What are your thoughts on early voting? (please do not reference political parties or candidates)

superchuck500 said
I think there is some slight risk of a reason to change voter sentiment between the early vote and election day but I think it's exceedingly rare. At least for major elections where people are likely to early vote, there haven't been any examples of a candidate having a major stroke or being outed as a child predator between mid-October and the first Tuesday of November (or similar). And for lesser revelations, they're probably not likely to result in the voter's change of heart. Any given voter who is still in-play in mid to late October and concerned about a change in events is well-encouraged to wait.

But the idea that "everyone gets to vote on the same day" makes it sound easier than it is. The push for modern broad-adoption of early voting started in 2004 when some voting lines were 12 hours long (in Ohio for example). People literally showed up to vote but didn't vote because they simply didn't have six or eight or twelve hours to vote. The adult population in the US has grown substantially over the past few decades and expecting everyone to vote on the same day just seems to be inviting major challenge . . . that very easily results in people choosing not to vote, which is just about the worst result we can have (people making the effort show up and vote but then not voting due to capacity or system failures).

If you have limited resources in solving this problem, early voting is far more sensible. You could either (1) attempt to expand the voting capacity system to handle all of the voters in a reasonable amount of time on a single election day - which requires expanding the places where people vote, the number of machines, the number of poll workers, and expanding internal system capacities, etc. . . . OR (2) you actually accommodate the same number of total voters by expanding the days in which those existing locations, systems, and workers will be used, and in-fact it may serve to reduce overall stress on the systems, including on election day, by spreading it out over those early voting days.

It seems like a pretty obvious choice.

I used a major stroke or charges of child molestation merely as examples of things that can come to light. There have been plenty of 'October surprises' over the years in all kinds of elections. It doesn't have to be limited to either candidate imploding or getting outed in the press by oppo research - a foreign conflict that bubbles up (or doesn't), natural disaster that tests the candidates, etc. I don't think its all that controversial to say that its better if we are all voting based on the same information set. And I think its definitely better if we all have to gather together to cast our votes.

I'm fine with absentee ballots and I have no doubt that election infrastructure could use a lot of help in certain places. But I vote in Orleans Parish which you would think would be a total clsuterfck but in fact works smoothly, even for huge turnout elections - I think I waited like 10 minutes for Obama's first election which was probably a record turnout in Orleans. So I feel like if Orleans Parish can make it work, so can Ohio.

But, anyway, like I said, I'm old fashioned, and obviously I'm in the small minority given the proliferation of early voting. We're not putting that genie back in the bottle and I'm sure its just a matter of time before its all done online. I just think its a shame.