Los Angeles [US], September 21: Early in-person voting sites opened throughout the three states of Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota on Friday, marking the 2024 voting season officially kicked off in the United States.
Videos posted online by MSNBC showed that voters in Virginia lined up to cast their ballots, and the reporter on scene said people were anxious to cast their ballots at early voting sites or election offices.
The state's early voting sites will remain open until Nov. 2.
Minnesota and South Dakota also provided opportunities to voters, starting Friday, to cast their ballots in person through a different method. The two states are among 23 states that allow voters to hand in their absentee ballots in person to election offices or other designated locations instead of mailing them.
Before Friday's early in-person voting for the 2024 presidential election, Alabama became the first state to begin sending its mail votes on Sept. 11. It is one of 10 states that begin sending mail ballots to voters more than 45 days before the Election Day on Nov. 5.
According to law, military and overseas ballots must be sent 45 days before the Election Day, so they will be mailed on Sept. 21.
Voter registration deadlines are decided by each state.
As early voting became popular in the past decade, experts predicted there would be a large number of early voters this election season.
During the 2020 election, more than 69 percent of votes cast in the election were done through either mail-in ballots or early in-person voting, according to the election data compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's election data science lab.
By comparison, only 40 percent voted early in the 2016 election and 33 percent in the 2012 election, the data showed.
Source: Xinhua