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Early birds who want to get a jump can start voting Monday for primaries scheduled to take place Aug. 26.

Early voting begins Monday at seven locations in Collier County and five in Lee County as a growing number of voters skip the ritual and cast their ballot early.

Early voting runs from Monday through Aug. 24 at locations, including Supervisor of Election offices in both counties. In Lee County, voters can also go to election branch offices in south Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Cape Coral or the East Regional Library in Lehigh Acres.

In Collier, Naples and Everglades City halls and a handful of library locations are also available. The full list of sites is available at http://election.dos.state.fl.us/index.shtml that is the state Division of Elections Web site.

Over the years, early and absentee voting has become more popular as voters go to choose their candidates and avoid Election Day crowds. In January, nearly 400,000 Democrats had voted early in that party’s disputed primary. That compares to less than 100,000 four years earlier.

Investors may recoup

Private and institutional investors in Southwest Florida and across the state may soon receive some, if minimal, relief from firms that touted a particular investment as a surefire, no-risk way to park cash.

Last week, Citigroup agreed to buy back $7 billion and pay a

$100 million penalty to settle charges it misled investors when it marketed auction-rate securities, which allow investors to obtain long-term financing at short-term rates that were adjusted frequently.

It’s a $330 billion market, half of which were used as financial tools by states, local governments, school boards and other public entities including those in Florida.

Since introduced in 1984, the securities have been a reliable instrument for investors to park cash for long-term projects while earning higher interest rates than they would if they placed their money elsewhere.

The securities were marketed as liquid; meaning investors could quickly tap into their accounts. During the next two decades, they became regarded as virtually risk-free options for many governments.

That all changed last year when another type of investment based on mortgages went into a freefall after property values tanked. Wary Wall Street dealers became jittery and stopped buying auction-rate securities as well. Investors were left holding the empty bag.

The Citicorp settlement is the first major result of a 12-state task force set up to investigate the free-fall of auction-backed securities.

The task force divvied up the major companies involved. Florida, for example, is the lead investigator of JP Morgan. Other major players include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America.

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Michael Peltier is the Daily News’ Tallahassee correspondent. E-mail him at mpeltier1234@comcast.net