This year marks the first time early voting is available in Massachusetts for a presidential primary election. Early voting ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday began Monday, giving Massachusetts residents five extra days to cast their ballots.
The state saw its first experience with early voting in the 2016 general election and again in the 2018 midterms, but 2020 is the first year the option is available in a presidential primary.
Voting accessibility will still vary across different cities and towns, with some holding extended hours and providing multiple voting locations, and others allowing voting only during regular business hours.
Residents of Boston can vote at City Hall every day this week during normal business hours or until 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
Alternative voting locations on Tuesday include the Copley Square Library, East Boston High School and the Thelma D. Burns Building. On Thursday, residents can also vote at All Saints Church, First Parish Church and the Roche Community Center, among other locations.
Alex Psilakis, policy and communications manager at MassVOTE, said early voting practices are becoming more prevalent across the country.
“Voting rights advocacy organizations are heavily focused on making the voting process as easy and accessible as possible,” Psilakis said. “And early voting is a key step in that process.”
During the previous two elections that allowed the practice, 20 to 30 percent of ballots were cast during the early voting period, according to Debra O’Malley, spokesperson for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office.
O’Malley said early voting can be a more desirable alternative to absentee voting because people can just walk in rather than have to apply and mail a form.
Casting an absentee ballot in Massachusetts also requires the voter to meet one of three valid excuses: be out of town, have a religious exemption, or show proof of a physical disability. But early voting, O’Malley said, is available to everyone.
“I live in Malden and I work here in Boston and I have to be in Boston from before the polls open until after they close, so I vote absentee because I’m out of town during the polling hours,” O’Malley said. “But if you live and work in the same city, you would not qualify for an absentee ballot.”
Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said the majority of U.S. states have either both early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, or all-mail voting, which includes an early period.
“We live increasingly busy, complicated lives and voting needs to be as accessible as possible,” Wilmot said. “That includes giving voters the option to mail in ballots, to vote early and to come on Election Day.”
Massachusetts has implemented other key voting reforms over the past decade, such as online voter registration and automatic voter registration, Psilakis said, and initiatives aiming to increase voting accessibility seem to be the general trend.
“Early voting strengthens the voter process and makes our electoral process more inclusive, more diverse and more robust,” Psilakis said. “And that’s what we’re constantly striving for.”
However, not every eligible voter can vote on March 3. Unregistered citizens in Massachusetts today must meet a voter registration deadline set at 20 days before Election Day.
One major reform MassVote is pushing for right now is Election Day registration, according to Psilakis, which would allow people to register to vote on the same day that they vote.
“It makes the voting process more easy and accessible and shifts the burden off the voter,” Psilakis said. “Issues of voter fraud or threats to voter security are low, if not nonexistent.”
In the meantime, Downtown Boston resident Dan Thurler, 72, said he is optimistic about the possible impacts of early voting practices.
“Hopefully it’ll mean that more people are voting,” Thurler said.
Higher voter turnout has not been the general trend following early voting, according to O’Malley. However, what early voting does offer is increased freedom and convenience to many Boston residents.
For Brighton resident Anne Herreid, 38, early voting offers her a chance to vote before she heads out of town since she will not be in Boston on March 3.
“I think it’s good and I think it’ll be less chaos on Voting Day, hopefully,” Herreid said. “So I’m in favor.”
Aim Warren, 22, of East Boston recently moved to Massachusetts from Colorado, one of three U.S. states that offers voting exclusively by mail.
“I think early voting is super important,” Warren said. “Because not everyone has the opportunity to vote on the day of the election, whether it’s work or childcare, or just being out of town.”
