The University of Wisconsin has issued this press release, publicizing a study conducted by four political scientists that says when states make it easy for any voter to vote in advance of the election, the net result can be a decrease in total turnout. The study concludes that early and absentee voting siphons energy away from groups that would otherwise be fully mobilized to get people to the polls on election day. The press release has a link to the study itself.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Oregon survives with ALL snail mail paper ballots.
NO lines on election days.
The link in the press release is not to the study from the University of Wisconsin, but rather a report by the State of Wisconsin studying implementation of early voting in Wisconsin and which does not appear to have much if anything to say about the effect of early voting on turnout, but is mostly focused on implementation in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, elections are administered by towns rather than counties, and one of the proposals would have early voting administered on a county or regional basis.
Wisconsin does have “in-person absentee” (sic) voting in which a person may cast an absentee ballot earlier than election day in person at the city clerk’s office. On election day, the ballot envelope is sent to the polling place where it is added to the election day results.
once the natural born citizen constitutional issue is settled in SCOTUS, early voting (all voting) should only allowed for natural born citizens of Ohio. After a generation the children of anchor baby native born citizens and naturalized citizens would be natural born citizens and allowed to vote.
The link to the research study is now in the press release,
The research is a little more subtle, in that it was exploring the combined effects of early voting (EV); same day registration (SDR); and election day registration (EDR). To increase turnout among more marginal voters, those who have moved, those less politically involved, etc., voting needs to be an easy process. Having the opportunity to cast a ballot before election day may make it slightly easier, but the greater barrier is getting registered, especially if it needs to be done a month or more in advance of an election.
For voters who are already registered, plus motivated to vote, election day voting is typically not such a hardship as to prevent voting. Early voting may simply be more convenient.
It may also be that early voting permits more targetted GOTV efforts. For example, in Texas, church-attending voters are often encouraged to go vote after church. It may be less effective or desirable to try and get people who answer the phone and respond, “Tuesday? When is that?” to vote.
The emphasis of the study was more on the use of EDR and SDR to increase turnout vs. a negative effect of EV alone.