When political predictors try to figure out what is going to happen on Election Day, they have to account for the fact that a lot of it has already happened.

When judging the impact of a last-minute ad or stealth mailing, you have to remember that a third of the electorate will have already voted before next Tuesday.

For those voters, it’s not the latest event that changed their minds, but the news of last week or the week before.

That has changed life for candidates and campaigns, and it’s also changing the way the rest of us view and participate in elections, and that should be reflected in changes to our laws and customs.

We think that high voter turnout makes for better results and we support increasing participation in all elections.

Maine has some of the most inclusive registration laws in the nation and, not coincidentally, usually is one of the leaders in voter participation. But many voters still have a hard time making it to a polling station on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Elderly and disabled people rely on mail-in absentee ballots to make their voices heard, but they are not the only ones. Many Maine voters travel a long way to work every day and have a narrow window of time to make it to their town hall before the polls close.

In-person early voting, which can at a town’s option include extended or weekend hours, gives more people a chance to cast their vote.

There are changes to state law that would make it easier for towns to expand their offerings.

Right now, early voting in Maine is a form of absentee balloting. Clerks and election officials can’t begin processing the early votes until after the polls open, making a hectic night even more hectic. A better system would allow them to load the ballots into tabulation machines, waiting until after the polls close to run the totals.

Changing that law will take action from the Legislature and a voter approved constitutional amendment. But it would be worth it to take the pressure off election officials as more people take advantage of the opportunity to vote early.

If it continues, this trend is going to take a toll on bake sales and signature gathering that are Election Day traditions. But as long as it makes it so more people can vote, it would be worth it.

 

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