Early voting, also called in-person absentee voting, occurs when a state law permits citizens to vote prior to Election Day. In some cases, ballots are cast at satellite polling locations during the week, and in many instances, locations are open on Saturdays as well. While all states offer some form of absentee voting, only thirty-three states permit early voting. The start time for the early voting process varies across states as well. In some states, early voting begins the weekend prior to the election, and in others, it may begin forty-five days prior to the election. States vary in how many days they make available for early voting, how many hours they make available for the process, and whether they permit early voting on evenings or weekends.
As is the case with absentee voting, some states offer no-excuse early voting, where registered voters may cast a ballot early for any reason, while other states limit those who are eligible to vote early. In the Campaign of 2008, half a dozen states permitted citizens to cast their ballots prior to the first presidential debate. In other states, early voting took place fifteen to twenty-six days prior to Election Day. The practice of casting a ballot prior to Election Day, which was quite rare prior to the Campaign of 2000, has been on the rise. In the Campaign of 2004, just under 20 percent of all ballots were cast prior to Election Day. George Mason University voting specialist Michael McDonald calculated that 25.7 percent of all ballots cast in the 2008 presidential election were early, either in person or by absentee ballot. Others claim that this figure is even higher. Early and absentee voting changes election dynamics, placing greater emphasis on earlier events and limiting the effects of events that happen closer to Election Day. This also serves to shorten the length of the campaign season itself, giving candidates less time to communicate their message to voters.
In the Campaign of 2012, for the first time in decades, the trend in early voting has been in the direction of reversal. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, five states scaled back the ability to vote prior to Election Day, most notably in the area of early voting. In the Campaign of 2016, voters in additional states will find that their opportunity to cast a ballot prior to Election Day is more limited. North Carolina, for example, reduced seventeen days of early voting to ten. In the aftermath of the 2012 election, Ohio cut their Sunday early voting, which was widely used by African American churches for voter mobilization efforts referred to as “Souls to the Polls” drives. Ohio also eliminated its “Golden Week,” a period where registration and early voting overlapped, enabling citizens to register and vote simultaneously prior to Election Day. Voting after 5:00 PM on weekdays was eliminated as well. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, and Ohio reached a settlement with the ACLU to restore evening voting hours and Sunday voting; Golden Week, however, was not restored. Georgia appears poised to follow suit; in 2008, it had offered forty-five days of early voting, but by 2011, it had pared this down to twenty-one. The legislature is considering further reducing the number of early voting days to twelve. These examples illustrate the overall pattern of change at the state level between 2008 and 2012; states continued to offer early voting, but the availability of this option was often dramatically limited after the 2008 election.
See also Voting Reform Issue
Diemer, Tom. “Election Day Has Already Come in Some Early-Voting States.” Politics Daily, posted September 22, 2010.
Early Voting Information Center, Reed College. http://www.earlyvoting.net/blog. Accessed October 13, 2015.
McDonald, Michael. “2008 Early Voting Statistics.” United States Elections Project, George Mason University. http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2008.html. Accessed October 13, 2015.
National Conference of State Legislatures. “Absentee and Early Voting.” February 11, 2015. http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/absentee-and-early-voting.aspx#early. Accessed October 13, 2015.
Phillips, Michael M. “Parties Seek Edge from Early Voters.” Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2010, online edition.
Sullivan, Amy. “Virginia Sounds the Starting Gun for Early Voting.” Time, September 19, 2008.
Weiser, Wendy R., and Lawrence Norden. “Voting Law Changes in 2012.” Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law. October 3, 2011. http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/voting_law_changes_in_2012/. Accessed October 13, 2015.