Absentee voters begin casting early ballots

It's absentee ballot season in Idaho.

Gem State voters seeking a jump began casting in-person ballots in some counties this week - four weeks before the Nov. 6 General Election.

In Coeur d'Alene, election officials had a busy day Tuesday as more than 250 voters showed up to cast early in-person ballots, creating periodic voter lines.

Kootenai County Election Manager Carrie Phillips says the early enthusiasm has a lot to do with 2012 being a presidential year.

The ballot also includes contests for Idaho's two seats in the U.S. House, a full slate of state legislative races and a referendum on three divisive public education reforms.

In the last presidential election, Idaho voters cast more than 667,000 absentee ballots.

Nov. 2 is the last day for in-person absentee voting statewide.