Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises, and Perils Book

List of Illustrations

Introduction 1

1 A History of Absentee and Early Voting 7

Absentee Voting in the Civil War 7

The Introduction of the Secret Ballot in the Late Nineteenth Century 8

The Introduction of Civilian Absentee Voting in the Early Twentieth Century 9

Absentee Balloting from World War II to the 1960s 11

Absentee Balloting in the 1970s and Early 1980s 13

The Move toward "No-Excuses" and Convenience Absentee Balloting 13

Oregon's Introduction of Vote by Mail 14

Permanent Absentee Ballot Status 14

Early Voting 15

Conclusion 16

2 The Extent of Absentee and Early Voting and Past and Future Trends 18

Absentee and Early Voting in the 2004 Election 19

How Much Absentee and Early Voting Occurred in 2004 22

Four Categories of States 24

Category 1 States with Little or No Absentee or Early Voting 24

Category 2 High-Absentee States with Little or No Early Voting 27

Category 3 High Early-Voting States 29

Category 4 Mix of High-Absentee and Early Voting 30

When Voters Cast Their Ballots in 2004 31

Substantial Increase in Absentee and Early Voting since 1980 33

Prior to 1980 33

The 1980s-The Beginning of the Rise of Absentee Voting 35

The 1990s-Continued Growth in Absentee Voting 36

Early Voting: The Rise in the 1990s 37

Early Voting Is Growing Even Easter than Absentee Voting 38

Conclusion 39

3 Absentee and Early Voting: Voter Turnout and Voter Convenience 40

Voter Turnout 40

Voting Absentee and by Mail and Voter Turnout 42

Early Voting and Turnout 45

Convenience in Voting 45

The Popularity of Voting before Election Day 46

Inconvenience as an Obstacle to Voting 46

Conclusion 49

4 The Pitfalls of Absentee andEarly Voting 51

Fraud and Coercion and Absentee Ballots 52

Susceptibility of Absentee Votes to Fraud 54

Absentee Ballots and Coercion 55

Role of Third-Party Intermediaries in Absentee Ballots 56

Disqualifying Absentee Ballots 58

Protections against Fraud for Absentee Ballots 58

Loss of Civic Day of Election 60

Voting before the Campaign Has Ended 61

Conclusion 61

Conclusions and Recommendations 63

The Effects of Large-Scale Voting before Election Day 63

Recommendations 66

General Recommendations 66

Specific Recommendations 70

Recommendations for Low-Absentee States 70

Recommendations for High-Absentee States 72

Recommendations for Early-Voting States 75

Recommendations for Mixed States 77

Final Word 78

Appendix I Absentee and Early Voting, 2004 79

References 87

Appendix II Voting Before Election Day (percent of total vote) 91

Notes 97

About the Author 105