In-person voting for this year’s presidential election began Friday, a milestone that kicked off a six-week sprint to Election Day after a summer of political turmoil.
Voters lined up to cast ballots in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, the first states to offer in-person early voting. A dozen more states will follow by mid-October.
At a Minneapolis polling place, Jason Miller arrived well before the polls opened at 8 a.m. and was first in line. He was one of about 75 people who voted in the first hour at the city’s early voting center.
“Why not try to be first? It’s kind of fun, right?” said the 37-year-old house painter.
He said he voted “against madness” but would not reveal his choice for president.
“I don’t think I have to. I think it’s pretty obvious. I think it’s very, very clear,” he said.
The start of in-person voting follows a tumultuous summer in American politics, during which President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, as well as an assassination attempt on Republican nominee Donald Trump, followed by another apparent assassination attempt on him nine weeks later.
Across the country, local election directors are stepping up security to keep their workers and polling stations safe while ensuring ballots and voting procedures are not tampered with. Poll workers and officials have been the target of harassment and even death threats since the 2020 presidential election.
Federal authorities are investigating the origin of suspicious packages that were sent or received by election officials in more than 15 states in recent days, including Virginia.
“If I could wave a magic wand in this room right now, I would want two things: By November 5, I want to see high turnout and low suspense,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said at a news conference Thursday that previewed his state’s election season efforts. Simon is also president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
Some voters suggested that the risk of unrest or chaos on election day was a reason not to wait.
Chris Burda, 74, said she encouraged others to cast their ballots early “to avoid any potential disruption on Election Day or in-person voting by a certain party that seems interested in observing the election to the point of being intimidating.” She voted for Harris at a polling station in Minneapolis, saying the vice president “stands for democracy and the freedom to choose.”
As early voting approaches, Trump’s rhetoric has grown more ominous with promises to go after anyone who “cheats” in the election, much as he falsely claimed they did in 2020, when he lied about widespread fraud and attacked officials who stood by the accuracy of their vote counts.
Trump has previously tried to sow doubt about mail-in voting and encouraged voters to cast their ballots in person on Election Day. But this year, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which he now controls, have begun to embrace early and mail-in voting as a way to secure GOP votes before Election Day, just as Democrats have done for years.
Eugene Otteson, 71, a Vietnam War veteran and former factory worker, cast an early ballot for the former president in Anoka, Minn. He said he believes Trump will keep the country out of foreign conflicts and run the economy like a business leader.
“I don’t like him, but he’s a businessman and I like someone who knows how to run a business,” Otteson said. “With Kamala, we still don’t know what she represents… I hear her saying ‘joy, joy’ everywhere. I can say joy to the world, but that doesn’t mean that’s going to end wars.”
In Virginia, in-person early voting has long been popular in many parts of the state.
Eric Spicer, Fairfax County’s elections director, said about a third of local voters went to the polls on Election Day in the 2020 presidential election, while the rest voted by mail or early and in person. Mary Lynn Pinkerman, Chesapeake’s elections director, expects early voting to help reduce crowds on Nov. 5, but also warned that with the high interest in this year’s presidential race, “voters may still encounter wait times” on Election Day.
Among the Virginians who took advantage of early voting Friday was Rocklyn Faher, a retired U.S. Navy aviation electrician who served in the first Gulf War. He grew emotional as he spoke of his vote in Norfolk for Harris. Fighting back tears, he spoke of preserving the Constitution and the future of his grandchildren.
“I’m obviously very emotionally invested in this election,” said Faher, 70. “This is the most important election in the last 100 years.”
Faher said he believes in protecting reproductive rights and appreciated Harris’ plan to provide $25,000 to first-time homebuyers, while criticizing Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on foreign goods.
He also said Harris’ overall proposals were “better than putting 10 million immigrants, naturalized or not, with or without documents, on railroad cars and shipping them across the border to Mexico. That’s insane.”
Immigration, and particularly the surge at the country’s southern border in recent years, also motivates those voting for Trump, who has promised mass deportations if he wins the presidency again.
Israel Chavez, 37, came to the United States from Peru at age 10 with his father and sister. He voted for Trump because he believes the economy was stronger under the former president and he favors a tougher line on immigration.
“I know what it’s like to have an open border and let anybody come in,” he said after voting at a polling place in Anoka, Minn. “My dad brought us into the country legally. We had visas. He just did it right.”
In Yankton, South Dakota, the county elections office saw a steady stream of people voting early from the moment it opened at 9 a.m., said Kasi Foss, the county’s deputy auditor. That’s unusual for the first day of early voting.
She said that although the office did not have a line to vote, there were constantly two or three people wanting to vote at any given time.
South Dakota voters must decide the fate of several hot-button ballot initiatives, including a proposed amendment to the state constitution to protect abortion rights and a measure that would legalize recreational marijuana use. But Foss believes the presidential race is driving turnout.
“Normally on the first day we have a few stragglers,” she said.
Some voters may opt to vote early in person instead of using mail-in ballots to ensure their vote is counted, given the current challenges facing the U.S. Postal Service.
Last week, state and local election officials across the country warned that mail delivery problems threatened to disenfranchise voters, and they told the system’s manager that he had failed to correct persistent deficiencies despite repeated outreach efforts.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy responded in a letter released Monday that he would work with state election officials to address their concerns, but reiterated that the Postal Service would be prepared.
Simon, the Minnesota secretary of state, urged voters to plan their vote now.
“My hope and expectation is that the USPS will do the things that we have recommended, and do them quickly over the next 47 days, because the stakes are really high for individual voters,” Simon said.
