{"id":427,"date":"2018-02-06T00:46:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T00:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/work\/early-voting\/"},"modified":"2018-02-06T00:46:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T00:46:15","slug":"early-voting","status":"publish","type":"work","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/work\/early-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Voting"},"template":"","class_list":["post-427","work","type-work","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Extending the period during which people can vote makes it easier for hardworking Americans to get to the polls.","featured_image":7045,"work_type":false,"related_issues":[108,462],"location":24},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<h2>Building a better democracy starts with lifting the voices of the people.<\/h2>\r\nWhile voting is key to a healthy democracy, many citizens face insurmountable challenges when attempting to cast their ballot on Election Day.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Young folks who are eager to participate may find it hard to miss valuable time in the classroom or at their new job.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Single parents may be unable to afford the cost of additional childcare necessary to vote, especially if they expect to wait in line for an hour or two.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>People living in rural areas need to set aside extra time and money for transportation.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The unfortunate result of this reality is that the voices of many hardworking citizens go unrepresented in our democracy.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nTo address this issue, Common Cause Massachusetts pushed the state legislature to pass a commonsense reform that would modernize the Commonwealth's election laws: Early Voting. By expanding the period in which eligible Massachusetts residents could vote beyond a single day, Early Voting would allow more flexibility for people of all backgrounds to participate in elections.\r\n\r\nPassed in 2014, the law requires that Early Voting begin 11 business days before a presidential election. Early Voting was first put to the test in Massachusetts during the 2016 elections.\r\n\r\nIn order to help ensure the program's success, Common Cause Massachusetts completed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/resource\/early-voting-what-other-states-can-teach-massachusetts\/\">a report detailing the best practices<\/a> found in other states for implementing Early Voting. From that, the Election Modernization Coalition drew up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/resource\/early-voting-implementation-recommendations\/\">a series of recommend standards<\/a> for Massachusetts municipalities executing the law for the first time.\r\n\r\nCommon Cause Massachusetts then launched <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/resource\/early-voting-challenge-one-pager\/\">the Early Voting Challenge<\/a>, a contest to encourage local officials to implement Early Voting so that it meets its goals: easing access to the ballot for Massachusetts voters, shortening lines at polling locations, and improving the voting experience. Many cities rose to the challenge\u2014you can see how your town fared <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/resource\/early-voting-challenge-medals\/\">here<\/a>.\r\n\r\nDuring the October 24th to November 4th Early Voting period of that year, over 1 million ballots were cast across the Commonwealth. More than 22% of Massachusetts registered voters took advantage of Early Voting. It was lauded as a success by media outlets and state officials.\r\n<blockquote>\"The early voting period that preceded the November 2016 general election in Massachusetts was widely deemed a success, having engaged more than one in five registered voters in the state. That surely helped the lines at the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, during a contentious election that ultimately involved three-quarters of the state\u2019s registered voters.\"<\/blockquote>\r\nWith the passage of the VOTES Act in 2022, Massachusetts now offers two full weeks of early voting before state general elections, a week for a primary, and varying levels of early voting at the local level. Learn more about early voting in MA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.state.ma.us\/divisions\/elections\/voting-information\/vote-early.htm\">here<\/a>."}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Early Voting - Common Cause Massachusetts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/work\/early-voting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Early Voting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/work\/early-voting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Massachusetts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/work\/early-voting\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/work\/early-voting\/\",\"name\":\"Early Voting - 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