This year, for the first time in Illinois, early voting is available to voters. Early voting allows voters to cast a vote prior to the election, even if they are able to make it to the polls on election day. Prior to the passage of early voting, only voters unable to make it to their polling place on election day were allowed to vote prior to the election. It might have been for a physical disability, an absence because of work, or being away at school. Now, no excuse is needed.

In the primary, we offered early voting only in our office. We will do the same thing this year.
I have been asked by a number of people about providing early voting opportunities outside of our office. I have declined to do that for a number of reasons.

First, this would require a major upgrade in technology. Currently, our database resides in our office and is not accessible over the internet. Even if it was available over the internet, the application which runs the database is not web compatible. Putting the database of voters over the internet also presents security issues.

Second, there are major costs involved to bringing early voting to any area. We would need to bring a number of new ballot boxes and voting machines. We would need another high resolution printer to print ballots as well as another printer and computer. Of course, in addition to the costs of equipment, there would be costs to staff the facility and to transport the equipment there and back.

Some have suggested that costs could be mitigated through the use of volunteers. That is true to some extent. However, no one should minimize the need for trained professional staff at the polling place who are familiar with the issues of ballot entitlement as well as staff who are familiar with the technical aspects of our absentee voter registration system.

Third, and most importantly, opening any early voting centers entails opening many early voting centers. If we opened an early voting center on campus, it would be reasonable for voters in Sidney, Ogden, Rantoul, Mahomet, and every other town in the County to expect a center. People in southwest Champaign, the north side of the twin cities, and elsewhere in Champaign and Urbana would expect one conveniently located for them. Then, there would be debates about the particular times that the centers were allocated. What community gets the center closest to the election day or with the best hours?

Currently, this debate need not happen because we have chosen a nonarbitrary location for our early voting. Politics never entered into the decision, and no group is adversely affected or benefitted by the decision.

Studies have shown that the people who take advantage of early voting are usually partisans who would have voted on election day anyway. There has been no demonstrable increase in voter turnout because of early voting. We feel that with our voting center in our office, the availability of absentee voting through the mail, and conveniently located polling places, we have ample opportunities for every person in Champaign County to cast a ballot.