If you're hoping to beat long Election Day lines by voting early, take warning: The lines already are pretty long.

Matter of fact, the state elections director says we'll set a record for early voting this year.

In four days, next Tuesday, Alaskans will choose members of Congress and state legislators and help elect a president. The political buzz seems louder than ever this year, perhaps because Gov. Sarah Palin is running for vice president and two longtime congressional incumbents, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, are facing tough competition.

For many voters, the incentive to vote early isn't so much the pitched politics but saving time and trouble.

That's their theory, at least.

At 3 p.m. Thursday, 68 people stood waiting to cast ballots at the regional elections office at 2525 Gambell St. -- what's known as the RAM Building -- in Midtown.

The line snaked out the voting room, down a corridor, then coiled around a big storage room.

Marcia Harrison, a chief warrant officer in the Alaska Army National Guard, said when she arrived and saw the line, "I started laughing." But she was shipping out Thursday night for a military school in Arkansas, so she stuck it out.

Shane and Erynn Smith also waited patiently, along with what Erynn called "a first-time voter," their baby daughter Sophia, whom Dad carried in a car seat.

"We're standing in this line even though we completely cancel out each other's votes," said Erynn, a nonprofit worker and registered independent who usually votes for Democrats while her electrician husband goes for Republicans.

Not everybody was bummed at the sight of the long line.

"Wow! How cool is this?" said Cathy Kerr, an interior designer. To her, it's just great to see so many people voting.

State elections director Gail Fenumiai said this year will set a record for the number of people voting early. She was still awaiting the latest tally Thursday, but it already had exceeded the 10,894 who voted early statewide in the 2004 general election, the last time we elected a president. All votes that year totaled 312,598.

Early voting can be done only at the regional elections offices in Anchorage, Wasilla, Fairbanks, Juneau and Nome, Fenumiai said.

Thursday was the deadline for early votes to be counted on election night just like regular votes, she said.

Any further early votes, as well as absentee ballots, will count but won't be tallied election night, Fenumiai said.

And she adds, if you vote early, don't try to vote again at your local precinct on Election Day.

Early votes may be cast at 2525 Gambell St. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Monday; from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to www.elections.alaska.gov.