Early voting may actually decrease turnout
By Barry Rascovar | Maryland Reporter
We’ve had our share of recent news stories on increased early voting prior to Maryland’s June 24 primary election.
From those reports — such as MarylandReporter’s “Record turnout of 141,590 for early voting,” — it sounds like this reform is catching on, right? Making it easier to get more people to participate in elections, right?
That bit of conventional wisdom is wrong. Dead wrong.
Early voting doesn’t increase turnout, despite all the hype surrounding this much-ballyhooed reform.
It may not be politically correct to say this but researchers have found early voting actually decreases overall voter turnout. Honest.
at Maryland Reporter.
