Early Voting Reform: A Ticking Time Bomb

In election law, as in so many things, the word “reform,” when associated with a new idea, is usually a sure sign that mischief is afoot. A case in point: early voting reform. This innocuous sounding but insidious idea, which has led some 32 states to allow voting to commence as much as six weeks before Election Day, is a ticking time bomb at the heart of our electoral system. It is only a matter of time before it is revealed as a devastating error, a blue ribbon commission is established to determine what went wrong, and the idea is tossed onto the ash heap of history, along with other crackpot ideas that have gained currency, such as same day voter registration.

But, for now, the time bomb quietly ticks.