States have made it easier to vote and are getting needed poll workers within innovative programs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
WITH THE COVID-19 pandemic making the very act of mingling with others a serious health risk, 2020 was shaping up as an election year with low turnout and voter engagement.
Instead, Americans are turning out in droves to cast early ballots – weeks before Election Day and in numbers that have experts predicting record-breaking turnout. As of Oct. 15, more than 18 million people had already voted, a number that represents 12.9% of the entire 2016 turnout with 19 days to go before Election Day. Individual states are reporting exponentially higher numbers of people asking for, and returning, absentee ballots.
That number is significantly higher than in this stage of the election in 2016: By the week ending Oct. 16, 2016, just 1.4 million Americans had voted early, according to tallies by the nonpartisan U.S. Elections Project. Continue reading.