HOUSTON, United States
Three states began in-person early voting Friday six weeks before the 2024 US presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Minnesota, Virginia and South Dakota started taking in their first in-person balloting following a chaotic summer of politics that saw President Joe Biden drop out of the race and replaced by Harris as the Democratic nominee, then an assassination attempt against Trump, the Republican nominee, in the state of Pennsylvania on July 13, and a second assassination attempt on the former president on Sept. 15 in Florida.
In-person early voting marks the six-week period before Nov. 5 in which registered voters can cast ballots at certified polling stations across the US to avoid massive crowds on Election Day or schedule a more convenient time to vote that better fits their schedule.
Most states offer in-person early voting, but Alabama, Mississippi and New Hampshire do not offer the option. A majority of states offer mail-in early voting ballots.
Other states offering early in-person voting in the upcoming weeks include Illinois (Sept. 26), Montana and Nebraska (Oct. 7), Indiana and Wyoming (Oct. 8), Arizona (Oct. 9), Georgia (Oct. 15) and Iowa (Oct. 16).
The Republican Party has embraced the concept of in-person early voting this year as a way to accumulate votes in advance of the election, even though Trump has expressed skepticism about early voting in the past.
Democrats have taken advantage of early voting options in recent elections, tallying millions of early votes in the process.
Democrats accounted for 41% of early votes in 2018 in the 24 states that provided exit polling, compared to 35.1% for Republicans, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.
In 2022, Democrats extended their early voting tallies, accounting for 42.5% of early ballots versus 33.8% for Republicans.
The candidates are stumping in as many states as possible before Election Day. Harris and the Democratic Party have described Trump as a threat to democracy, while Trump has touted that he must win to save the country from Democratic rule.
With an election that both parties are calling the most important in generations, political experts believe early voting ballots could be crucial in determining who becomes the next President of the United States.
