North Dakotans who plan to use absentee ballots may start making their election choices Thursday, and several counties plan to set up precincts for early voters next month, county auditors say.

"It's an exciting year," said Alice Schulz, the auditor in Stark County, in southwestern North Dakota. "There are so many chances to vote."

Cass County has booked space in Fargo's Best Western Doublewood Inn for nine days in October and November for voters who don't want to wait until Nov. 4.

"You've got a two-week period, basically, that you can walk in the door and vote," said Mike Montplaisir, the Cass County auditor. "It's convenient. It's easy."

Thousands of North Dakotans already have requested absentee ballots, and Thursday is the first day counties may begin distributing them, Secretary of State Al Jaeger said. Voters who visit their local county courthouse can apply for a ballot and vote in one trip.

A number of counties are establishing early-voting locations, which require less paperwork than an absentee ballot and function much like traditional Election Day precincts.

In the last presidential election, 16.2 percent of North Dakotans used absentee ballots, an increase from 12.9 percent in 2000, state election statistics show. Jaeger said he expects the percentage to continue rising.

"The political parties have really made quite a concentrated effort to have absentee voting, early voting, whatever you want to call it," Jaeger said. "Both of them are monitoring the requests for absentee ballots quite closely."

Montplaisir said Cass County's early-voting motel precinct will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 20-23, Oct. 27-30, and on Nov. 3, the Monday before Election Day. Any Cass County resident who is eligible to vote may chose to use it.

"We'd like to go Monday through Friday, except it's a little tough getting a motel set up on a Friday," Montplaisir said. "They have other things going on that pay better than we do."

In Ward County, Auditor Devra Smestad said the Ex-Servicemen's Room in the county courthouse will be open from noon until 7 p.m. Oct. 23-24, and Oct. 27-30, for people who already have made up their minds.

"We want to be open during most people's lunch hour, and then up until 7 p.m., which is when the polls usually close," Smestad said. "We just want to extend it a couple of extra days, in anticipation of more people wanting to vote early."

Kevin Glatt, the Burleigh County auditor, said county officials are working on the details of an early-voting operation.

Last week, Burleigh County already had 600 applications for absentee ballots, Glatt said. "We do such a powerful number of absentees," he said.

Glatt said he noticed an initial surge of inquiries about early voting after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lost to Sen. Barack Obama in a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 26.

"It was noticeable. People were calling for absentee ballots," Glatt said. "By noon, I had five (inquiries) myself. That's not a lot, but it was pretty early in the game."