Explaining Election Day: How America votes
From the Explaining Election Day: Understanding the processes from voting to declaring winners series
Voters today have some options in terms of how they vote and when they vote. The main choices are voting in person at a polling place on Election Day, voting early in person before Election Day, or voting by mail. There's been some form of absentee voting available to voters since the founding of the Republic, and early voting and mail voting have been around in some form for more than 100 years.