Early Voting: A New Trend with Hints of the Past
The current trend toward early voting–from several weeks to several days in advance–is a recent trend that began to pick up speed in 2000. This year fully one-third of all voters are expected to cast their votes before Election Day.
Several aspects of early voting present us with reminders of how voting occurred in the past. During colonial times elections took place on the village green and voting was done viva voce. While this was sometimes rapidly conducted by “groupings” or a “show of hands,” at other times, each voter was expected to step forward and announce how he was casting his vote. The crowd would react with cheers or boos. Because an ongoing tally of the votes was known by all in attendance (and this type of voting was certainly time-consuming), people in the crowd who were disappointed in the direction the vote was going would often ride off on horseback to locate other voters to come to the village green to help their cause.
