I completely disagree: I think that voting, in person, surrounded by other members of the community, is an important part of our civil religion. Election Day should be a true holiday, dedicated to patriotic and civic commemorations.
In particular, I think that early voting leaves voters liable to act on less information than is necessary. Obviously there must be a cutoff — if a candidate goes insane the day after the election, it's too late — but I think it's preferable for all voters to be acting on the same available information.
Obviously some folks need to be away from home on Election Day, but I think that the vast majority of us should be voting together, with our communities.
I fear that the trend towards early voting will lead to increased partisanship, and that the way we've been running our elections and districting for the past century or so has led to a decreased sense of community and patriotism.
You don't get the option to vote in person. We don't even have voter booths.
Instead, the state mails you a voter guide and a ballot that you fill out in the convenience of your own home. This allows you to review the candidates and new proposed bills line by line.
Once filled out you simply drop it off at one of the hundreds of drop-off locations and you're done (or mail it in if you have time). This can all be done weeks ahead of November 8th.
There is always going to be some potential for that. "Take a picture of how you voted or I'll beat you" would work fine even with polling places, although it'd be a little trickier.
The system saves a ton of money and time, and we have record numbers of voters in Oregon this year.
Sure, but if the ballot booth provides real privacy... it's not hard to do. It's also a common method of proving you voted a certain way in order to sell your vote.
This morning when I voted I was surprised that it was hardly a "booth". It had sides to the screen to attempt to block it from view, but it you turn your head you could see the screen next to you - and their screen.
This allows you to review the candidates and new proposed bills line by line.
As I said in another comment, there's nothing stopping you from reviewing candidates and bills line-by-line in the convenience of your own home even if you go to a voting booth. Even if you were a completely honest student in school, surely you've heard of "cheat sheets"? Unlike school, they are allowed in the voting booth (at least in IN, NC, and WA when they had voting booths).
Yes, of course. Long lines to vote is not a function of the size of the country, it's more likely to be a function of the number of people and the number of available polling stations in a given area. There are very many large cities around the world that can handle voting without the excessive lines seen in the US.
