I voted yesterday... No Political statements just asking about the method you chose on casting your ballot.

[marthachick]

Small county in NC. I did in person voting yesterday. Paper ballot into the scanner. DH voted Monday in person. DS and his wife voted Monday also I think.

 

[bcla]

in Florida, all that is vertical on the back of the envelope, so when you sign your signature, it goes over the envelope and the flap; I guess so that if it's tampered with, it is noticeable (supposedly).

If they wanted to make it harder they could use something that shows more evidence of tampering. Maybe something like temperature sensitive paper. How about self-adhesive envelope? Some of the problems I've heard were when the election package got wet (rain or just humidity) during delivery and the gum seal on the return envelope was already sealed shut. A self-adhesive strip wouldn't have that problem and can't be steamed open. Also more sanitary than licking an envelope.

We've got the fairly big envelopes here in California. They're designed for an 8.5x11" ballot to be folded once. I've seen pictures of other states where the envelope is smaller and I guess meant for folding in thirds. For a while my county was using the Mark-A-Vote system. It was designed where an 8.5x11" sheet would separate into three cards. When I voted with these they would give a sleeve to hide the ballot and then the voter would drop the ballot/sleeve combo into a ballot box. The same system was easy to return by mail. My mom got one in the early 80s and that came with a little marking pencil, although in person we used this purple pen that had to be returned. The first time I'd voted on a large sheet was during the 2003 California Governor's recall election. I think they opted to go with a different system because they needed something that could handle over 100 candidates. It was literally over 100 replacement candidates front and back. But the Mark-A-Vote system was like this:

 

[mousefan73]

Voted by mail as overseas absentee ballot. The process is pretty easy to get your ballot, in the end you simply print the ballot yourself ( A few steps to do before you get to that point) . The issue this time is international mail. Still checking and it’s still not received. Due to Covid sending things back to the states takes a lot more time. I mailed mine October 1.

 

[magik]

I’m with you on all points. No, voting is not mandatory, and I don’t believe it should be. I do respect a person’s right to abstain from voting. However, I personally would not give up my opportunity as a citizen to participate in the process.

I think it’s unfortunate, that the impact of our individual votes are restricted somewhat by the way our system of government is set up (two-party system, electoral college, etc.). And I can relate to pp, because there have been times where the choices were lacking and I reluctantly voted for the “lesser of two evils”. But IMO, even a vote for a third-party candidate or a write-in is better than not voting at all. My feeling is that someone will be elected, so I may as well be a part of it.

Well said.

It’s also possible to abstain from voting for a particular office while still voting for everything else. I know many people who both in 2016 and this time around left President/VP blank on their ballots and just filled in all the state/local stuff. It’s not all or nothing.

 

[Miffy]

NYC. Will vote in person on the first day of early voting in two days.

 

[SarahM1987]

We're in Ohio, and voted in person on Tuesday.

 

[sam_gordon]

KY. I voted in person this morning. Clerk's office opened at 8am, I got there by 7:40 (after dropping DD off at school). I was going to wait in the car, but within 5 minutes, a line had formed outside the door, so I got in line. By the time the doors opened, there were probably two dozen people in line (many "older"... 70's+ if I had to guess).

Went through the building, showed ID, they looked up the voting area, then wrote the number down on blank card stock. Went to the next room to wait for an open machine. A poll worker looked at the number on the card stock, inserted it into a machine and selected the right voting area. You then voted on the machine, it displayed all of your votes, you confirmed it, then it printed your ballot back on the card stock. You then took the card with the printed ballot to a different machine where it was scanned and you got a "your vote was counted" (or something similar) message.

I was back in the car at 8:11.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Chicago - voted in person on Sunday - it was rainy which I think kept crowds away - walked in voted on a touchscreen, printed my ballot and fed it into the vote counter thing.

 

[KPeterso]

Permanent vote by mail in CA. Made the choice a few years ago to move to that method. Mailed my ballot yesterday and have set up to receive text messages when my ballot is received.

Now if I could stop the political mail, that would be wonderful, but sadly no way to stop it since candidates pay to have this stuff sent out. Only 12 pieces yesterday to toss in the garbage. Too late, ballot is mailed.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Some initial information from just my county:

• as Wednesday morning that the county has mailed out 157,506 ballots. That’s nearly three times the number of ballots mailed in 2016 when 53,041 ballots were mailed (mirrors the large increase that also occurred for the August one this year).
• as of Wednesday morning, nearly 87,000 residents had already cast ballots. Of that group, roughly 25,000 people have voted in person since in-person advance voting started on Oct. 17. Nearly 58,000 ballots have been received either by mail or at one of the county’s drop boxes.
• the county now has at least 460,000 registered voters, a nearly 13 percent increase from the 407,500 registered voters in 2016 (there's over 602,000 people in the county).

 

[JimMIA]

In our first 3 days, Miami-Dade County, FL has had 120,982 early votes cast. That total includes mail ballots, either mailed in or dropped off.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In our first 3 days, Miami-Dade County, FL has had 120,982 early votes cast. That total includes mail ballots, either mailed in or dropped off.

Okay...it's not a competition

You already shared yesterday what the numbers were in your area. I don't plan on giving a daily update for my area. Was just sharing my area's initial numbers. The amount of mail-in ballots this year has just been crazy high which is the only reason I shared on this thread.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Laugh all you want @JimMIA just don't see a point to posting what your numbers were right after I post my numbers just to be basically like "my area has this many numbers". That's how it came off. Please do correct me if that wasn't your intent and instead you plan to give a daily update from your area

 

[AlmostHeavenAppalachia]

West Virginia- In person early voting started yesterday and ends October 31st. Although we can request a mail in ballot due to Covid-19, as we did for the primary, my DD18 and I voted in person this morning with no wait. Our county of 56,000 has two early voting locations.

 

[KBoopaloo]

Back in the early 90s I voted in someone’s basement.

I used to love Election Day as a kid because my elementary school gym was a polling place so they would cancel gym classes on that day. As an uncoordinated kid who was hated gym class it was a nice bonus!

 

[kymom99]

I used to love Election Day as a kid because my elementary school gym was a polling place so they would cancel gym classes on that day. As an uncoordinated kid who was hated gym class it was a nice bonus!

We aren’t allowed to have school on Election Day in Kentucky. Well, not public schools anyway.

 

[sam_gordon]

We aren’t allowed to have school on Election Day in Kentucky. Well, not public schools anyway.

I think that's because a lot of the schools are polling places. Until this year, we'd go to one of the local elementary's and the polls would be set up in the cafeteria (why not the gym, I don't know).

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

Voted absentee by mail in WI. Already confirmed my ballot was received.

 

[bcla]

I used to love Election Day as a kid because my elementary school gym was a polling place so they would cancel gym classes on that day. As an uncoordinated kid who was hated gym class it was a nice bonus!

The first time I ever voted was at my old elementary school. We didn't have a gym per se, but it was in the "multi-function room" where we would have school assembles.

Since then I've voted in various places. Community centers, churches, and even someone's garage. That one was weird. The lines were outside but one couldn't see the voter list until one was right there next to the table. There wasn't much room to vote. I think they had switched to a lot of different places such that each voting precinct was smaller and they used a lot of homes.

 

[easyas123]

"multi-function room"

Caffagymatorium is what we always called it....our last two polling places have been the local elementary school.
After hearing about the dire shortage of election judges I signed up to be one. Never heard a thing from them, not a thanks, but no thanks - kiss by butt, kiss his butt. Nothing. And you'd think by the way they were going on and on doom & gloom about it that they had no one to be a judge. Maybe I'll try again next year, it is a experience I'd like to have and I'd like to be helpful to the local community.
(yes, yes, yes I know. There is no need for the explanations...)