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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEarly voting bad for democracy?
Smerconish is talking about this and there is some man, James Huffman from some institute, who thinks it is and that early voting does not increase turn out. He was mostly siting results for Oregon where he must live.
It's just been reported that 200mil people are registered to vote. How even 2/3rds of them all vote on election day or even just over 3 days.
Now he has on Pat Buchanan. I think I smell moth balls coming through my screen. He's talking rigged election.
geomon666
(7,512 posts)The election is still three weeks away, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have already voted. Yet in politics a lot can happen in only a few days: Donald Trump has recently been accused of groping women, and leaked emails show Hillary Clintons staff mocking Catholics. How many Americans who voted before those revelations wish they could get their ballots back?
He kind of makes a good point that if you vote early enough you might miss something later that would've changed your mind, but now it's too late because you've already voted. However, I think the benefits far outweigh that slight possibility.
LisaL
(44,974 posts)vote early. Otherwise what is the problem?
meadowlark5
(2,795 posts)Between early voting and say a week before election day? I knew I would vote for the dem no matter what. Even if one of the other 16 clowns from the GOP primary were nominated. So I could vote a full month in advance. Nothing, barring murder, would have changed my vote.
Trump supporters could have voted back in July. Nothing, not one thing, not sexual assault, probably not even murder would prevent a Trump supporter from voting for him. That's just the way it is.
So the undecided voters are probably the ones who will wait the longest because they might change their mind.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)and for many in my state, since we all vote by mail, those last 3 weeks of ads, calls, etc. are totally wasted, and no, they wouldn't have made a difference anyway. If you know your ballot is coming, you have already done whatever due diligence you need to make your choices.
GreenPartyVoter
(72,381 posts)might have helped with that.
duncang
(1,907 posts)A lot of people wouldn't get the chance to vote at all. I know when I was working long hours and the company didn't pay for taking off on election day it would have been tough with out early and mail in voting. If they had several days maybe a week to vote in it may work, but only having one day would cut out a lot of people.
kcr
(15,318 posts)It increases turnout, which is good for democracy. Having only one day available for voting is hard for people with rigid work schedules and can't get the time off to vote. The fewer barriers there are to voting, the better.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)I don't really consider Oregon voting as "early" voting, since every person in the state gets their ballot well before election day. That's to give them time to fill it out and mail it back in (or drop it in a drop box.)
Yes, it's before election day, but not "early voting" as allowed, or not, in the states that are not "vote by mail" states. Frankly, it makes it a lot easier to vote when your ballot arrives at your home and you don't have to schedule time to drive to a polling place and stand in line to vote. We vote when it's convenient.
I know a vote by mail system would have helped all those primary voters who suddenly didn't show up on lists at their polling place, or had their polling place run out of ballots, or waited in long, long lines, or dealt with some of the other issues that interfered with primary voting.