As we saw before, there is no such thing as "election day." It spreads over several weeks, if you include early voting.
Here's some info:
- Click here for it.
Early voting is nearly upon us for the November 2024 presidential election. North Carolina usually leads off with mail balloting starting on Sept. 6, or sixty days before the November 5 general election (legal disputes regarding RFK Jr. delayed North Carolina mail ballots such that Alabama led the pack this year). More states follow with mail and in-person early voting options, with a handy guide of dates and more available from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
. . . The most reliable and important information we can learn from early voting is turnout.
Eight states — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington — plus the District of Columbia run their elections primarily by mail. Election officials in these states send a mail ballot to every active registered voter. (Inactive registered voters — those who have not voted in a recent election — must request a mail ballot, at which time they become active voters.) Voters in these states still have options to vote in-person. Oregon and Washington — the two early adopters — offer emergency voting at an election office. Colorado innovated layering vote centers on top of mail balloting, which allows those who wish to do so an opportunity to cast an in-person ballot at special polling locations during the early voting period through Election Day. In Colorado and some other states offer special polling locations known as vote centers as a place where any voter may cast an in-person ballot and where eligible voters can do same-day registration — register and cast a ballot in-person.
Election laws and policies differ dramatically across the United States. As always, it is best to seek information from your local election officials for trusted information about elections.
