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.
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