By 5 November, hundreds of thousands of individuals could have already voted – whether or not by sending an absentee poll within the mail, casting a poll in individual throughout their jurisdiction’s early voting interval, or returning a poll to a safe drop-box. Voting early or absentee permits voters some flexibility of their schedule – by casting a poll early, they will keep away from contending with dangerous climate, lengthy strains or sudden scheduling conflicts on election day.
What’s early voting?
States – except for Mississippi, New Hampshire and Alabama – provide all voters the chance to solid a poll in individual at a polling place forward of election day, based on the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
In these locations, registered voters can head to their polling location throughout the early voting time-frame and solid a poll early. Most states start counting these ballots on election day, and a few require officers to attend till polls are closed to start counting.
Some states provide a model of early voting known as “in-person absentee” voting, during which a voter can get hold of and submit an absentee poll in individual at a polling place earlier than election day.
What about absentee voting?
Most states enable for some type of absentee voting, during which a voter requests a poll forward of time, which officers then ship to them within the mail to fill out and return by mail. Some jurisdictions provide voters the choice of returning absentee ballots to a secured dropbox. Fourteen states require an excuse for voters to solid a poll by mail, resembling an sickness or work scheduling battle. Eight states apply “all-mail” elections – in these locations, all registered voters obtain a poll within the mail, whether or not or not they plan to make use of it.
Federal legislation requires states to ship absentee ballots to navy voters and voters abroad.
States regulate the “processing” and counting of absentee ballots; most states enable officers to instantly course of ballots, which usually entails verifying the signature on the poll with the voter’s signature from once they registered to vote. Different states require officers to attend till election day to start processing ballots – which may sluggish the discharge of election outcomes.
When does early and absentee voting begin this 12 months, and the way do I do it?
The primary ballots of the overall election have already been despatched to voters in states together with Wisconsin and Maryland, and to some eligible voters in Alabama. Mail voting has stalled in North Carolina, the place a authorized battle over whether or not or not Robert F Kennedy Jr can seem on the poll has slowed the method. By 21 September, election officers in lots of states could have begun sending out absentee ballots.
The particular dates, places and guidelines surrounding early and absentee voting fluctuate by state, county and even municipality. First verify that you’re registered to vote after which contact your native election workplace or verify their web site for particulars about early and absentee voting.
Who votes by mail, and does it profit one social gathering over the opposite?
Analysis suggests that earlier than 2020, implementing voting by mail didn’t profit one social gathering greater than one other. However in 2020, with the pandemic raging, Democrats urged individuals to vote by mail to keep away from publicity to Covid, and fought authorized battles to develop absentee voting in states the place the apply had not already been extensively adopted. In the meantime, within the months forward of the election, Donald Trump claimed falsely that the method was rife with fraud, seemingly scaring Republican voters away from the distant possibility.
In the long run, Democrats noticed positive factors through the 2020 normal election in counties that used mail-in voting, based on information from the Guardian and ProPublica.
Within the wake of the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats outperformed expectations and maintained management of the Senate, Republicans started to reverse course on voting by mail – and have continued to advocate for voters to embrace the method since then. (Trump has not stayed on message.)
Is it protected to vote by mail?
Mail voting is taken into account extraordinarily safe within the US, and situations of fraud in mail voting are vanishingly uncommon. In a 2020 column, elections knowledgeable Rick Hasen famous that between 2000 and 2012, there have been fewer than 500 examples of vote-by-mail fraud, out of billions of votes solid. (Because the Brennan Heart for Justice notes, this makes mail-in voting fraud much less seemingly than getting struck by lightning).
Whereas mail-in voting fraud is extraordinarily uncommon, election officers throughout the nation have raised considerations about postal delays that would end in eligible voters’ ballots reaching election clerks after the deadline to depend their ballots.
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