The Clark and Champaign county boards of elections are bracing for thousands of early voters to cast ballots before the Nov. 6 election.

Champaign County Deputy Director Meredith Bodey said officials there believe as much as 40 percent of the total turnout could be through early voting.

Early voting begins today and ends Nov. 5, though the issue continues to be debated in court.

A federal judge in late August overturned an Ohio ruling and restored early in-person voting on the final three days before Election Day.

The ruling was supported by Obama for America Ohio, but Attorney General Mike DeWine announced after it that he would appeal the decision to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In-person early voting is a form of absentee voting, so anyone using the system will fill out an absentee ballot application when they arrive at their Board of Elections.

Clark County Board of Elections Director Matthew P. Tlachac said more than 9,000 in-person early ballots were cast in the office and more than 8,400 local ballots were mailed in before the presidential election in 2008.

Tlachac and others in Clark and Champaign counties expect the number of early voters, particularly those who mail in ballots, to rise.

“We hope to surpass that number (of mail-in ballots) this year,” Tlachac said. “We would hope to have similar lines as we had in ‘08, but it’s hard to predict.”

The deadline to register to vote is at 9 p.m. on Oct. 9.

Champaign County had more than 5,000 voters cast absentee ballots in 2008.

Bodey and Tlachac said their offices will offer expanded hours during the early voting period.

Republican and Democratic Party leaders said they would encourage as many as possible to vote early, but they disagreed on the number of days the practice should be allowed.

“As a Republican chair, I wish it was a little shorter. I don’t like the week where they can register and vote on the same day,” said Lynda Smith, Clark County GOP chairwoman. “We like to make sure we can verify everything. But when they’re doing everything at the same time, it makes it difficult.”

Ron Rhine, Clark County Democratic Party chair, said verifying voter information is not an issue for the local board of elections, on which both he and Smith are members. Rhine said he can’t fathom why anyone would want to limit early voting unless “they’re trying to do things that are not above board.”

“I support early voting any way shape or form … I don’t know why would they want to tie our hands when it comes to getting people out to vote. The more people we can get to vote, the better Democratic system we have,” Rhine said.

Smith said she hopes more area residents take advantage of early voting.

“I think we’re going have a large number of absentee voters this year. It’s nice especially for older people. It just makes it easier,” Smith said. “(Election Day), it could be a nice day, it could be bad day. In November you don’t know. With absentee voting, they can take more time and sit down and go through it and think about who they want to vote for.”