The Democratic and Republican national conventions are just a memory, the first and perhaps only debate between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump is in the bag and election offices are beginning to send out absentee ballots.
Now come the voters.
Yesterday was the start of early in-person voting for the US presidential election on Nov. 5, starting in Virginia, South Dakota and the home state of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Photo: AFP
The first ballots being cast in person were made with just over six weeks left before election day. About a dozen more states will follow with early in-person voting by the middle of next month.
“If I could wave a magic wand in this room right now, I would wish for two things: Between now and November 5th, I want to see high turnout and low drama,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told a news conference on Thursday that previewed his state’s efforts around the election season.
Simon also serves as president of the US National Association of Secretaries of State.
Photo: AFP
Across the country, local election directors are beefing up their security to keep their workers and polling places safe while also ensuring that ballots and voting procedures will not be tampered with.
In Virginia, early in-person voting has long been popular in the city of Chesapeake, especially during presidential elections, said its elections director, Mary Lynn Pinkerman.
She expects early voting to help ease the crowds on Nov. 5, but also cautioned that election day voting “is certainly not a thing of the past” and that “voters could still encounter wait times.”
Fairfax County elections director Eric Spicer said that about one-third of local voters came to the polls on election day during the 2020 presidential election, while the rest voted by mail or early and in-person.
“We call them our cicada voters who come out every four years,” he said, adding that he expects this year’s presidential race to drive heavy turnout in his northern Virginia county.
In South Dakota, the top election official in Minnehaha County, the state’s most populous, is planning for an 80 percent overall turnout. Extra seasonal workers began Monday, and an early voting area was set up in the county administration building in Sioux Falls.
County auditor Leah Anderson said that the presidential race and several statewide ballot measures — including one that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and another to legalize recreational marijuana — would attract voters.
“There’s a lot on our ballot,” Anderson said.
Many early voters might opt for early in-person balloting instead of mail-in absentee ballots to ensure their votes get counted, given the ongoing struggles of the US Postal Service.
State and local election officials from across the country last week warned that problems with mail deliveries threaten to disenfranchise voters, and they told the head of the system that it has not fixed persistent deficiencies despite their repeated attempts at outreach.
US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a letter released on Monday that he will work with state election officials to address their concerns, but reiterated that the Postal Service will be ready.
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