Presidential rivals woo absentees

In Hillary Rodham Clinton's California campaign, 1,000 "HillStars" are being lined up to each call 20 people and ask them to identify another 200 people who may vote by absentee ballot in the Feb. 5 presidential primary.

"They're going into their neighborhoods, to their churches and bowling leagues," said Clinton's state campaign chairman, Ace Smith. "We're asking folks to bring their social networks to us – that's how we identify our army."

The Clinton team boasts it has signed up 200,000 new "permanent absentee voters" in California. And other top-tier presidential campaigns are also aggressively pursuing the Golden State's most valued – and burgeoning – voter resource: residents who shun their local polling places in favor of voting absentee.

In the first 10 days after absentee ballots are sent out to California voters Jan. 7, as many as 1 million people may vote in the state Democratic and Republican primaries – vastly exceeding the anticipated turnout in celebrated opening caucuses in Iowa and the primary in New Hampshire.

By Feb. 5, the total is expected to easily top the absentee vote in the 2004 California presidential primary, when nearly 2.3 million voters sent in their ballots by mail. In the 2006 state general election, the number grew to 3.7 million – 41 percent of the electorate, more than four times the absentee share 20 years earlier.

As a result, courting and recruiting absentee voters is now a big-time political strategy for any serious presidential hopeful.

"We know exactly how many people have voted in each California county and how many have voted absentee in the past" in California, said Mike DuHaime, national campaign manager for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "We're driving toward that number and looking to surpass it.

"We're making sure that people who are predisposed to vote for Rudy are aware of that option. It's a way to line them up early."

The front-running Clinton campaign and Giuliani, the national leader on the Republican side, were counting on early absentee balloting in California to safeguard them from a political surge by an upstart who may fare well in one of the early states.

That strategy is being upset by Iowa's decision to move its caucuses from mid-January to Jan. 3, before California's absentee ballots go out, and New Hampshire's anticipated decision to also move up its presidential selection.

But leading candidates and top challengers alike are trying to make contact with potential California absentee voters early and often. There's a good reason: About 4 million Californians have signed up as "permanent absentee voters" – meaning they are automatically sent mail-in ballots so long as they vote in all statewide primary and general elections.

They are very likely to follow the candidates and issues. Nearly 80 percent vote regularly – almost double the turnout for the rest of the electorate.

They include more traditional absentee voters such as Joyce Rasmussen, an 80-year-old Sacramento resident and former Peace Corps volunteer who stopped going to her polling place, she said, "because I have bad knees and walk with a cane."

The Democratic voter now relaxes at home, carefully poring over her ballot and studying the issues. "If I had to vote tomorrow, it would probably be Bill Richardson," she said. "But I can change my mind. I think Hillary is wonderful. I may vote for her. But at the moment, I need more definite answers from her."

Increasingly, the California electorate also includes people, from students to working professionals, who prefer voting by mail than rushing to precincts on Election Day.

Kara Greene, 23, registered as a permanent absentee voter when she moved from Manteca to attend California State University, Sacramento.

"Young adults in their 20s live pretty busy lives. We're trying to build our future. We don't always have time to make it to the polls," said Greene, president of the university's College Republicans. "Permanent absentee voting is a way to do your civic duty that doesn't drag you down."

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• Call Peter Hecht, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5539.