Seven in 10 voters confirmed up at a polling place in 2024, both early or on Election Day, an MIT examine finds.
By Jessica Huseman for Votebeat
After years of hypothesis in regards to the “death” of in-person voting, the newest nationwide information exhibits a little bit of a rebound: Individuals are returning to the polls in particular person.
In response to a brand new MIT report titled “How We Voted in 2024” — launched completely to Votebeat — greater than 7 in 10 voters confirmed as much as a polling place to vote, both early or on Election Day. And whereas voting habits are nonetheless shifting after the pandemic, some clear patterns are rising.
Voting by mail, which surged to 43% of ballots solid in 2020, dropped to 29% in 2024. That’s nonetheless above the 21% seen in 2016 and 13% in 2012, suggesting that voting from residence stays extra in style than it as soon as was. On the identical time, in-person voting made a comeback. In 2020, simply 31% of voters solid their ballots on Election Day, down from a minimum of 60% in earlier presidential election years. In 2024, the determine rebounded to 40%. Early in-person voting additionally continued its sluggish rise, reaching 31% final yr.
Collectively, these tendencies present that whereas some pandemic-era habits are sticking, many citizens are returning to the polling place — both early or on Election Day, stated Charles Stewart, a political scientist who heads the MIT Election Lab and wrote the report.
Different issues are leveling out as properly. The partisan divide on vote by mail is narrowing, Stewart stated. “Election administration continues to be very salient to Republicans,” he stated, whereas Democrats have “kind of gone back to their business.”
What’s driving the shift to in-person voting?
The drop in mail voting was largely pushed by Democrats reverting to in-person voting. In 2020, 60% of Democrats voted by mail; in 2024, that quantity dropped to 37%. Republicans remained much less captivated with mail voting, with 24% utilizing the tactic in 2024, down from 32% in 2020.
Stewart stated the shift probably stems from Republican messaging. GOP leaders resisted increasing early and mail voting through the pandemic, however that’s altering. The last word objective is voter turnout, and GOP consultants and strategists had been “worried about being hamstrung by Democrats” when it got here to getting voters to the polls, he defined. Whereas Donald Trump stays skeptical of mail voting, Stewart stated, many Republican political consultants truly favor early voting as a result of it lets them “focus on the voters who actually need to be delivered to the polling place on Election Day.”
Additionally notable: although extra folks resumed voting in particular person, fewer voters needed to endure lengthy wait instances. Solely 11% of Election Day voters waited greater than half-hour, down from 14% in 2020. Early voters fared even higher, with simply 15% experiencing such wait instances.
Stewart has been learning traces and wait instances for years, and stated he was apprehensive that as states started to supply fewer polling areas, issues with lengthy wait instances would possibly develop. That the other occurred suggests to Stewart that fewer individuals are voting on Election Day than in lots of previous elections, and that states have diminished the variety of polling locations accordingly. States like Georgia and South Carolina that after had infamously lengthy traces apparently not do.
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That shift has been taking place over a few years, pushed partially by safety issues and entry challenges at colleges, significantly after COVID, and elevated consideration to highschool security. The pattern might make it more durable to search out sufficient polling websites in some locations that don’t produce other massive, accessible group areas.
A quiet comeback
The return to in-person voting has not led to chaos on the polls. Quite the opposite, voters largely reported constructive experiences:
That’s to not say the whole lot went completely. Some voters did report confusion discovering polling locations, and there have been extra incidents of improper photo-taking inside polling areas. However total, voters appeared to love what they noticed after they received there.
As we head towards the 2026 midterm elections, these tendencies are value watching. The in-person voting infrastructure, strained and overhauled in 2020, is now being referred to as again into service. And if the 2024 information is any information, voters could also be simply nice with that.
