http://66.225.205.104/JR20081028a.mp3
More than 130,000 people have already voted in Mecklenburg County. That's a record. It's also one reason why the wait to vote early is still one to two hours at most locations. Ironically, many people are voting early in hopes of avoiding long lines. Mecklenburg County Elections Director Michael Dickerson says only a few hundred voting machines are in use right now, "but on Election Day we've got some 1900 machines that will be out there and about 200 sites. That's 10 times the number of sites you've got now." State officials are expecting general election turnout as high as 70%. That would mean about 400,000 votes in Mecklenburg County. By the time early voting ends on Saturday afternoon, Dickerson says it's likely that almost half of the county's voters will have already cast a ballot.