--- title: Early Voting: These Are the States That Allow It description: Many states offer early voting and much of the ballots cast during this presidential election won't be on Nov. 8, they'll be earlier. canonical: https://time.com/4495435/early-voting-states/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-15T20:12:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:17.919Z article:section: Politics og:title: These Are the States That Allow You to Vote Early og:description: Many of the votes cast this presidential election won't be on Nov. 8 og:url: https://time.com/4495435/early-voting-states/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ccb7afa61fbf151/6988a2c9428a9e008acd3f24/old-people-voting-habits-behavior.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Citizens In Five States Vote In Primary Elections og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are the States That Allow You to Vote Early twitter:description: Many of the votes cast this presidential election won't be on Nov. 8 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ccb7afa61fbf151/6988a2c9428a9e008acd3f24/old-people-voting-habits-behavior.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Are the States That Allow You to Vote Early by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 15, 2016 8:12 PM UTC  A woman stands at the voting booth at the White Marsh Elementary School polling station in Mechanicsville, Maryland, April 26, 2016. A woman stands at the voting booth at the White Marsh Elementary School polling station in Mechanicsville, Maryland, April 26, 2016.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 15, 2016 8:12 PM UTC The number of Americans voting before Election Day has continued to rise in the last decade. In 2012, some 35% of ballots were cast early. This year, 37 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of early voting, [according to the Associated Press](http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article%5F2016-09-02-US-Campaign-2016-Early-Voting/id-7a4238e108d64a74b3793a997d2bf1b5). There’s more than one kind. Some voters cast absentee ballots by mail, while others cast early in-person votes at the election office or other designated locations. On Friday, North Carolina will become the first state to mail out its absentee ballots, while voters there can begin voting in-person on Oct. 20. **Read Next:** [_Here Are the Last Possible Dates You Can Register to Vote in Your State_](http://time.com/4443588/register-vote-voter-state-laws/) Early voting will account for around half of the ballots cast in battleground states like North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, according to an AP elections projection. Here’s a guide to when in-person early voting starts in key states. (Absentee ballots may go out at different times.) **September** 23: Idaho, Minnesota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming 24: New Jersey 29: Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota **October** 9: Maine 10: California, Nebraska 11: Montana, New Mexico 12: Arizona, Indiana, Ohio 17: Georgia 19: Kansas, Tennessee 20: North Carolina 21: Washington 22: Nevada 24: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Wisconsin 25: Hawaii, Louisiana, Utah 26: West Virginia 27: Maryland 28: Washington, D.C. 29: Florida **November** 3: Oklahoma ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4495435/early-voting-states/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4495435/early-voting-states/"},"headline":"These Are the States That Allow You to Vote Early","datePublished":"2016-09-15T20:12:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:17.919Z","description":"Many of the votes cast this presidential election won't be on Nov. 8","url":"https://time.com/4495435/early-voting-states/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Voting"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ccb7afa61fbf151/6988a2c9428a9e008acd3f24/old-people-voting-habits-behavior.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ccb7afa61fbf151/6988a2c9428a9e008acd3f24/old-people-voting-habits-behavior.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Citizens In Five States Vote In Primary Elections","caption":"A woman stands at the voting booth at the White Marsh Elementary School polling station in Mechanicsville, Maryland, April 26, 2016.","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4495435/early-voting-states/","name":"These Are the States That Allow You to Vote Early"}}]}] ```