Increasingly, polling places are less crowded on Election Day.
But this doesn’t have anything to do with falling voter turnout. Rather, it can be attributed to the increasing trend of more voters casting their ballots by in-person absentee ballot or during early voting periods.
Just how popular has the convenience of voting early become?
Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have early voting periods. And there has been a steady increase in early voting, which amounted to 15 percent of ballots cast in 2000, 20 percent in 2004, and 30 percent in 2008, according to the U.S. Elections Project. The percentage of voters who cast their ballots early in 2012 rose further to 31.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The rise of early voting is largely about convenience for voters. But there are other benefits as well:
- Less waiting time for voters on Election Day – Spreading out voting over a longer period means fewer people voting on Election Day.
- Easier for poll workers – Election Day is a long, stressful day for poll workers. Early voting eases this burden.
- More people voting – Research shows that early voting, when combined with same-day registration policies, has the potential to boost the numbers of people who cast ballots.
For election administrators, this has meant changes in the way elections are conducted. And ES&S is at the forefront in helping clients adapt to these changes. Here’s how:
Vote centers
An increasing number of election jurisdictions in some states allow voters to cast their ballots early at any vote center in the jurisdiction. Because any voter from any precinct can go to any voter center to cast their ballot, every ballot type must be available at every voter center. ES&S makes this potentially monumental task easier with these solutions:
- Electronic poll book. Our state-of-the-art ExpressPoll® electronic poll book system allows poll workers to quickly verify and check in a voter and issue the correct ballot every time.
- Vote scanner and tabulator. Ballots are scanned and votes tabulated on our DS200® devices. Some jurisdictions use our ExpressVote® system in which the correct ballot style is displayed on-screen, eliminating the need for pre-printed ballots.
- On-demand ballot printing. Our Ballot on Demand® system provides the software and printers to print ballots as they are needed in vote centers. This on-demand printing technology eliminates the waste that typically occurs with absentee voting and early voting.
Vote-by-Mail
Jurisdictions often receive thousands of mailed-in ballots cast by absentee voters. Our DS850® high-speed ballot scanner and tabulator allows poll workers to scan and tabulate up to 300 of these ballots per minute, separating ballots into three categories: counted, requires further review, and ballots with write-in votes.
As election processes evolve, ES&S helps election jurisdictions implement the latest technology and processes to improve the voting experience while cutting costs and saving taxpayers money.