Early Voting Do-Overs

Short of Instant Runoff Voting, this is a reform well worth making:

Voters in New Jersey who cast absentee ballots for a candidate who has dropped out of the presidential race can vote again, a state judge has ruled. The ruling by the judge, Vincent J. Grasso of State Superior Court in Ocean County, dealt specifically with the Ocean County Clerk but has bearing statewide, according to the New Jersey attorney general’s office.

The ballot for Tuesday’s presidential primary was printed about a month ago. Because the field of candidates has narrowed considerably since then in both parties, the ballot has the names of six candidates who are no longer running. The candidates include four Democrats, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, and two Republicans, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and former Senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee.

Under Judge Grasso’s ruling, if someone cast their absentee ballot for one of those six candidates, they are allowed to request a new ballot from their county clerk’s office and revote.

With early voting so convenient and popular, and the primaries moving at a breakneck pace, you're getting a lot of disenfranchisement and voter remorse. It's worth doing this, and if people are concerned about double voting, IRV will do the trick by giving voters a second and third choice.