Marylanders voted to approve an amendment to the state constitution that will allow polling places to open up to two weeks before Election Day. The referendum passed 70 percent to 30 percent.
The amendment would remove the legal barriers to early voting – in 2006, the state’s highest court declared a previous early voting law unconstitutional – and open polls two weeks early to enable voters to cast absentee ballots without justifying their need for one.
Devin Ellis, coordinator of TerpsVote, a non-partisan coalition of several student groups assembled to encourage students to vote, said the amendment could have a substantial impact on students.
“[The referendum] is entirely positive for voters in all demographics but particularly young people and those with lower incomes because those are the demographics that are kept away from the polls,” Ellis said. “Having a longer period of time to vote means having a much greater opportunity to have the democratic process to work for them, without worrying about taking off of work or changing around their class schedules.”
Despite a majority vote on the referendum, the General Assembly will still need to pass legislation enacting an early voting law for the initiative to actually take effect, a passage supporters say is essential to achieving true democracy.
“It allows for a more democratic process,” Maryland Public Interest Research Group intern Adam Tiehen said. “When it comes down to one day for people to vote, it’s hard because everyone needs to work, they need to make money to live, and in some places people wait for eight hours to vote. [Early voting] makes it easier for a larger majority to participate.”
MaryPIRG, the state chapter of a national interest group that has rallied to register student voters this election cycle, supported early voting despite the polarizing nature of the issue.
The Maryland Democratic Party has advocated for early voting since the law that initially enacting it was struck down in 2006, when the state’s court system said the state constitution has traditionally been interpreted as calling for a single day of voting. The Democratic Party argues that opening the polls sooner would enable more people to participate in elections, a measure Republicans have said would boost Democratic turnout in a state where Democrats already have a clear majority.
“I feel like it’s totally a non-partisan issue because it affects students no matter what their political affiliation is,” MaryPIRG President Lauren Kim said. “People just need to see that it works to ensure democracy, and democracy should be the goal of every political party in this country.”
But opponents of the referendum have also argued that loosening constraints on absentee ballots and opening polls early could increase voter fraud and allow Democrats to unfairly pack early voting booths in more Republican areas.
Student voters, however, lent overwhelming support to the motion yesterday and said they doubted much corruption would result from the measure.
“People should not only get off work for this, they should also get every opportunity they can to vote,” senior government and politics major Rafael Shamailov said.
Exit polls conducted by The Diamondback at Stamp Student Union and Ritchie Coliseum revealed no student opposition to the referendum.
“Early voting would help students,” senior environmental science and policy major Matthew Mielke said. “If people have exams on Election Day and stuff like that, they wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
A total of 34 states and Washington already have similar early voting provisions enacted, a movement Tiehen said should extend throughout the rest of the country in coming years.
“I think early voting should be allowed throughout the United States,” Tiehen said. “No matter what side of the political fence you’re on, as long as you truly believe in democracy, you should believe in early voting.”
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