Is Early Voting constitutional?

[minionofmidas]

As long as the ballots are counted on election day, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Unlike absentee voting, which I believe should be illegal except in certain excemptional situations.

[minionofmidas]

As long as the ballots are counted on election day, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Unlike absentee voting, which I believe should be illegal except in certain excemptional situations.

That seems like a wonderful way to disenfranchise college students, for example, who usually go to school far enough away from home (4+ hours) that it isn't feasible for them to return home to vote. If Election Day were in April, maybe, but with Election Day in November, there's not enough time to register locally.

Registration should be automatic anyways.

Mind you, I'm talking about what should be, not what squares with the US Constitution, which was the original question here.

The argument against postal voting is a secrecy one, of course.
At least over here, the most typical postal voter is an elderly couple filling in the papers together at the dinner table.

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Military on a short-term mission abroad that began before the early voting period, aye.
Otherwise, no. Those outside the country for a lengthy period should not be allowed to vote at all. Within the country, they should day vote - or early vote, if that is impossible - at their base. Obviously, the military is another area where the secrecy of the ballot is very much endangered currently.

The main exceptions would be people falling to sick to get their ass to the polling booth at short notice, and people living dozens of miles from a polling station.

[minionofmidas]

Can someone explain the difference between "Early" voting & "Absentee" voting?

I have voted absentee twice due to knowing in advance that I would not be able to get to the polls because of travel, so in essence I voted early. Maybe I am missing something here.

Absentee ballots are not opened (and thus the vote has technically not yet occurred) until the day of the election. Early voting is a practice where polling stations open on days before the election to allow voters to cast ballots then for convenience. I've only heard of it in the context of Texas, but maybe other states practice the same thing.

I'm supportive of early voting, and it appears to be constitutional (it's the electors who are bound to a single day). However, I prefer the idea of online voting, recently introduced by Estonia to great success. Obviously the server would need to be secure and provide a printed paper trail at its destination, but allowing voting online would greatly increase turnout.

In practice the only significant difference to the voter is that absentee ballots may be done by mail, but early voting must be at a designated location, which may also handle in-person absentee voting.

On the results end, early voting is reported on election night and some absentee voting may be reported after election night if it was appropriately postmarked before the election day. 

It can make a difference when the early votes are reported. In some jurisdictions they are counted after all regular precinct votes. This makes it look like 100% of the precincts are counted, yet the count is far from over. One local race last week had the wrong person declaring victory after all precincts had reported.  It was very disheartening when the early votes wer added quite a bit later and swung the outcome the othre way. There's an effort now to require thta early votes be tabulated and reported first so that there is a better sense when the unofficial election night count is complete.

Just name them as a "precinct".

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, what about holding the primary on the same day as the generals - the primary for the next generals, that is? That way, you could keep Early Voting open 24/7.