Most states have a method for any eligible voter to cast a ballot before Election Day, either during the early voting period or by requesting an absentee ballot. In 12 states, early voting is not available and an excuse is required to request an absentee ballot. 
 
 States can choose to provide three ways for voters to cast a ballot before Election Day: 
 
 Early Voting: In 38 states (including 3 that mail ballots to all voters) and the District of Columbia, any qualified voter may cast a ballot in person during a designated period prior to Election Day. No excuse or justification is required. Absentee Voting: All states will mail an absentee ballot to certain voters who request one. The voter may return the ballot by mail or in person. In 19 states, an excuse is required, while 28 states and the District of Columbia permit any qualified voter to vote absentee without offering an excuse. Some states offer a permanent absentee ballot list: once a voter asks to be added to the list, s/he will automatically receive an absentee ballot for all future elections. Mail Voting: A ballot is automatically mailed to every eligible voter (no request or application is necessary). In-person voting sites may also be available for voters who would like to vote in-person and to provide additional services to voters. Three states mail ballots to all eligible voters for every election. Other states may provide this option for some types of elections. 
 
 Scroll over the map below for state-by state details. 
 
 Early voting Early voting AND no-excuse absentee voting All-mail voting No early voting: excuse required for absentee 
 
 Overview 
 
 The table below details the types of pre-election day voting that are available in each state. Information on the details of each category may be found below the table. 
 
 Pre-Election Day Voting State In-Person By Mail Early Voting No-Excuse Absentee Absentee; Excuse Required All-Mail Voting Permanent Absentee Status Alabama ● Alaska ● ● (a) Arizona ● ● (a) ● Arkansas ● ● (a) California ● ● (a) ● Colorado ● Connecticut ● Delaware ● D.C. ● ● ● Florida ● ● (a) Georgia ● ● Hawaii ● ● (a) ● Idaho (b) ● (a) Illinois ● ● Indiana (b) ● Iowa (b) ● Kansas ● ● (a) Kentucky ● Louisiana ● ● Maine (b) ● Maryland ● ● (a) Massachusetts (c) ● Michigan (b) ● Minnesota (b) ● (a) ● Mississippi ● Missouri ● (a) Montana (b) ● (a) ● Nebraska ● ● (a) Nevada ● ● (a) ● New Hampshire ● New Jersey (b) ● (a) ● New Mexico ● ● (a) New York ● North Carolina ● ● North Dakota ● ● (a) Ohio (b) ● Oklahoma (b) ● Oregon ● Pennsylvania ● Rhode Island ● South Carolina ● South Dakota (b) ● Tennessee ● ● Texas ● ● Utah ● ● (a) ● Vermont (b) ● Virginia ● Washington ● West Virginia ● ● Wisconsin (b) ● Wyoming (b) ● TOTAL 35 states + DC 28 states + DC 19 states 3 states 8 states + DC 
 
 Source: National Conference of State Legislatures, August 2017. 
 
 (a) Certain elections may be held entirely by mail. The circumstances under which all-mail elections are permitted vary from state to state. 
 
 (b) Although these states do not have Early Voting in the traditional sense, within a certain period of time before an election they do allow a voter to apply in person for an absentee ballot (without an excuse) and cast that ballot in one trip to an election official’s office. This is often known as "in-person absentee" voting. 
 
 (c) Massachusetts has Early Voting only during even-year November elections, beginning in 2016. Currently it does not permit Early Voting in primaries or municipal elections. 
 
 Early Voting 
 
 More than two-thirds of the states--38 plus the District of Columbia--offer some sort of early voting. Early voting allows voters to visit an election official’s office or, in some states, other satellite voting locations, and cast a vote in person without offering an excuse for why the voter is unable to vote on Election Day. Some states also allow voters to receive, fill out and cast their absentee ballot in person at the elections office or at a satellite location rather than returning it through through the mail. This is often reffered to as in-person absentee voting. Satellite voting locations vary by state, and may include other county and state offices (besides the election official’s office), grocery stores, shopping malls, schools, libraries, and other locations. More detailed information can be found on NCSL's State Laws Governing Early Voting page. 
 
 The time period for early voting varies from state to state: 
 
 The date on which early voting begins may be as early as 45 days before the election, or as late as the Friday before the election. The average starting time for early voting is 22 days before the election. 
 
 Early voting typically ends just a few days before Election Day. 
 
 Early voting periods range in length from four days to 45 days; the average length is 19 days. 
 
 Of the states that allow early in-person voting, 23 and the District of Columbia allow some weekend early voting. Saturday: 19 states + the District of Columbia provide for voting on Saturday. 4 additional states (California, Kansas, Vermont and Massachusetts) leave it up to county clerks who may choose to allow Saturday voting. Sunday: 4 states (Alaska, Illinois, Ohio and Maryland) allow for Sunday voting. 5 states (California, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Massachusetts) leave it up to county clerks who may choose to be open on Sundays. Florida mandates early voting must begin, including Sunday, the 10th day and end the 3rd day prior to the election for state and federal elections. Local election officials also have discretion to allow early voting the Sunday prior to the election. 
 
 
 
 ​​Latest developments: A 2013 law reducing early voting hours in North Carolina was struck down by the The Supreme Court in August 2016. Going forward early voting in North Carolina begins on the third Thursday and ends on the last Thursday before election day. 
 
 A 2018 ballot proposition approved by voters established in-person absentee voting in Michigan, including at least eight hours on the Saturday and/or Sunday prior to the election. 
 
 No-Excuse Absentee Voting 
 
 Absentee voting is conducted by mail-in paper ballot prior to the day of the election. States typically require that a voter fill out an application to receive an absentee ballot. Many states help facilitate this process by making absentee ballot applications available online for voters to print and send, and at least five states (Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota and Utah) permit a voter to submit an application entirely online. Arizona has some counties that have online absentee ballot applications, and in Detroit, Michigan, voters can request an absentee ballot through a smartphone app. 
 
 While all states offer some version of absentee voting, there is quite a lot of variation in states’ procedures. For instance, some states offer "no-excuse" absentee voting, allowing any registered voter to request an absentee without requiring that the voter state a reason for his/her desire to vote absentee. Some states also allow a time period before the election for voters to appear at the elections office or other designated location in person to request, fill out and cast an absentee ballot in on stop. Still other states permit voters to vote absentee only under a limited set of circumstances. 
 
 The following 28 states and D.C. offer "no-excuse" absentee voting: 
 
 No-Excuse Absentee Voting Alaska Kansas North Carolina Arizona Maine North Dakota California Maryland Ohio District of Columbia Michigan Oklahoma Florida Minnesota South Dakota Georgia Montana Utah Hawaii Nebraska Vermont Idaho Nevada Wisconsin Illinois New Jersey Wyoming Iowa New Mexico 
 
 Source: National Conference of State Legislatures 
 
 Permanent Absentee Voting 
 
 Some states permit voters to join a permanent absentee voting list. Once a voter opts in, s/he will receive an absentee ballot automatically for all future elections. The states that offer permanent absentee voting to any voter are: 
 
 At least ten states offer permanent absentee status to a limited number of voters who meet certain criteria: 
 
 Mail Voting 
 
 Three states -- Oregon, Washington and Colorado -- conduct all elections by mail. A ballot is automatically mailed to every registered voter in advance of Election Day, and traditional in-person voting precincts are not available. However these states still provide one or more locations for voters to return mail ballots, vote in-person if they would like, and receive other voter services. Learn more about each state's vote-by-mail program: Oregon, Washington, Colorado . 
 
 Nineteen other states allow certain elections to be held by mail. More information can be found on NCSL's All-Mail Elections (aka Vote-By-Mail) webpage. 
 
 Early and Absentee Voting in Your State 
 
 Are you looking for information on how to vote early or by absentee ballot in an upcoming election? While NCSL is not involved in holding elections and cannot provide information or advice on how, when or where to vote in your state, we are pleased to provide this link to a page which will direct you to the answers you need regarding your state's laws: Can I Vote? 
 
 Military Voters 
 
 All states permit members of the military who are stationed overseas, their dependents, and other U.S. citizens living abroad to vote by absentee ballot. For more information, please visit the Overseas Vote Foundation. 
 
 Additional Resources ||||| FILE- In this Aug. 9, 2016 file photo, Chairwoman Kathryn Lindley, right, is approached by people during the Guilford County Board of Elections meeting at the Old Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE- In this Aug. 9, 2016 file photo, Chairwoman Kathryn Lindley, right, is approached by people during the Guilford County Board of Elections meeting at the Old Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro, N.C. The swing state of North Carolina could be pushed in a Republican or Democratic direction... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Get ready: Voting in the 2016 election is now underway. 
 
 Advance voting begins Friday in North Carolina, the first of 37 states that will allow balloting by mail for any reason or in person before the actual Election Day of Nov. 8. 
 
 It's part of a nearly nine-week campaign frenzy in which millions of voters will have the ability to fill out a ballot and be done with the 2016 presidential race. 
 
 North Carolina residents are first, and they can now submit absentee ballots by mail without an excuse. They also will be able to vote early at polling booths beginning Oct. 20. 
 
 Ballots from all 50 states will be sent to members of the armed services and voters living abroad the week of Sept. 19. And Georgia residents may also begin mailing in ballots that week, followed by battlegrounds Wisconsin and Virginia. 
 
 Iowa will accept early ballots starting Sept. 29, three days after the first presidential debate. 
 
 "If one campaign does significantly better in harvesting early votes, that campaign will have a substantial advantage as election day approaches," said Paul Gronke, a Reed College professor and director of the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Oregon. 
 
 The stakes are high: Voters who cast ballots in advance are expected to make up between 50 to 75 percent or more of all ballots in the battlegrounds of North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, according to data compiled by The Associated Press. 
 
 Nationwide, about 45.6 million people or roughly 35 percent of the electorate attracted by its convenience voted prior to Election Day in 2012, and that number is expected to increase in 2016. 
 
 The campaigns know it, too. 
 
 Hillary Clinton appeared in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday and applauded a recent federal appeals court decision invalidating restrictions that the judges determined made it harder for non-whites to vote. "Get out and vote and make it clear we're not putting up with that," she said. 
 
 The Trump campaign, working with the Republican National Committee to boost absentee mail balloting in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa, described its early efforts as key to a "path to victory." 
 
 "We must reach every voter before early voting and Election Day," wrote campaign manager Kellyanne Conway in a Sept. 5 memo. ||||| Brace yourselves: Election Day has begun. 
 
 Some federal write-in absentee ballots, which are typically reserved for people serving dangerous foreign deployments or stints on submarines, have already started to come in. And that trickle of ballots will soon become a flood, with early voting set to begin in several states around the country. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 The first round of early ballots will be dropped in the mail in North Carolina on Friday, kicking off a nearly nine-week sprint of early and absentee voting before the final results are tallied on Nov. 8. 
 
 Alabama elections officials will begin putting ballots in the mail on Sept. 15. By the following week, ballots from all 50 states will be on their way to members of the Armed Services and registered voters living abroad. 
 
 On September 23, voters in Minnesota will be the first with a chance to cast their ballots early, at in-person locations around the state. Polls open in South Dakota and Michigan the following day. By the end of September, voters in seven states will be able to cast ballots in person. 
 
 The popularity of early and absentee voting has exploded in the last decade and a half. In 2000, about one in five voters cast their ballots before Election Day. In 2016, more than a third of voters are likely to cast their ballots early this year, according to Michael McDonald, a political scientist who tracks the early vote at the University of Florida. 
 
 “We’ve been on an upward trend of early voting since really the late 1970s,” McDonald said. “Part of what we see in the upward trend is that more states will offer early voting options.” 
 
 Since the 2012 elections, in which 32 percent of voters cast ballots early, two states have made significant changes that give voters more access to early ballots: New Jersey now allows voters to obtain an absentee ballot without an excuse, four years after Hurricane Sandy shut down voting in some coastal cities. And Colorado now mails ballots to all of their registered voters. 
 
 Early voting can also help voters deal with a longer ballot, especially in states like Washington, California and Oregon where ballot measures can make for hours of reading. 
 
 “This year has a really loaded general election ballot, including a bumper crop of state and local measures, the White House, Congress, most of the legislature, judges and local races,” said Kim Wyman, Washington’s Secretary of State. “It is a lot to ask of our voters, and we’re pleased to have the convenience of vote-by-mail and a generous voting period, as we now think of ‘Election Day’ as being.” 
 
 Those who show up early are almost certainly hardened partisans, setting both parties on a scramble to chase their most likely supporters and bank as many votes as possible. The first to vote tend to be older, highly informed voters who are registered with a party — those likeliest to already know how they are going to vote. Those who show up later are younger, and much less likely to identify with a party. 
 
 Even before the first absentee ballots go out, the first vote has been cast. North Carolina officials said August 26 they had received a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot from Francois Farge, a 51-year old Republican registered to vote in North Carolina but living in France. 
 
 Here’s where voters will get their absentee ballots, and where early voting opens, on the march toward Election Day: ||||| Brace yourselves: Election Day has begun. 
 
 Some federal write-in absentee ballots, which are typically reserved for people serving dangerous foreign deployments or stints on submarines, have already started to come in. And that trickle of ballots will soon become a flood, with early voting set to begin in several states around the country. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 The first round of early ballots will be dropped in the mail in North Carolina on Friday, kicking off a nearly nine-week sprint of early and absentee voting before the final results are tallied on Nov. 8. 
 
 Alabama elections officials will begin putting ballots in the mail on Sept. 15. By the following week, ballots from all 50 states will be on their way to members of the Armed Services and registered voters living abroad. 
 
 On September 23, voters in Minnesota will be the first with a chance to cast their ballots early, at in-person locations around the state. Polls open in South Dakota and Michigan the following day. By the end of September, voters in seven states will be able to cast ballots in person. 
 
 The popularity of early and absentee voting has exploded in the last decade and a half. In 2000, about one in five voters cast their ballots before Election Day. In 2016, more than a third of voters are likely to cast their ballots early this year, according to Michael McDonald, a political scientist who tracks the early vote at the University of Florida. 
 
 “We’ve been on an upward trend of early voting since really the late 1970s,” McDonald said. “Part of what we see in the upward trend is that more states will offer early voting options.” 
 
 Since the 2012 elections, in which 32 percent of voters cast ballots early, two states have made significant changes that give voters more access to early ballots: New Jersey now allows voters to obtain an absentee ballot without an excuse, four years after Hurricane Sandy shut down voting in some coastal cities. And Colorado now mails ballots to all of their registered voters. 
 
 Early voting can also help voters deal with a longer ballot, especially in states like Washington, California and Oregon where ballot measures can make for hours of reading. 
 
 “This year has a really loaded general election ballot, including a bumper crop of state and local measures, the White House, Congress, most of the legislature, judges and local races,” said Kim Wyman, Washington’s Secretary of State. “It is a lot to ask of our voters, and we’re pleased to have the convenience of vote-by-mail and a generous voting period, as we now think of ‘Election Day’ as being.” 
 
 Those who show up early are almost certainly hardened partisans, setting both parties on a scramble to chase their most likely supporters and bank as many votes as possible. The first to vote tend to be older, highly informed voters who are registered with a party — those likeliest to already know how they are going to vote. Those who show up later are younger, and much less likely to identify with a party. 
 
 Even before the first absentee ballots go out, the first vote has been cast. North Carolina officials said August 26 they had received a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot from Francois Farge, a 51-year old Republican registered to vote in North Carolina but living in France. 
 
 Here’s where voters will get their absentee ballots, and where early voting opens, on the march toward Election Day:
– Determining the fate of the US presidency officially kicks off Friday. North Carolina is the first of 37 states and DC to open up advance balloting so voters can, as the AP puts it, "be done with the 2016 presidential race." North Carolinians can now send in absentee ballots by mail for any reason (they'll be able to cast their vote in person starting Oct. 20). Alabama will be next to follow suit, with ballots mailed out during the week of Sept. 15, per the Hill, and all 50 states will mail out ballots to service members and registered expatriates the week of Sept. 19. Meanwhile, in-person voting will get its start in Minnesota on Sept. 23. Why early voting can be important, other than offering convenience for the voter: These types of ballots make up anywhere between 50% to 75% of the overall votes cast in certain battleground states, including North Carolina, Florida, and Arizona. Plus, decent returns can provide momentum. "If one campaign does significantly better in harvesting early votes, that campaign will have a substantial advantage as Election Day approaches," Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center, tells the AP. A University of South Florida political scientist who follows early voting trends tells the Hill that more than a third of voters are expected to go the early route this year. (Check out the Hill for an early-voting calendar.)