Absentee Voting Advantages

Out of the 27, 21, 13, 7, and 3 states that offer no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, in-person absentee voting, permanent absentee, and vote-by-mail respectively, New York is not one of them (Desilver). The only form of early voting permitted under Article II Section 2 of the New York State Constitution is absentee voting with excuse, which restricts access to absentee voting based on a set of criteria. Consequently, New York City is in one of the most restrictive states in the nation in terms of early access to voting. In terms of these restrictions impact on voter turnout, the evidence is quite mixed. Fortunately, solutions such as no-excuse absentee voting, in-person early voting, and vote-by-mail have offered promising results in
For example, a 2011 article in the Election Law Journal attributed the polls being open only during business hours on weekdays as a potential factor of stagnant and low early in-person voting usage. As a result, variables in regional culture and election law can be a potential reason for the mixed studies turnout. One of the notable studies out now is the same 2010 Political Research Quarterly study by Joseph Giammo and Brain Bronx, which also found that the early voting gives an initial boost to turnout but fails to sustain the increase long-term. This potentially suggests there is a novelty effect of early in-person voting that wears off after introduction or that there were factors impacting the results of the research outside of the study’s scope. Alternatively, research has shown cutting back on early voting programs disproportionately impacts African American voters. In a 2015 article published in SAGE journals, Russell Weaver concluded that proposed legislation to restrict early voting would disproportionately raise the cost of voting for African American voters in Ohio who, in one of the counties that were studied, were approximately 26 times more likely than Caucasian Americans to vote early in-person in 2008 and 20 times more likely in 2012. Consequently, by limiting early voting to avoid financial costs, the cost of voting will rise, especially for minority groups, and potentially harm voter turnout out because of inconvenience. Therefore, despite in-person early voting’s inability to consistently raise turnout on a general level, New York City should considering to trying to ease the cost of voting with early in-person voting for it can peoples who have historically disenfranchised by the system and