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''Vote early and often!" That used to be a joke. Now it's half serious -- at least the "vote early" part.

Thirty-one states allow voters to cast ballots in person before Election Day simply for convenience. In 28 states, you can cast your ballot early by mail. Those states don't require an explanation, such as infirmity or travel. This year, as many as one-third of the nation's voters are expected to vote before Election Day, up from 20 percent in 2004 and 25 percent in 2006.

Voters in some battleground states, such as Virginia and Iowa, started voting in September, a few weeks after the political conventions and before the first presidential debate. More than 1 million voters have requested early ballots in Florida. Six more states -- including the mother of all battleground states, Ohio -- allowed people to vote beginning early this month. "I'm a first-time voter," one Ohio college student told the Associated Press. "So I really wanted to make sure I was on top of everything. That's why I voted so early."

The idea is to make voting more convenient and to increase turnout without overwhelming polling places on Election Day. Voting officials like the idea because it decreases the chances of Election Day foul-ups. "I think early voting is here to stay," former Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox said. "It's just a recognition of the busy lives we all lead. There are so many things in our modern-day world that make it difficult to get to a polling place in a narrow 12-hour window."

The evidence is unclear whether early voting actually increases turnout. States that have experimented with it have not experienced a huge surge of participation. Oregon, for example, adopted a vote-by-mail system for the entire state in 1998. No polling places. In the four presidential elections from 1984 through 1996, turnout in Oregon averaged 61 percent of the state's voting-age population. In 2000 and 2004, turnout increased just 2 points, to an average of 63 percent. At the same time, nationwide turnout averaged 53 percent in 2000 and '04, an increase of only 1 point from 1984 to '96.

This year, it is possible that high gasoline prices may discourage people from showing up at the polls. So early voting by mail could be a way of keeping turnout up.

Still, ballot security is a problem. If more people vote at their kitchen tables, how can you make sure that nobody is looking over their shoulder to see whether they vote the right way -- say, a spouse or a parent demanding to see how a partner or a daughter votes? You can't.

Election officials are careful not to release the results of early voting before the polls close on Election Night. But there is nothing to prevent pollsters from asking people who have already cast their ballots how they voted.

The television networks and the Associated Press have agreed not to release the results of exit polls until all the polls have closed in a state. They don't want to discourage people who have not yet cast their ballots from voting because "It's all over." Disclosing early-voting results could have the same effect.

As it happens, many of the people who vote early are strong partisans who can't wait to vote and are strongly committed to their candidate. Voters who can't make up their minds tend to be the ones who put off making a decision. They might actually pay attention to the campaign. But what's the impact on the campaigns?

This year's late conventions have already made 2008 the shortest general election campaign in 150 years. Early voting means the candidates have to jump directly to their closing arguments. Campaigns also have to target likely supporters with expensive mailings that provide early-ballot applications, followed by telephone calls reminding them to send in the applications and to send in their ballots.

Then there is the possibility of an "October surprise," some unexpected development that throws the campaign into an uproar. Suppose we have an October surprise this year, after millions of people have cast their ballots. Can early voters change their minds and get their ballots back? Nope. They're out of luck.