Early voting for the 2016 general election has started here in Ohio. The Center for Civic Engagement and Learning (CCEL) and other volunteers are providing support and guidance for students to make early voting experience as easy as possible.

Instead of voting on election day, Nov. 8, voters can choose to vote early to ensure that they do not miss their opportunity to vote. In Cuyahoga County, where most of the CWRU students and staff vote, early voting started on Oct. 12. Registered voters can vote early by mail or in-person.

To vote by mail, they must request an absentee ballot online and return it in-person or by mail. 

In Cuyahoga County, those who vote early in-person are required to provide the last four digits of their social security number if they don’t have an Ohio driver’s license or non-driver ID card. On election day, students must show their IDs and proofs of residency, which can be obtained from the housing office in the basement of Thwing Center, Wade Commons or Fribley Commons.

Vote Everywhere, a nonpartisan program under the Andrew Goodman Foundation, has ambassadors across 42 universities in 19 states who lead voter engagement, public policy and social justice. The CWRU branch of this program started last spring, and the three student ambassadors here have worked on increasing student voting engagement and registration since that time.

Case Western Reserve University is located approximately 15 minutes away from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. CCEL, collaborating with Vote Everywhere, will be offering “Early Voting Excursions” from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7 to take students to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. Volunteers will meet groups of students in front of the CCEL office and travel to the Board of Elections via the HealthLine. The specific dates and times for the excursions will be publicized in the CCEL office and through the CCEL Electronic newsletter, a publication that is released every Thursday. Students may sign up for these excursions on Orgsync under Vote Everywhere.