| |
Early Voting Begins in Midterms 09/18 06:10
In-person voting for this year's midterm elections begins Friday, ushering
in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they trust to lead Congress
through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing
issues.
HENRICO, Va. (AP) -- In-person voting for this year's midterm elections
begins Friday, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they
trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran
and other pressing issues.
Election administrators say they're prepared and confident the vote will be
accurate and secure. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has continued with
efforts to denigrate certain voting methods and reshape how U.S. elections are
run, through court challenges, an expansive federal hunt for noncitizen voters
and a pressure campaign to force election officials to share sensitive voter
data.
Friday is the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a handful of
other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, are able to cast
absentee ballots in person, typically at a local election office or voting
center. More expansive early voting is scheduled to begin in those and other
states in the coming weeks.
The Nov. 3 election includes votes for governor and state legislature in
most states and will determine whether the House and Senate maintain their
Republican majorities. If Democrats retake Congress, it will alter the
trajectory of the final two years of Trump's term, most likely leading to
investigations and other oversight efforts.
The start of early voting comes at a time of deep angst among many Americans
about issues including rising gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran, the
looming risks of artificial intelligence and Trump's aggressive immigration
enforcement campaign.
It also follows an unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the
U.S. House that began when Trump urged the Republican-controlled legislature in
Texas to redraw its congressional map to help the party. California and other
states followed.
The changes affect millions of people: Research shows 1 in 10 Americans this
fall is a resident of a different congressional district than in 2024.
Those partisan efforts are expected to continue before the 2028 elections
after a landmark ruling this year from the Supreme Court weakened the federal
Voting Rights Act's protections against racially discriminatory redistricting.
As the start of early voting approached, Trump was focused on efforts to
assert federal control over election administration, even as the Constitution
bestows the power to run elections on the states and, in some cases, Congress.
The Supreme Court rejected Trump's bid to restrict mail ballots this week, but
several of his administration's other efforts to influence the voting process
and mine state voter lists for illegitimate voters continue.
Trump for years has raised the specter of widespread noncitizen voting in
U.S. elections, and this year is no exception. But despite his administration's
insistence that hundreds of thousands of people are illegally on voting rolls
across the country, research continues to show noncitizen voting is
exceptionally rare.
David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election
Innovation and Research, said he wouldn't be surprised if the president
continues "his disinformation campaign and his attack on election officials."
But he said he thinks despite that and other challenges, "ultimately the
process will hold as it has in past years."
Voting rights advocates have encouraged voters this year to cast mail
ballots early, in part because of concerns about recent changes in U.S. Postal
Service operations that could delay the application of postmarks to ballots.
"Voting early, whether in person or by mail, is good for all of our
communities because it gives voters options, eases lines on Election Day and
can even mean faster results," said Hannah Fried, co-founder and CEO of the
voting rights group All Voting Is Local.
In a press briefing Thursday, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon urged
people not to be swayed by stories they might have seen or read that cast doubt
on election operations. They would be able to vote "just like they always
have," he said.
"I just want to reaffirm that Minnesota's elections are fundamentally free,
fair, accurate, honest and secure," he said.
|
|
