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Originally Posted by Rainger99
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There is a state-mandated date - but individual counties can allow voting earlier than that date. The mandate basically says all counties must begin to allow early voting BY a certain date (at the latest).
This benefits counties that are mostly rural, where it's more difficult for voters to get to their assigned voting location. It also benefits suburbs, where most voters work in a nearby city that might be in a different county, and don't have as much opportunity to get to the polls in their authorized locations.
If Election Day were made a National Holiday, things would be different, because employers would be required to give EVERYONE paid time off to vote that day. Full-timers would split shifts with other full-timers so that there's still coverage at the job.
But it's not a national holiday, and so those voting locations are insanely crowded during the lunch rush and from 6pm til closing. The rest of the day, people are at work. Now that some counties and some states have eliminated many voting locations, it's created even more of a gridlock. The only solutions to that, presently:
1. Force people to not vote (which some areas are trying to do by making it harder to get to the polls and putting unreasonable restrictions on mail-in and early voting)
2. Expand voting locations on Election Day
3. Expand hours on Election Day
4. Support more efficient mail-in voting options
5. Support more efficient early-vote options.