Rising early voting participation in recent election cycles has decreased voter turnout in general, putting Election Day on the fast track to becoming an “endangered species,” says University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professors Barry Burden and Kenneth Mayer in a New York Times op-ed.
Their study found that early voting “depresses turnout by several percentage points” and primarily encouraged turnout among those who are already more likely to vote (the older, wealthier, and educated). The cause of this depression in turnout, they say, is voter registration deadlines and tapering get-out-the-vote efforts by candidates and other groups. These issues make early voting irrelevant to those excited by the election in the weeks preceding it, ultimately “[diluting] the intensity of Election Day.”
“With significant early voting, Election Day can become a kind of afterthought, simply the last of a drawn-out slog,” Burden and Mayer opine.
Though it may appear convenience voting is only accessible to those who are prepared to register and vote well in advance of voter registration deadlines and Election Day, at least two states exhibit the plus side of this election reform trend with the help of Same-Day Registration, which allows eligible citizens to register and vote at the same time.
“North Carolina and Vermont, two otherwise very different states that combined early voting with same-day registration, had turnout levels in 2008 that were much higher than the overall national figure of 58 percent of the voting-age population,” they write. “Turnouts in Vermont and North Carolina were, respectively, 63 percent and 64 percent.”
“By removing barriers that require potential voters to register weeks before a campaign reaches its height, less-engaged citizens can enter the voting process late — and political campaigns can respond by maintaining the intensity of their efforts through Election Day.”