GREENVILLE, Pitt County — As early voting gets more popular campaigns are shifting their strategy as the days wind down to Election Day.
As early voting continues to grow in popularity, News 12 asked ECU Political Science Professor Dr. Jody Baumgartner what has caused the shift in how people vote.
He tells us it was becoming more common before 2020 but really took off once COVID entered the picture.
The pandemic was like, how do we want to say it-like a super accelerant or something to the process. I think the working assumption in many quarters was that it was the only ‘safe way’ to vote.
This year is on pace to break all the records for early voting.
We caught up with a few people casting their ballot this week and they gave me their reasons as to why.
“Early voting is just convenient. Once I’ve made up my mind about who to vote for, it keeps me from getting in some conflict on voting day and it’s good that we have a two-week period in which people can vote based on their schedules. More people we have voting, the better,” said Tom Morgan.
“It’s my day off, so I just wanted to do my civic duty and not have to wait in any of the long lines on election day,” said Brittany Robinson.
With election day just a week away Dr. Baumgartner tells us candidates tend to shift the focus of their campaigns during this period.
Campaign organizations make a subtle but easily discernable shift toward getting out to vote. It’s less a campaign at that stage, in this last week. It’s less of an effort to persuade people to vote for you, although that’s still going on.
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