U.S. Needs Better Laws On Counting Early/Mail-In Votes

 

The charts above are from an exit poll conducted by the Morning Consult Poll. They questioned 11,584 early voters from October 30th through Election Day.

Millions of Americans voted early this year, both in person and through the mail. One thing we have learned is that some states need to change their laws on counting those early votes. I am writing this three days after the election, and six states are still counting those votes (Alaska, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada).

The public is getting tired of waiting for the final results. This same exit poll showed that 84% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats say they just want the election counting to be over.

They are right. We need to change some laws on counting early votes. Some states, like Pennsylvania, don't allow any counting of those votes until after Election Day. That's ridiculous! The early votes, both in person and mail-in, should be counted daily as they come in (and kept secret until the polls close on Election Day). That would significantly shorten the time it takes to count all votes.

I doubt we can count on state legislatures to make this change. So, there should be a federal law allowing votes to be counted early for early voters in all federal election positions (president, senators, House Representatives).

This would not favor either party, since voters would still have the option of voting for whoever they wanted. But it would significantly increase the speed of election returns -- and we wouldn't have to wait several days to know the results of an election.