What to Know About Early Voting
If you haven’t thought of it before, early voting might be great for you. Here’s what you need to know.
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(CNN) When you have one foot in the grave and the other on the other side of the couch, you may not be prepared for the unexpected. Well, for some folks, that might be a good thing. For those in Florida and six states who were among those affected by the new laws restricting early voting, they may be in the perfect position to see firsthand what this really means to voters in that part of the country.
Early voting in Florida
In Florida, early voting began on Tuesday morning. This marked the first time in 30 years of early voting in the Sunshine State that any part of the state — or any region of it — could be open as long as voters wanted.
The number of voters, the size of the crowd and the types of votes that were cast — all of these are different this year in Florida. By law, the number of voters must be no more than 500 and the size of the polling place no smaller in area than 100 feet by 100 feet. As of now, there can be no more than 500 voters in any polling place and the polling place itself must be smaller than 20,000 feet x 24 hours.
In all 20 Florida counties, the polling places can hold 300 voters — with a maximum number of 100 voting at a polling place.
Early voting in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee
In Georgia, one of the hardest hit by the new voting laws, it was announced this past Sunday that early voting was also being suspended this weekend statewide.
Early voting had been on hold for more than a week in parts of Georgia, but Friday voters in a few of the counties in the Peach State were able to cast ballots before Sunday.
In Alabama, where a total of 22 counties were affected by the new voting laws that went into effect in January, they were not able to vote early. In a statement to CNN, the Alabama Elections Commission noted that the number 1,000 voters did not have sufficient opportunity to cast ballots. There were no polling places and they were instructed not to open until December 18, after the new law kicked in.
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