It is too early to tell if the trend towards early voting is here to stay or if it is another unexpected blip in an already unpredictable and tumultuous year. With luck it is a sea change in how elections are administered. Normalizing early voting as a viable option -- both the mechanics of it and the impetus for it -- is guaranteed to galvanize the youth vote in future elections and create life-long voters. 

Enhancing early voting is one of the best defenses against voter suppression tactics precisely because it makes voting easier rather than more difficult. This, in turn, has a direct impact on generating and sustaining the youth vote. One of the trends among young voters (regardless of political leaning) is a lack of faith in the system coupled with a growing frustration over how governments provide services and respond to the needs of its citizens. It’s an easy assumption to say that this frustration is due solely to being the first generation to grow up with smartphones, purpose-drive apps, and easier access to information than any generation has ever had. But that is only part of the story. Simply put, governments (states and federal) are stuck in a 20th century rut and continually fail to modernize essential services to respond to the needs of their citizens. And voting has been emblematic of this failure. The mechanics of election administration can feel like a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem -- it is clunky, bureaucratic, uncomfortable, and features way too long of a wait in line.

Voting remains the ultimate expression of political will, yet one of the groups with the most to win (or lose) seldom bother to show up. Long lines, inability to get time off work, arguing about moving conditions due to conflicts between databases (“but I changed my address with the DMV”), and a general backlog due to 3,000 people all showing up to vote in the same 13-hour period neither inspires confidence in the system nor encourages anyone to begin a lifelong history of voting. The 2020 election has seen a nigh unprecedented level of participation from young voters. Why? Because they are not confined to one day and one 13-hour block of time. They do not need to upend their life to make this happen; they can find a way to make voting a realistic part of their life. Voter suppression comes about when you convince people that it is too cumbersome to cast a ballot, that it is just not worth the effort that goes into it. This is why we need early voting to be a viable option: to help ensure voter enfranchisement. Do not underestimate the correlation between the ability to vote early and the belief that your vote actually counts. 

In today’s environment early voting has become politically charged, and that does it a disservice. Establishing the acceptance of early voting as a legitimate way to cast your ballot is a major step towards making first- and second-time voters realize that their vote matters. If you feel that your vote does not count and that the process is inconvenient...then why bother go and vote at all? So if we want to maximize election turnout and ensure the enfranchisement of young voters then we need to normalize early voting. Election Day should not be the only opportunity to cast your ballot -- it should be the last opportunity you have to do so.