Iowa and New Hampshire are no longer first

Los Angeles Times reported Thanks to quiet changes in how busy Americans choose to vote -- namely the explosion of early absentee voting as a convenience, not a necessity caused by travel -- Florida's absentee voters will actually be the first Americans to start voting in the primary process for the 2008 election. They can start casting their ballots on Christmas Day, 23 days from now and a full nine days before Iowa's caucus-goers thought they'd be first in the nation.

And at least for the Dems it won't count, because of what their party did to penalize Florida for moving their primary up.

This means that voting in the 2008 presidential election process actually begins in 2007.

For a president that will not take office until 2009.

... Additionally, Gronke's documents show that a strong trend toward early absentee voting all over the West is also quietly undercutting the “first in the nation” primacy of the Hawkeye and Granite states. By this measure, for instance, Iowa is merely tied for second in voting order. On Jan. 3, the night of the Iowa caucuses (and the Fiesta Bowl that might tempt some to stay home by the TV), Arizona voters can begin voting absentee.

I wish Arizona could have started a day earlier and made Iowa third.

Californians may begin voting -- either absentee or in person at select locations -- as early as Jan. 7, a day before the once-inviolate primary primary in New Hampshire now set for Jan. 8. New Mexico voters also start voting absentee before the N.H. primary, starting on Jan. 5.

Oh, and for that matter, here's an even earlier note: overseas and military voters from California have a right to get a ballot starting in five days, on this coming Friday, Dec. 7.