Few disruptions as early voting begins in 4 states
Election Day in America is Nov. 3, but in-person early voting began in earnest Friday in four states — including Minnesota, a key Midwestern battleground that both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden visited to mark the occasion.
With the coronavirus pandemic limiting indoor gatherings, elections administrators have urged voters to cast ballots either by mail or in person before Election Day. States already have seen record numbers of absentee ballot requests, and officials expect unprecedented levels of voter participation before Nov. 3.
Biden, whose trip was timed to coincide with the beginning of Minnesota’s early voting period, made just a scant allusion to urge people to vote now that they can.
“It’s time to take the country back, folks,” Biden said, as his speech drew to a close. “It’s going to start here, today, with voting in Minnesota.”
He then put his mask on and walked away from the lectern.
Trump, on Twitter, urged supporters in Virginia to vote as polls opened Friday. The president did not mention early voting in Minnesota, where he was planning to speak, or in South Dakota and Wyoming, states he is widely expected to win.
“Voting starts in Virginia TODAY, and we are going to WIN,” he wrote about a state in which his campaign has not bought a single television advertisement this election cycle, according to Advertising Analytics. “I’ll be having a Big Rally in Virginia, to be announced soon!”
At a municipal voting center in northeast Minneapolis, voters waited 30 to 40 minutes in a line that snaked through an office park near Interstate 35W. The familiar “I Voted” stickers were replaced with a more precise “I Voted Early” model.
Darcy Berglund of Minneapolis said she had voted the first day that polls were open because she often travels back and forth to Iowa to care for her ailing mother.
“If she really takes a turn Nov. 2, I won’t be coming up here,” said Berglund, 60. “Even if I were in town, I’m so worried about this election. I just wanted to make sure I got my vote in.”
CNN showed lines of more than two hours to vote at an early voting center in Fairfax County, Va., a Washington suburb with more than a million residents. Some of the delays in voting may stem from social-distancing measures, which require people to space themselves out more than usual. But overall, the first day of early voting appeared to have gone relatively smoothly, without the kind of widespread complaints and disruptions that occurred in some states during their primary elections.
Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement that “Virginians can be confident their vote is secure, and will be counted,” and urged “every Virginia voter to know their options and make a plan for safely casting their ballot.”
In most places in states that allow in-person early voting, early voting means going to a City Hall or a local board of elections, though some larger jurisdictions will arrange for regional early vote centers. The pandemic has brought even larger early-vote locations, with some major league sports franchises opening their vacant arenas and stadiums for early voting.