Pros and Cons of Early Voting
by The facts about early voting and some things people who are interested in politics should think about.
Early Voting is voting before the set voting date usually because you will be out of town or have a job that would cause you to miss the date. Reformelections.org states that in 2004, 35 states allowed some form of early voting. They do it by voting after a set time and before the Election Day. Early voting can take place by mail or at designated early voting polling stations.
Some people believe that early voting should not be done because it causes less voter participation, and it costs campaigners more money.
In the 1998 election in states with early voting was more than 3 percentage points lower than in all other states (33% versus 36.6%). The average turnout in early voting states in the 1994 election was 0.7 percentage points less than in all other states (38.1% versus 38.8%). According to academic.regis.edu
Early Voting raises the cost of campaigning because normally, in the last 2 to 3 days before poling, the candidates go all out with advertising but with early voting, candidates have to stretch this period of spending to attract early voters.
By contrast, the reason for the decline in voter turnout is due to the lack of advertisement of early voting and the already declining voter participation. Some people aren’t very active in politics and couldn’t care less who is elected. Presidential campaigners of course would spend more money under early voting but that is their choice.
Early voting is a great idea because it is very convenient. The more time people have for voting, the more people will vote. According to Wikipedia.org, 22 percent of the votes that were cast during the 2004 presidential election were cast in advance. The average person usually has something better to do on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Instead of voting, they could be working, going to college, or visiting relatives. When the voting day was created, it was done so on a Tuesday in November because the average person was in the agricultural business. That was many years ago. Now, there are many more diverse jobs that require different times of participation.
Early voting should be in effect in all of the United States. There needs to be a law that allows early voting and it should be publicized on every news network: on televisions, radios, and newspapers. This is the solution for regaining American participation with the government. Should the government run its self, or should Americans influence the government as a democracy should?
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