Early Voting Resources
Join the Fight in Battleground States — NOW!
By Robbin Warner and Steve Schear
Early voting is now underway in key battleground states. You can find out when early voting starts in each state by going to Voteday1.com. In addition to listing early voting start dates, This website, put together by the Virginia Grassroots Coalition, provides links to early voting social media graphics, yard signs for sales, and more.
Knowing where early voting has started and the options available for early voting can help you decide when and where to devote your time. Early voting is already under way in parts of the battleground state of Pennsylvania. This week, early voting will start in Montana, Ohio, and Arizona.
If your anxiety level is rising now that the election is only weeks away, consider knocking on some doors and talking to voters. It is now very easy to sign up to canvass in battleground states and some battleground districts through the Canvassing Connector. If you are not able to canvass, it’s also easy to find other opportunities to help by going to the Mobilize website. You can use the filters at the top of the website to pick the type of work you want to do, e.g. phone banking, and then fill in the location that you want to help, e.g., North Carolina. Your screen will fill up with lots of opportunities.
Another website with useful information about early voting is the Early Voting Calendar at Vote.org. Not only do states begin early voting on different dates, there are many different types of early voting: in person, mail in ballot only, mail in ballot drop off, or some combination of all three. The real benefit of this calendar is when you click on the state, you are taken to a page that offers links to the state’s election rules, deadlines, dates, and links.
For those who like their information visually, the folks at MAP (Movement Advancement Project) offer this interactive map of early voting options by state.
The bottom line is that now is the time to put in the time. Our best chance of winning is through a strong field operation in the battleground states and districts. So let’s get to work!