Walker 1/3 latino, Walker said her super PAC signed up 132,000 people to vote by mail – 65 percent female, almost half black, one third Hispanic, and 41 percent first time voters. For the first time, the number of returned mail ballots hit the 2 million mark overnight. Voters obtaining absentee ballots in person must meet the same photo identification requirement as voters who cast ballots in the polling place.
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The first day of early voting, October 19, featured possibly the largest turnout for any opening early voting day in recent memory, according to Phillip Warren, administrator of elections in Wilson County. The issue is whether the across-the-board increases in early voting in Florida means new and additional voters, or simply voters who would vote regardless, and they’ve voted early this year.
Many on the left also point to early voting restrictions imposed by a GOP-controlled state legislature as the reason for the downturn.
The fourth state, Minnesota, has voted for the Democratic nominee every presidential election since 1976. The most strident among early voting opponents warn the day is just around the corner when a simple press of a Smartphone button will be equivalent to casting a vote.
DeKalb County numbers show 103,696 people had early voted as of Monday.
People still have the opportunity to cast an early vote between now and election day, November 8.
Changes in electoral administration, record-keeping, and reporting of early voting among specific Secretaries of state also may have occurred and can complicate across-year comparisons. They’ve checked their mail once, they’ve checked it twice and they still have not received their mail-in ballots.
In the Google Trend search, five states showed the most interest in the question, “Can you change your early vote”.
But voting rights advocates like Nina Perales, a lawyer with the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), say more needs to be done. “Anyone needing to verify if they are registered to vote can visit My Voter Page to verify at mvp.sos.ga.gov”, said Hicks.
All of this makes for a very uncertain picture of how early voting will affect the election’s outcome.
As Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump enter the final stretch, their campaigns are concentrating on key battleground states.
North Carolina Democrats were up by 292,000 early votes at this stage in 2012, CNN said. In Arizona and Colorado, for example, changes in mandatory vote-by-mail laws in select counties can seemingly inflate early vote numbers.
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Election Day isn’t a federal holiday yet, so the voting public needs to make sure to take time next Tuesday to head to the polls.
