Election day in this country is November 5, but early voting will actually start in less than a month.
This could be a massive problem for Trump with his sentencing hearing in the hush-money case scheduled for September 18.
Talking Points…
- Early voting begins in less than 30 days
- What will impact early votes
- Analysis
Even though we still have a full three months before election day, Fox News outlines how early voting begins in North Carolina on September 6, when absentee ballots are mailed out to voters. On September 16, Pennsylvania does the same, followed by Georgia, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, and Wyoming. Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia will also begin to send out ballots on September 20, while Virginia begins in-person early voting.
Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, Indiana, New Mexico, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Michigan, Florida, Nevada, North Dakota, and Nebraska will all have sent out ballots by September 30. Illinois starts in-person voting on September 26.
Another five states will start in-person early voting on October 6, and by October 19, roughly half the country will have started. Kentucky will be the last state to start on October 31.
Now, to be clear, I have zero problems with early voting, nor do I actually have a problem with ballots going out early to people overseas and in our military (as well as the elderly who cannot get out to vote), but I do have a problem with ballots being accepted more than two weeks outside of the election. The reason is that a lot can happen, especially during this cycle when Trump has a sentencing hearing on September 18. How many knee-jerk reactions to that hearing will we see reflected in early voting?
Two weeks out is more than enough time for people to get to the polls if they are worried about making it on election day. There is just too much that can happen over a two-month period to allow people to cast a vote before that.
As noted above, that is especially true in this cycle. What happens if a bombshell report breaks in mid-October against either candidate, but the votes have already been sent in? You can see my concerns here.
The biggest issue in this particular election is that Trump's sentencing hearing is on September 18, right at the beginning of early voting in many states. That will be a very bad news cycle for Trump, and the obvious fear is that people will have a negative reaction to the sentencing and cast a vote without really giving the news time to digest. This could be devasting for Trump.
The states that concern me the most are Michigan, which starts in-person voting on October 6, Georgia, which starts in-person voting on October 15, and Pennsylvania, which mails out ballots on September 16.
Pennsylvania and Michigan are Blue Wall states, and Georgia is back up for grabs with Harris in the race. Trump needs to win at least two of those states if he is going to win this election, but that sentencing hearing in September is very much a concern.
This means the GOP needs to go into battle mode. They need to be proactive instead of reactive, which has not been the case thus far. If I were in GOP leadership right now, I would be hitting this head-on, slamming the possible judgment to the point that when the sentencing hearing does take place, it will be old news instead of shocking news. Sadly, the RNC has been all but silent on this front, as it seems rather clueless on how to head off an imminent problem before it hits.
