Most states permit registered voters to cast a ballot-in-person prior to Election Day. This is called “early voting” and thirty-four states and the District of Columbia permit their residents to vote early in-person.1 Some of these states require their residents to cast their early vote at a single, centralized location (e.g., the board of elections office), while other states establish multiple early voting sites. Additionally, these thirty-four states and the District of Columbia differ with respect to the situations where residents may vote early in-person. In most states, voters may cast an early, in-person vote for any reason or no reason at all (“no-excuse voting”). In four of these states, residents must state a reason for requesting to cast an early vote and that reason must be on the state’s list of permissible reasons.2 Permissible reasons include an early, in-person vote include absence from the state on Election Day, illness, incapacity or military deployment outside of the jurisdiction.
Early voting is similar to absentee voting. Absentee voters must first request and later mail back a completed ballot to election officials prior to Election Day. Every state and the District of Columbia permit absentee voting, but unlike early voting where most states do not require an excuse, twenty-two states and the District of Columbia require an excuse to vote absentee by mail. The permissible reasons for absentee voting are similar to those permitted for early voting.
While early and absentee voting should, in theory, provide individuals with an increased opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot, they have not been without their share of problems. For example, some states will not prepare sufficiently for early voting and individuals wishing to cast an early vote will be forced to wait in long-lines or have to drive long distances to reach their state board of elections office. Additionally, some voters who request absentee ballots will either not receive them at all or will receive the ballots too late to return them by Election Day.
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1http://www.earlyvoting.net/states/abslaws.php
2Kentucky, Montana, Virginia and the District of Columbia
