Voters are being urged to take advantage of early voting, which runs through Friday, to avoid the possibility of long lines on Election Day when a record turnout is forecast.

Colorado’s Nov. 4 ballot contains 18 amendments, although votes will not be counted for four that have been withdrawn, in addition to candidates and local issues, and officials say it can take up to 30 minutes to complete. With a limited number of voting machines and voting booths, lines already have formed at early voting sites.

Some voters cut their time at the polls by marking their choices on a sample ballot available at the early voting sites and using it as a cheat sheet in the voting booth.

For those mailing in their votes, extra postage is required, although the post office will deliver the ballots even if they are mailed with only a 42-cent stamp. Instead, the county will be charged for the unpaid postage after the election.

“They won’t return those as undeliverable to the voter,” El Paso County Election Manager Liz Olson said. “We don’t want people to be concerned if they didn’t have enough postage that we’re not going to count their ballot or we’ll set it aside.”

The Nov. 4 ballot requires 59 cents, because it weighs more than is covered by a first-class 42-cent stamp.

Olson said her office is encouraging people to put enough postage to save the county money.

“We don’t budget for this,” she said.

Olson said she didn’t know how much in extra postage the county has paid so far but that the Postal Service will send a bill after the election.

Those who don’t want to pay the extra postage can drop off their ballots between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade Ave., the clerk’s branch at the southeast corner of Powers Boulevard and Airport Road; and the Chapel Hills mall branch next to JC Penney on the north side.

They also can drop ballots at these early voting sites through Friday: Chapel Hills Mall, Suite 179, first level below the food court, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Citadel mall, Suite 3124 near JC Penney, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

As of Tuesday night, 21,486 people had voted early since early voting began Oct. 20. Chapel Hills was busiest with 9,353 voters. Citadel Mall had 6,373, and Centennial Hall, 5,760.

The record for early voting was 32,065 in 2004.

El Paso County’s early-voting so far this year accounted for about 11 percent of the statewide total of 199,186, the Secretary of State’s Office reported.

Colorado is one of 32 states that offer early voting at voting sites, according to the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. Early voting in-person began in Texas in 1988 and has gradually spread throughout the country, according to “Early Voting Reforms and American Elections,” a 2004 paper by Paul Gronke of Reed College.

It’s unclear when Colorado first allowed early voting, but it was in use by 1996, Olson said.

Through Tuesday, 69,104 of the 151,593 mail ballots requested had been returned, the clerk’s office reported. The previous record for mail ballots in a polling place election in El Paso County was in 2000 when 69,198 ballots were returned out of 73,408 requested.

Statewide, 1.6 million voters had requested mail ballots and 759,322 voters had returned them as of Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s Office said.

County election officials began counting ballots Monday and said results are kept secure so that nobody knows the tallies before vote counts are released after polls close at 7 p.m. Nov. 4.

Registered voters still can request a mail ballot for this election. Voters have until 5 p.m. Friday to complete the application and pick up a mail ballot at Centennial Hall.

All mail ballots must be received at the Clerk & Recorder’s Office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day.

For information, http://car.elpasoco.com/Election or 575-VOTE.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.comResearch the candidates and issues with The Gazette’s Election ’08 Search Tool. Use handy forms to search for ballot initiatives or candidates by name, party or office.

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