Early Voting This 2020

With all the storm and fury about trump trying to sabotage the mail-in balloting, and also threatening to send armed "observers" to the polling precincts on Election Day, it would make sense for Americans to consider the Third Option of voting: The Early Voting period.

As you can see on the Ballotpedia listing of Early Voting - by state, by starting date and closing date - not every state or territory hosts one. But many do, and to the seven or eight readers I have on this site, you might want to check to see if your state allows it, when you can go do it, and spread the word to everyone you know to make sure the voting gets done.

For meself, Florida begins Early Voting next Monday October 19 and I hope to do it then, well before the ending period of Sunday November 1 (before Election Day itself). BE AWARE that not every state doing this ends on that day: some are closing it up October 30, some are taking it right up to Monday November 2 just before the Big Day itself.

I don't always do Early Voting, as a traditionalist I've tried voting on Election Day itself. I had done it once or thrice when I knew ahead of time I was going to be too busy that Tuesday (one time I did so because I had volunteered to work a Broward precinct in 2002, when county employees were asked to help out with a new electronic balloting system to replace The Chads).

But this year for several reasons Early Voting seems to be the smarter move to make. Depending on where you are at and how the pandemic is going, you might find it safer to go to the Early Voting location. Given the risks of catching the coronavirus, I would prefer making sure I got my vote in before it was too late.

There are other reasons I would - and often do - encourage Early Voting to my fellow Floridians. One of the biggest hassles on Election Day is going to the specific precinct you're assigned: A lot of people have trouble finding those sites even WITH the address information sent to them on their Voter ID cards. Meanwhile, the Early Voting sites are usually in common public locations - libraries especially, but also the county government centers, courthouses, civic centers - that are easier to find. 

Also, while precincts are designed to be close to your homes, some people are too busy traveling to and from work to ever find the time to get in line to vote (and even though workplaces are required to let you go for an hour to vote on request, the driving distances back to your neighborhood and the wait times at the precincts make that hard). Most Early Voting places tend to be closer to your workplaces, thus easier to get to before/after you put in your time at the office.

However, this year Early Voting is a great idea because of what trump and the Republicans are threatening to do to disrupt and suppress the balloting. Not just the actions trump has already done to hurt the Postal Service to hamper mail-in balloting (and despite the promises that he and DeJoy have fixed their earlier damage, I don't believe them), but the threats being made to send "Observers" who just happen to be off-duty law enforcement and/or private security (aka Mercs) into heavily minority precincts as pure intimidation tactics.

Thing about Early Voting: most locations are not in heavy minority areas but usually in central public areas that draw in voters from every ethnic, age, and economic demographic. Where you can send "observers carrying sidearms as their Second Amendment right to" into local precincts on Election Day where few media outlets will cover the day's balloting - and get away with intimidating minorities into walking away without casting their votes - if Republicans try that at the Early Voting locations - fewer in number thus easier to cover for news reports, as well as more packed with White voters that Republicans wouldn't want to alienate with their bullying - they won't be as successful. It's also worth noting that trump's campaign people didn't get their "observers" lined up in time to cover the Early Voting places: They seem too focused on the Election Day itself.

I would argue to Blacks, Latinos, College-age/Youth voters most likely facing intimidation at the precincts on Election Day: Early Voting would be a smart alternative with fewer risks of having your ballots challenged.

I would also point out that more often than not the Early Voting places will have working ballot machines, as opposed to the oft-reported broken equipment that crops up in the poorer, more crowded precincts we've ALL been witness to since the 2000 Election debacle. How many news reports, every Election Eve, do we see of long lines across South Florida where precincts were reduced to a single electronic touchscreen for 10,000 voters to use? You would think after 20 years of this, the Elections supervisors would have bought enough working equipment and hired enough staff to repair them, but no.

I'm not the only one to notice. Betty Cracker at Balloon-Juice - a fellow Floridian - is paying attention to Georgia, a state that started Early Voting today and has a worse record with their voting machines than Florida. She's noticing how even with Early Voting, in certain counties with large Black populations, the Republican-controlled Elections offices are screwing up to force long lines even now:

I get that fuckups can happen and polling places can be unexpectedly overwhelmed. But we see this in the same neighborhoods in the same states every year. It’s obviously a voter suppression tactic, and the perpetrators need to be held accountable for violating people’s most fundamental right as citizens. Enough of this bullshit.

If this seems like bad news, it kind of is, except that the good news is everyone is paying attention and there's bound to be greater pressure to get the machines working properly while there's weeks to go with the Early Voting efforts.

There's one other reason to encourage Early Voting: While they don't release the tallies until Election Day night, the Early Voting numbers are often ready to go the second the precincts officially close in most parts of the state. 

(HINT: In case you DO vote on Election Day, do not get discouraged if you're still in line by the time of the "official" cutoff. The election officials are REQUIRED to let everyone who is in line to vote stay in line and get their chance to cast their ballot even if it means staying open past midnight... which is why some states with those long lines don't complete counting votes until days later).

If the early results gleaned from the Early Voting lean towards Biden, trump can't scream - or cough, all things considered at the moment - that he's winning. Oh, he'll try but he won't have the numbers to prove it. he'd have to wait just like the rest of us, and maybe in a few states he'd have to change his tune and demand the mail-in ballots be counted if he's losing without them.

So if a shit-ton of Democrats and Indy voters supporting Biden do Early Voting in large enough turnouts, hopefully that will give the regular (traditional) Election Day voters something to add to.

Just remember, peeps, GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT FOR BIDEN/HARRIS and EVERY Democrat on the ballots. Mail-in, Early, or E-Day itself.

Keep that Blue Wave rolling upward.