On Nov. 4, voters will consider whether to allow the legislature to pass laws giving all voters the option of using absentee ballots and opening the polls on a maximum of 10 days during the two weeks before an election.

If the amendment passes, the General Assembly also could authorize voters to vote early at polling places inside or outside their districts.

Similar laws were passed by the legislature in 2006, but the Maryland Court of Appeals struck them down. The constitutional amendment is needed if early voting is to become a reality.

And if it does, Maryland would not be alone. A total of 32 states allow no-excuse, in-person early voting on a machine or with an absentee ballot, according to the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College.

Both the House and Senate Republican caucuses are opposed to the early voting amendment, citing concerns about security, questionable benefits and the costs that will be passed down to local governments that would have to operate the new system.

Since Maryland does not require photo identification for voting, allowing people to vote anywhere in the state could open the door to fraud, said Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman, R-Howard.

"Why take such a risk that could threaten the credibility of our voting system when there is little to benefit?" Mr. Kittleman said in a statement. "We cannot jeopardize the integrity of our elections merely for the purpose of convenience."

But opponents of early voting are combining two separate issues, said Ryan O'Donnell, the executive director of Common Cause Maryland, an advocacy group for government transparency.

Whether elections have enough security belongs in a different debate than whether access should be expanded, he said, since the same standards would be used during early voting as on Election Day.

Record turnouts lead to long lines and make it more difficult for working people who have to juggle more than one job, Mr. O'Donnell said.

"The principle is, everyone who is eligible to vote should be able to," he said.

Since early voting is so prevalent, it is less a way to encourage turnout than to let voters decide to "wait in line now or wait in line Nov. 4," said Dan Seligson, an editor at Electionline.org, a project of the Pew Center on the States.

"It's essentially giving voters a choice," he said.

So far, issues with early voting in states like Florida are typical to elections, Mr. Seligson said, like long lines and malfunctioning machines.

"It is hard to say the problems that are experienced … would not be experienced on Election Day also," he said.