The election season is officially kicking off Friday with three states opening up early in-person voting for the 2024 presidential election: Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia.
Over the last two decades, there’s been a lot of expansion with access to early in-person voting.
Back in 2000, there were only 24 states that offered the option to vote in-person ahead of Election Day. Now, there are only three states in the U.S. that don’t offer any early in-person voting options.
Voting early has become a popular choice for many Americans, particularly in the home state of Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz.
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Minnesota has some of the highest voter turnout rates in the country.
Even before the doors opened in Minneapolis, voters were lined up Friday morning and ready to cast their ballots for the November general election.
"Why not? why not try to be first? That's kinda fun right?" one voter said.
"My wife went to Pilates early. I was awake. I thought, why not. And what could be more patriotic than voting," another voter in Minneapolis told Scripps News.
"Well number one, you get off the lists of all the candidates and campaigns, so they stop calling you. which is lovely for me and it's also great for them," he added.
For voters who've already made up their mind, they say there's no need to wait until election day.
Many early voters might opt for early in-person balloting instead of mail-in absentee ballots to ensure their votes get counted, given the ongoing struggles of the U.S. Postal Service.
In a change since the last presidential election, polling places are beefing up security to protect local election workers and ensure ballots and voting procedures aren’t tampered with.
Officials and ordinary poll workers have been targets of harassment and even death threats since the 2020 presidential election.
Federal authorities are investigating the origin of suspicious packages that have been sent to or received by election officials in more than 15 states in recent days, including Virginia.
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As the start of early voting approached, Trump's rhetoric turned more ominous with a pledge to prosecute anyone who “cheats” in the election in the same way he falsely claimed they did in 2020, when he lied about widespread fraud and attacked officials who stood by their accurate vote tallies.
Trump has previously sought to sow doubts about mail voting and encouraged voters to cast ballots in person on Election Day. But this year, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which he now controls, have begun to embrace early and mail voting as a way to lock in GOP votes before Election Day, just as Democrats have done for years.
It's important to note that early voting doesn't mean early results. While some states can start processing ballots before election day, others, like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, can not.
