# Can anyone explain to me why we "need" early voting? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412 "2008-10-24T19:02:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/61 "2008-10-25T14:43:25Z")
Every four years we hear tales of how _some_ Americans end up waiting in line for hours to vote. Is it really that badly organised? I’m never had to wait five minutes, and there’s never a line. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/62 "2008-10-25T18:13:10Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Every four years we hear tales of how _some_ Americans end up waiting in line for hours to vote. Is it really that badly organised? I’m never had to wait five minutes, and there’s never a line. Depends where you are. In 2004 I lived in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio is an important “battleground” state in the presidential election. I lived in the city with all the young people and had to wait 90 minutes at my polling station. Meanwhile, in the suburbs where all the older, wealthier people live, no lines at all. It was partly a function of bad organization, limited funds, and chicanery on the part of state election officials. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/63 "2008-10-25T18:52:49Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Every four years we hear tales of how _some_ Americans end up waiting in line for hours to vote. Is it really that badly organised? I’m never had to wait five minutes, and there’s never a line. I have usually had to wait for more than an hour. Once it was only about 30 minutes. Much of the wait was also outside. I live in a fast-growing area with relatively more working age people. So, like just about all the other people with day jobs, I was trying to vote before work. One bottleneck is how many people can you fit through in, say, a 14-hour election day. The other bottleneck is how many of those people are going to show up from 7-9am and 6-9pm, because the polling place is near their home, not the job they commute to. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/64 "2008-10-25T18:57:48Z")
I voted today in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The polls opened up at 10 am, and I got there at about 9:30. There was already a line around the building (a library, which still remained open and operational). I didn’t get done until 12:30. Given the length of the line, I can’t imagine the practicality of accomodating all of these voters in just one day. Viva early voting! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/65 "2008-10-25T19:33:08Z")
A lot of the comments in this thread seem to center around not having adequate resources on Election Day. There seem to be two answers to that one: extend the voting period, or add more polling places. Personally, I’d rather wait until election day to vote. That way, if one of the candidates gets run over by a truck, or some new piece of information surfaces about an initiative, I can react to it. But if, for some reason, you have only half the voting machines you need, it’s probably easier to provide double the time than to acquire double the machines. > [@scout1222](#): > > One other thing that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned is that our voting day is a pretty common work day This has always mystified me. Why not declare Election Day a holiday? Scheduling conflicts largely disappear. Or make it Election Weekend. By using the entire weekend, neither the Sunday-Sabbathers or the Saturday-Sabbathers have to vote on Sabbath day. It may disenfranchise the Holy Order of the Full-Weekend Sabbath, but I understand they’re allowed to participate in government affairs on Holy Days as long as they’re wearing muck boots and surgical gloves. > [@RoOsh](#): > > Consider a situation that almost befell us: I had an Anatomy Exam- full gross and lab exam on Nov. 4. Your prof was being a twit. Elections happen on predictable days every time, and it’s really not that hard to schedule around them. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > In Australia, voting is mandatory. Don’t vote and there’s a fine to be paid. All of the Australians I know are mystified why it’s not so in the US, if not plain horrified that it’s not. I have an issue with mandatory voting. Some people really don’t care. They don’t research the issues or candidates. They have little or no interest in the outcome. WHY should those people be forced to go in and push random buttons or pull random levers? It just screws up the results. It frosts me every time I finish spending hours reading the text of ballot initiatives–along with arguments for and against–and find out that most voters don’t bother to do so. They vote based on the last billboard they saw. Voting is a _responsibility_, and citizens should take it seriously. > [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Every four years we hear tales of how _some_ Americans end up waiting in line for hours to vote. Is it really that badly organised? I’m never had to wait five minutes, and there’s never a line. I don’t know where the complainers in this thread live, but everywhere I’ve lived in the U.S. has had adequate polling places and adequate poll workers. In about 30 years of voting in California and Montana, I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than a half-hour in line–and I’ve _never_ had to stand outside. If you can’t fit your whole precinct through the polls in eight hours, then you need to add more polling places. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/66 "2008-10-25T22:48:23Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Personally, I’d rather wait until election day to vote. That way, if one of the candidates gets run over by a truck, or some new piece of information surfaces about an initiative, I can react to it. Respectfully, this doesn’t make sense to me. November 4th is election day, but the President isn’t inaugurated until January, so there is always going to be a delay between your vote and the possibility that some catastrophic event prevents the voting from being meaningful. Given that inevitable possibility, and the fact that I made up my mind months ago, why wouldn’t I cast my vote a week or so early? In my opinion, waiting until the last day just in case some last minute news leaks is playing into the unethical hands of dirty tricks politicos who play on voter irrationality with last minute revelations about some picayune detail in the candidate’s past. ---
**Author:** ![jaydotbeedot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jaydotbeedot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaydotbeedot)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/67 "2008-10-26T01:56:35Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > If I were back in the US, I’d just wait until Election Day; seems voting absentee would be good enough otherwise. Unless you are forced to complete your absentee ballot on election day, then absentee voting is a form of early voting. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/68 "2008-10-26T02:17:11Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > This has always mystified me. Why not declare Election Day a holiday? Scheduling conflicts largely disappear. Or make it Election Weekend. By using the entire weekend, neither the Sunday-Sabbathers or the Saturday-Sabbathers have to vote on Sabbath day. It may disenfranchise the Holy Order of the Full-Weekend Sabbath, but I understand they’re allowed to participate in government affairs on Holy Days as long as they’re wearing muck boots and surgical gloves. I’d have no problem with making presidential election days a holiday. But back in West Texas, it was the law that employers had to allow employees sufficient time to go vote on any election day. I thought that was a federal law, but maybe it was just local? > [@jaydotbeedot](#): > > Unless you are forced to complete your absentee ballot on election day, then absentee voting is a form of early voting. Absentee balloting is similar to what they’re calling early voting, but it seems to be a different practice altogether. “Early voting” per se is going to the polls and waiting in line etc like on the actual Election Day. That seems a bit odd to me. (But then, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around some of these other new-fangled, so-called “modern” election practices, such as giving women the vote. :p) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/69 "2008-10-26T03:13:07Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Absentee balloting is similar to what they’re calling early voting, but it seems to be a different practice altogether. “Early voting” per se is going to the polls and waiting in line etc like on the actual Election Day. That seems a bit odd to me. (But then, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around some of these other new-fangled, so-called “modern” election practices, such as giving women the vote. :p) Yeah - it seems to be different in that “absentee votes” fall into the “we’ll count 'em if we have to” pool, while true “early voting” is counted just as if you’d voted on election day. Typo Knig absentee-voted today as he was concerned that with lines etc. he would not have time on election day (I’m working from home that day, so can go in the middle of the day). Even that took an hour. We’ve seen hour-plus waits on Presidential elections during the morning hours (even the primary line was most of an hour though they admitted that was a scheduling screwup). ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/70 "2008-10-26T06:32:54Z")
Does anyone know definitively when the early voting results are added into the totals? As we’re watching the results coming in on election day,will they not include early votes yet? Is there a possible scenario where the news reporters will be going crazy about how close the election is unfolding and ignore the fact that 20% of the vote is being unaccounted for one candidate compared to 10% for the other? ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/71 "2008-10-26T11:00:37Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Yeah - it seems to be different in that “absentee votes” fall into the “we’ll count 'em if we have to” pool, while true “early voting” is counted just as if you’d voted on election day. That’d cause some serious problems up here in the PNW. In Washington, I believe only two counties in the Seattle area even have polling places anymore. The rest of the state is “vote by mail.” Oregon, I think, is 100% absentee voting. ---
**Author:** ![firstname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ab992/32.png) [@firstname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firstname)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/72 "2008-10-26T11:10:14Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > In Australia, voting is mandatory. Don’t vote and there’s a fine to be paid. As an Australian it has always seemed to me that the fine is more of a threat than anything else, also you only have to turn up the the polling booth and get your name marked off the electoral roll and take the ballot paper, after that no one is going to stop you chucking it, or writing donald duck etc. As for early voting, i really can’t see it harming anyone, if people like it and it makes more people vote then i think great. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/73 "2008-10-26T14:37:12Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > I have an issue with mandatory voting. Some people really don’t care. They don’t research the issues or candidates. They have little or no interest in the outcome. WHY should those people be forced to go in and push random buttons or pull random levers? It just screws up the results. No one says that they have to vote. They simply have to show up at the polling place and drop a ballot in the box. No one says they have to select any names on the ballot. Now - I’m not an Aussie, but that was the way it was explained to me when I was in Australia in 1983-4. Things may have changed since then. ---
**Author:** ![Lagavulin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@Lagavulin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lagavulin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/74 "2008-10-26T22:11:45Z")
And then there’s this situation - I’m an American living in the UK and I just had a baby a week ago. My sister and mother are coming over to see him and will be here on election day, so early voting allowed them to get their votes in. (I voted by absentee ballot.) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/75 "2008-10-27T03:31:00Z")
> [@Lagavulin](#): > > And then there’s this situation - I’m an American living in the UK and I just had a baby a week ago. My sister and mother are coming over to see him and will be here on election day, so early voting allowed them to get their votes in. (I voted by absentee ballot.) But couldn’t they have simply voted absentee, also? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/76 "2008-10-27T04:19:25Z")
**Siam Sam** , **Lagavulin** ’s relatives may live in one of those states where Absentee balloting still requires advance application by a date certain and that you be _compelled_ to be abroad (as opposed to merely choosing to go on that date). > [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Americans get a lot of flak for low voter turnout (maybe Canada will start getting some too), but I don’t think it’s all our fault. There’s no logical reason why election day should be a single day in the middle of the week when any number of factors could keep people from getting out to the polls. A more convenient electoral process encourages citizens to exercise their right to vote, which is an absolute positive. It has been touched upon in other posts, but for instance here in PR, we have since seems-like-forever used the measure of making General Election day a maximum-shutdown Public Holiday, of a scale more akin to a state-of-emergency – virtually everything nonessential is closed and employers that remain working have to set up special shift hours so the employees get _however long it takes_to make it to casting their ballot. (Major downside, this is one of those jurisdictions where Election Day is “dry”. That last detail has always struck me as funny and futile since what the heck prevents me from stocking up on several cases of beer and hard liquor on MONDAY and then spending the actual election day in a very altered state…) We regularly get 75%+ turnout on GE day, with non-mandatory voting and polling hours merely 8am-3pm. (Conversely, however, there is no Advance Voting for the general public, only for Essential Public Services providers – Police, Fire, EMT, etc. – and the bedridden/institutionalized; while Absentee Balloting has prediluvian restrictions, so only **some** very specific job/study/medical categories are a good-enough excuse. The reason for this is that, to use a proverbial phrase, the political culture around here is such that an opening to vote early is assumed to be an open invitation to “vote early _and often_”, as we apparently lack the technical and human resources to strike voters who have used absentee/advance ballots from the list in “realtime” and it is feared they could show up at the polling place anyway and thus vote twice.) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/77 "2008-10-27T14:01:10Z")
> [@Atomicktom](#): > > Respectfully, this doesn’t make sense to me. November 4th is election day, but the President isn’t inaugurated until January, so there is always going to be a delay between your vote and the possibility that some catastrophic event prevents the voting from being meaningful. Yes, there will always be a delay between my vote and the inauguration, but I prefer to wait until the last minute just to be sure I have all possible data. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’d have no problem with making presidential election days a holiday. But back in West Texas, it was the law that employers had to allow employees sufficient time to go vote on any election day. I thought that was a federal law, but maybe it was just local? Yes, but look at situations like **RoOsh** ’s, where a professor schedules a test for election day. And there will always be a difference between having to leave a busy job to vote, and having your company closed down that day. Yes, I understand that there are a lot of businesses that stay open on holidays, but it would be a step in the right direction, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/78 "2008-10-28T04:05:59Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Yes, but look at situations like **RoOsh** ’s, where a professor schedules a test for election day. And there will always be a difference between having to leave a busy job to vote, and having your company closed down that day. Yes, I understand that there are a lot of businesses that stay open on holidays, but it would be a step in the right direction, wouldn’t it? I would curse any prof who scheduled an exam for an election day, but still, the exam’s not going to last 12 hours. But yes, I could very well go along with making the day a holiday. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/79 "2008-10-28T04:22:57Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > Oregon, I think, is 100% absentee voting. Technically, Oregon is all “mail-in” voting, but you can still register “absentee,” which means that they send you the ballot 6 weeks early instead of 3. I use it as a student because that way they mail to me at school in Washington, rather than having my parents receive it and send it up here. But that’s a nitpick. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412/80 "2008-10-28T17:59:36Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > But the friggin’ Irish have always been allowed. Go figure. > > 😉 There have definitely been[complaints](http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g285/catholiclouisiana/know.jpg) about the Irish voting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-to-me-why-we-need-early-voting/469412.md?page=3)