As political campaigning for the midterm elections is ramping up, hundreds of thousands of voters are contemplating how they need to solid their ballots on Nov. 8, 2022. Along with the normal means of voting at their native precinct on Election Day, many have the choice to vote earlier by mail.
Except for Alabama, Connecticut, Mississippi and New Hampshire, early voting is allowed in 46 states and is obtainable in several varieties similar to drop containers, mail or early voting in particular person.
It’s necessary to examine along with your state’s election workplace, as a result of totally different states have totally different deadlines and choices obtainable.
In Montana, for example, early voting is allowed for about 4 weeks between Oct. 11 and Nov. 7. However in Texas, the early-voting interval is just the ten weekdays between Oct. 24 and Nov. 4.
The Dialog U.S. has printed a number of articles not solely the integrity of early voting but in addition the bigger query of turning out the vote.
1. The lengthy, lengthy historical past of early voting
Early voting durations are as previous as presidential elections within the U.S.
The primary presidential election occurred in 1789 and began on Dec. 15, 1788. It ended nearly a month later, on Jan. 10, 1789, with the election of George Washington.
It wasn’t till 1845 that Congress adopted the Tuesday after the primary Monday in November because the nationwide Election Day.
Given the lengthy historical past, Terri Bimes, an affiliate instructing professor of political science on the College of California, Berkeley, raises an fascinating level on the impression of early voting on turnout.
“Whereas some students contend that early in-person voting durations probably can lower voter turnout,” Bimes writes, “research that target vote-by-mail, a type of early voting, typically present a rise in voter turnout.”
No matter total turnout, an increasing number of voters are selecting nontraditional methods of casting their ballots. Within the 2020 election, for example, 69% of voters nationwide voted by mail or by means of one other means sooner than Election Day. That quantity was 40% in 2016.
Learn extra:
There’s nothing uncommon about early voting – it has been achieved for the reason that founding of the republic
2. Is early voting secure?
Election fraud is uncommon.
And mail-in poll fraud is even rarer.
The conservative Heritage Basis performed a survey in 2020 and located 1,200 “confirmed situations of voter fraud” since 2000, with 1,100 legal convictions over these twenty years.
Solely 204 allegations, and 143 convictions, concerned mail-in ballots – even with greater than 250 million mail-in ballots solid since 2000.
Edie Goldenberg is a College of Michigan political scientist who belongs to a Nationwide Academy of Public Administration working group that provided suggestions to make sure voter participation and public confidence throughout the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Goldenberg writes: “The proof we reviewed finds that voting by mail isn’t topic to fraud, doesn’t give a bonus to 1 political celebration over one other and might in truth encourage public confidence within the voting course of, if achieved correctly.”
Learn extra:
What’s one of the best ways to get out the vote in a pandemic?
3. Voting turnout is vital to democracy
Extra folks voted within the 2020 presidential election than in any election previously 120 years, whilst almost one-third of eligible voters sat it out. Which means almost 80 million People didn’t vote.
Among the many causes nonvoters gave weren’t being registered, not being or not believing their vote made a distinction. Regardless of such apathy, about 155 million voters – that’s 67% of People over 18 – did vote in 2020.
A part of the issue of lowering the proportion of nonvoters on the road degree might be getting folks to reply their doorways to strangers or answering a phone name positioned by a marketing campaign volunteer from an unrecognized quantity. Earlier than the pandemic, an efficient door-to-door marketing campaign might improve turnout by nearly 10%; a well-run telephone marketing campaign might add an extra 5%.
When College of California, Berkeley’s Vice Provost for Graduate Research Lisa García Bedolla started finding out voter mobilization in 2005, it was widespread for door-to-door campaigns to achieve half of the folks they tried to contact. By 2018, that quantity had dropped to about 18%.
To shut the hole, campaigns moved towards asking folks to contact folks they knew and assist end up these supporters and social networks. Textual content messages, particularly reminder texts, turned the digital door knock.
“These friend-to-friend approaches are seen as a solution to minimize by means of the noise,” Bedolla writes.
These private approaches may create a way of accountability.
Figuring out that somebody is listening to your vote, nonetheless it’s solid, may make a distinction in a neighborhood, state or federal election.
Learn extra:
What’s one of the best ways to get out the vote in a pandemic?
Editor’s be aware: This story is a roundup of articles from The Dialog’s archives.
