This year is seeing a high number of absentee and mail-in ballots and voting in the period before Election Day – but early voting periods are not new to the 2020 election.
A recent Pew survey showed just how deep the divide has become, with about 40% of registered voters saying that they didn’t have a single close friend supporting a different presidential candidate.
Voting, the right thing to do?
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
‘I don’t like the candidates,’ ‘I don’t know enough to make a decision,’ ‘I don’t want to give this election legitimacy’ – an ethicist takes on nonvoters.
Where you vote can make a difference in how you vote. Although the influence can be small, some ballots are decided by fractions of a percent.
With its largely white and older workers, this poll site in Maine is typical of poll sites across the U.S.
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
An army of mostly older, white volunteers run America’s voting sites. They’re reluctant to work during a pandemic. So new recruits are signing up to run the polls, for better and for worse.
Vote count machines are just one target of hackers looking to disrupt US elections.
AP Photo/Ben Margot
Russian agents reportedly placed malware in U.S. voter registration systems in 2016 and are actively interfering in the 2020 election. Here’s the state of election cybersecurity.
Citizenship means the ability to vote, as naturalized citizen Cici Carpio declared in April 2019 in El Paso, Texas.
Paul Ratje / AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of people are waiting for their naturalization applications to be processed by US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Without citizenship, they can’t vote.
A county election worker gets mailed-in ballots ready to be counted, in this file photo from 2016.
AP Photo/Don Ryan
Changing the voting age from 18 would allow more young citizens to make voting a habit before they lose interest in politics.
Protesters against passage of a bill to expand mail-in voting during a Nevada Republican Party demonstration, August 4, 2020, in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
In lawsuits across the country, the GOP and Trump campaign are trying to stop or dramatically curtail mail-in voting. Courts have largely sided with them, threatening massive disenfranchisement.
Voting is important. Make sure you know how to do it!
Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
Double-check that you’re registered, find out where and when you can vote, make a plan and tell your friends. Set a reminder on your calendar, and make sure you actually vote.
USPS mailbox in downtown Danville, Pennsylvania.
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The United States Postal Service plays a vital role in US civic life, one that helped shape American society more than 250 years ago and continues to characterize it today.
Jennifer Curtin, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau e Lara Greaves, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Politicians argue conventional campaigning is still important ahead of NZ’s rescheduled 17 October election. But voter behaviour has moved on since the days of door-knocking and kissing babies.
It’s a myth that Black voters represent monolithic support for Democrats. A recent survey shows that young Black Americans in swing states have big reservations about Joe Biden, Democrats and voting.
Georgia voters brought folding chairs, books, laptop computers and plenty of patience to the polls on June.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
Voters across the nation should prepare for similar circumstances in their communities – but there is still time for them to demand better from their officials.