Michigan OpEd supports early voting

This Op Ed from the Secretary-Trasurer of the Michigan AFL-CIO and vice chair of the Michigan Democratic party argues in favor of early voting, but promotes many of the myths surrounding these systems.

How many times can it be repeated: there is no evidence that early voting increases turnout! If you want to increase turnout in this country, you need to get people excited about politics, interested in the campaigns, and give them real choices among candidates.

Of course, the Republican complaints about no-excuse absentee balloting in Michigan are also fallacious. Most studies indicate that absentee balloting is not more costly (it's mostly a wash, since you save money on election day administration), and security concerns are easily handled.

What politicians are most averse to is uncertainty, and the reason that Republicans don't like early voting is that it makes the future uncertain. Since they are in control of the legislature under the current system, they ask: why change it?