“The idea that Election Day can only be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November seems to be a thing of the past,” Project Vote Legislative Director Estelle Rogers wrote in a new report. “The busy and complicated lives of American voters have demanded other choices.” Since 2008, the most coveted choice among voters has been the opportunity to vote early. Apparently, policymakers aren’t listening.
Early voting allows voters to cast their ballots at traditional polling places, but at their own convenience. It is one of the fastest growing trends in election administration that is now in effect in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Such policies have proven to reduce the pressure on poll workers and voters on Election Day and boost turnout, particularly among underrepresented minority voters.
Despite these benefits to election administrators and voters, policy makers in states like North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin are focused on cutting early voting days. Never mind that Florida demonstrated in 2012 what happens when early voting days are cut (hint: long lines).
This week, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory defended the monster voter suppression law that he signed in August. “First of all, we didn’t shorten early voting, we compacted the calendar,” McCrory said. But, it seems that the difference is merely in the wording: while the early voting hours must stay the same, the new law still takes “away seven calendar days that were previously available to North Carolina voters to head to the polls.” The bill additionally requires photo voter ID, eliminates same-day registration and eliminates pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Ohio lawmakers are fast-tracking a proposal to limit early voting in the state, particularly the five-day period that allows a person to simultaneously register to vote and vote in person. “The five-day window offers major benefits to many voters, including those with disabilities or inflexible work schedules, and there is little evidence that it has created any major problems,” said ACLU of Ohio Director of Communications and Public Policy Mike Brickner. “SB 238 throws away these critical, nonpartisan benefits for no good reason.”
In keeping with the anti-early voting trend, Wisconsin Republicans are pushing AB 54, a bill to end early voting on the weekend. The bill passed the Assembly last week. Sen. Glenn Grothman, who supports the measure, told MSNBC that there are already plenty of options to vote. But, election administrators in the state think otherwise.
“We always have voters who let us know that if we hadn’t been open on Saturday, they wouldn’t have been able to come in to cast an absentee ballot,” said Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl. “If we are not able to have absentee voting on the weekends, and we’re limited during the week as well, we’re going to be under a significant time crunch to get everybody through the lines.”
This “time crunch” has proven to disproportionately affect young voters and people of color, according to a new report by Advancement Project and OurTime.org. The “time tax” on younger voters in states like Florida (where early voting was limited in 2012) “may have negative effects on the future voting patterns,” the groups caution.
So, why cut early voting days when it clearly benefits voters and helps reduce long lines? Voter fraud? Costliness? Neither of these are compelling arguments. First, there is no evidence that early voting promotes fraud. Most importantly, the increased efficiencies of multiple voting days and improved technology means smoother, more accurate election administration and a better experience for voters.
“[I]t appears clear that the arguments against early voting are not really about early voting at all,” concludes Rogers. “Any innovation that makes voting easier in general, or more available to previously disenfranchised or under-enfranchised populations in particular, has engendered the ire of one segment of the ‘political class’ that will use any specious or fanciful argument to defeat it. The rest of us, who believe that voting is a right that belongs to all eligible citizens, must marshal the facts and fight back.”
Image via Project Vote policy paper, Early Voting