Early voting ends

The majority of voters polled Friday just want it to be over, but Julie and Carlos Castillo haven't let election season beat them down.

"This is one of the best elections we've had in a long time," Carlos Castillo said just after casting his ballot at the courthouse annex. "We really have a choice."

Early voting ended Friday.

This year's turnout surpassed 2004's early voting numbers by 2,035 votes, county elections administrator Mitzi Scheible's records show. Scheible and her staff were fielding constant phone calls and elections-office visitors Friday afternoon.

"It's been crazy," Scheible said. "My staff and I are going to be ecstatic when this is over with."

Ector County's early voting total came to 22,845 Friday night, with 21,281 in-person votes and 1,564 mail-in ballots cast. Scheible said everything's gone smoothly so far except for some problems with the elections office phone lines early this week, but everything should be working on Nov. 4.

She said staffing voter hubs with bilingual workers hasn't been a problem, and Department of Justice poll monitors haven't shown up to check on things yet.

Ector County will be "under judgment" by the Department of Justice until 2011 because of a 2005 lawsuit the department filed and quickly settled that accused the county of failing to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Specifically, the suit claimed too few bilingual poll workers had been posted in the November 2004 general election.

Ector County's upswing in early voting follows a national trend.

The dean of voting turnout predictions, Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, this week amped up his turnout forecast. Initially he said it would be around 2004 levels, but now he is looking at a turnout that would be the highest since 1960 when John F. Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon.

MIT political scientist Adam Berinsky predicted the highest turnout since 1968, which he said is still quite impressive given that the polls show this election is not that close and fewer people tend to vote when the race isn't tight.

Bill Forward's just glad he doesn't live in Colorado.

The Odessan was in the swing state recently and said constant debates and TV ads almost made him nauseous.

"I'll sure be glad when it's over," Forward said after casting his vote at the Presidential Museum.

He said he's supporting the Republican ticket, partly because he'll feel more confident about his financial future in the wake of Wall Street's meltdown if Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin are in office.

"We will live through it no matter who it is," Forward said. "The first election I voted on was Goldwater. I obviously lost that one big time."

Dylan McClung was matter of fact about why he supports McCain.

"Keeping my job," he said after casting his vote.

McClung works in the oil field and said he's sick of campaign low blows and media saturation.

"I think it's been pretty cut-throat on both sides," he said.

The Castillos declined to say which presidential candidate they voted for, but both are confident he's the right man for the job.

"It's very exciting," Julie Castillo said. "It's going to be history."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

EARLY VOTING TOTALS:

>> Courthouse annex: 9,790

>> Presidential Museum: 5,700

>> Lowes Marketplace: 2,395

>> Odessa College: 2,484

>> Medical Center Hospital: 912

>> Total mail-in ballots: 1,564