Barry C. Burden and Kenneth R. Mayer
10/25/2010

The authors conducted research showing that the opportunity to vote by mail actually depresses voter turnout, typically by three percentage points. Although early voting does not eliminate the two-step process of registration and then voting, it does dilute the intensity of Election Day because campaigns begin to scale back their efforts once a significant portion of votes have been cast. To improve voter turnout, their research shows that combining early voting with same-day registration reverses the depressive effect of early voting.

Burden and Mayer are professors of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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