In-person voting for the U.S. presidential election will soon begin as Election Day approaches.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Democratic and Republican conventions are just a memory, the first and perhaps only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is over and election offices are beginning to send out mail-in ballots.

Now the voters are coming.

On Friday, early in-person voting for the 2024 U.S. presidential election begins in Virginia, South Dakota and Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Governor Tim Walz.

The first votes can be cast in person just under six weeks before Election Day on November 5. In about a dozen other states, early in-person voting will follow by mid-October.

“If I could wave a magic wand in this room right now, I would wish for two things: From now until November 5, I would like to see high voter turnout and little drama,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon during a press conference on Thursday previewing his state’s campaign efforts. Simon is also president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Across the country, local election officials are stepping up security measures to keep their staff and polling places safe while ensuring ballots and voting procedures are not tampered with. Officials and rank-and-file poll workers have been the target of harassment and even death threats since the 2020 presidential election.

Federal authorities are investigating the origin of suspicious packages sent to or received by election officials in more than 15 states, including Virginia, in recent days.

As the start of early voting approached, Trump’s rhetoric became even more threatening, promising to prosecute anyone who “cheats” in the election in the same way he falsely claimed in 2020, when he lied about widespread voter fraud and attacked officials who stood by their correct vote counts.

Trump had previously tried to sow doubt about mail-in voting and encouraged voters to vote in person on Election Day. But this year, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which he now controls, have begun using early mail-in voting as a way to secure Republican votes before Election Day, just as Democrats have done for years.

In Virginia, early in-person voting has long been popular in the city of Chesapeake, especially during presidential elections, said Elections Director Mary Lynn Pinkerman.

She expects early voting to help reduce crowds on November 5, but also warned that voting on Election Day is “certainly not a thing of the past” and that “voters will continue to have to expect wait times.”

Fairfax County Elections Supervisor Eric Spicer said that in the 2020 presidential election, about a third of local voters showed up to the polls on Election Day, while the rest voted by mail or early and in person.

“We call them our cicada voters who come every four years,” he said, adding that he expects high turnout in this year’s presidential election in his northern Virginia county.

In South Dakota, the chief election official in Minnehaha County, the state’s most populous county, expects voter turnout to be 80 percent. Additional seasonal workers began work Monday, and an early voting area was set up at the county administration building in Sioux Falls.

County Auditor Leah Anderson said the presidential race and several statewide ballot proposals — including one that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and another that would legalize marijuana for recreational use — would draw voters.

“There’s a lot on our ballot,” Anderson said.

Given the ongoing problems with the U.S. Postal Service, many voters who want to vote early may choose to vote in person rather than by mail to ensure their votes are counted.

Last week, state and local election officials across the country warned that mail delivery problems risked disenfranchising voters, and told the system’s director that the persistent deficiencies had not been addressed despite their repeated attempts to contact him.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy responded in a letter released Monday that he would work with state election officials to address their concerns, but reiterated that the Postal Service would be ready.

Simon urged voters to make their voting plans now. Mail transit times vary across the country, he said, so voters who plan to vote from home should request their mail-in ballots early and return them on time. Some states count ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, while Minnesota and other states only count ballots that arrive by polls close.

“I hope and expect that the USPS will implement our recommendations and act quickly within the next 47 days because there is really a lot at stake for individual voters,” Simon said.

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Associated Press writers Olivia Diaz in Fairfax, Virginia, Ben Finley in Chesapeake, Virginia, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this article.

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