Early voting means 'election season' may begin very soon
Early voting is expected to begin for some eligible Americans, and if the last two election cycles are any indication, many will have already voted before Election Day.
Tuesday, Nov. 5, is Election Day – but if Americans vote like they did in the last two election cycles, most of them will have already cast a ballot before the big day.
Early voting had been expected to start Friday with North Carolina mailing out absentee ballots to eligible voters, though the state’s elections board indicated it would not send out ballots right away amid a challenge from former candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Still, multiple battleground states are scheduled to send out ballots to at least some voters later in the month, making September and October less a countdown to Election Day, and more the beginning of "election season."
States have long allowed at least some Americans to vote early, like members of the military or people with illnesses.
In some states, almost every voter casts a ballot by mail.
Many states expanded eligibility in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it riskier to vote in-person.
That year, the Fox News Voter Analysis found that 71% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day, with 30% voting early in-person and 41% voting by mail.
Early voting remained popular in the midterms, with 57% of voters casting a ballot before Election Day.
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Elections officials stress that voting early is safe and secure. Recounts, investigations and lawsuits filed after the 2020 election did not reveal evidence of widespread fraud or corruption.
There are a few ways to vote before Election Day.
The first is early in-person voting, where a voter casts a regular ballot in-person at a voting center before Election Day.
The second is voting by mail, where the process and eligibility varies by state.
Eight states vote mostly by mail, including California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. Registered voters receive ballots and send them back.
Most states allow any registered voter to request a mail ballot and send it back. This is also called mail voting, or sometimes absentee voting. Depending on the state, voters can return their ballot by mail, at a drop box, and/or at an office or facility that accepts mail ballots.
In 14 states, voters must have an excuse to vote by mail, ranging from illness, age, work hours or if a voter is out of their home county on Election Day.
States process and tabulate ballots at different times. Some states don’t begin counting ballots until election night, which delays the release of results.
This list of early voting deadlines is for guidance only. In some areas, early voting may begin before the dates listed. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes, and deadlines, go to Vote.gov and your state’s elections website.
The first voters to be sent absentee ballots were expected to be in North Carolina, which had planned to begin mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6, though the state elections board did not indicate on Friday when ballots would go out.
Six more battleground states are expected to begin early voting this same month, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.
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Subject to change. In-person early voting in bold.
TBD
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