Early voting is open and going smoothly
A voter fills out his ballot during first day of early voting in New York on October 26, 2024. KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
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Despite some isolated events, one election expert says it is remarkable how “few problems we’ve heard about.”
Hundreds of ballots stuffed into drop boxes were set on fire early Monday morning in Vancouver, Washington, and nearby Portland, Oregon. Incendiary devices inside went off in an act that local elections officials called a “direct attack on democracy.”
Police in Clark County, Washington, are now monitoring the drop boxes. And starting later this week, employees with the county elections office will serve as ballot box observers 24 hours a day until the election is over at each of the county’s 22 drop boxes.
Officials have also begun the work of identifying and notifying those whose ballots were destroyed. Officials say that those who placed their ballot in the drop box after 11 p.m. on Sunday can seek a replacement ballot.
“There are protections in place to ensure that no one casts two ballots,” said David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. Local elections offices “ensure that only the first ballot that comes in is counted. Any subsequent ballot, if it came in for whatever reason, even if the person thought it was destroyed but it was still in the mail system, that will not count. Ballots are flagged and coded as soon as they are received.”
Becker, who advises both Democratic and Republican election officials on rules and procedures and has been tracking election-related litigation, was speaking to reporters about the incident during a media briefing on Tuesday. He also addressed news from Pennsylvania on Friday where officials said they are investigating about 2,500 fraudulent voter registration applications in Lancaster County that election workers flagged during routine reviews of the forms.
In both instances, Becker said, the integrity and security of the system overall has been confirmed.
“The big story here is that despite these isolated events,” he said, “it’s remarkable how few problems we've heard about. We're barely hearing about lines. We are certainly not hearing about harassment or violence at polling places. We are certainly not hearing about harassment or violence directed at election workers or poll workers.”
With a week to go until Election Day, voting is underway in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Before the week is out, two more states will offer early voting. As of Tuesday evening, more than 53 million ballots have been cast and accepted, according to the University of Florida's early voting tracker.
Becker used the media briefing to release a new educational resource for the public. The Center for Election Innovation & Research has put together an “explainer” series on the election. The resource shared during the call is focused on the election process after voters cast ballots. The explainers, which also look at how a ballot becomes a vote and how election results coverage really works, are designed to explain elections to voters and include interactive graphics and links to in-depth research from the center and other organizations.
Becker said things are largely going as he expected. Problems, if they arise at all, will likely surface post-election.
“But I am confident in the institutions. I'm confident in the election officials. I'm confident in the security of the process,” Becker said. “Voters are going to vote safety. Election workers are going to be protected, they are going to finish counting and the election officials are going to certify.”
And as to all the warnings that the final results of the presidential contest may lag, Becker said that it should be noted that every state has always taken days or weeks to count all of the ballots.
“That's literally been happening since 1789,” he said. “There's a reason that the Electoral College doesn't meet until six weeks after the election. It takes time to count ballots, and we just think that we've known sooner because the media has been able to call races early because the margins were bigger.”