Want to Vote in Person? You Don’t Need to Do It On Election Day

The Early Bird Gets the Ballot

While election day is still over a week away, voters across the country have been casting ballots for days, or even weeks depending on the state. And not just by mail — many have been voting early at in-person voting locations.

As voters continue to rave about the convenience and shorter lines, more states have steadily been adopting early voting. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, early voting has been expanded further to allow for more dispersed crowds at early voting locations.

What is Early Voting?

Early voting is just like voting in-person on election day, but occurs days or even weeks before. For most people, early voting isn’t done at their regular polling place but rather at early voting centers in their jurisdiction. Conveniently, in many states voters in a locality can choose at which early voting location they’d like to vote.

What makes early voting so convenient, however, is that voters can choose when in their busy schedules they’d like to vote. Keep in mind that in some states, early voting is limited to just weekends or just weekdays: always check for information from your local election officials before voting.

That being said, don’t procrastinate: many states’ early voting periods end well before election day. If you don’t want to vote in-person, this year in a record number of states you can also apply to have a ballot mailed to you and then return it in-person, at a drop box, or by mail. In some states, you can still vote early in person if you already applied for (but haven’t yet voted) a by-mail ballot. Check out this article to get more information on how states differ in allowing voting in person after requesting a by-mail ballot.

A Rose By Any Other Name

Just because a state doesn’t call it “Early Voting,” doesn’t mean they don’t offer voting that is, well, early. Some states call early voting “in-person absentee voting.” So, what’s the difference? In most states, there is none. Voters show up, fill out a quick form, vote their ballot and then are on their way.

In a few states, like Mississippi, voters need to have an allowed excuse in order to vote absentee in-person (and COVID-19 doesn’t count as one) or have to apply days in advance.

Due to the pandemic, some states require voters to schedule an appointment to vote early in person. To make things easier, we don’t include these in our map of states that have “functional equivalents” to early voting.

When do Early Votes Get Counted?

Regular ballots cast during early voting are among the first to get counted. In some states, they’re counted even before election day (but not tallied or released until election day). A word of caution: many states require that voters who requested a mail ballot, but later decide to vote early in-person vote using a provisional ballot. This ballot type is time-consuming to vote, process and count and always the last votes to be counted. For more information on which states require voters to vote provisionally after requesting a by-mail ballot, check out this article.

However you decide to vote, know that in most places, you’re not just limited to voting on election day or by mail. As always, check with your local election officials for the most up to date and accurate information about when and where to vote. You can visit the official website of your state and find information voting in this election at canivote.org!