Here are some early 2012 voting numbers around the country, courtesy of the U.S. Election Project:
Total ballots cast in the United States: 3,571,075
Total ballots cast in Ohio: 502,737. This represents 8.7% of the 2008 total vote in Ohio (which went for Obama).
Total ballots cast in North Carolina: 387,721. Of those, 49.4% were cast by Democrats, 32.2% by Republicans, and 18.3% by none/other.
Total ballots cast in Virginia; 311,420. No partisan id available. But by sex, 55.2% were from females, 44.8% from males.
Florida requested/sent ballots: 1,758,748. Of those, 40.4% were registered Republicans, 40.2% registered Democrats, and 19.5% none/other.
PILEUS 
Man, that just irritates the heck out of me. Voting should not be easy. Early voting should be banned.
@ Steve Walsh:
Okay, I understand that we shouldn’t provide accommodations for the merely lazy. But what about people who cannot get time off from work? Some of those people may really, really, need the money.
So let’s ban early voting AND make Election Day a holiday. If we worry that we have too many holidays (and therefore lost productivity), then let’s get rid of another holiday. Veterans’ Day? Christmas? Columbus Day? Presidents’ Day?
Anything. Because Election Day at least has a real, non-symbolic purpose.
Ok. Please allow me to expand. Making Election Day a holiday is A-OK with me. Allowing government employees deployed out of country (military, State, etc.) to vote through the absentee system? Of course. Cannot think of any other exceptions to my “early voting should be banned” rule.
I’m not so bothered by the idea that early voters are lazy, it is more upsetting because of the ignorance and idiocy it allows. If 50 days early is ok, why not 100 or as soon as the Parties nominate their candidates? By having everyone vote on the same day we are ensuring that all voters are casting their ballot with the same information available about the candidates. It doesn’t guarantee that individual voters are well informed, however, but that is a topic for another thread. Did anyone vote before the Benghazi incident? Would they change their vote based on how that has played out? How about the news today that Iran (may have) agreed to talks on its nuclear program?
I think the quality of the vote is improved when voting is somewhat inconvenient. If I have to go out of my way, and rearrange my normal schedule, and stand in line to vote then I’m going to be reasonably well informed about the choices I’m being asked to make. Then again, perhaps I’m just reading too much into this and it won’t make any difference.