October 11, 2020

Early Voting

Early voting is underway in 20 states already, with another 20 to follow in the coming weeks. Some states don’t have no-fault absentee voting nor early voting, making election day voting the only option, while others have universal vote-by-mail allowing everyone to mail their ballot or drop their ballot off at their convenience.

ActiVote conducted a survey to determine what our users thought about the various options and whether they felt this state-by-state system is fine or that any particular solution should be adopted everywhere. We provided five options to choose from, which can be summarized as follows:

Vote-by-mail everywhere
Early voting everywhere
No-fault absentee everywhere
Leave to the states
Election day only (with few exceptions)

The headline result

vote-by-mail everywhere

29%

early voting everywhere

50%

no-fault absentee everywhere

leave to states

election day only everywhere

10%

See the details below →

Almost all our users (92%) feel that we should move away from the patchwork of rules created by the states, despite the constitution clearly leaving the responsibility of elections to those states.

About 82% seek a change that provides more options (no-fault absentee, early voting or vote-by-mail), while 10% would like to go back to just voting on election day by everyone.

The crosstabs

18-29

24%

52%

19%

30-49

32%

48%

13%

50-64

16%

55%

23%

65+

49%

41%

vote-by-mail everywhereearly voting everywhereno-fault absentee everywhereleave to stateselection day only everywhere

See the details below →

Those 65 and over are the strongest in their support for vote-by-mail. Perhaps this is the combination of this group being less mobile than younger voters and being regular users of the USPS.

The crosstabs

Dem

45%

53%

Rep

14%

39%

18%

25%

Ind

24%

55%

11%

vote-by-mail everywhereearly voting everywhereno-fault absentee everywhereleave to stateselection day only everywhere

See the details below →

Republicans stand out with 1 in 4 wanting to go back to election day voting only, while less than 1 in 10 of all others want that. Still, even among Republicans there is a majority (57%) that wishes any of the no-fault absentee, early voting or vote-by-mail all around the country.

Overall, a clear majority supports making voting easier.

The Details

The answers as asked

Charts and tables use the short label at the start of each line.

vote-by-mail everywhere: We should move to a full vote-by-mail system as in OR, WA and CO, which all give full access to everyone.
early voting everywhere: We should ensure early voting is an option nationwide, and implement it for all elections.
no-fault absentee everywhere: We should ensure no-fault absentee ballot voting is possible, as this is a lower cost solution to early voting.
leave to states: The current, somewhat diverse state-by-state situation is fine.
election day only everywhere: All early voting options (except for absentee ballot voting for those with valid reasons) should be terminated, and people should vote on the day of the election.

The full crosstab table

ActiVote · Early Voting · October 11, 2020
	358 RV	vote-by-mail everywhere	early voting everywhere	no-fault absentee everywhere	leave to states	election day only everywhere
National	±5.2% MoE	29%	50%	3%	8%	10%
Gender	Men	31%	45%	4%	11%	9%
Gender	Women	27%	57%	1%	3%	12%
Age	18-29	24%	52%	2%	19%	2%
	30-49	32%	48%	5%	2%	13%
	50-64	16%	55%	4%	2%	23%
	65+	49%	41%	0%	8%	2%
Ethnicity	White	30%	48%	3%	9%	10%
	Black	41%	45%	0%	14%	0%
	Latino	29%	58%	1%	3%	10%
Education	High school	43%	38%	2%	3%	14%
	Some college	23%	58%	0%	16%	3%
	Bachelor's	20%	53%	9%	3%	14%
Income	<50k	33%	46%	4%	8%	9%
	50k-100k	24%	53%	4%	12%	7%
	>100k	32%	50%	1%	3%	14%
Affiliation	Dem	45%	53%	0%	1%	1%
	Rep	14%	39%	4%	18%	25%
	Ind	24%	55%	2%	11%	8%
Region	Dark Red	10%	66%	0%	24%	0%
	Light Red	41%	46%	1%	7%	5%
	Swing	23%	53%	6%	10%	7%
	Light Blue	36%	40%	0%	3%	20%
	Dark Blue	32%	46%	5%	2%	16%

Methodology. Fielded October 2020 among 358 registered voters nationwide. Responses weighted by Demographics and Spectrum. Average expected error ±5.2%. See Why trust our polls? for the methodology, disclosures and accuracy record.