Well, of course. The early bird special always has the best prices.
Congratulations! You’ve picked one of the most useless states in which to commit election fraud, exceeded only by D.C., Hawaii, New York, Delaware, Oklahoma, and Idaho.
Where I live, lines on election day have been 2+ hours since I’ve started voting regularly in 2000. I can’t take a risk on getting caught that long or longer, so I plan on voting early this time. Even this time I showed up at 7am and still waited 90 minutes. I assume the turnout has been unprecedentedly (?) larger each year, and the polling places have never clued into the concept of just overdoing the preparations because it’s better to have poll workers sitting around idle than citizens with jobs standing in line during work hours.
Early voting is very big here in Iowa. Many people have cast their votes already and the local news is tending to encourage people to go because of expected high turnouts on election day.
Further, this is the first year I (and doubtless many others) have been aware of in-person early voting. I did not see a reason to vote absentee by mail, and felt there were increased risks of my vote not being counted. If I still go to a polling place and vote in a booth, but instead of scanning my ballot I put it in a “secrecy envelope”, I don’t see a big difference.
Lastly, I think we’re seeing a lot of early voters because we’re going to see a lot of voters, period. Prior recent elections were accompanied by a lot more apathy – this year, most people seem to have a strong opinion. A friend of mine is voting in his first presidential election, and he’s almost 30.