republicans will be first, with their caucus on January fifth. They will be followed by the Iowa Caucuses on January fourteenth and the Michigan Primary on the fifteenth. On the nineteenth, we have the Nevada Caucuses and the South Carolina Republican Primary. We finish the month off with the New Hampshire Primary on the twenty-second, and the Florida, and South Carolina Democratic Primary on the twenty-ninth.

In February, we begin with the Republican Maine Caucus on the second, and then we are at Super Tuesday with Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Republican West Virginia, primaries; and Alaska, Colorado, Idaho Democratic, Minnesota, New Mexico Democratic , North Dakota, caucuses. Then on the ninth, we have Louisiana Primary, Nebraska Democratic and Washington caucuses. Followed by the Maine Democratic Caucus on the tenth and the Maryland and Virginia primaries on the twelfth. Finishing up with Washington and Wisconsin primaries on the nineteenth and the Hawaii Democratic Caucus on the twenty-sixth.

In March we begin with the Republican Hawaii Caucus on the second. On the fourth, we have the Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont primaries. Finishing the month off with the Democratic Wyoming Caucus on the eighth, and the Mississippi Primary on the eleventh. Currently we have only the Pennsylvania Primary in April on the twenty-second, but they are considering moving it up to February twelfth or March fourth. May brings us the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on the sixth, Nebraska and West Virginia primaries on the thirteenth, Kentucky and Oregon primaries on the twentieth, and the Idaho Primary on the twenty-seventh. We finish off the primary season in June with the Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota primaries on the third.

The Democratic National Convention will be held on August twenty-fifth through the twenty-eighth, in Denver, Colorado. The Republican National Convention will be held on September first through the fourth, in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Whether you vote by mail or in person, this presidential election will be decided earlier than ever.