The Year of the Plague continues with grave uncertainty sending many to their graves, with growing understanding no one knows when it will end, if it will end, how to tell when it ends, or at least if and when the government will be able to say it has ended with growing appreciation the world on the other side will never be the same: With all that, the United States must conduct its election for president Nov. 3.
Many among us worry, will there be an election? The short answer is yes because the long answer is if there is not then we have lost our country. There will be, must be and everyone should proceed with that firm belief.
In thinking about that you and I — probably everyone we know — are asking questions like how are we going to have the election? What will Election Day be like? Will there be an Election Day or will or can the whole election be by early voting? As to the latter, under existing laws in the states – the states govern the conduct of elections – we need the polls to open Nov. 3.
Democrats attempted to inject this concern into the $2.2 trillion intermediate fiscal and financial rescue package that became law last month. The idea was to send money to the states for them to plan, expand and manage early voting. Republicans were having none of it. The bill became law without such funding.
Democrats prosper at the polls when more people vote. Republicans do better when fewer people vote. Those are perhaps political aphorisms – but they are true. In the past 10 years, Republican legislatures and governors in states including Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Alabama, Texas, and Wisconsin among others have enacted laws to limit voting while purging voters rolls. That they have done the things they’ve done to limit voting is a fact.
A slim five-member conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appointed variously by Republican presidents struck down the heart of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a law enacted in response to the brutality unleashed at the Selma, Ala. bridge that set loose a national uprising — outside the south — for voting rights.
Over the past 20 years, many states introduced early voting, more robust in some than in others. As we looked at the prospect of the 2020 election about two months ago through the prism of record Democratic primary election turnouts, it appeared likely Nov. 3 would produce a record presidential year turnout.
It looked to be a turnout of such size as to portend the defeat of Donald Trump, the election of a Democratic president, retention of the House by Democrats and a very real chance for Democrats to win control of the Senate.
Now the concern is how the COVID-19 crisis will affect voting, suppress voting. Will we be able to vote at the polls on Nov. 3? What are the provisions for early voting? What states have early voting? Is early voting the same in every state? Could it be, should it be?
The answers are that early voting is different state by state and not every state has early voting. Also that it is arguable under the 10th Amendment that a national, uniform early voting system could be imposed at least in federal elections, with the likely answer being no because seemingly it is not constitutional. While we can leave that to the legal scholars to argue down the road, it is not happening this year.
What Democrats wanted to include in the rescue law – the stimulus — was funding for states to gear up as much early voting as possible, administer it and help them fund in-person voting at the polls — if that can take place — with whatever extra costs for social distancing management at the polls would be necessary.
If there is a fourth rescue bill, it must address this urgent matter.
As to the rest, this is an overview of the early voting situation:
Some form of early voting is provided by 38 states and the District of Columbia. These cover a wide range of mechanisms and options. In many states, voters can request and mail in a vote, in many also those ballots need to be dropped off at county offices or at polling places. Each state is responsible for its franchise. Each state makes its own laws for the conduct of elections from the basics like polling hours to the mechanisms of early voting.
Nine states, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina do not have early voting – an obvious problem unless they change their election laws this year to provide for it and then make sure their voters understand there will be an option to showing up at the polls Nov. 3. It’s a tall order.
One state, Delaware, has enacted early voting but not will put it into effect in 2022 unless it revises the law to implement it this year.
Three states, Colorado, Oregon and Washington have early voting only with all ballots cast by mail up to and including election day.
Among the 37 states and the District of Columbia with early voting this year, each has its own laws, rules, and regulations governing key aspects like how long before Election Day early voting begins, when it ends in advance of Election Day, or when and how early voting ballots can be applied for and how, when and where they should be returned.
Every state is different. One would expect both the Trump and Biden campaigns to focus on informing their voting bases about how to vote early state by state. Some states, for example, Alaska Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Ohio allow ballots to be returned on Sundays, others limit that to weekdays or to Monday through Saturday.
The span of early voting ranges from 45 days to a few days before Election Day, with an average of 22 days; and generally but not universally ends a few days before the election, though several states permit ballot return up to or even on Election Day.
The following lists the early voting states with a notation of their schedules for the beginning and end of early voting (ED in any below refers to Election Day).
While many laws are written to specify that early voting ends 3 days or five days or one day before Election Day, for ease of reference and understanding those deadlines are translated below into the specific immediate days of the week ahead of the election. For example, Tennessee closes early voting “five days” before Election Day. This is translated here to Thursday, meaning the Thursday before Nov. 3. The end dates are the second notation for each state.
Alaska, 15 days; ED (again by example for clarity, the second notation means early voting in Alaska continues right into Election Day).
-0-
Arizona, 26 days; Friday.
Arkansas, 15 days; 5 p.m. Monday.
California, 29 days; Monday.
District of Columbia, 7 to 15 days; Saturday.
Florida, 10 to 15 days (can vary by county); Saturday, or Sunday in Federal/state election by local option.
Georgia, 4th Monday before ED; Friday.
Hawaii, 10 working days; Saturday.
Idaho, 3rd Monday before ED; 5 p.m. Friday.
Illinois, 15 days; Monday.
Indiana, 28 days: noon Monday.
Iowa, 29 days; 5 p.m. Monday
Kansas, 20 days; noon Monday.
Louisiana, 14 days; 7 days before ED.
Maine, 30-to-45 days; 3 business days before ED.
Maryland, 2nd Thursday before ED; Thursday.
Massachusetts, 11 days; Friday.
Michigan, 40 days; Monday.
Minnesota, 45 days; 5 p.m. Monday.
Montana, 30 days; Monday.
Nebraska, 30 days; ED.
Nevada, 3rd Saturday before ED; Friday.
New Jersey, 45 days; 3 p.m. Monday.
New Mexico, 3rd Saturday before ED; Saturday.
New York, 10 days; Sunday.
North Carolina, 3rd Wednesday before ED; 7 p.m. Friday.
North Dakota, 15 days; Monday.
Ohio, 28 days; 2 p.m. Monday.
Oklahoma, the Thursday before ED; 2 p.m. Saturday.
South Dakota, 45 days; 5 p.m. Monday.
Tennessee, 20 days; Thursday.
Texas, 17 days; Friday.
Utah, 14 days; Friday.
Vermont, 45 days; 5 p.m. Monday.
Virginia, 2nd Saturday before ED; 5 p.m. Saturday.
West Virginia, 13 days; Saturday.
Wisconsin, 14 days; Sunday.
Wyoming, 40 days; Monday.
The lesson? To protect your vote, to assure the greatest turnout, if your state has early voting — do it!
Peeling the Onion 