First published online as a Review in Advance on February 11, 2008Convenience Voting
Paul Gronke, Eva Galanes-Rosenbaum, Peter A. Miller, and Daniel Toffey Department of Political Science and The Early Voting Information Center, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202; email:
paul.gronke@reed.edu;
team@earlyvoting.net Forms of convenience voting—early in-person voting, voting by mail, absentee voting, electronic voting, and voting by fax—have become the mode of choice for >30% of Americans in recent elections. Despite this, and although nearly every state in the United States has adopted at least one form of convenience voting, the academic research on these practices is unequally distributed across important questions. A great deal of literature on turnout is counterbalanced by a dearth of research on campaign effects, election costs, ballot quality, and the risk of fraud. This article introduces the theory of convenience voting, reviews the current literature, and suggests areas for future research.