Most people associate voting with early November, specifically the first-Tuesday holiday known since 1845 as Election Day. However, the current pandemic as well as expectations of record voter turnout has brought renewed focus onto other methods of voting, including mail-in voting and early in-person voting. In North Carolina, for example, one-stop early in-person voting begins today, October 15th, and will last until October 31st.
Issues surrounding voting this year, especially related to COVID-19, have made finding accurate information about the voting process all the more urgent. In response, the Goodson Law Library's Faculty and Scholarly Services Librarian Wickliffe Shreve has worked with the Government Relations Committee of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) to create a Voting Resources page as part of AALL's Advocacy Toolkit.
The Voting Resources page has information and links to nonpartisan resources on information about state primaries, locating state and local election websites, locating polling places, voter ID requirements, election dates, registering to vote and confirming your registration, sample ballots, absentee and mail-in ballot requests (including those for military and overseas voters), early voting, potential voting hurdles, and information specific to COVID-19 and the 2020 election. Although targeted at the library community, the Advocacy Toolkit contains resources on legislative advocacy that is useful to the entire legal community.
The Voting Resources page's contents will be updated regularly, and will exist as a permanent resource beyond the 2020 election. For more information about resources listed on this guide, or other materials on election law, be sure to Ask a Librarian.