Election Day is less than 80 days away, but voters in more than a dozen states will be able to vote as early as next month.
States from California to Nebraska to Vermont – plus many in between – begin voting in mid-September or early October, before much of the rest of the country.
In Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, voters can cast their ballots as early as Sept. 16, less than 10 days after Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump face off for a debate, the first since she took over the Democratic ticket in July. The candidates are circling a second debate, reportedly in October, that could potentially occur after early voting has begun in some states.
The landscape of the race has changed dramatically in the last few weeks and voters in these states will fill out their ballots well before millions of other Americans, with other states starting early voting later in October. Some offer early voting in person, while others offer the option by way of absentee ballots.
Here are the first early voting states in the 2024 election:
Early Voting
Start Date
All elections in Arizona must support early voting, including ballot-by-mail voting and in-person early voting. Early voters receive a ballot at their voting location and must not take the ballot away from the location.
Voters on the Active Early Voter List can request to receive a ballot by mail. The completed ballots can be dropped off at official ballot drop-off sites or voting locations throughout the county that issued them and have to be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.
The last day to register to vote in the state is Oct. 7.
Every registered voter in California receives a mail-in ballot, and voters can choose to vote by mail, drop off their mail-in ballot in person or vote in person. Voters will begin receiving mail-in ballots by Oct. 7, and ballot drop-off locations will open the same day.
Mail-in ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 5 and have to be received by Nov. 12.
The last day to register to vote in the state is Oct. 21.
Voters in Illinois will be able to cast their votes beginning Sept. 26, 40 days before the election.
Local election authorities in Illinois have until Sept. 16 to give the Illinois State Board of Elections lists of early voting locations and hours and until Sept. 19 to post them on their websites, according to State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich.
Early voting will then expand on Oct. 21 to include permanent polling places, and those locations must offer weekend and holiday hours.
“This date is significant because it’s when the city of Chicago, Cook County and the largest other jurisdictions see a major increase in early voting,”........