Why do 13 states not have early voting?

TexanStar

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It's not a red -vs- blue thing. It's New York and it's Missouri. It's Delaware and it's Kentucky. It's South Carolina and it's Rhode Island. Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, etc.

The only commonality I can find is that all of the states that disallow early voting are situated East of the Mississippi river. All states west of the Mississippi have early voting.

The 37 states which have it all give at least a full week to vote.

For those of you that live in states that don't allow it, do you know why it's prohibited? I do understand the logic behind preventing things from starting too early (some states start early voting 45 days before an election and a lot can change between 45 days pre election and election day), but I'm curious why those 13 states don't offer at least 1 week to vote. Forcing everyone to vote on the same day and w/o a national holiday seems like it would exclude a lot of voters.
 

keenobserver

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It's not a red -vs- blue thing. It's New York and it's Missouri. It's Delaware and it's Kentucky. It's South Carolina and it's Rhode Island. Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, etc.

The only commonality I can find is that all of the states that disallow early voting are situated East of the Mississippi river. All states west of the Mississippi have early voting.

The 37 states which have it all give at least a full week to vote.

For those of you that live in states that don't allow it, do you know why it's prohibited? I do understand the logic behind preventing things from starting too early (some states start early voting 45 days before an election and a lot can change between 45 days pre election and election day), but I'm curious why those 13 states don't offer at least 1 week to vote. Forcing everyone to vote on the same day and w/o a national holiday seems like it would exclude a lot of voters.

For whatever reason decreasing voter turnout seems to be the reason states make it harder to vote. Pa. is GOP controlled in the legislature. You may recall when Romney ran against Obama a state GOP delegate bragged how the new ID requirement would flip the state to Romney. It became a viral sensation at the time. The Governor is a Democrat but he has had uphill fights on everything. Still it is surprising that Pa has nothing at all going on.

Md. has early voting and the election day is a state holiday, although almost all business are open. Schools close and state employees are off. Early voting usually lasts 10 days prior to the election. This year there is a proposed amendment to the state constitution to allow same day registration and voting in the next election. I have always voter early since it has been offered, but locally our turnout for early voting is low and the percentage of people voting overall is usually stagnant here, although in the DC area and Baltimore areas they seem to get a better turnout.
 
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phonehome

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For the most part at the very beginning early voting was Republican idea, an idea they had because they thought if they could make it really easy white guys who are not enough of a boss to take off at will on election day and all those white women from the burbs then their turnout would be less

It wasn't until after 20 or so years later when democrats starting using it more and more and they saw the glaring example of "souls to the polls" that Republicans started limiting it, like for example an added extra in most post 2010 "voter ID laws" pushed through in "red states" is reducing the number of days available, and making less or even none of those days on the weekend and for sure not the Sunday before the election which used to be the big souls to the polls day and the remaining days, none of them have "extended hours" so that worker bee who can not get to his/her polling place on election day because the boss will not give them time off to do it also can not get to that early voting location during the work day either.

States like NY never thought they needed it, NYC had plenty of polling places that were easily reached by public transportation and most worker bees were in union jobs and unions had enough pull to ensure that those workers could get off from work to be able to vote if not have the entire day off (with pay) in order to vote.

Those long lines you see on election day are almost never in NYC or Philly or any other large city in the north east .
 
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keenobserver

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For the most part at the very beginning early voting was Republican idea, an idea they had because they thought if they could make it really easy white guys who are not enough of a boss to take off at will on election day and all those white women from the burbs then their turnout would be less

It wasn't until after 20 or so years later when democrats starting using it more and more and they saw the glaring example of "souls to the polls" that Republicans started limiting it, like for example an added extra in most post 2010 "voter ID laws" pushed through in "red states" is reducing the number of days available, and making less or even none of those days on the weekend and for sure not the Sunday before the election which used to be the big souls to the polls day and the remaining days, none of them have "extended hours" so that worker bee who can not get to his/her polling place on election day because the boss will not give them time off to do it also can not get to that early voting location during the work day either.

States like NY never thought they needed it, NYC had plenty of polling places that were easily reached by public transportation and most worker bees were in union jobs and unions had enough pull to ensure that those workers could get off from work to be able to vote if not have the entire day off (with pay) in order to vote.

Those long lines you see on election day are almost never in NYC or Philly or any other large city in the north east .

The real terror began to set in when the GOP saw the Church buses rolling in on Sundays, especially from African-American churches.
 

TexanStar

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For whatever reason decreasing voter turnout seems to be the reason states make it harder to vote. Pa. is GOP controlled in the legislature. You may recall when Romney ran against Obama a state GOP delegate bragged how the new ID requirement would flip the state to Romney. It became a viral sensation at the time. The Governor is a Democrat but he has had uphill fights on everything. Still it is surprising that Pa has nothing at all going on.

Md. has early voting and the election day is a state holiday, although almost all business are open. Schools close and state employees are off. Early voting usually lasts 10 days prior to the election. This year there is a proposed amendment to the state constitution to allow same day registration and voting in the next election. I have always voter early since it has been offered, but locally our turnout for early voting is low and the percentage of people voting overall is usually stagnant here, although in the DC area and Baltimore areas they seem to get a better turnout.

I dunno.

Michigan has no early voting and averages some of the longest wait times in the country. Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York run average wait times (not short). Mississippi's wait times are shorter than New Hampshire's.

For someone who actually lives in a state that disallows early voting I'm curious to hear what the local reasons for it are. Anyone live in one of these states and want to comment?

I live in TX and we have over two weeks of early voting.
 

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Well, I can see one reason why you would NOT vote early. Maybe some big news / scandal / indictment gets leaked / announced a day or two before the election. You want to change your vote based on that information, but since you've already voted, all you can do is sit back and wait...

Maybe the states that disallow early voting want their constituents to have all the facts and make their choice at the last possible moment...
 

keenobserver

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Well, I can see one reason why you would NOT vote early. Maybe some big news / scandal / indictment gets leaked / announced a day or two before the election. You want to change your vote based on that information, but since you've already voted, all you can do is sit back and wait...
Maybe the states that disallow early voting want their constituents to have all the facts and make their choice at the last possible moment...

This is something that is occasionally on my mind every election cycle - it is a fair point. For me, the convenience is valuable and I usually nail down my choices well before I vote, but it is in the back on my mind when I do vote.
 
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It's not a red -vs- blue thing. It's New York and it's Missouri. It's Delaware and it's Kentucky. It's South Carolina and it's Rhode Island. Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, etc.

The only commonality I can find is that all of the states that disallow early voting are situated East of the Mississippi river. All states west of the Mississippi have early voting.

The 37 states which have it all give at least a full week to vote.

For those of you that live in states that don't allow it, do you know why it's prohibited? I do understand the logic behind preventing things from starting too early (some states start early voting 45 days before an election and a lot can change between 45 days pre election and election day), but I'm curious why those 13 states don't offer at least 1 week to vote. Forcing everyone to vote on the same day and w/o a national holiday seems like it would exclude a lot of voters.
They’re not the 13 states who long to be part of Britain again, are they? :p
 

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Well, I can see one reason why you would NOT vote early. Maybe some big news / scandal / indictment gets leaked / announced a day or two before the election. You want to change your vote based on that information, but since you've already voted, all you can do is sit back and wait...

"This just in: Republicans actually *care* about your best interests!"

Doh! :scream:
 

Chrysippus

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Oregon votes by mail, and you can mail in your ballot as soon as you receive your ballot in the mail. If you don’t receive a ballot, there’s enough time before the election to get it straightened out.
Physical voting at a polling place has been eliminated.

Oregon passed automatic ‘motor voter’ registration along with California in 2015.
Automatic Motor-Voter Registration Now Law in Four States – BillMoyers.com
 

Chrysippus

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Oregon votes by mail, and you can mail in your ballot as soon as you receive your ballot in the mail. If you don’t receive a ballot, there’s enough time before the election to get it straightened out.
Physical voting at a polling place has been eliminated.

Oregon passed automatic ‘motor voter’ registration along with California in 2015.
Automatic Motor-Voter Registration Now Law in Four States – BillMoyers.com

To get an Oregon ID Card:
Fill out the ID Card Application (Form 735-173);
Present proof of your full legal name, legal presence in the U.S., identity and date of birth and residence address;
Provide your Social Security Number on the application;
Pay the original ID card fee; and
Surrender any valid Oregon ID Card or a driver license or permit issued by Oregon or another state or U.S. territory.
 

Chrysippus

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To get an Oregon ID Card:
Fill out the ID Card Application (Form 735-173);
Present proof of your full legal name, legal presence in the U.S., identity and date of birth and residence address;
Provide your Social Security Number on the application;
Pay the original ID card fee; and
Surrender any valid Oregon ID Card or a driver license or permit issued by Oregon or another state or U.S. territory.

Oregon law allows a convicted felon to vote if they are on probation on election day, however if they are in prision on election day, they are not allowed to vote
 

Chrysippus

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Oregon law allows a convicted felon to vote if they are on probation on election day, however if they are in prision on election day, they are not allowed to vote

Last entry on OR voting:
Homeless U.S. Citizens Have a Right to Vote
Voters must provide a residence address on the voter registration form, but this address may be any definable location in the county that describes their physical location. This could be a shelter, park, motor home, or other identifiable location. The mailing address of a person who is homeless or who resides where mail service is unavailable can be the office of the county clerk. Voters can pick up their ballot at the county elections office.
 

TexanStar

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This was an interesting read:

Early-Voting Laws Probably Don’t Boost Turnout

TLDR version: Early voting is convenient for people who would've voted anyways if you didn't give them early voting. It doesn't bring more people out to vote, and sometimes actually depresses voter turnout (due to lack of election day excitement).

Doesn't mean it's worthless. It's more convenient for poll workers to not have everyone piling in the doors all the same day, but it's not a panacea for low voter turnout.
 
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kidfresh512

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Well, I can see one reason why you would NOT vote early. Maybe some big news / scandal / indictment gets leaked / announced a day or two before the election. You want to change your vote based on that information, but since you've already voted, all you can do is sit back and wait...

Maybe the states that disallow early voting want their constituents to have all the facts and make their choice at the last possible moment...
Do you honestly think they are just "looking out for the voter" in terms of oops I didn't wait long enough so and so is a child molester darnit.

The general rule should be make it as easy as possible for people to vote. US voter turnout is always bad in terms of who could vote and who doesn't. It should be moved off of a weekday as well. And everyone should have early voting.
 

keenobserver

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Do you honestly think they are just "looking out for the voter" in terms of oops I didn't wait long enough so and so is a child molester darnit.

The general rule should be make it as easy as possible for people to vote. US voter turnout is always bad in terms of who could vote and who doesn't. It should be moved off of a weekday as well. And everyone should have early voting.

In my state, all state offices close for every election, at one time bars and liquor stores were required to be closed until the polls closed. Maryland got on the early voting bandwagon early but turnout has remained about the same over the years. You can register at any MVA for all Federal, State, Country and City elections. Schools are always closed and there is a long standing law requiring all employers to allow employees time off from their job if they wish to vote. I have never met anyone in Maryland who needed to use that law, but there it is. I'm all for making it easy to vote, but nothing seems to motivate large segments of the population from staying away from the polls.