Originally posted:
Published again with a later date so people can continue to comment through Nov 3.
…..
Once you have voted – in person, by mail, drop box, whatever – please add a comment with your name and your voting method.
It’s like a sticker, only better.
We will keep this as a running thread in the sidebar, so please only comment in this thread if you have already voted in some fashion. (never mind!)
Add your nyms and your voting methods below, please.
Once you have voted, you get this sticker in your comment:
Open Thread: Barack Obama Speaks Out
JPL
Wait, wait since lines are long in dem areas of VA, that must mean Joe is really popular. I thought he had an enthusiasm gap
WaterGirl
@JPL: Does this mean you have voted already? :-)
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I’m still waiting on my mail in ballot. I will triple check the instructions to make sure it’s filled out completely and properly. Then I’ll probably use one of the drop boxes around here to minimize the strain on the USPS.
Kent
I’m not sure when we get our mail-in ballots here in WA. But I’m reasonably confident there won’t be any local fuckery. So nice living in a competently-run blue state after spending 13 years in Texas. I no longer get enraged every time I think about state or local politics
I always use one of the local red drop boxes near my house. There are maybe 10 of them nearby.
catfishncod
Voted in person yesterday at my assigned courthouse (our county has multiple courthouses). Mrs. Catfish will vote next week.
Amir Khalid
Will anyone be shocked if I admit I’m not planning to vote for Biden?
Marcopolo
Speaking of lines in VA:
Apparently the line outside is 2 football fields long, inside is at capacity & once you get inside it’s still an hour and a half wait to actually vote. Bonkers!
And over 100K folks have already voted in NC. Here’s the breakdown:
Dem: 55% Unaffiliated: 29% Rep:15.6%
In terms of overall absentee ballot requests: 50% are Dem; 32% are Unaff; and 17% are Rep.
Mike in NC
We got our absentee ballots last week and tomorrow after we fill them out I’m driving to the county government center (about 20 miles away) to make sure they are accepted.
craigie
@Marcopolo:
When I think about all the voting suppression and ratfucking, I think of this quote:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
kindness
Where I live the whole election is going to be mail in. Those ballots won’t go out till 10/5/20. So I have some time yet.
MazeDancer
Plus, you get your Voting Plan – be it already executed, or upcoming – illustrated and posted across the internet, as well as the sidebar, to inspire others.
West of the Cascades
@Kent: Washington ballots will be mailed out on October 16 (https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/dates-and-deadlines.aspx)
Redshift
@WaterGirl: I admire your attempt to make the thread a pure voting roll call, but these cats will not be herded. :-)
I requested an absentee ballot because I want to have gone through the process in case I need to explain it to other people, but I really wish I could run out and be part of the crowd today. Ballots are being mailed starting today.
Betty
Betty here – I sent my ballot via Fed Ex earlier this week from Dominica to vote in Pennsylvania.
Auntie Beak
Voted by mail in North Carolina. Requested an absentee ballot by writing in July, got it September 7. Mailed back out September 8. Daily checking the board of elections website, where it will be posted once received and processed.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: I’d suggest that those who have voted put their response in bold. Or maybe you can bold them?
Agree with Redshift on the herding cats aspect.
I will vote in person next week. Presuming the lines in Virginia will reduce a tad, by then. But maybe not! (And how nice would that be!!)
JPL
@WaterGirl: nope Oct 12th
catclub
@Amir Khalid: lol
catclub
@Auntie Beak: There was a post on rejected mail in ballots in NC being disproportionately from minority voters (i.e districts). Suppose you find your ballot was rejected. Can you fix it? Vote in person?
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: @Redshift:
I am nothing if not an optimist! Alas, it was not to be.
I’ll figure out another plan. :-
edit: never attempt any activity that might dampen voting enthusiasm…
WaterGirl
@catclub: I didn’t see any details, but that is awful. I hope they are notifying people when their ballot is rejected.
On the plus side, stuff like that is the canary in the coal mine, and may help influence people’s decisions about how to vote.
Regine Touchon
@WaterGirl Perfect timing. Just got back from voting at my county courthouse in Lee County Alabama. We were shocked when or SOS John Merrill, who is a consummate voter purger, is letting Alabamians to vote in person absentee. Alabama Dems are promoting this method.
Redshift
@catclub: In NC, according to this CNN article:
bemused
@Marcopolo:
Be still my heart.
Redshift
One of the things they fixed in Virginia this year is allowing voters whose absentee ballots are rejected to correct them (along with online tracking so you know about it.) In the past, they were just discarded with no notice.
Central Planning
Every eligible voter in my household requested the ballot electronically. We’re just waiting for the ballots to show up and we will mail them back the same day. New York should start sending out ballots next week. Whoohoo!
JPL
@Regine Touchon: Wahoo!
JPL
Water Girl I love this post.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Thank you! I updated the post up top. People who have already voted get this sticker in their comment:
Uncle Cosmo
Screw those pusillanimous stickies. What I want is one featuring Trumplethinskin’s ugly mug with a circle-crossout over it, labeled I VETOED.
Lee Harris
I live in México. Yesterday, the City Clerk from my hometown in Michigan emailed me the November ballot. It’s been printed and my ballot marked. My voter certificate is signed. Everything is in an envelope with the correct sending address and the words “Official Absent Voter’s Ballot” written on the envelope as instructed. My ballot will be taken today to a nearby international postal service and sent to a United States post office for processing.
I am grateful for the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP.gov) that assists the military and overseas citizens to vote. AND, it’s easy.
I voted BLUE!!!!!
Uncle Cosmo
@Amir Khalid: Whut??? I thought yinz wuz a curd-currying member of Demonrats Aboard?!?!!??
Libbys Person
@catclub: Yes, in NC you can fix it prior to Election Day. Either go to your county’s BOE or got to Early Voting – you can register or fix a problem during Early Voting and then vote immediately.
My husband and I voted last week in NC. I hand-delivered our absentee ballots to our BOE. I checked online a couple of days ago and our ballots are shown as ‘accepted’. It felt very good!
Aleta
@Betty: Respect ! ?
In the news feed this a.m. I saw that today Dominica is observing the anniversary of Hurricane Maria.* It was good for me to think about people like Dominicans who rebuild after complete destruction, even after loss of hope at first, not knowing if rebuilding is possible.** I don’t know what it’s like there now, but the example seems useful for this country.
* cat 5 landfall (150 mph) on Sept. 18 2017
** in the Dominican PM’s words, paraphrasing
Aleta
@Lee Harris: Respect ! ?
LuciaMia
@Uncle Cosmo: What I want? A crowd gathered outside the White House, election night 11 PM, chanting “You’re Fired!”
R-Jud
IL voter checking in from England. I put my absentee ballot in a George VI postbox at the top of my road this afternoon!
Uncle Cosmo
@Lee Harris:
(Pace Tom Lehrer, In Old Mexico. Listen here; FF to 5:04 to bypass most of the misdirection, offal puns, & gratuitous animal cruelty.)
Steeplejack (phone)
Uncle Cosmo
@LuciaMia: How about singing in chorus
Aleta
@R-Jud: Respect ! ?
Juju
I live in NC. I requested a ballot sometime in August and received the ballot in the mail September 5th, as did my mother. We filled out ballots on Labor Day. We signed envelopes and witnessed each other’s envelopes and I dropped the stamped envelopes at the post office Tuesday the 8th. I signed myself and my mother up for Ballottrax Wednesday the 9th and I received a text Friday telling me my ballot had been delivered to BOE Friday the 11th. Sunday morning I got a text telling me that my vote had been accepted and thank you for voting. My mother received a text Monday the 14th telling her that her vote had been approved and thank you for voting. We’re all done now. Just donations to make at this point.
LuciaMia
@Uncle Cosmo: So many to choose from!
VOR
The Star Tribune’s Liz Navratil reports: “Minneapolis received a record number of requests for mail-in ballots, as people prepare for a contentious presidential election during a pandemic. … About 114,000 of the city’s 260,000 registered voters requested mail-in ballots, said Grace Wachlarowicz, the city’s director of Election & Voter Services. … On Friday, the city will begin sending the ballots to people who requested them. Because of mail processing times, people should expect to receive ballots about seven to 10 days later, Wachlarowicz said.”
Juju
@Mike in NC: sign up for Ballottrax.
Juju
@Auntie Beak: Sign up for Ballottrax.
WaterGirl
@Uncle Cosmo: Anyone who prefers this one can have it in place of “I voted!”
Sloane Ranger
@Amir Khalid: It’s all right, neither am I. In fact I’m not planning to vote at all.
Juju
@catclub: The local BOE gets in touch by either phone or email to let you know if there is a problem with your ballot envelope. If you sign up for Ballottrax you could also be notified by text message. We have a great SoS who runs the voting. I worked for her campaign when she unsuccessfully ran for senate against Burr. She knows what she is doing.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@craigie: So the Rethugs are Japanese?
sheila in nc
@Juju: Our County Board of Elections and its employees are uniformly fabulous. I have utter faith in them and have worked with them as a precinct assistant and now judge for a couple of cycles. I don’t know that the situation is that good in every county, OTOH.
Sloane Ranger
@R-Jud: Well, there’s a 99% chance that it will at least reach the States then. Very reliable those George VI boxes, much better than the Edward VIII ones.
debbie
This tweet includes a video showing the lines in Fairfax, Virginia:
LuciaMia
Trump speaking now from the WH, about the virus and the vaccine. Jesus, it will never penetrate that solid pumpkin orb that NOBODY BELIEVES A THING YOU SAY ANYMORE!
Juju
@sheila in nc: I think Elaine Marshall, the Secretary of State, runs a pretty tight ship. She would have made a great senator.
Robert Sneddon
@Sloane Ranger: I believe there’s a post office building in Toronto in Canada which has a blazon reading “E VIII R” (Edward VIII Regina). It was inaugurated during Nazi Ed’s short, unglorious and unlamented reign.
Ah, here it is.
Carol Van Natta
Colorado resident here. Important dates for the 2020 election:
I may have made that last one up.
The resident mad scientist and I will be voting as soon as we get our ballots and likely be taking them to a drop box so as not to stress the USPS any more than it already will be.
Percysowner
I take care of my granddaughter 4 days a week. The plan was to sneak out October 6 during my granddaughter’s nap to first day vote in Ohio. If Virginia is a forecast, I’ll revert to Plan B and get up at 8:00 Oct 8, my day off, and stand in line with mask on until I can get in.
Jess
Can’t vote for another month in MA. :-(
I plan to vote in person, since lines are always short and I don’t want to burden the system. I sadly decided not to be a poll worker because I have vulnerable family members relying on me for help, both practical and financial. I feel a lot of regret and guilt, but I need to take care of my family first. If I were in a swing state, I would do it anyway.
dc
I voted in NC on Monday. Mail-in absentee ballot that I walked into the local BOE, NC does not permit ballot drop boxes. The BOEs have tents sent up outside to receive the ballots from those, like me, who do not want to use the USPS. Even so, there were a few people ahead of me who for some reason were taking forever to fill out the form with name, address, phone number and signature that you only have to fill out if you deliver the ballot in person. At any rate, a nice BOE employee lead me and another voter inside, where you can also deliver the ballots (social distancing, masks and other measures, so it didn’t seem any more compromising than going into the supermarket or picking up take out). I signed up with the ballot tracker, that night I was notified that my ballot was accepted. I checked the NCBOE site a couple of days later, I have voted!!! So all clear.
Brooklyn Dodger
@West of the Cascades: We requested early ballots that should get to us by Sept. 28. Called the number for my county at the County Elections Dept.
https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors/
The lovely soul who answered was very positive, friendly and all business. Advised us to have 2 witnesses to sign the back of the ballot in case signature is challenged (sometimes happens when you don’t write like you did in grade school). Spouse can be one of my witnesses and I his. Then we get a neighbor to sign as second witness. Thanked her and said “things work!”
Skepticat
I voted online yesterday and was so happy to do so. I always thank them for providing the service when I return the ballot.
Sloane Ranger
@Robert Sneddon: Thanks Robert. Just one slight correction, the R in this case stands for Rex, being the Latin form for a King, Regina is the female version
Actually, after I wrote that post I did a bit of research, apparently about 150 post boxes were produced during Nazi Ed’s reign but only about 20 were actually deployed. As is usual in the UK there are sad people who make it their life’s work to visit each one. I once went on holiday to the Isle of Wight and there’s a post box museum there. The E VIII post box is one of their prize exhibits.
Shana
@Redshift: Isn’t it nice having Democrats in charge in Virginia?
Hubby and I both requested absentee ballots which arrived today. I’ve filled mine in and just await the witness’ signature. I’ll probably take it to the Government Center (the afore-mentioned place with the hours-long line outside and the 1 1/2 hour wait once you’re in the building) once all my Rosh Hashanah cooking and eating is done. Hubby may vote absentee-in-person although I’m sure he doesn’t want to wait in a line like that.
Mousebumples
Wisconsin absentee ballots could be mailed out as of yesterday. Our ballots are still processing. I’m tracking the status online to see when they’re mailed out… Will drop in the Dropbox as soon as we get them.
Betty
@WaterGirl: Cool!
pattonbt
Just emailed in my Colorado ballot! I am proud of Colorado for having such an awesome and easy overseas voting process and they are always helpful in answering questions and confirming receipt of my ballot!
Biden, Hickenlooper and DeGette (amongst many other offices and initiatives).
WaterGirl
@pattonbt: Congratulations!
Bruce K
My absentee ballot just went into an envelope at a courier office in Athens (Greece) for delivery to Manhattan. Expensive, but probably more reliable than the combination of the USPS and Hellenic Post.
So … I guess I’ve voted.
WaterGirl
@Bruce K: Yes, you did!
J_A
Early voting in Texas starts October 13 (which is one week earlier than normal, because of the pandemic) so I cannot get my sticker yet. But I wanted to note that Harris county (Houston) has substantially increased the number of early voting polling places.
it used to be the closest to my house was about 8 miles away (actually, walking distance from the office). Earlier this year, for the primaries, they opened another one, only file miles away, that I went to on my bicycle.
I checked for this election and the one I biked to is now only the third closest to me. Two new ones popped up. And the number of early polling places has more than tripled all over Houston. Good job, 100% Democratic Harris County.
Barbara
@Shana: I voted Monday morning, September 20, by going to the early in person voting station in Arlington. I got there just before the doors opened at 8:00 am and counted around 40 people in line. The line shortened considerably as they began processing voters.
Apart from president, Senate, House, and local elections there is a state constitutional amendment on redistricting. I voted “No” but I would not be surprised if it passed. Supporters just don’t want to acknowledge its flaws, saying, “It’s better than it was,” except forgetting that whatever flaws it has will be enshrined in the state’s constitution and that much more difficult to change. There were actually people working the line (outside the no politicking zone) to get people to vote no, which is kind of unheard of in Virginia.
I think I am going to zone out for a while. SCOTUS reminds me how sick our system has become. So much of it no longer serves the public welfare.
Barbara
@Barbara: Oh Gosh, I guess today is September 21. Time flies when you’re having fun . . . Not.
Squeaky
The spousal unit and I filled out our absentee ballots last night and I walked them to city hall this morning. Voted!
PS
My wife and I voted this morning in Richmond, VA. We got there right at 8am when polls opened, and there were maybe 30 people in line. Everything went smoothly, and we were done in 20 minutes. The only downside is that the city only has one early polling center open until 2 weeks before the election, and it’s not accessible by public transit.
To echo Barbara above, I also voted no on the proposed redistricting commission. While I generally support taking redistricting out of the hands of the legislature, this proposal is so flawed that it’s worse than the status quo (which will be pretty favorable to Democrats for the foreseeable future).
Richmond has some interesting local elections, which have been scrambled in the aftermath of this summer’s protests. Levar Stoney is the incumbent mayor; when elected, he was seen as a young rising star, but he’s badly mismanaged the city and is now known locally for his corruption and incompetence. He’s being challenged by city council member Kim Gray, who is running on “law and order” and slashing city services; she’s very Trumpy, frequenting right-wing radio shows and hiring private security goons to harass people. A young organizer, Alexsis Rodgers jumped into the race over the summer running on a very progressive reform platform. She would be a great mayor, and I have been volunteering for her, but I don’t know if she has the name recognition to pull it off.
Sorryforlaughing
Delurking to say I put my Indiana absentee ballot in the mail yesterday, September 20. It’s a blue drop in a red-state sea, but at least Lake County is solidly for Biden. Now we wait.
Juliet
Our household of 3 early voted Friday afternoon. Northern suburb of Minneapolis at the city hall. No line and easy peasy! I research all the down ballot candidates and tell the rest of the household who is best for our values. That way we don’t vote for the home school supporter for the school board!
Momentary
I voted, by post all the way from Wales, ballot in the post today. Thanks to California for letting overseas voters download and print their ballots!
WaterGirl
@Sorryforlaughing: Congratulations, and yay for delurking!
Great nym.
WaterGirl
@Juliet: Good for you!
School boards and judges are the races that sometimes catch me by surprise.
WaterGirl
@Momentary: Love all our expats stepping up to send their ballots in right away!
Shana
I dropped off our ballots at the Government Center in Fairfax, VA today around noon. The line of folks waiting to vote was HUGE. There are large parking lots on either side of the main entrance to the building and the line went all along the length of the parking lot on one side and then back again in the opposite direction the whole length of the parking lot. 4 hour wait at least. Both sides had tents set up with signs. The Rs had lots of yard signs set up and about 4 people at the tent but I couldn’t tell if they were staffing it or visiting. The Ds tent had 2 elected officials: Eileen Filler-Corn and Dick Saslaw in attendance along with about 6 people staffing. We’ve printed up large signs, about 2′ wide and 3-4′ tall with the sample ballot along with recommendations on the ballot initiatives and bond issues. People are encouraged to take a photo of the sign to refer to inside although there were also printed sample ballots they could take too.
Granted, Fairfax County is more solidly blue than other parts of the Commonwealth, but it’s still a good sign.
gbear
Early voted in person in St. Paul MN this afternoon. Apparently I lucked out and missed the long line around lunchtime. About 15 voters in front of me and at least that many people making sure things ran smoothly. No surprises.
I voted for ALL the democrats.
WaterGirl
@Shana: Glad you voted but sorry there was a long line. Were people masked?
WaterGirl
@gbear: Timing is everything! I bet it felt good to vote against Trump.
Draco7
I voted in person absentee in Minnesota today. Had sent my application for a mail-in ballot weeks ago, but could not wait another 10-14 days. My prior application was duly “spoiled” by the election judges, and my ballot accepted. I had to vote for the most conservative party vs. the radicals – odd that the names have changed.
WaterGirl
@Draco7: First day of voting here is Thursday. Can’t wait. I hope it’s not crowded. Yet I hope a ton of people come out to vote on the first day. Conflicting emotions! :-)
Shana
@WaterGirl: Largely masked. I didn’t have to wait since I was just dropping our completed ballots off in the guarded and locked box.
WaterGirl
@Shana: Oh, good!
Bufflars
Lurker here. Spouse and I received our WI absentee ballots on Monday, completed them and dropped them at the village drop box yesterday.
Reboot
Voted today, early and in person, at the Office of Voter Registration–our first national election here in Virginia. Short ballot, and everyone wore masks without complaint and moved right along. Fingers crossed for November 3rd, but so far, so good! ?
WaterGirl
@Bufflars: Maybe you should get two stickers because you both voted!
WaterGirl
@Reboot: Oh my gosh, you voted twice? Early and in person? :-)
Just kidding, of course. Only a moron wouldn’t know that was one person voting in person, early. (yes, that is a direct reference to the morons in this administration.)
BarbR
I got the mail-in ballot yesterday and I completed it & dropped it at the post office within the hour. This is also the first time I’ve voted by mail due to Coronavirus. This is the most important vote of my lifetime.
Joe Falco
I voted today. I received my absentee ballot this week, filled it out then took it to the drop box by the election office. Make Georgia Blue this year! ?
WaterGirl
@BarbR: Congratulations!
WaterGirl
@Joe Falco:
From your lips to dog’s ear!
mali muso
I voted yesterday in Virginia! DH and I had received some third party’s application for absentee ballots in the summer and filled it out, but apparently they didn’t do a good job of instructions because our applications were not complete and were just sitting at the Registrar’s office. After checking multiple times online to see where my ballot was and finding no record of it, I went down to the Registrar in person and they located it. It was simple enough for them to destroy it and give me an early in-person ballot, but I’m a little apprehensive about others being in the same boat and not checking to find out where their ballot is.
Reboot
@WaterGirl:
?
Thanks for my sticker (I miss getting one IRL)!
WaterGirl
@mali muso:
Can you contact state or local officials or the media or do something to help publicize the fact that this is happening and people are not automatically notified if there is a problem with their ballot.
Or find out if they CAN notify people when there is a problem, and ask why they are not doing those notifications?
WaterGirl
@Reboot: Everyone who votes deserves a sticker! :-)
mali muso
@WaterGirl: Great question! I will see about contacting the local Dems about this. I’ve already been posting about it in some of the local FB groups I’m part of.
Mousebumples
My vote is officially ready to be counted. Dropped off yesterday at the drop box and confirmed received and accepted last night.
Wisconsin doesn’t count any ballots until election day, but it’s not like my votes were at all in question. Nice to have it taken care of. ?️
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
I voted absentee in Indiana and dropped it in the mailbox this morning.
My reason for voting absentee was lack of transportation to the polls because I don’t have a car and my county eliminated polling places in every precinct in favor of “voting centers”.
As backwards as Indiana sometimes is, I was surprised to find out that I can check online to see if the ballot was received or not, so I went ahead and dropped it in the mail instead of going to the clerk’s office.
If for some reason it doesn’t show up in the system in a few weeks, I’ll call the County Clerk and ask them about it.
ciotogist
I voted in Illinois today but my dumbass eyes skipped over the Fair Tax question because I thought it was voting instructions. It’s the very first item on the left.
feloniousferb
Voted in person (You GO Virginia!), Ashburn, Va on 21 September. (the Spousal Unit voted in person 23 September).
phein61
phein61: I voted in Champaign County, Illinois today, in person at the county clerk’s office.
I had requested an absentee ballot back in the before time, but all I had to do was fill out a three blank affidavit that I wouldn’t vote again, and I was good to go.
The voting for the first time was in the gymnasium at the county complex, and they needed the space. I’ve voted in southeast Urbana for over 30 years, and this is the first time there has been a line.
Voted straight Democratic and Yes on the Fair Tax. That meant I left one race (judicial) unmarked. The scanner caught that and asked if I meant to do that, which I thought was helpful.
Laura Too
I voted in person today at 980 Hennepin Ave. E. Minneapolis, MN 55414 City of Minneapolis building. I wore my Notorious RBG shirt, carried both of my RBG dolls and posted a pic on FB to encourage others. There was some fuckery with our address so after 30+ years being registered and 22 at this address we couldn’t vote in the primary. We went in person so as to have no issue. I also signed up to be an election judge (they don’t need me) and to staff the collection boxes. That they will probably need so I will get to do something besides register people to vote. Yay, I get another sticker!!
WaterGirl
@phein61: Are you sure you weren’t given a provisional ballot, rather than a regular ballot? I think that’s what happens if you don’t bring in the mail-in ballot. But I would love to be wrong about that.
I tried to vote at Brookens – got there 30 minutes early, and there was already a line. I waited for 45 minutes, but the only people who were coming out were the people who were tired of waiting.
I gave up and left, figuring I will go back mid-week next week when it isn’t so busy.
I have never had to wait before.
pat
I received my absentee ballot in the mail on Saturday and on Monday I took it down to the Town Hall (had to phone them to come unlock the door to let me in). I filled it out right there, took it to the counter where the clerk witnessed my signature, sealed it and kept it, hopefully until the day of the election when it will be opened and counted.
Wisconsin seems to only count ballots on the day of the election..
Honus
Voted via early voting in albemarle county Virginia 9/19/2020. Went to county office building to see what it looked like (Mrs. Honus and I were planning a field trip to vote later) and decided what the hell, I’m here. Took about 5 minutes. Showed my voter ID, got my ballot, put it in the machine and it was counted. Mrs. Honus voted Monday by dropping off her mail in ballot at the drop box in the same location
apparently about 25% of us here have done so to date.
Gravenstone
Voted absentee in WI. Sent the ballot in on 9/21 and it was marked as received on 9/23 – so no obvious USPS fuckery in blood red rural SE WI. Of course it won’t actually be tallied until election day, but it’s been banked.
John Barleycorn
I voted online from abroad in Colorado, and emailed my ballot back. It’s worked well before, and continues to do so now. I’ve been waiting about 47 months to cast this particular ballot.
WaterGirl
@pat: Omnes said last night that during any quiet moments on election day, they start feeding those ballots through the scanner.
So at least it’s not like Illinois where they can’t start doing that until 7pm on Nov 3.
WaterGirl
@Honus: Wow, are you saying that 25% of registered (or reliable) voters in your county have already voted?
WaterGirl
@Gravenstone: @John Barleycorn: @pat: @Honus:
Yay for voting at home and abroad!
phein61
@WaterGirl: It looked like a regular ballot, and was tabulated like a regular ballot. I’ll have the boys verify when they go to vote.
phein61
@WaterGirl: I went around 11:30, and although there was a line, it moved swiftly. I’m going to retrieve our youngest from Wesleyan next Tuesday, and we’ll hit Brookens around 1 pm.
WaterGirl
@phein61: Thanks, I would really be interested in the answer.
WaterGirl
@phein61: Turns out first thing in the morning on the first day was not a great choice!
For the first 30 minutes when I was waiting in my car, it was all people who are pretty old. Then it was one black woman who was wearing some sort of a wrap that nearly reached the floor, and she was wearing hug flooffy slippers. That raised my spirits.
Then after another 10 minutes or so, tons of black people showed up. So, basically old + black in the hour I was there. I’m not exactly sure what it means, but I thought it was interesting.
bs23
Looooong time lurker here, just voted from abroad in New Mexico, via email. Let’s hope this works!
WaterGirl
@bs23: It did!
The first comment by a new person has to be manually approved. But now that it’s been approved, future comments with this nym and email address will go right through.
Welcome! Thanks for voting, and thanks for telling us about it in this thread.
dougcb68
I voted in San Diego County using the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act procedure as I reside in Mexico. Very easy. I made my ballot application in July.
Early in September I was sent an email confirming my application had been received. Sept. 19 an email arrived with a URL and an access code for a web page that interactively recorded my votes, one contest per page (30 pages). Very easy to navigate both forward and backward. Once I was satisfied a ballot package in ZIP format was downloaded to my computer containing 3 files in PDF format: the completed ballot, An oath to be signed and dated and an instruction sheet in very clear and simple language. The ballot paper has all my choices listed in plain English as well as a QR code which I presume contains the information in a format suitable for machine scanning. When I scanned it with my phone it generated digital gibberish.
I printed out the Oath page, signed it, scanned it and faxed both the oath and ballot back to the Registrar of Voters using one of the many free fax web sites that are available on the internet. Yesterday I received an email confirmation that my ballot had been received and was being processed.
Easy and secure! Matching my signature to that on file on the registration card validates the vote. Since both the Registrar and I have paper copies of the ballot there is a secure audit trail that can’t be messed with by computer hackers.
prostratedragon
Just voted by mail in Chicago. Was going to deliver it to a dropbox, but my ballot arrived two days after it was mailed, and could be followed by a scan log, so I decided to take the chance. If they haven’t got it by late this week there’s still plenty of time to troubleshoot.
Rommie
I voted today by dropping off my Absentee Ballot with a Township Clerk in Michigan.
WaterGirl
It’s inspiring to see so many people voting as early as possible.
Chris Johnson
I voted, receiving a ballot in the mail, filling it out EXACTLY as specified and dropping the sealed envelope with the signed dated sealed ballot-envelope inside, into the corner USPS mailbox.
I voted in my pajamas, ‘cos I can get away with walking to the corner in pajamas if I don’t get too brazen about it. I suppose if I had really wanted to get funky, I could’ve waited until the wee hours of the morning and voted naked. :D good way to have your vote disqualified, though! so NOPE!
WaterGirl
@Chris Johnson: As long as you have pants on when you go outside, I think you’re good!
La Nonna
We voted by mail this morning, ballots are back on their way to Hamilton County, NY, in the heart of the Adirondacks. Good job, Hamilton County Board of Elections, we haven’t missed an absentee ballot in the 10.5 years of living in Puglia. Go Blue
rekoob
Voted in-person at the City of Richmond Registrar’s Office, which is in a new location in addition to an office in City Hall. No line, great set-up, friendly people. It would have been my parents’ 64th wedding anniversary today (29 September) and as I’m the last one at that address, it was poignant to recite it one last time. (My mother died recently and we’re selling the place.)
WaterGirl
@rekoob: ❤️
GregMulka
My in-person absentee ballot in MO is cast. I have voted for all the dems. GO JILL SCHUPP.
The wording for amendment 3 puts the reduction of allowed lobbyist spending at the top, without any of the math, and buries the attempt to abolish the non-partisan redistricting and hand it back to the governor at the bottom. I don’t care about cutting an allowed gift from $5 to $0 and reducing the max contribution for state senate campaigns by $100. I do care about the redistricting.
jeffreyw
We asked for an absentee ballot and got ours Friday. We filled them out over the weekend and then drove to the county courthouse and deposited them in the dropbox waiting for us curbside. They have a video camera on the box 24/7, the election authority removes the contents three times a day.
dnfree
We did in-person early voting at the Kane County clerk’s office in Illinois today. Beautiful but windy fall day for it. There was a steady line but it was not long. There was a separate line for people turning in absentee ballots in the lock box. There was an automatic device to take your temperature before going in to vote, and there was an awning over the line area with flags to indicate six feet of separation. Masks were of course required.
We have early voting in only two locations in the county right now, but starting two weeks before the election there will be many more, plus a mobile unit. I am so relieved to have it done with.
I don’t think I’ve ever consciously decided to vote for only Democrats before. I’m holding the Republican Party up and down the line responsible for this fiasco. (There was one Democrat I didn’t vote for—I left that race for a judgeship blank. The Democrat didn’t seem qualified and wasn’t rated as qualified by the local bar association.)
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: That’s great about voting, but especially about the video camera on the dropbox! And the contents being removed 3x per day.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: I hit that point about 2008, if not before. But we all get there when we get there!
Good for you for voting in person. I plan to do that, too, but it was too crowded when I went last Thursday on day one, so I left.
Florida Frog
We voted. Mr Frog and I dropped our ballots of at the Supervisor of Elections Office. Enthusiasm for Biden/Harris is sky high here in blood red NE FL
andy
Dropped my mail in ballot in the post box friday night right after work. We lucked out here in Minnesota. Our (DFL) Secretary of State waived the witness requirement for mail in ballots against MNGOP protests (they sued and apparently lost). Common sense won, hopefully it’ll carry over to the results, too.
Mo Salad
9/24/20 – first day of in person absentee voting in Michigan. Went to Dearborn City Clerk’s office, showed drivers license, requested ballot, stayed there and filled it out. I then put it in the City’s catch-all Dropbox outside.
Advice – do your research beforehand on minor races. I had to spend 15 minutes Google searching Dearborn School Board candidates and verifying which “non-partisan” State Supreme Court judicial candidates were “endorsed” by the Michigan Democratic Party.
WaterGirl
@Florida Frog:
I didn’t want you to have to share. :-)
WaterGirl
@andy: Good news for Minnesota!
WaterGirl
@Mo Salad: This minor races like school boards and judge retention are the ones that catch me sometimes, too.
I did my homework this time. All of it!
Phylllis
Filled out our absentee ballots this past Saturday & Hubby hand-delivered them to the elections office Monday. There is ongoing fuckery here in SC over the requirement for a witness signature on the ballot envelope. As of Saturday, had to be signed, as of yesterday, no signature required, but that’s being appealed to the Supreme Court.
Kev In France
Lurking here since Salon’s Table Talk folded.
Sent my absentee ballot on Tuesday from France to vote in Pennsylvania.
Got three phone calls from Democrat’s Abroad volunteers. I didn’t ask them all where they were calling from, but one was calling from Greece. Good job, D.A.
Ascap_scab
You can bank votes for Biden/Harris, Tina Smith (US Senate), Dan Feehan (US House MN district 1), Dan Sparks (MN Senate district 27), and Thomas Martinez (MN House district 27a).
Dropped my absentee in the mail today.
phein61
@WaterGirl:
My wife and two of our sons voted yesterday at Brookens (Champaign County, IL). They had not requested absentee ballots. All of our votes are now trackable through the County Clerk’s website, and all show the same thing:
Requested Sent Received
Daughter voted up in Rockford yesterday, by dropping off her absentee ballot in a drop box. Will pick up youngest son on Tuesday to vote here at Brookens.
Lapassionara
Mr. LP and I took our already filled-in ballots to the St Louis County Board of Elections office in St. Ann. They had tables and tents set up outside and it only took a few moments to do. Plus we got stickers! The drive over and back was longer than the process. Lots of people in line to cast votes.
WaterGirl
@Phylllis: I do not understand how they can be rewriting the rules in the middle of the game. If you cast your ballot under the rules that were in place that day, it should be good.
WaterGirl
@Kev In France: Waving to you in France. Thanks for voting!
Lurk less, comment more! :-)
WaterGirl
@phein61: Was Brookens crowded yesterday? I am thinking of going tomorrow, but would like to go when there’s not a line.
WaterGirl
@Lapassionara: I gave you another sticker anyway. :-)
phein61
@WaterGirl: My wife went in the morning, around 11, and said she was in and out in 10 minutes. Boys went around 4 pm, and said there was a little line, but that’s all, and they are not the most patient of young’uns.
Park around back, in the baseball field parking lot.
debit
My ballot here in Minnesota was put in the mail to me on Sept 18 and I just got it yesterday, Sept 30. It’s been filled out, signed and mailed today, Oct 1. I’ll be haunting the Sec of State website until I have confirmation it was received and cast.
WaterGirl
@phein61: I voted this morning. Stood in a well-distanced line for 15 minutes, but after that sailed right through.
I am going to shamelessly sticker myself!
Auntie Anne
Two more Biden-Harris votes here. Our ballots arrived yesterday, and I took them down to the county office this morning and put them in the drop box (DE allows you to drop off multiple ballots).
bbleh
Dropped off my ballot today, at Philadelphia City Hall!
Bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things.
Wanderer
Dropped off absentee ballot to town clerk today.
Wolvesvalley
My mail-in ballot arrived yesterday. The mailman picked it up today, all filled out. (Woohoo!) Now to monitor the online “ballot tracker” to see when it gets there.
JAFD
Hello, fellow jackals !
Cast my ballot on Friday, October 2nd !
Came on the 1st (along with those for the two people who’d lived here before me). Had to get up early that day, run some errands as the day brightened ovr Newark. So got home, had breakfast, took care of ‘do today’ stuf. Opened up ballot. Read instructions, filled out and signed inner and outer retun envelopes. Read thru ballot.
If you were a NewJerseyite, you could vote for these tickets:
Roque ‘Rocky’ de la Fuente & Darcy G. Richardson – Alliance Party
Gloria Estela la Riva & Sunil Freeman – Socailism and Liberation
Bill Hammons & Eric Bodenstab – Unity Party America
Don Blankenship (?!?!?!) & William Mohr – Constitution Party
And for Senate:
Veronica Fernandez – Of, By, For!
Daniel Burke – LaRouche Was Right
and the Greens and Libertarians, too
However, there were no third-party nominations for the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders At Large. Daarn
Also two amendments to the State Constitution – legalizing marijuana, and allowing delaying redistricting if Census data is delayed.
So, filled out circles, inserted , sealed. Decided that taking my predecessors’ ballots to Board of Elections can wait, so walked to deposit box outside City Hall, dropped it in, took selfie. Walked home Beautiful afternoon. EcuaDominican Restaurant had singer and guitar player at their outdoor cafe, happy hour, sounded fine.
One problem, I live in senior citizens’ residence. With NJ going to elections-by-mail, lot of people received ballots here who are no longer on earth to cast them, current residents just tossed those ballots into mail-room trash pile. Temptation to unscrupulous. Suggestions ?
Have a great October, everyone !
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon: … and, it’s in! Got confirmation e-mail yesterday (I think: the days, they do blend) that my vote was received and validated and will be counted.
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: Feels good, doesn’t it?
Pete Downunder
Voted by mail to CA from Australia. Very efficient. They just emailed me to say ballot received and will be counted.
lol chikinburd
Dropped my envelope in my jurisdiction’s dropbox on Friday, the 2nd.
A Good Woman
Mail-in ballot but used dropbox at BOE HQ. Received email that ballot in hand and will be counted!
PST
I voted October 2 at the “Loop Super Site” in Chicago. Other early voting sites will open across the city October 14. There was a short line outside, maybe 5 minutes.
WaterGirl
@Pete Downunder: You ex pats are doing yourselves – and all of us – proud this year with all the early voting. Thank you.
WaterGirl
@PST: Here in Champaign IL, all the regular locations won’t open until Oct 19.
arielibra
We took our ballots to the drop box last night. Now to wear out the refresh key on ballot tracker and Joe’s health.
Catherine D.
Just dropped off my NY absentee ballot in person at the county board of elections. The clerk opened the outer envelope, checked that the name printed on the front of the inner envelope was the same as the signature on the back, and added it to a very substantial pile. It was only 10 am.
LuciaMia
Dropped mine off Saturday. Hope its my own personal nail in his coffin.
JaneE
My husband and I just dropped ours off at the ballot drop box about an hour ago. It sounded like it was about a third full already. Technically early voting didn’t start until today, but we got our ballots Friday and have been holding them since then.
Sister Golden Bear
Just dropped my mail-in ballot (my county has exclusively mail-in for a couple years) in the ballot drop box outside city hall.
Waiting for the text messages I signed up for to tell me when it’s reached the county elections office, and when it’s been verified and eligible to be used in the election.
KithKanan
Just dropped my mail-in-ballot in the drop-off at the County Clerk-Recorder’s office.
edmund dantes
The wife and I voted…
When I got the ballots out of the mail box I joked about “I’m just going to vote Trump for you”
“Over my dead body” and not in a tone that indicated any joke in it.
Not that it matters other than running up the score in California.
https://balloon-juice.com/?attachment_id=301894
Winston
Got my ballot in the mail Oct 5, filled it out and it should be picked up by the mailman Oct 6. I will give it a couple of days and then start checking to make sure it is received at Election Central. Whoopee. ???
WV Blondie
I forgot to do this sooner – I hand-delivered my husband’s and my ballots to the registrar’s office last week. Took my neighbor with me so she could do the same. (In WV a person can only deliver two ballots, or I’d have saved her the trip.)
Trapped Lurker
I dropped off my ballot at the drop box at the local high school in Laurel, Maryland yesterday, and my husband just dropped his off today. So two more to run up the score in Maryland. There was a cop hanging out in the parking lot watching the box.
I wish there was a way to track when it is picked up and counted, but I don’t think Maryland has set anything like that up. At least the state decided to start counting absentee ballots before Nov 4, which was the plan before.
arielibra
@Trapped Lurker: The Maryland ballot tracker is here: https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/VoterSearch
JanieM
Just voted — early absentee, in person, in Maine.
coredump
Long time lurker. Dropped of mail-in ballots here in San Diego, CA. Wife, son and my votes are in. Looking forward to a rout of the orange clown and the party that enabled him.
Humanities Prof
Two votes in the books for the good guys. Took the Eldest Offspring and myself down to the County Board of Elections on the first day of early voting in Ohio. Line in our (smallish, predominantly rural) country was backed up about 75-100 feet out the door, with all in line masked and socially distanced. We were in and out in a little over 20 minutes. Everything seemed to be moving smoothly enough despite the unusual circumstances, and after a well-publicized fiasco in 2018, our county has now switched back to paper ballots with optical scanners, so opportunities for chicanery should be limited.
geg6
My John and I just dropped our ballots off at the county elections office with two more votes for Joe Biden in PA!!!! And every Dem on the ballot. So glad to have that off my plate.
SusePgh
Delurking for my sticker! I miss those. :-(
Voted by mail last week, verified online today, in PA, go blue all the way! Me and my Mike, 2 more for Biden/Harris (and all Ds downballot)
Benson Bunny
I put my ballot in one of the drop boxes on September 30. I checked the county website on October 4, and it had been accepted. I’m in!
JeffH
Placed my completed absentee ballot in the Gwinnett County Board of Elections drop box. Saw multiple other people heading to the box to drop off ballots as I was walking between it and my car.
BK in NJ (was BK in NC)
Got my ballot in the mail yesterday. Started to fill it out and went into immediate brain-shart by carefully filling in the bubble next Trump’s accursed name. Ripped it in half and took it today to the county clerk’s office, where they shredded the original ballot remnants and have me a new one. Got that one completed correctly and dropped in the drop box in town this evening. Also took my son’s ballot to the UPS store and over-nighted it to him at college with a prepaid return overnight envelope so I can drop off his vote too. Also dropped off my daughter’s ballot.
Do I get two stickers?
WaterGirl
@SusePgh: Everybody needs a sticker!
WaterGirl
@WV Blondie: Go you!
WaterGirl
@Trapped Lurker:
That’s great news! In Illinois, they can’t start counting votes by mail until Nov 3 at 7pm, so I voted in person. Wasn’t crazy about that, but it was worth it.
WaterGirl
@coredump: Lurkers doing a great job of voting early. Ex pats, also.
WaterGirl
@Humanities Prof:
Yes! Is that true for all of Ohio?
WaterGirl
@BK in NJ (was BK in NC): Yes, you do!
Middlelee
I voted in person today, wearing my black t-shirt with the RBG collar. I shall wash it and put it away until the election in 2022.
It was so great getting guidance for the California propositions.
BCHS Class of 1980
In Hillsborough County, FL, my wife and I are on the vote-by-mail list. As BC can attest, if you get past the voter suppression and poll taxes of Floriduh, the system isn’t too bad. We got our ballots, voted for Dems, looked up progressive recommendations for “non-partisan” races, looked up fundamentalist recommendations on judges and did the opposite. ? We dropped off the ballots at the local election office on Friday the 2nd, since early-voting drop-off isn’t a thing until the 19th. As of today, HillCo has our ballots marked as “received.”
Rusty
Mailed my absentee ballot on Monday. This has been a really crappy year, lost my job, found another but a seven hour drive from the family, so weekend dad for what will be a long stretch. Pandemic, life upheaval and more. Hopefully this vote is a step back toward a sane world and then a sane life. The move means voting in NH instead of NY, so it helps more with this election.
Oklahomo
Voted today; got the absentee ballot last week and turned in my voter’s packet this morning at the county board.
Humanities Prof
@WaterGirl: I don’t believe so, no. I’m pretty sure decisions on voting equipment still get made at the county level.
What happened in 2018 was that the old voting machines were improperly programmed, and anybody who voted early in-person (which was, I think, about 2600 people) had their votes categorized as provisional and not included in the original count. This wouldn’t have altered the outcomes in any races, but it was a MAJOR black eye for the BoE when news came out about six weeks after the election.
It’s tempting to say that this was an attempt at election shenanigans, but I think it’s much more likely that it was simple incompetence. The (now-former) head of the Elections Office was a well-connected RWNJ who got her job because she was the wife of one of our other county bigwigs. But this screw-up was so public and so obvious that she couldn’t survive it, and she got shitcanned by the Board in a public meeting. Our new Director is, by all accounts, much more competent and much more professional.
WaterGirl
@Middlelee: Nice way to honor RBG.
Yeah, those propositions, initiatives, amendments, etc can get overwhelming, particularly when some of them are written with the express purpose of obfuscating what they really do.
WaterGirl
@Rusty: All that would be really tough in any year, let along during a pandemic. May we all be in a better place soon.
WaterGirl
@Humanities Prof: If that is all decided locally, that means that all those local and county races – that a lot of people pay no attention to – can have a huge and direct impact on our voting rights.
Eural Joiner
I voted! Columbia, South Carolina, absentee in person…and there was a line on this, the first day the polling location was open! (Also, my wife who went with me…do I get two stickers?)
SteverinoCT
My ballot arrived from the town clerk on Monday, marked for $0.65 postage. I dropped it off at Town Hall at lunchtime, and there seemed to be a steady flow of masked voters to the outdoor box.
Cheryl Rofer
I voted in person at the Santa Fe Convention Center, which is open for Absentee in Person voting. I had about a 45 minute wait. According to the machines, about 1000 people have voted there since voting opened yesterday.
Feels good to have my vote in the machine.
WaterGirl
@Eural Joiner: Of course you get two, since you asked so nicely! :-)
Kathleen
I filled out my mail in ballot today in Ohio and dropped it off at the Hamilton County Board of Elections!
Eric NNY
I just dropped my ballot at the post office in NY today! The postal worker was disappointingly stoic but couldn’t dampen my mood!
Percysowner
I voted in person, at Board of Elections Franklin County Ohio. Lots of voters with masks for about a 20 minute line to vote.
Cheryl from Maryland
Just back from dropping off our ballots at the Board of Elections Drop Box in Montgomery County, MD. People taking selfies at the box.
WaterGirl
@Eric NNY: @Percysowner: @Cheryl from Maryland:
Thanks for the voting reports from on the ground.
TMinSJ
Got my absentee ballot yesterday, filled it out immediately and am dropping it in the nearest drop box as soon as work won’t miss me this evening!
Luckily CA believes in voting, so there are drop boxes all over the place.
Karen H
I voted! My husband and I dropped off our mail in ballots today at the Bexar County Elections office here in San Antonio. Gov Abbott has only allowed one drop off location per county, in our case over a million registered voters. We waited in line about 20-25 minutes. Early in person voting begins Oct 13 and they will begin counting mail in ballots then.
Everyone was masked and socially distanced and had temperature checked at the door. The clerks had plexiglass shields. In Texas “drop off” means show ID, have the clerk fill out your information on a log which you then sign. It all went smoothly and now I’ll be checking online to see when it’s counted.
Scout211
We voted! Two California votes for Kamala!
My husband and I dropped our ballots in the county elections drop box located nearest to our rural home. The nearest box is inside the Ace Hardware Store. That always amuses me. For the primary, it took about a week for the ballots to be marked received on the county elections website after we dropped them in the box at the Ace Hardware. It still feels safer than the USPS even though it’s probably not any faster.
I just sighed with relief when those ballots were inside the box.
KithKanan
Update: Received my Ballot Tracker notification this afternoon that the ballot I dropped off on Monday was received and will be counted. I believe that means it passed the signature check and is in a stack waiting to be scanned.
WaterGirl
@TMinSJ: I am assuming you were able to mail this tonight. :-)
WaterGirl
@KithKanan: Yay!
FelonyGovt
My husband, daughter and I all voted today in California by completing our ballots and dropping them off at our local drop off box. Feels good to have my vote in.
Eljai
I voted in California yesterday by dropping off my ballot at a drop box a few blocks from my house. There was a person ahead of me and another dropped their ballot in after me. In my unscientific analysis, people are anxious to vote the mutherphucker out!
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt: @Eljai:
So nice to wake up to more votes!
Eunicecycle
I voted in Ohio today! Straight Democratic of course. My husband too. Ohio only allows one polling place per county, but it was well organized and we were in and out quickly. Then got our flu shots!
TMinSJ
@WaterGirl:
Of course! Dropped it off last night, per the posted schedule should be picked up today. :D
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Southeastern PA here.
1:05: Ballots arrive in the mail!
1:15: Ballots filled out
1:20: Signed, sealed, declarations filled out, all procedures checked and double-checked.
1:50: Dropped off at the county election office. There was a steady stream of voters dropping off ballots.
Now it’s time to obsessively watch the tracking website till it shows as “Recorded”.
Matt McIrvin
Dropped off my mail ballot at the drive-through drop box behind Haverhill, Massachusetts City Hall. Because of the long weekend, it may be Tuesday before I know if it was accepted. If something goes wrong, I will have another go during the early-in-person period (this is the advantage of early voting, at least in my state–you do get additional bites at the apple if there’s a problem).
WaterGirl
@TMinSJ: :-)
laura
Just back from Sacramento County BOE. Even though the ballots are postage paid – to risky to mail. Even though our voting location is a short bike ride away it doesnt open till 10/31. Roadie brother the younger is swinging by in the morning to go over his ballot and he’ll drop his. Finally, the chance to physically reject this pigshagger! And now the waiting is the hardest part.
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yay!
HumboldtBlue
I just returned from running errands which included dropping off my ballot at the election office. Time for beer.
Wyrm
Voted by drop box in Silver Spring, MD…. won’t matter for much except the county races, but would have crawled over broken glass to vote out the shithead.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin: Update: it’s now listed as accepted. That was quick.
Jinchi
I voted today. Dropped off my ballot at a designated dropbox and saw a steady stream of other voters in the few minutes I was there. At this rate, my town will have entirely voted a week before election day.
James E Powell
I voted today. Dropped my ballot in a drop box at my local library. I vote a straight D ticket as I have for every election since 1974.
mdblanche
Ballot arrived in the mail this afternoon, filled out and dropped off at the local mailbox in time for the evening pickup. Now keeping an eye on the RI Secretary of State’s website for confirmation they received it.
There go two miscreants
Voted yesterday in Montgomery County, MD. Deposited my ballot in the nearest official drop box. I will check mid-week next week (and thereafter if needed) to see status. I had originally intended to vote early in person, but MD changed the rules so that vote-by-mail ballots will be processed before Nov 3, so they should be included in the Election Day totals.
Fair Economist
Myself, my husband, and my son, by dropbox at the local library, last night. 3 days after getting my ballot instead of the next day I’d wanted, but I had to nag my son a bit to get him to cast his first ballot.
WaterGirl
@There go two miscreants: Good job, Maryland! I wish IL and other states would do the same.
WaterGirl
@Fair Economist: Glad you were there to nag him, if that’s what it took!
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
My husband got his mail-in ballot Monday, October 5, and I got mine Tuesday evening, October 6. We filled them out and I dropped them in the drop-box at the Potomac early voting center in Montgomery County, MD. There was a line of older folks, even at 11 in the morning on a weekday!
My live-in son & daughter-in-law will vote early-in-person 10/26, assuming they’re well.
VFX Lurker
I voted! I live in Los Angeles County. I anticipated my ballot mailing on October 5th, even though California allowed its counties to mail ballots earlier. I spent last Saturday filling out my sample ballot, expecting to get my ballot days later. Then I received my ballot on that same Saturday, October 3rd. ?
I spent the next Sunday afternoon (Oct. 4th) filling out the entire ballot and dropped it off in its signed and sealed envelope at my nearest secure Los Angeles County drop box. Two hours after dropping off my ballot, I received my belated BallotTrax notice that my ballot had been mailed to me. ?
Because I bypassed the USPS to return my ballot, I received no BallotTrax update that my ballot was on its way. ? Los Angeles County started retrieving ballots from its drop boxes on Wednesday, October 7th. Late last night, on Friday, October 9th, I received this BallotTrax text message:
In fifteen years of voting by mail, this was the first time I used a secure Los Angeles County drop box instead of USPS. My USPS mailbox on the nearest street corner is closer than the secure drop box that was little more than one mile away. I’ll likely go back to using USPS to return my ballot after our postal service gets its mojo back. For now, I’m glad my vote will count. ???
Glidwrith
Husband and I both dropped off our ballots at the library today, San Diego, CA. Felt like I was handling the Holy Grail.
WaterGirl
@VFX Lurker: Thanks for doing that. Every vote matters.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Wife and I just dropped out ballots off at the library.
Kim Walker
I voted in the PA election by mail from Canada. Had a lot of difficulty accessing my email ballot. The PA help desk was very helpful and was finally able to download it. Husband did his too (no trouble). Yeah!
WaterGirl
@Kim Walker: Perseverance!
Greg Ferguson
Sent in my mail ballot here in Tucson on Friday – picked up by our loyal mailman yesterday. .AZ starts counting mail ballots weeks before election day proper, and is very experienced with the process. I have no anxieties about that.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
I voted , just finished, and put my mail-in-ballot in the box in albuquerque.
Falling Diphthong
I got my absentee ballot Saturday morning, filled it out, and delivered it to a ballot drop box. Done, banked, health can go sideways and my vote still counts. Whew
ETA: I’m in MA. Instructions clear, including a hand-added highlighter mark for where my signature goes and a website I could check to find a ballot drop box in my town. Voting everywhere in the US should be this straightforward.
evap
Voted early this morning in Georgia!
WaterGirl
@Greg Ferguson: I am so jealous of the states that start counting the ballots when they come in. The whole reason I voted in person was that I wanted my ballot to be counted when I voted rather than at 7pm on Nov 3.
WaterGirl
@evap: Georgia early voting stared today. Go Georgia!
NicaKnit
My completed ballot is on its way from Guatemala to Texas, leaving today via DHL!
Felanius Kootea
Missed this earlier – my husband and I voted in CA last week Wednesday (10/7/20) by dropping off our ballots at an official ballot drop box in front of our local public library.
Redshift
I Voted! Dropped off my ballot back on September 29, but I finally remembered to look up this thread. I also found out how to track drop-box ballots, and confirmed that it was received. (The “track my mail-in ballot” site that everyone gets directed to was a little unnerving, because it only shows USPS scans, so it had nothing after “your ballot was delivered.” But I figured out where to check instead.)
Virginia doesn’t start counting mail/drop-off ballots until Election Day, but they do check signatures and stuff when the ballot is received and (new this year, thanks to us putting Democrats in charge!) contact voters to “cure” any problems. They’ll start scanning ballots first thing in the morning on Election Day, and I don’t think they’ll have any trouble getting them all done, but I don’t envy the election officials who have to spend all day feeding hundreds of thousands of ballots into the scanner/tabulator.
Taken4Granite
New Hampshire allows “fear of COVID” as a valid reason for getting an absentee ballot, so I did. Voted it, walked it to Town Hall, about a 10 minute walk from my house (in NH election details are broken down by municipality rather than county), and have verified that the Town Clerk has received my ballot. Biden, Shaheen, Pappas (NH-01 rep), Feltes for governor, an Executive Council candidate (something apparently unique to NH), plus state legislator and county offices.
Joy in FL
I dropped my Vote by Mail ballot at my county Supervisor of Elections on Oct. 5. It felt really important this year. Because it is.
Embra
I voted in Pennsylvania–dressed my naked absentee ballot in its stylish outer envelope and dropped it off at the district election drop box. Feelin’ *righteous*, baby!
Central Texas
Received Vote-by-Mail ballot on Oct 8. Dropped it off at the remarkably efficient and well-run Travis Co. Offices’ drive in drop off on Oct 9. Done.
ps. Travis Co. Mailed the ballots for my precinct on Oct 7 and mine was in my mailbox on Oct 8, so that part of the Vote-by-Mail is working locally.
Sandia Blanca
@Central Texas: I also voted by mail in Travis County; my ballot arrived on the 6th, I filled it out and mailed it (at the Post Office, just to be sure) on the 7th, and by the 9th, the county tracker showed that they had received it. Now I can stop worrying about my vote, and I’ll be working the voter hotline during early voting to make sure others are able to exercise their rights.
Ken
Received vote-by-mail ballot, decided to do early voting instead so drove to the county site. The wait was about 30 minutes. Exchanged the ballot for an identical one, filled that out and dropped it in the box.
the pollyanna from hell
Denver voted on bicycle. Drop box center of street fully femmed at 14th & Bannock. 100m. from Sat. deadly shooting vs. mace can (I judge from pictures.)
jackmac
My wife and I just did early voting in our far west suburban former Republican now turning purplish county. On Monday’s (Oct. 12) first day of expanded early voting in Illinois, my precinct alone had already recorded 105 votes in eight hours. The early voting location handled five precincts, but I didn’t know what the other figures were. Officials were very health aware. Masks required (of course) and social distancing a must. Upon entry, everyone had their temperature checked. After being checked in,m judges printed out a custom ballot for me, tailored to my precinct. I thought that was pretty cool. Also, the judges were highly competent, friendly and even joked a bit.
2liberal
I voted by mail from the PHX-burbs and signed up for the tracking. I sent my ballot by mail on Saturday figuring there is plenty of time to fix it if need be. Today I got my update that my ballot was signature verified and counted.
Jay Essel
Cleveland OH here – requested mail ballots weeks ago; they were mailed on 10/6, arrived 10/9, we filled them out 10/10 and dropped them off at the BOE on 10/11. We must have just missed Connie Schultz and Sherrod Brown dropping theirs off, going by the timestamp on her tweet!
Mike
I live in Arizona. Absentee ballots were mailed out on Oct 7 and I received mine in the mail on Saturday, Oct 10th. I filled out my ballot (straight Democratic) on Sunday the 11th and I took it to my county courthouse annex drop box this morning! I’m so looking forward to a massive Blue wave and as a result: President Biden!
VeniceRiley
I voted by mail. CA. Confirmed today that OC Registrar received 10/9 at ocregistrar.com/track
Hope the other counties have such an efficient way to confirm receipt!
AnneWith
Springfield IL: I voted early-in person, on 10/6/20. Minimal waiting.
Sure Lurkalot
I received an email that my ballot was in the mail on the 9th. I received it on the 10th, spouse and I filled them out yesterday, the 11th and today I biked them over to our usual drop box at a rec center about 1/2 mile away, then rode 20 miles along a canal trail with bright sunny skies and lovely fall foliage.
Should receive an email when my ballot has been received and accepted.
Colorado…vote by mail put in place by a Republican Secretary of State in 2013. I sincerely wish everyone could exercise their franchise so easily. The 6 hour lines in Georgia today…damn.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
I live in Ohio. Went down to the BOE this afternoon. It was a decent turnout from what I could tell. Lots of people coming and going. There were marks on the sidewalk outside and on the floor inside for social distancing. Sheriff’s deputies stood at the early voting entrance and took everyone’s temperatures. Masks were required for entry.
I was a little worried when I saw there were voting machines but it turned out that the machines were only for making selections via the touchscreen. A ballot to be scanned printed out with all of my votes on it, presumably for a paper trail. Only took 20-25 minutes.
Pretty much a straight DEM ticket! Aside from a few uncontested races I didn’t bother voting in, anyway.
It felt extremely cathartic to vote against the Goopers and especially Trump : )
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Dropped off our (my and my husband’s) ballots at the drop box just outside the Mendocino County (Ukiah, CA) Admin Center today (10/12). In other elections, I had walked the ballots inside to the Elections office to make sure the signatures are accepted, rather than mailing them (the country informed us about 10 years ago we were on permanent mail-in ballots). The dropbox is new this year. I had to wait about 5 minutes to access the box because several young, female voters were taking photos of themselves dropping their ballots into the box. Nice to see the enthusiasm.
WaterGirl
@AnneWith: Good for you! I just read this morning that Election Day is now a holiday in Illinois.
I did not want Pritzker because I am so sick of rich white men thinking they deserve office because they are rich, they are white, and they are male.
I voted for him anyway, of course!
But damn, Pritzker has been really good.
WaterGirl
@Sure Lurkalot: Georgia voting situation is a disgrace and a stain on our Democracy. They do it in plain sight, right out in the open, with no consequences.
Except that they win the elections. But I mean negative consequences.
Don K
Bloomfield Township MI – requested ballots in June when we requested absentees for the August primary. Voted straight Dem (we put the straight ticket box back on the ballot by voting for election reform two years ago YAY!!), plus selected judgeships (the contested ones), plus school board, plus proposals (nothing too controversial this year). Dropped the ballots for husband and me in the drop box at Townhip Hall this morning. Easy peasy.
Pupjoint
Just voted in person, straight D! Katy, Fort Bend County, TX. Had to wait in line 1 1/2 Hours, but it went smoothly. Voted using stylus on touch screen, which prints out on a paper ballot, which I inserted into a scanner on the way out. So, there is a paper trail. I was surprised at the line for early voting. I drive by the voting station (a high school) every day, so it will be interesting to see the turnout during the coming two weeks of the early voting period.
BrklyWest
Hello
I voted in Berkeley, Ca the day after I received my ballot.
Dropped it off at the main drop box in downtown.
AliceBlue
Two more votes for Biden/Harris and all the downticket GA Dems from me and Mr. AliceBlue. Voted early in person. We live in Meriwether County (very rural) so the whole thing took about 20 minutes.
blackmtn
Napa county, CA. We only have vote by mail. Just dropped mine off at the local dropbox.
K488
We both voted today (me and my partner, K414), early in person, in Bloomington, Indiana. Waited about an hour in line in beautiful weather with nothing untoward going on, and the process in the building once we were there was smooth. I cannot tell you how much better I feel with that done!
artem1s
Voted in person at the Cuyahoga County BOE in Cleveland. Lots of people in line even in the middle of the day on a weekday. There are great workers at that location and they had the system down. Not just the voting part, but also directing traffic and keeping the parking lots rotating and in order. They were all amazing!
Ohio may not swing blue for Joe and Kamala but I did get to vote for one of my favorite Ohioans to be on the Supreme Court – Jennifer Brunner. All of us in Ohio owe our expanded absentee voting and increased voting days to Jennifer who did a fabulous job when she was SoS in Ohio. She got robbed of the party endorsement when she ran for Senator – Ohio Dems backed a white man who barely campaigned instead. Glad she is back in public office and doing her part to bend the arc of justice. (fuck Rob Portman).
WaterGirl
@BrklyWest: Welcome!
WaterGirl
@artem1s:
Of course she did. sigh.
Sis
Voted yesterday, the first day of early voting in Georgia. I waited approximately three hours, which was nothing compared to the waits people in other parts of Atlanta experienced. I showed up around 11:30, and a poll worker told me that the line was even longer at 6:30 AM, a half hour before the polls opened!
WaterGirl
@Sis: 3 hours is a long time! Thanks for doing that.
I read that someone had to wait 11 hours. Ridiculous.
Dr. Fungus
Got my ballot Sat., dropped it off Sun. 7 a.m. at the Denver Nature N Science museum because science, with dog because she never got her ballot. %~}
Accepted for counting just now. I voted!!!
RandyG
My wife and I dropped off our mail ballots at the Pima County (Tucson) Recorder’s Office this afternoon.
J_A
I finally voted in the second day of early voting in Harris County (Houston) TX, at noon today
Voters in Harris County shattered the record for in-person ballots cast yesterday. on the first day of early voting, with more than 128,000 people voting, according to the county elections office. The previous record was set in 2016, when about 68,000 people cast votes there.
Harris County set up 122 early voting polling locations, which is probably three times what they usually did. At the one I went to today you had the option to walk in the polling station, or do curbside voting from your car (not all locations do curbside). Curbside was arranged for ten cars voting simultaneously.
Because I biked to the site -five miles from home- I went inside. There was no line ahead of me, but all four voting clerks were busy so I had to wait about two minutes (time for two more people to come). They had about 25 voting machines, which is good as it takes five minutes to go through the six pages of candidates, and check three times you didn’t vote wrong in any. I’m happy to point out that there were several positions for which there was only a Democratic candidate, and none with just a Republican candidate. I guess the GOP has given up on being competitive in Harris Co.
While waiting I was chatting with the Polling Site President, and he said today was less people than yesterday, and no problems today. On the con side, yesterday volunteers were delivering free chicken sandwiches to voters, which I know because I went by on my bike yesterday evening to check the system, but stupidly, didn’t carry my driver’s license – there were about ten cars queuing (three today) plus the ten voting, but no queue to vote inside.
James E Powell
Just now received email confirmation from BallotTrax that my ballot has been received.
cintibud
Voted in person – Hamilton Cty board of elections, Cincinnati O
Timed it right – busy but really no line when I came in about 9:45
stinger
Voted in person today. Johnson County, Iowa. Short, quick-moving line; I waited about 10 minutes. They’d been open for an hour and said business had been full and steady the entire time, with another 3 hours to go. I’d requested and received an absentee ballot (another story in itself) and had brought it with me, so I voted using those materials (ballot, inner folder, and security envelope). If I hadn’t brought it, I could still have voted but the workers said I’d have had to fill out a couple of extra forms/affidavits. I’ll start tracking my ballot tomorrow.
WaterGirl
@J_A: Thank you for taking the time to write that. Go Harris County! Impressive!
Scout211
@Scout211:
And both of our ballots were received and will be counted. Yay!
realbtl
Voted absentee here in Montana, dropped my ballot at board of elections. No line but steady flow.
WaterGirl
@KithKanan:
You deserve another sticker for following up! :-)
WaterGirl
@Scout211: You get another sticker for following up on your ballot, too.
LesGS
In San Diego, CA: My spousal-unit and I met our two kids (late 20s – early 30s) in a park for hole-in-the-wall Mexican take-out for lunch. (Masked except when eating.) We all brought our voting materials, went through the propositions, marked our ballots, and stuffed them in their envelopes. Then came the tricky part of signing the envelopes. Looking at our driver’s licenses to try to approximate our signatures (which had been made anywhere between 5 to 15 years ago on those pinche electronic screens), we took our best stabs at it. Then we walked a couple blocks to a library to deposit them in a drop box minded by two folks in masks (who made sure to inquire if we’d signed the envelope). Then we got ice cream.
WaterGirl
@LesGS: A family affair! Well done.
gvg
I voted. Florida. Dropped a mail in Ballot in the Supervisor of Elections drop box downtown On October 5th. Its been showing as received on line since Monday and I was fretting that it wasn’t showing as counted BUT today I read some detail on that site
Received — This will display two possible messages:
My arrow is BLUE so I’m fine!
Josie
My son and I voted early in Harris County (Houston, TX) this morning. We were fifth in line a few minutes before 7:00. Everything organized and running smoothly.
West of the Cascades
I voted!! My ballot arrived yesterday (in Portland, Oregon), after I received notification by email that morning it was on its way. I voted last night, signed the postage-paid envelope, and set it out for my mail carrier to pick up today. I should get an email in about four days confirming it was received … I have a note on my calendar for October 25 if I haven’t received confirmation, I can go into the County election office and get another one.
WaterGirl
@Josie: Lots of positive reports from Houston! Looks like they actually know how to hold an election with a process that works.
WaterGirl
@gvg: The DSCC is looking for people all over the country to help people “cure” their ballots that have issues.
I don’t know what the DSCC website is for that, but Pod Save America also has a signup for that.
Jackie
I voted! Got my WA ballot yesterday, voted all BLUE, and dropped it in the ballot box this morning!
Kineslaw
I voted today in person in Tarrant County in Texas. Line was an hour long. The longest I’ve ever seen it, but apparently this morning some of the machines were down and the wait was over two hours. I would love it if we just switched to paper ballots.
SoupCatcher
I dropped my ballot in an official California box on Tuesday, outside the Mountain View City Hall. I’m signed up for BallotTrax notification, and just received the following:
* edited to add
It took two days. Just in case it wasn’t obvious, only Democratic Party candidates earned my vote.
William D
I filled out my california ballot yesterday (thanks pacem appellent!), filled in the bubbles with black ink just like an in-person ballot. Voted for Biden of course and Ammar Campa-Najar for congress to take the seat vacated by campaign finance cheat/adulterer/pet bunny owner Duncan Hunter. Sealed and signed the envelope, then went with spouse (masked of course) to local County records office building. Was at first stymied by closed automatic door with a button to open it covered by a sign saying do NOT push the button, but then security guard let the two of us in. We deposited our envelopes in a redwhiteblue box by the front desk, which seemed secure (thanks security guard!). As we left the security guard let in what seemed to be a grandmother and her grandkids to come see her vote. No line/hardly any waiting.
WaterGirl
@William D:
I laughed. That does sound confusing!
grammypat
Dropped my absentee ballot envelope at the local PO
todayyesterday and had them postmark it in my presence. We’ll find out if USPS can carry it across ~250 miles of Texas wilderness within the next ~20 days. I seriously considered driving it there myself, but discovered that they do not accept absentee ballots during the early voting period. It has to be presented to the polling place only ON Election Day. Gawd, I hate Texas (Rethug) politics and politicians.Although “straight ticket” is no longer available in this state (I’ve never availed myself of that option), I voted for any and all Democrats. Unfortunately, I’m registered to vote in a blood-red county in East Texas (aka, Piney Woods region) and not every office had a Democratic candidate.
The Rethugs running for State Rep, District Judge, SHERIFF, County Tax Assess/Collect, County Commissioner, and Precinct Constable were all unopposed. The Board of Education candidate had only a Libertarian opponent. I declined to waste my vote for any.
guhm61
Dropped off my ballot at the closest drop off box ( a local municipal building in Lackawanna County (Pa) ) and received email notice last night that my ballot has been received and recorded ( not counted ,to be clear, that doesn’t happen until election day ). Pretty efficient.
tokyokie
Early voting began Tuesday in Texas. The spousal unit and I didn’t want to vote on the first day, and I had to work Wednesday, so we went Thursday. We were going to vote at the branch library — it’s nearby and I needed to return a couple of items — but the line was long, so we returned the items and headed over to the civic building in Forest Hill, a predominantly Black suburb just east of where we live in south Fort Worth. There wasn’t a line when we got there, probably because there were two rows of 20-25 voting booths each set up, and we were done with it within a few minutes. Like grammypat, I vote for the Democrat in each race in which one was running and didn’t vote in the races in which a Republican is running unopposed. And on my way out, I grabbed an extra “I voted” sticker and put it on our Siamese Marvin’s rabies tag.
As Texas trends purple, statewide elections have become battles between the urban counties — Harris (Houston), Dallas (Dallas), Bexar (San Antonio), Travis (Austin), El Paso (El Paso), and Tarrant (Fort Worth) and their surrounding suburbs — and the rural counties. Tarrant is the only one of the major urban counties that has been voting Republican. If Tarrant flips to the Democrats, then the Democrats will probably win the state. And the large crowds of early voters make me optimistic that that will be the case.
Kelly
Oregon vote by mail. Will deposit our ballots in the town library drop box later today. I received an email from Marion County Elections when they mailed them out. I’ll get another when it is received and accepted. If it is received and rejected I’ll have an opportunity to correct the problem. It’s never been rejected. I don’t know how the correction process works.
Faithful Lurker
WA state ballots came yesterday. Filled out today, straight Dems. And go to the County Courthouse Drop Box this morning. It felt like the old days when I just pulled the Dem lever. My husband voted too, so we need 2 stickers.
Mike E
NC early voting in person, picked a rainy day because I ain’t no fair weather patriot!!!*
*Actually, with 17 days and 20 different polling places to choose from, I try to go on an inclement weather day so I can avoid crowds… I voted at my 10th (at least) different location since moving here 23 years ago, a huge rec center 10 miles away from my apt. The whole round trip + voting took just one hour!
snoey
MA small town vote by mail here, just about as easy as it can be.
Ballots came yesterday, 2 day USPS service. We requested both primary and general election ballots on the postcard they sent us last August.
Filled them out straight D of course (other than Governor’s Council which shouldn’t exist). Only actual contest is for state rep, but the incumbent D should be OK.
Ran them up to the drop box at Town Hall – it’s closer than the Post Office anyway. Somebody else came as I was leaving, so call it heavy traffic for this town.
munira
Washington state – just put my ballot in the dropbox. Every state should make voting as easy as Washington does.
narya
Early voting in Chicago! I went to the location in my ward, and it was super well-organized–a ton of people working, an orderly procession through the stations, proper distancing, and the doors (it was a grade school gym) were open. I was thinking this morning that, if I were truly afraid (well, okay, I AM truly afraid . . .) I could actually skip this election, though I was NOT seriously considering not voting. And I immediately decided, fk that: my vote can stand for someone who cannot make it to the polls. And I wanted to vote for the fair tax. And it is my damn civic duty to add my vote to the pile. I actually found myself tearing up a little as I left the site–so many people showing up! To run the election, to vote. And, in part because of the multiplicity of races and ethnicities in my city, it was a little awe-inspiring to see so many different faces, all working on behalf of voting. Sorry . . . I’m going on too much.
grandmaBear
I put my absentee ballot in my one and only county Dropbox ( though I live in a small county in SW Ohio) so yay me! There was a long line for voting and masks seemed pretty pervasive though distancing not quite so well observed. Beautiful fall day here though. Depressing to see a bunch of minor offices with only gop candidates. We need to better with that.
zhena gogolia
Today, October 16, at 1:30 PM ET, my husband and I deposited our absentee ballots in the dropbox. Go Joe and Kamala!
Graham
Early voting – in person. Macon GA Straight Dem
BlueNC
Voted early in North Carolina! (Technically, it’s absentee, but really it’s in person but early)
skerry
Dropped my ballot in a drop box in Maryland today.
WaterGirl
@Faithful Lurker: One for each of you!
WaterGirl
@narya: Don’t apologize for that, I was happy to read it.
WaterGirl
@grandmaBear: Run for something! :-)
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Go you!
opiejeanne
I voted! And so did mr opiejeanne.YAY!
We’re in WA, so it’s vote by mail, just got our ballots, filled them out, and now we’re going to drop them off at the drop box at Redmond City Hall. We live halfway between that one and the one at the Woodinville Library.
Zzyzx
Wa state Dropbox. Read and voted down ballot. Hardest part was grabbing a mask.
https://twitter.com/zzyzx/status/1317232396387770369?s=21
gwangung
WA State dropbox. On lunch hour after all sorts of meeting this morning.
Photo!
RSA
I cast my early vote in Maryland this afternoon, at a drop box a few miles from home.
ewrunning
WA mail ballots arrived this afternoon. We immediately sat down and filled them out, then drove to the drop box outside our Seattle Public Library branch. A steady stream of people dropping of ballots while we were there.
WaterGirl
I’m seeing some Washington state action here today; everyone must have received their ballots!
Mandarama
Husband and I voted yesterday, the 2nd day of early voting here in TN. There was a line wrapped all the way around the library, and we waited for about an hour before getting in the building. The weather was beautiful and spirits seemed high for most of us in line! You could kind of tell the Trumpers because they were either wearing red MAGA hats or no mask/mask pulled down below nose. Jerks. But even though this is a red state, there were more of us. Hoping for a huge turnout wave election!
Also, this was my eighth presidential election with my husband. We disagreed and argued bitterly for the first four, but he got better. ?
Delk
Voted early today at my ward’s polling place. No waiting, no ID easy. I get sick to my stomach when I see crazy ass lines in other states. Biden, Harris, and Dick Durbin.
JaySinWA
I voted today at a dropbox, no lines no waiting here in Washington State.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: They mailed them out two days early, so some of us got ours today.
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: Good to see!
BruceFromOhio
Ordered up an absentee ballot the first day it was available. Got it on Tuesday 10/13, examined it VERY carefully (it was correct, thank you BOE). Took time to research the judges and local issues, filled it out, dropped it off yesterday. The line of people waiting to vote was impressive but orderly. The ballot drop off was orderly as well I didn’t even have to leave the car. Well done county BOE!
All in for Biden/Harris.
Jackie
@opiejeanne: I live in the Tri-Cities and was happily surprised to receive my ballot Wed!!! Dropped it off at the drive-by official ballot box on Thurs. There was about 5 cars ahead of me and more pulling in behind me. There were I Voted Stickers available!?
WaterGirl
@Jackie: You still get a sticker here. :-)
Ruckus
I’ve voted, dropped off my ballot at the drop box in front of the old city hall building. My buddies wife asked if I’d made sure it was an official, not a rethuglican drop box, and I was able to say, “Yes, yes it was!” No line, no muss, no fuss, just a nice walk there and back.
HinTN
Tennessee early voting started Wednesday and I arrived around 1415. There was a line like I’ve never seen in Franklin County. It took twenty five minutes to get to the registration desk, seven minutes (normal) to process through and three to cast my ballot. We’ve got a great candidate (he might well unseat the odious Scott – abortion for me but not for thee – DesJarlais) for TN04 and a good African American candidate (she probably won’t beat the Trump endorsed Rethug but she was the surprise winner in the primary) for the US Senate. Joe and Kamala won’t win Tennessee but by god they got one from me. Over 50% masked in the line
ETA – WaterGirl, I sent you a picture of our sticker.
HinTN
@Mandarama: I hope there’s a big enough wave (and some ticket splitters) to take Bradshaw to the Senate!
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Saw the interview with the young man who is running the Harris County election. He’s got a bright future whatever he chooses to do.
Wapiti
I voted. WA State. Received my ballot in today’s mail, filled it out, and just dropped it off at the Green Lake (Seattle) drop box. Will give a few days before I check the tracker.
Dahlia
I’m Dahlia and I just voted today. I dropped my ballot in a local drop box.
I feel much better now.
TEL
I filled out my mail-in ballot a few days ago, and took it to a dropbox today. I’ll add that it’s the official dropbox for our area since republican shenanigans in our state seem to be having the usual effect. I’m in the SF bay area California, so it won’t make much of a difference for the presidency or House, but we have a lot of propositions as well ?.
pacem appellant
I voted. Walked my ballot to the official dropoff at the library (not the weird Republican ones set up in socal). Now we bring it home!
WaterGirl
@pacem appellant: Not sure if you have noticed or not, but every so often in a thread someone will thank you for the info on the CA initiatives.
rose weiss
My ballot came in the mail yesterday and is now on my dining room table waiting for me to take it to the official drop box in town, a few miles away. Oregon has an all mail-in voting system which has been in place for years and is very efficient. It’s possible to vote in person at the county elections office, but almost no one does because the mail-in system is so quick and easy.
Freemark
Voted in PA. Took mail-in ballot to York County office. Took the rents with me too. Three votes confirmed and waiting to be counted on election day.
WaterGirl
@rose weiss: Post again once you drop off your ballot. I have a sticker just waiting for you! :-)
BretH
5th VA district, easy early voting at the county office building.
debbie
I missed that there would be this thread.
I voted in person in Franklin County in Ohio on Friday. The line stretched back forever, but it was constantly moving. It took 1.25 hours from leaving to getting back into my car. I can’t imagine the operation being any smoother than it was.
ab_normal
The Spouse and I filled out our ballots yesterday; Wednesday I have a day off so I’ll take the ~5 mile round trip walk to the library to put them in the drop-box there. Yay for Washington state!
fancycwabs
Voted Friday. Nashville, took 18 minutes.
Then went for a new Drivers License because mine was expiring and it’s Real ID time, and that took nearly an hour–longer if you count parking.
Noticed on the states “early voting counts” site that 117K/570K* in Memphis and 83K/450K* in Nashville have already voted.
____________
* Already voted / Registered Voters
ALurkSupreme
My spouse and I voted at the county elections office last Tuesday in Athens, GA. The whole thing took a little more than a hour.
soup time
I plopped my ballot into a drop box last Thursday at the Lacey WA city hall.
Not one reeking repug checked. Complete eradication is the only cure.
fancycwabs
For comparison, in 2016 the totals were:
Memphis: 238K/342K/568K (Early / Total / Registered)
Nashville: 173K/253K/406K
There’s still a week and a half of Early Voting to go.
CarolDuhart2
Ohio! First time I voted absentee. I had voted early since 2008, but no way I was going to stand in line this time. Well, my ballot was accepted on Friday! What a relief that is.
Greg
Michigan 2nd CD. Straight D
AM in NC
Early voted the first day of early voting in NC (this past Thursday) and am glad to have it done. Waited until the very end of the day, and the lines had gone down to 1/2 hour wait. Everyone was taking the safety measures seriously. Seems like in our blue part of the state early voters have been out in force.
WaterGirl
@ab_normal: Post again after you drop them off on Wednesday, and I will add your sticker! :-)
Orange is the New Red
Voted early yesterday in MA. It felt like we were putting tiny pinpricks into Dear Leader’s ego.
scav
Dropped my vote into the box behind the courthouse yesterday, came back for Blanquette de Limoux.
TJC
Lurker here in Cincinnati. I dropped off my straight Dem ballot at the Board of Elections along with my parents’ ballots. It was easy and all 3 ballots were accepted according to the BOE site.
tinare
Forgot to post last week. Turned my PA absentee ballot in in-person last Saturday, Oct 10th at the election office. I will be working the polls in my neighborhood on Election Day.
Geoboy
Here in Los Alamos, my wife dropped off her absentee ballot at the county clerk’s office Saturday morning, and my son and I voted in person Saturday afternoon.
WaterGirl
@TJC: Welcome! Now that you’ve commented, don’t be a stranger.
mad citizen
I voted in person Monday October 12, in the Hamilton County (Indiana) government center. My wife voted also. We did NOT cancel each other out–our votes are additive to the BLUE WAVE.
WaterGirl
@tinare: Thanks for working the polls on election day!
Grace
Forgot to come here last week. We voted last Thursday in Athens, GA, in person at the County Elections Office. Took about an hour. Blue for the win! Continuing to text bank and write postcards, and donate until it hurts. Going to see if the GA Dems still need poll watchers.
WaterGirl
@Grace: Go blue!
One More Red Nightmare
I voted last week in CO. Dropped off the ballot in the drop box at the county building. Go Blue!
trnc
I voted in person on Friday. I had gotten a mail in ballot just in case and I thought I would have to use it because the first couple of times I checked the in-person locations, the lines were pretty long. I wound up only having to wait about 30 minutes or so.
Everything went smoothly. My only minor gripe is that the boxes on the ballot that had to be filled in by pen are ginormous, so that took a while. Having a straight ticket option would have helped with that, but I understand that sometimes that leads to confusion so it’s probably better not to have it.
trollhattan
Trollhattan, wife and daughter (1st timer!) have all dropped off our CA ballots into county (not Republican) or university-provided early vote boxes. Plowing through all those propositions took a bloody week.
So that’s three total and now, we wait. I’m on a self-imposed TV and radio news shutdown.
chopper
the wife and i dropped our mail-in ballots in the drop box on saturday here in seattle. never been that excited to get a ballot in my damn life.
sheila in nc
I voted early in-person at the senior center on Sunday afternoon. Lines had been pretty long on Thursday and Friday (the first two days of early voting) but my wait on Sunday was only about 15-20 minutes. Husband voted Friday at a different site which had more booths — they are using the size of each location as a guide for how many booths can be set up in order to provide sufficient distancing. I’ll be working as a precinct judge on Election Day at the same site where I voted.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Special congratulations to your daughter for voting for the first time. For that, she gets a sticker of her own.
WaterGirl
@sheila in nc: Thank you for being a precinct judge on election day!
Mo MacArbie
Oh hey, didn’t know about this. Been on a mental health break. Anyway Dad and I both voted absentee in NC back in September. Dropped them off at the BoE; the website shows that they were accepted. Blue streaks, the both of us. Patricia Timmons-Goodson for Congress, John Kirkman NC Senate, Jason Cain NC House.
Schmendrick
Mrs. Schmendrick and I voted early, in-person on Saturday (the first day for early voting in Nevada.) We arrived at 11:00 am and there were about 85 people in line ahead of us (visible — outside of the voting tent which was set up in the park near our home.) It took us 35 minutes to get through the line to checkin in, and about 10 minutes to complete the process.
The system used touch screens to select your choices. At the end, your choices were printed and scanned and you then reviewed the selections as printed. In my case they were all correct, so I hit the submit button and my computer-generated paper ballot was stored for possible recounting — so I feel pretty comfortable about the election security in my area.
I spent a couple hours phone banking each of the last two Saturdays calling other likely Dem voters in Nevada to remind them about early voting and encouraging them to make a plan to vote.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Saintlywife
I early-voted Saturday (10/17) in Louisiana.
ducs4rs
I voted the day after I got my mail in ballot. Dropped it off at town hall. Checked it online a couple of days later and it was accepted. My wife voted in person today..
WaterGirl
@Schmendrick: Paper trails are good! We just have to keep at working on the election for a little while longer, and hopefully there will be a light at the end of the tunnel!
WaterGirl
@Saintlywife: Love your nym!
DCrefugee
I voted today in Florida. I requested and received a mail-in ballot, filled it out and then dropped it into a collection box at a nearby polling place. I’ll update as I track the ballot through the received and counted process, which Floriduh allows me to do online.
cope
I just turned in my ballot and my wife’s ballot (received by mail a couple of weeks ago) here in Seminole County, Florida. I went this morning a bit after 10 and left because the line was so long. What I did not realize at the time was that the line is just the in-person voters…no line for the mailed ballot drop off. I could have skipped the line this morning and gone straight to the mail drop box. At least it’s done. I will be tracking them online in the days to come.
pacem appellant
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the head’s up.
Leto
Avalune and I dropped our ballots today!!! They came Saturday, we filled them out yesterday, and dropped them off today!!! When we got there, we saw a lot more people dropping them off. Steady stream of people pulling up and dropping them off. We got word from our State senator, as well as Sec of State, that our ballots would arrive the end of last week, beginning this week, so I’m thinking the rest of our area also received them. Honestly, it’s a tremendous weight off our shoulders. Waiting to see how posters Croaker and frosty fair.
Miss Bianca
Stuck my ballot in the drop box this morning, first official day of early voting in CO!
TheOBP
We voted on Wednesday, the 14th, in Austin, Texas, in person. Neither of us were eligible for anything other than in person voting, due to the rules in TX. As I mentioned today on a thread, we used the Travis County website to find nearby polling places and get practically real-time estimates of the wait times at each. In and out in less than ten minutes! I highly recommend seeing if your area has this, if you’ve yet to vote.
WaterGirl
@Leto: Yay!
Hey, I know you’re in PA. I asked MazeDancer if she could put together a tweet to address the complicated rules for a valid PA ballot. I think it’s outstanding. If you tweet, can you maybe think about putting this out there?
(That goes for everyone, not just Leto.)
silvery
Mr. Silvery & I both voted by ballot drop-off on 10/16/20 in CO.
EveryDayIhaveTheBlues
I voted today in Cincinnati, OH at the Hamilton County Board of Elections Office in Norwood. As mentioned before, I became a citizen in 2017, so this is my first presidential election. Of course, Democratic Party down the line…
I’m especially pleased that someone like Kamala is on the ticket. That actually happens to be my Grand Aunt’s name! It’s also an exceptionally emotional moment for me because my son too is of mixed parentage, and her success illuminates the path for millions of immigrants and children of immigrants.
Fuck the republicans.
Leto
@WaterGirl: I don’t tweet but I do the book of faces and I’ve been posting voting related stuff for about two months now. I can add this to the information I’m sending out.
Uncle Cosmo
Earlier today I contributed a bit more than my stimulus cheque to various Democratic cadidates & party organizations & outfits promoting voter registration and voting and redistricting efforts.
IOW, I VETO’D AGOLF TWITLER and his evil spawn (Botox Barbie, Junior Undersample, and Eric the Dud) and all his vile enablers (Bill “Dis” Barr, Steven “Reinhard Heydrich Mini-Me” Miller, et al.). Seeing them all rotting in a SuperMax wearing Ivanka-label orange jumpsuits for the rest of their days on earth is probably too much to hope for, but hey, a guy can dream!
japa21
Mrs. Japa and I voted in our basically middle class suburb NW of Chicago today. Parked the car at 1:40 and got back to the car at 2:59. Lots of people. Was also interesting to see a lot of people bring their mail in ballots to the drop box there or bring in their unmarked ballots in order to vote in person.
WaterGirl
@EveryDayIhaveTheBlues: Thanks for sharing your story. It’s a little dusty in here.
WaterGirl
@Leto: Thank you!
WaterGirl
@japa21: Evil person’s note to self: Next time, do not announce, in advance, the plan to screw with the US mail to keep people from voting.
CliosFanBoy
voted in northern Virginia by dropping off my absentee ballot
KrackenJack
Dropped off our mail in ballots at a nearby city hall in California in Wednesday. Got receipt confirmation from the two days later.
WaterGirl
@KrackenJack: That’s great. Why can’t PA be that fast? :-(
LaméDuck
I voted by dropping off my mail in ballot in PA, I’m a big fan of the local dropbox.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Awww, thanks!
Checked the CA SOS vote status verification thingie–very easy to use–and learned my ballot is received, verified, and ready to be tallied. They’ll alert by text when that happens. Guessing our incoming SCOTUS justice will find this ease of citizenship disturbing, if not downright abhorrent.
KrackenJack
@WaterGirl:
The confirmation was by text message, so that’s even better than having to check a website. In retrospect, I’m glad I gave into my paranoia and went to a staffed collection site.
Timill
Voted in person in Tennessee. Only a 30-minute wait in Oak Ridge at 5:30pm; this morning it took my stepson nearer 90 minutes to vote.
Bumper
The three voting members of our household picked up our ballots from the Post Office on Saturday, completed them in the car, and gave them right back to the Post Office. We’ll check the local elections website later in the week to make sure they have arrived.
EveryDayIhaveTheBlues
@WaterGirl: Thank you! Yeah, I kept having to do the gag-choke thing while filling in my ballot, to keep the dust at bay :)
FlyingToaster
I voted!
Here’s my tweet from Town Hall.
As planned, I walked down the bike path to Town Hall, early voted, walked back up the bike path home. No line, no big deal, brought my own pen.
Haroldo
Howdy.
My wife and I voted – dropped off our completed ballots in the drop box in front of city hall.
Easy as pie – no lines.
david
Done. Early in-person voting in downtown Shreveport. Well over 100 people in line, but it was more of a “group slow walk” than a “stand in line” because the process was streamlined and quick moving. Maybe 30-45 minutes total from getting in line to exiting the building. All of the poll workers were very helpful at every stage of the way.
tybee
in person at approximately 1pm on 10/20/20
Jackie
@Jackie: Follow up to note my ballot was received yesterday (19th) and COUNTED today! As I live in Blue WA, I’m not concerned about the Presidential vote, but I’m hoping my blue votes in the deep red Benton County help make a dent. I cannot wait to see Culp (mini-Trump-wannabe running against Gov Inslee) totally humiliated and those signs removed!
mac8
I dropped off my absentee ballot yesterday (Ohio) and confirmed today that they received it. Fingers crossed that there are no issues and they accept it soon!
Another Scott
Just dropped off my absentee ballot in NoVA. There were maybe 200 people in line to vote in person – I’m glad that I had my absentee ballot and already filled it out! Aye for Team D, Aye for the bond measures and the state constitutional amendment for tax relief for disabled veterans, and a hard NO on the state constitutional amendment for a flawed redistricting process.
Cheers,
Scott.
aliasofwestgate
I just voted today for the first day of WI In-person absentee early voting. This is a first for me, as they never offered this in Michigan. It wasn’t an option and i doubt it is now, over there which is sad.
Barely a line when we went in, and a new one was just starting up outside by the time the roomie and i walked around the county clerk building to the car. Fully organized and well run, all set for busier times. Something i love to observe as i go. Basically, we were in and out in about 10 minutes.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Fingers crossed!
currants
Voted today! In MA. Absentee, dropped off in person in the town hall.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
My husband and I voted last week and dropped the ballots off in the drop box at City Hall. Last time, I took a pic of my ballot with the vote for Hillary marked because I was so proud to vote for her. I can’t even look at the picture now. This year, no pic – didn’t want to jinx it.
Go JOE! Go KAMALA!!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
I voted today in PA. Dropped off my absentee ballot at my counties 2nd (and just opened) really official dropbox.
MisterForkbeard
Voted on Sunday in CA with my wife. We dropped off out ballots in the driveby ballot dropoff 3 blocks from my house.
They haven’t processed it yet. I’ve been checking my ballot status obsessively. :)
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
(The other) Mrs. Onassis and I voted in Oregon. Walked to the ballot drop box at the library and, voila!
Dahlia
I checked online today and found that my ballot has been received and counted.
Voting, gripped, sorted.
Anon in NC
I voted in NC early, after waiting in line for 2.5 hours. It was very satisfying to see it get scanned into the machine before leaving!
WaterGirl
@Anon in NC: That’s a long wait! Thanks for doing that.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
Nashville. Early voting. Two-hour wait, nearly, but they were well-organized and things went fairly quickly. Luckily it was a fairly short ballot.
https://twitter.com/fidelioscabinet/status/1318929093036068866?s=21
Nora Lenderbee
San Jose, CA October 20. Dropped my ballot in the box in front of the library. A woman nearby unlocking her bike said, “Yay, voting!” and gave me a thumbs up. It took about 60 seconds. One less thing to worry about.
H.E.Wolf
Our household is in a vote-by-mail state. Ballots in our county were mailed to voters on Wed. Oct. 14. We received ours on Sat. Oct. 17.
On Mon. Oct. 19, we drove a couple miles to an official drop box which is visible from many nearby businesses – so it’s unlikely to be tampered with – and which has been regularly emptied by our County Elections Board (they have a Twitter feed! it’s awesome!).
We parked in the newly-designated “ballot drop-off ” parking spot a few yards from the box, and I masked up, hopped out of the car, and dropped our ballots in.
It felt good.
donatellonerd
i appliefor my NY ballot august 25, and finally i got my electronic ballot on my birthday Oct 19. an envelope printed out on my non-crappy printer paper just didn’t seem safe, and putting in a third envelope seemed like they might reject it, and someone on twitter scared me a lot, so today my husband took it to dhl and i paid a not small amount of money to mail it in a safe envelope to a friend who will drop it off when she goes to vote early next week. and my daughter’s electronic ballot finally arrived today, and she’s going to send it the same way (i’m paying) to my sister, who will hand deliver it to a drop box at a polling place. (she was here for my big birthday four years ago and hand delivered our ballots to us mailboxes. i know it doesn’t matter in NY. but i need massive repudiation and i need to be included in it.
Timurid
Lafayette, Louisiana. Voted early in person (Saturday 10/17). ~40 minute wait.
emrys
Turned in my mail In ballot to the official ballot box yesterday.
WaterGirl
@donatellonerd: OT, but did you see the email message I sent you a week or two ago?
SWMBO
I voted early at the community center. It took about 22 minutes from the time I left my van til I got back in it. There was a line but I whined and asked for a chair, so they put me in the front of the line and I got to sit down to vote. It probably would have taken another 20 minutes in line. And the line was constant. Every time someone left, someone else got in line. There was one tattooed fuckwit with a MAGA hat that was helping a woman in a wheelchair to vote. He helped her to vote at the sitting station and made sure she marked Donald Trump for president. She acted a little out of it and kept telling him she was voting like he told her to. The poll workers got all frowny but didn’t stop him. He told her what to vote for on the rest of the ballot as well.
Anyway, I got to keep the pen that I used to vote for Biden. I voted the straight DEM ticket except for sheriff. Scott Israel was the sheriff I voted for and DeathSantis fired him after the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. DeathSantis appointed Gregory Tony to replace Israel. Turns out his hand picked stooge had lied on his application. Forgot to mention killing a man when he was 14. Huh. Anyway I wrote in Scott Israel instead of voting for him or one of the others.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/endorsements/fl-op-general-endorse-broward-sheriff-election-20201003-wletn33ltbfs7izx3zgzpoa3bm-story.html#nt=pf-double%20chain~endorsements-top-chain~feed-driven%20flex%20feature~automated~2020-endorsements~WLETN33LTBFS7IZX3ZGZPOA3BM~4~25~3~3~art%20yes
He’s bad enough that the local paper recommended not voting for anyone.
Other than that, I had a pleasant experience voting. My son, who despises Trump with the heat of 1000 suns, asked me who I voted for. Biden. Yay! Much happiness and grinning. Anyway, that’s my voting story for 2020.
WaterGirl
@SWMBO: You voting story about the guy telling the woman how to vote is awful.
But you voted for Biden! One more vote in the bank.
Eric S.
I voted.
IL Mail in ballot returned to a drop box at an early voting station. I got the email yesterday the ballot was accepted and will be counted.
JMG
Voted last Saturday, first day of early voting in Mass. Wife will vote this Saturday. It’s a little complicated because our relocation from Boston suburbs to the Cape is incomplete and we’re still registered up there. But a two-hour drive was well worth it. You just feel so much better.
JPopeC
So, I wake up yesterday morning, have my coffee and breakfast, all psyched because I’m going to VOTE. At about 7:45am, my wife informs me that there is an animal scratching around in our pellet stove. So, I open the front door of the stove, and a sparrow flies out and up the stairs. I chase it around a bit, and am able to catch it with a towel and release it outside.
A little later in the morning, we hear another critter in the stove. I expect a similar drill, however when I open the front door, nothing comes out. Also, sadly, the critter doesn’t seem to be making much noise. I worry that I’m going to be stuck with a dead bird in the bowels of my pellet stove (which we use for primary heat). I table this project to lunchtime so I can tend to work stuff.
At lunchtime, I dissemble the panels and blower in an attempt to get to said (now quiet) birdie, vacuuming pellet ash all the way. Nothing. Then I remove (at wife’s suggestion) the outflow pipe, and then we have another ashy bird flying around the house and up the stairs. I give chase, getting it cornered in our bedroom. After 10 minutes of physical humor, I get the thing to fly out the window.
Back down the stairs, where I set to the task of putting the stove back together. I get the blower, side panel, and outflow pipe fastened together. I get seven of the eight screws for the rear panel fastened. Upon picking up the final screw, I throw out by damned back…really, the worst spasms I can ever remember. Advil, cold-compress, and now I’m sitting at my desk getting back to work.
Because bad things happened to me and I wasn’t able to early vote yesterday. But, today I woke up with a sore back and early voted at my town hall with extra verve (town in metro-west suburbs of Boston).
If you wait until Nov. 3 to vote, bad things could happen to you, too. Voting early is good.
WaterGirl
@JPopeC: Yikes, wow, and congratulations. Thanks for sharing your story. As I was reading, I so hoped it would have a happy ending.
randy khan
Reposting from this morning’s elections thread to get my sticker (since my county isn’t giving people stickers – they’re letting us keep the tiny cheap pens we use to mark our ballots, though):
I voted yesterday in Fairfax County, Virginia, at one of the satellite early voting locations. I got there 10 or 15 minutes before official closing time, and it took about an hour to get to the front of the line. There were about 100 people in front of me, and maybe 10 to 15 more who joined the line after me but before the official closing time. Tuesday I went by twice, but there were 150 people in line (give or take) the first time, and somewhere between 100 and 150 the second time.
dkinPa
I’m in western PA, and have been on pins and needles waiting for my ballot. It finally arrived yesterday, and I filled it in straight Dem, sealed and signed the outside envelope, then drove to the county elections office to hand it in. So glad that’s done. Go Joe!
WaterGirl
@dkinPa: If you know people who are voting by mail in PA, please share the tweet that is at comment #388.
It reminds them to use black ink, to be sure and include the privacy envelope, that you have to sign the outside of the envelope, etc.
featheredsprite
State of Washington. Voted last night at drop off box. No drama, which is nice.
Argiope
Mr. Argiope and I filled out the mail ballots from the comfort of the living room table, then I took them to the BOE drop box when my first shift as an early vote poll monitor began. I was so busy figuring out the reporting software to check in on the line length that the actual drop didn’t have the emotional resonance it might have….but it did feel good filling out the Biden-Harris circles at home this weekend. Sadly the kid won’t get to vote because the 18th birthday isn’t until the end of January. Working on niece & nephew to be sure they get their votes cast and counted.
dkinPa
@WaterGirl: Most of my friends and relatives have already voted by mail; I’m actually the last person I know to have voted this way. The rest of them are planning to vote in person on Nov. 3. Also, I don’t know the first thing about tweeting!
But rest assured, I have been particularly persistent since summer, talking to everyone I meet and urging them to have a plan and to vote for Biden!
WaterGirl
@dkinPa: Go you!
Also, you don’t have to tweet, you just have to be able to copy a link to the tweet so they can click it and see it. But it sounds like you are doing everything you can, so thanks for that.
grammypat
@grammypat: I’m pleased to announce that my ballot was reported as counted on 10/19.
As of 10/21, out of the ~6000 mail-in ballots that the county sent out, ~3900 had been returned and counted. A whopping 5.9M votes (35% of registered voters) have been banked in TX since early voting started. There will be another 10 days of early voting to count.
For reference, at the close of early voting in 2016, a total of 4.5M votes were counted. Also, there were 9.8M registered voters then, versus nearly 17M this year.
With this huge influx of new voters, I doubt that a high percentage are Rethugs.
lgerard
Just checked the state election department website.
My mail in ballot was accepted on 10/22
Peeled the I Voted sticker off the refrigerator and stuck it on my shirt
Done!
Leto
Just an update, but Avalune and my ballot were officially received yesterday by the County. So it’s officially there and ready to be counted; yaaassssss!!!!
Mary G
I voted by drop box and received email and text from the county that it was received and accepted.
Marigold
I voted in person at the Board of Elections on Thursday while my husband took care of the dog and dinner, and I did the same for him on Friday.
The line was out the door and down the stairs when I arrived, but it moved quickly, and I was done in 35 minutes. Paper ballot, scanned and accepted. The poll worker who helped me said this was her first year, and the person ahead of me in line was a first-time voter.
Noname
Voted in person yesterday at my rural Maine town hall. Ballot tracker shows as accepted. Got a little emotional filling it in, there’s just so much at stake.
eric
voted for socialist democrat in person. Long live USSR.
wkwv
Voted a mail-in ballot on Wednesday at an official dropbox in front of the city gym one mile from our house. Maryland board of elections website acknowledged receipt on Friday. In a break from usual practice, votes will be processed and counted prior to Election Day and announced after polls close. Oh, and unemployed theater technician son is a substitute poll watcher for our county. Getting the millennial involved like his Grandma used to do.
low-tech cyclist
Not only did I vote today, I voted twice!
No, I didn’t do anything illegal. Here in Maryland, if you live within the town limits of a town, then in addition to the county ballot where you vote for everything from President and VP down to county stuff like school board, you get an entirely separate ballot to vote for mayor and town council and other strictly town stuff. So I voted once for President and VP and all that, then once for mayor and all that. As did my wife.
Method of voting in both cases was to drop our ballots off in the official drop boxes. There’s just one for the town, which is fine because it’s a pretty small town. But there’s a whole slew of them for the county, and one was just down the street from the town hall, so it was really easy to drop one set of ballots in one box, then drive a block or two to drop the other set of ballots in the other box.
I was only moderately paranoid about putting ballots in the wrong box, but I double-checked to make sure. It also helped that the town and county ballot envelopes were differently shaped – both rectangular of course, but the county ballot envelope was a lot closer to being square. So it would have been really hard to get it backwards.
Omnes Omnibus
Done.
Layer8Problem
https://balloon-juice.com/2020/09/18/i-voted-once-you-have-voted-add-your-nym-and-your-method-here/i-voted-once-you-have-voted-add-your-nym-and-your-method-here-2/
Done. The first day of early voting started at ten today in my outer borough and we were told they began with a two and a half hour line. By the time my partner and I got there at two the wait on line was down to fifty minutes. Anyway, packed. “Give the public what it wants and they’ll come.”
Nobody really
@Layer8Problem: Outer borough of NYC? Friend of mine waited for two hours today.
KenK
My wife and I voted this afternoon, in person. It was first day of early voting in NY, so we showed up at Amherst Senior Center, appropriately enough, to vote. Cloudy & cool (mid-40’s) we were in line 3 1/2 hours to vote. The voting itself took very little time, since straight ballot is straight forward. I think Erie County BoE did a decent enough job, but turnout was quite heavy.
Every once in a while, a poll worker would work the line to tell people they (poll workers) were doing as best they could, they appreciate us being there to vote and to please be patient. While in line, I overheard a poll worker tell a voter that is was like this (heavy turnout, long wait times) throughout Erie County. Since Erie County is ~ 2:1 D:R, that’s a good sign.
My wife and I capped off he day by ordering a gourmet pizza to-go from a local restaurant accompanied by a nice bottle of cab sauv. An afternoon well spent.
WaterGirl
@Marigold: First time voters, yay!
@wkwv: So smart to start counting early, if it’s not prohibited.
@low-tech cyclist: This is the sticker for both ballots.
@Omnes Omnibus: Man of few words.
@Layer8Problem: Our first New York vote, I think!
@KenK: The things we learn… until this year, I did not know how important Erie is in PA. Is anybody polling Erie County? Your Lt. Governor said he thinks if we take Erie, then we take PA, then game over.
Emma from FL
I just checked. My ballot, my dad’s and my sister’s were all received and counted. GO BIDEN!
MagdaInBlack
Drove down to Arlington Heights City Hall, dropped my ballot in the drop box. Short line waiting to vote, all masked.
Took a drive thru the neighborhoods, not a lot of political signs, but what there were, were all Biden Harris, most with a Black Live Matter sign next to it.
KenK
@WaterGirl: @#456: Erie County, NY, not PA. Sorry to get your hopes up ;)
Suburban Mom
I took my ballot to a BOE drop box back on Oct. 19. I’m now monitoring the tracking website daily to see when it is marked received. Volume is so high (This is good) that it is taking about a week. If it doesn’t show up by Election Day I can request and submit a provisional ballot to make sure my vote is counted.
WaterGirl
@KenK: Sniff sniff. Oh well. :-)
WaterGirl
@Suburban Mom: I hope you come back and tell us when yours shows up.
Suburban Mom
@WaterGirl: I just checked again and the Ballot Tracker site now shows that my ballot was received on Oct. 20, the day after I submitted it. So I guess it just takes a week to post on the site, but they have a good handle on when it was delivered. This is in NJ, which normally goes blue in presidential elections, but I am hoping to be one drop of water in a national blue tsunami.
WaterGirl
@Suburban Mom: Oh, yay, that’s a relief.
sgrAstar
I voted, by mail…and the county has received it. Yay!!!!
?
Elie
I voted by mail. Yay! Also accepted by ballot tracker!
RedDirtGirl
I voted on Saturday, October 29th, in Brooklyn. Feels good to have it out of the way! 2 hour line. Close enough to my apartment that I was able to run home and pee, midway through.
Ms. Deranged in AZ
I am on the permanent early voting by mail list in Arizona. About a week ago I got my ballot in the mail and filled it out. I dropped it off at the library in Sun City and there was a steady stream of folks going in and out dropping off their ballots. I signed up that same day for text alerts as to the status of my ballot. Two days later I received confirmation that they affirmed my signature and counted my vote.
Tazj
I voted on the first day of early voting in NY, on Saturday, October 24th. I voted at the town hall in Hamburg and waited about an hour and 15 minutes to vote. Definitely the longest time I’ve waited to vote in my area. It was all inside and the line which stretched down hallways and wound around stairs moved along, but I felt sorry for disabled and elderly people in line. Some people left but I think most thought once they made the effort to be there, they would stay.
When I was there, it was fairly uneventful and most people were good natured about everything. However, my sister was there when the doors opened and she said the police were called because people were arguing about some people not social distancing.
My husband kept mentioning what a great place this was to catch Covid but he insisted on voting in person that day because he had no time to vote any other day because of his work schedule and didn’t quite trust absentee voting because of Trump. I think many people feel that way this year.
Nicole
In person in NYC on Monday. Stood in line starting at 6:45 for about an hour. The poll workers were informative, efficient, and super kind, going up and down the line looking for folks with walkers so they could move them to the front.
The Moar You Know
CA mail-in, both my wife and I, dropped off at staffed dropbox run by San Diego County Libraries. Received confirmation of ballot receipt by SD County Registrar of Voters Friday 10/23..
Torrey
Another Marylander here. I put my ballot in the dropbox on October 18. I took a moment to enjoy the fact that I was voting at a high school named for Eleanor Roosevelt. (State of Maryland confirmed receipt of the ballot via email and ballot-tracker.)
hoosierspud
Dropped off our ballots at the library drop box. Love WA’ s vote by mail!
Wag
Dropped off my ballot a week ago here in Colorado. Got confirmation that it was accepted for counting. I love Colorado’s all mail in system.
Robin
I waited 4+ hours to vote early in person in NYC. Exhausting – who thought having 7 voting places for all of Manhattan was a good idea???
Chbnna
My sister and I voted last week 10/19 in person at our early voting site, it was easy, no lines. Our parents dropped off their mail-in ballots at a drop box the week before. Now we just wait.
Keithly
Voted early in person in Albany, NY, 26 Oct 20, 1:00 PM. Short line, gentle rain, 15 minutes, tops, in and out.
WaterGirl
@Robin: Yikes! That’s crazy.
M31
this large neighboring galaxy and large neighboring galaxy partner dropped off our absentee ballots here in MD in a dropbox (plenty of other ballots in there but no line or anything, it was just out in the parking lot of the highschool)
feels gooooooooood
Madeleine
I voted yesterday afternoon in the Bronx, NY. It took less than an hour, though lines have often been longer. The voting area is small, with lines crossing, but the poll workers were very good at directing us from line to line. And as always they were all very friendly and helpful.
Renie
I early voted today on Long Island, New York. Had a 50 minute wait in drizzle. Got a sticker!!
TheTruffle
I voted on Saturday in Manhattan. Finally, New York State has early voting!
I had already requested an absentee ballot, which the state allowed thanks to COVID. I dropped it off at the early voting location Saturday, thus avoiding the very, very long lines. I was just happy to have it done and collect my sticker.
J R in WV
Wife and I just got home from voting at the county courthouse early voting center. There were 4 voting machines and two staff signing people in. We did have to show them our voter’s registration cards, because they needed to know which precinct we were registered in.
Was a line, we waited maybe 20 minutes, I was ballot # 720 fed into the machine scanner on a sorta kinda ballot box. It was a big old plastic bin that had an uncomfortable look — like a trash can. Kinda. It seemed busy to us.
Met a friend coming in when we were leaving, so that was nice. Just said hi and went on, everyone there is on a mission.
Darby'sMom
Darby’sDad and I voted last week. Filled out our mail-in ballots and, leaving nothing to chance, drove to our local library to drop them off. We’re in San Diego, so a pretty safe bet herein So Cal, but I still wanted a close-to-rock-solid knowledge that my ballot got to where it needed to go. Darby’sDad has been a life-long repub and the SOB wrote in our dog’s name in 2016, even though HE KNEW what *rump was but just couldn’t bring himself to vote for Hillary. He very happily voted for Biden/Harris this time around.
Both ‘I Voted’ stickers went on the Biden/Harris yard sign in the front yard.
mrmoshpotato
It was a big, beautiful, blue, secure box of drop!
And my signed and sealed ballot went in!
I VOTED! (for Biden/Harris on Hillary Clinton’s birthday!)
WOO! Let’s bring it home Illinois for Biden/Harris!
Warren Senders
@JPopeC:
North-West suburbs, eh? I’m in Medford, myself. You?
Warren Senders
My wife voted last Saturday (1st day of early voting here in MA). I had already received my absentee ballot, so I filled it in & put it in the drop box the next day.
WaterGirl
@Darby’sMom: You have the apostrophe back in your nym, which means every comment has to be manually approved. :-(
But congrats on voting!
Avalie
My daughter dropped off my ballot and hers at a dropbox on Tuesday. Got confirmation text Saturday from the county registrar of voters that ballots were received and would be counted!
O. Felix Culpa
Ms. O and I voted absentee in person two weeks ago. Normally that would be at the county clerk’s office before the official Early Voting period begins, but “absentee in-person voting” was moved to the nearby convention center due to the pandemic. Lots of people voting; we had about a half hour wait in line. A very orderly process inside. I filled in my Biden/Harris oval with passion.*
*And yes, I know that a passionate and a tepid vote both count only once, but it made me feel good.
no comment
I voted in person in NY (Capital Region) just a few hours ago. It wasn’t busy when I went (about 20 mins before the polls closed for the day), but there were lines when I drove by my polling place on Sunday afternoon, and earlier today when my husband checked around lunchtime.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Dropped an absentee ballot in a drop box. Tracking the ballot. It’s now shown as received and being examined by ballot judges.
Geeno
Dropped my absentee ballot off at the early voting station near me on NY’s second day of early voting. We made a family thing of it and delivered all four of ours together.
DCrefugee
Just dropping in to mention that the election board for my Florida county shows my ballot as having been received and tabulated.
Wish I could vote again…
WaterGirl
@DCrefugee: Let me know if a second sticker would help. :-)
CindyH
My daughter and I voted Friday – early in person NC. Her first election and though she was only 17 for the primary, she could vote since she is 18 for the general. She voted for Biden in the primary and straight Dem in the general (as did I). We got stickers from the Dem table and pens for voting that we keep.
My local precinct leader reported that repugs were breaking the rules by approaching curbside voters and getting within the 50 foot line. He straightened them out. We’re in a blue bubble of NC so they were stupid to think they’d get away with it.
WaterGirl
@CindyH: You’ve got to nip bad behavior in the bud. Haven’t these people ever raised a child or a pet?
TomatoQueen
The ballot she is in as of 10262020.
This time I went full absentee with theme and variations because I could. Or rather was forced to by circumstances which ordinarily I wouldn’t allow, but how often does one get to a)move house after ten years and b)get BOTH hip joints replaced in the same time space continuum with limit (30 days)? So reported the address change and requested the absentee ballot online while in the hospital and inhaling vast quantities of oxy (oh my interior). Virginia elections dot gov waits for me to understand that the address change triggers the re-register-to-vote requirement, which elevation of brain function does not occur until oxy withdrawal (oh my interior). A little help from the USPS Informed Delivery feature (my strongest recommendation sign up it’s free you can see the outside of vital mailpieces) shows my ballot on the way. A little patience yields the ballot. I let it sit for a day because there are angel feathers on it. I then make notes of the obvious and the not so obvious, fill in all the blocks with black ink, and to the mailbox it goes. Today I’m back at Virginia elections dot gov and There She Is. Also, a duplicate/cancelled ballot was issued in the time space continuum, but never rec’d by me & likely not mailed out. Election workers well done, USPS workers well done, State of Virginia well done, Founding Fathers and Mothers well done.
JCJ
I voted today along with my wife and daughter – what in Wisconsin is called in-person absentee. We almost always vote this way. Usually there are maybe 4 or 5 people ahead in line and you are in and out in a couple of minutes. Today we waited about 15 minutes in line. Fortunately it is sunny and not too cold (42 degrees). I looked last Thursday and the line was longer in a steady rain.
Kattails
Today, 10/27 “absentee”, but was able to fill out at the town clerk’s office and have it checked off immediately. All very friendly and low key, just odd filling out the extra envelopes.
Frosty Fred
This has been an all-mail district for–well, years, anyway. I used the drop box at City Hall, today.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I just dropped my ballot and Monsieur Colette’s at the dropoff near San Francisco City Hall. Super well organized, heavily guarded by police, and perfectly smooth. Now the nail-biting begins.
hawwingo
My wife and I voted in person in Staten Island today. We had more trouble getting there (roadwork and detours) than actually voting. The whole process took 25 minutes, and we got a cool stylus/pen to keep. MAGA couple in front of us was complaining that they didn’t ask for ID and anyone could vote. They made the guy take off his MAGA cap when he entered the polling site.
ema
Voted early, in person, at Madison Square Garden today. Voting hrs. for today 12 – 8PM, was in line by 11:50 AM and done by 1:15 PM. My line was on 34th St/7th Ave. (~ 3 blocks from the entrance) at 11:50 AM, and it was on 34th St./almost 8th Ave.(~ 5blocks) at 1:15 PM. There was another line on 31st St./7th & 8th Ave.
Line moved reasonably well, there was a nice band, and there were volunteers up and down the line to answer questions, give directions, and escort elderly people directly to the voting area. Inside it wasn’t as orderly, but still lots of volunteers to guide you where you needed to go.
They were asking if you had your voter card with you, I think to make it easier for them to find you on their lists. I wasn’t mailed one this year, so no card for me (unlike the guy behind me who alerted me to the fact that he came prepared with voter card, chair, and refreshments), but it wasn’t a problem. All they needed was my name, they found me right away and I was able to vote.
There were about 5 ballot machines and mine showed 1,114 ballots processed. I forgot to ask if they zero them at the start of each day, so don’t know if it’s a per day, or since early voting started, on Saturday 10/24/20, tally.
Last, but not least, only the special, super competent people at the city BOE could print ballots with the instruction to “fill the bubble to the left of the candidate’s name”, and then have no bubble on the left side of the name (it’s at the top).
catpal
Early voted in person in WNY this evening. Cold rainy but no lines and it was easy and New Yorkers are so happy that we have Early Voting.
Dog Mom
Like catpal – Voted in person, another early voter in WNY last night – I waited in line in a cold drizzle for a short bit with an appropriately masked and motivated diverse crowd. Poll workers kept everything moving. (Dog and cat people uniting to change the world!)
hedgehog mobile
Late to the party. I voted October 15, via dropping my ballot off in a drop box two minutes from my house. Blue from top to bottom.
WindyCityCat
My wife and I also voted on October 15th via drop box two minutes from our house in Chicago. In and out in a matter of moments.
Nora
My husband and I dropped off our absentee ballots on the first day of early voting in New York, which was Saturday, October 24. I work in the building where the early voting is being held in our part of the county, and the lines have been so long they’ve extended the early voting hours by an hour each day. As I said to my husband, people don’t come out like this for the incumbent.
No One You Know
I voted and dropped into the ballot box six days ago and received my acknowledgement the day before yesterday.
Shakti
I did research on local issues yesterday, filled out my ballot today and dropped it off at the Supervisor of Elections.
Just before I went to drop off my ballot, I wiped out in a puddle of water and landed on my ankles and wrist. I feel a little beaten up. If that’s not a metaphor for this year, I don’t know what is.
I had a nice conversation with the Election Protection person at the site and thanked her for her service. I am now icing myself.
cckids
Voted yesterday, with the ccspouse; we drove to the nearest dropbox and, well, dropped them off. No lines, no drama.
It was a little anticlimactic. As we drove away, after 30 seconds of silence, my husband said “Fuck Trump”.
Yes. Let it be so.
WaterGirl
@Shakti: I’m so sorry you fell! It really is a metaphor.
WaterGirl
I love reading all these voting stories. Except the one where Shakti fell.
Fuck Trump, indeed.
SFBayAreaGal
I voted a couple a weeks ago. Filled out my ballot, voted Democratic Party all the way down the ballot, double checked everything was filled out correctly, sealed my envelope, signed, and dated it.
On the way to my sister house I parked my car on a side street, put my mask on, walked a block to my city hall, climbed a few stairs, opened the door to the ballot box and dropped my ballot in the slot.
On my way down the stairs, I thought about how Supernatural took care of evil ghosts. Find the remains salt and burn them so they can’t come back. I hope this will be the outcome from this election.
Sab
My husband and I early voted October 7 in Ohio. Very good setup oa BoE with rope lines umder a tent in the parking lot. Lime moved quickly. One surprise os we jad an actual black guy with a MAGA hat and no mask in line right in front of us. He didn’t believe in social distancimg either, so I felt bad for the guy in front of him.
SiubhanDuinne
I voted in person in Gwinnett County, GA, on Wednesday 28 October 2020. In stark contrast to the first several days of early voting (and contrary to Georgia’s reputation as a clusterfuck of electoral malfeasance), my experience was that voting was quick, easy, efficient, and safe. This is the fourth time this cycle that I’ve voted, and I’ve done that at three different locations. It’s been a breeze every time.
So proud to have voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, Carolyn Bourdeaux, and all the down-ballot candidates with a D next to their names.
WereBear
Mr WereBear and I drove almost an hour to the county’s Early Voting Station. I think it’s a population thing, as we are in the Adirondack Park, NY, and very low density.
But once we got there it was a big complex with plenty of parking. A nicely moving line, all pens and markers disinfected, bathroom cleaned with UV light.
They said it was packed the first day, a Saturday, and steady ever since. Marked paper ballot and scanned.
Just like Michelle Obama told us to!
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Michelle would be proud.
TallTom
I voted in person in TN. No absentee option in my state. Was about a 45 minute wait, but it was worth it.
Kayla Rudbek
I voted early at the local/satellite county government center (Northern Virginia). About 2.5 hours from parking the car to being finished with voting. And about 2.25 hours of that was standing outside on a busy street, 55 degrees Fahrenheit and smelling the chicken cooking at the nearby restaurants.
If we are still dealing with COVID-19 next fall, I think that the Rudbek household will request absentee ballots and drop them off at the county satellite office. Mr. Rudbek’s comment was that this was a total pain in the ass.
Shakti
@WaterGirl:
So I just checked the status of my ballot on the county website and it has been counted! I did a little chair dance at my computer because my knee still hurts.
WaterGirl
@Shakti: Sorry to hear about your knee, but glad your vote has been counted!
Origuy
Dropped off my ballot and those of my two housemates at the Registrar of Voters office in San Jose. There was a big sign indicating where to go for dropoff and where to go for voting on premises. Parking lot was nearly full. I didn’t see any line for the voting, but I recall that there’s a lot of room inside. I could have gone to the branch library near my house, which is where I usually vote in person, but I figured that the ballots were safer at the registrar’s office.
WaterGirl
@Origuy: How sad that we now have to be concerned about things like that. In the United States. How far we have fallen.
But hopefully we are about to start righting the ship.
sdhays
I finally voted today at my neighborhood precinct. It’s the last day of early voting in Virginia, so I cut it pretty close. It took about 30 minutes from joining the line to putting my ballot in the scanner. My wife went yesterday while I watched the baby, and it took her about an hour.
I really wonder how it’s all going to go down on Tuesday in states that don’t have early voting.
WaterGirl
@sdhays: Yeah, it’s shocking that Nov 3 is just a small number of days away.
Odie Hugh Manatee
My wife, our daughter, son and myself all voted straight D tonight here in Brookings, OR. Voted at home and dropped off ballots at the county clerk’s ballot drop off outside of the popo shop this afternoon.
No covid, no lines, no waiting and from the comfort of home. Go Joe!
Yutsano
So my mail ballot still hasn’t arrived. I checked on the SoS website for Washington. The instruction they give is to contact the county. So I go to the county website. Their process for requesting a replacement ballot…loops back to the state website. I’m all geared up to vote in person until I notice an option that says online ballot. Curious I click on it. It bring up a process where YOU CAN COMPLETE THE FULL BALLOT ONLINE!!! The ballot is even a fillable form! I voted straight D then printed the ballot off. Tomorrow it gets signed, stuck in an envelope, and dropped in a ballot box. I’m going through this process and I’m wondering why the heck did I not know of this option until just now? I may never wait on the mail ballot ever again.
A Streeter
Just noticed this thread. This was two weeks ago.
I took my ballot over to the dropbox at Eastern Market in DC. While I waited at social distance I watched a mother holding her very cute apparently 3-year-old daughter up so that she could drop a ballot into the slot while the father got the scene on his phone. The young lady was very careful and serious as she placed the ballot in the slot two-handed and made sure it went down. I clapped.
Kristine
Checked the Lake County IL Voter Services site again. The ballot I mailed back on the 19th was received on the 21st, has been reviewed and deemed Good and will be counted.
Benw
I voted early in person on Long Island NY yesterday. Roughly 45 minute line at 7 pm on a Friday. I very carefully filled in my straight D ovals, and nervously double checked my ballot about 5 times before feeding it to the machine. “Ballot successfully cast” felt good!
Ida Slapter
I voted in person at City Hall because I spoiled my absentee ballot ?. Michigan allows straight party voting. I usually just color in the straight D bubble, but Thursday I wanted the satisfaction of bubbling in every name individually. FEEL THE POWER! and all that. So in double checking after I had finished, I saw I had inadvertently voted for a republican in one race. I cursed myself for having to go out, but I masked up and took off. City Hall is close by and it wasn’t too crowded. I had to wait just a bit behind a couple of women who spoke with heavy accents and had questions for the clerk. I had psyched myself into the idea that by spoiling my first ballot, I would have the opportunity to FEEL THE POWER! all over again, so I was in a good mood when I finished and turned in my ballot. I was still in the lobby when one of the women who had been in front of me came up and apologized for making me wait. I told her I hadn’t been in any hurry and that it was important to get her questions answered before she voted. She seemed embarrassed when she said it was her first time voting. We chatted a moment. Then I got loud and perky and announced to everybody in general that this young lady from Albania had become a citizen in August and that she had just cast her first ballot. I started what became a big round of applause and cheers for her. I hope she could FEEL THE POWER! too!
gkoutnik
We’ve been at our summer rental house on Cape Cod for two months and just came back yesterday, to our home in rural upstate NY, in order to vote on the last day of early voting. September and October are the best months at the Cape, but we also took into consideration that the Town of Truro, MA, where our house is, has had a grand total of 17 COVID cases since March. You may remember the reporting on SUNY Oneonta, just up the hill from us here in NY: after they returned in August, 712 students tested positive before they had been here for two weeks. In mid-October, the President of SUNY Oneonta resigned “to pursue other options” or something like that . So – Truro seemed a lot safer to these two old geezers.
I served four terms on the County Board before retiring January 1, so I was involved in some of the planning for early voting, which started in November of 2019. I remember all the Republicans on the Board moaning about how it wasn’t necessary and no one would come. So my wife and I made plans to vote early from then on – thus the return to NY yesterday, and not Monday.
There’s one early voting site in the county – a conference room next to the Board of Elections in one of the County Office Buildings. It’s about half an hour drive from Oneonta, and maybe 45 minutes from the farthest corner of the county. The conference room has an outside door, and when we got there, there were 11 people waiting outside (42 degrees and windy), in a distanced line. We moved quickly. Digital voting and record-keeping has just started here, although after checking in, my own personal ballot came out of the printer. I filled in the ovals, voted for Democrats on third party lines whenever they appeared, slid it in to the maw of the machine, and saw “Ballot Successfully Cast.” I got a sticker and a squirt of hand sanitizer, and we were back in the car in under 15 minutes.
My wife asked me how I felt (she had tears in her eyes when she picked up her sticker). I was so focused on not screwing up my ballot that it didn’t hit me until I was outside and saw the people waiting in the cold to vote. I imagined being one of millions all over the country, many waiting much longer and making much greater sacrifices, to do this crazy, wonderful thing called self-determination. And also saving democracy. I was moved to tears.
And I’m moved all over again, reading the stories of everyone who did the same thing. Thanks!
lafcolleen
Early vote – in person in Chicago. Did it a few days ago. Got there 20 minutes early and waited with a handful of people. once the doors opened I was one of the first people in. went smoothly.
NeenerNeener
I went to the last day of early voting in my county today and I voted.
There were long lines every day and when I voted they had processed over 8000 votes at the location in my neighborhood over the last week.
something fabulous
I voted just now! Never did it this way before: dropped off, early, at the in-person place closest to me (filled out first at home). Los Angeles. Everyone there VERY chipper and festive! Applause as you entered and left! Nice.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
I and two of my sons voted and sent in our ballots via the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in mid-Oct. Their ballots arrived within the week. I’ve been waiting and waiting to see if mine would arrive. Just discovered today that it is in San Diego and has been approved for counting, so Yeah! My youngest had a hiccup with his ballot so he ended up faxing his vote in. I’m checking to see whether they’ve received it–no notice yet. I’m not worried about Biden in CA. But we’re voting for CA-50 Ammar Campa-Najar and every vote counts!
Thank you so much WaterGirl for setting up the propositions thread. That information on the CA props saved me considerable time and made voting that much easier.
DivF
Sunday afternoon, dropbox in front of Berkeley CA city hall. I got there just as two county workers were emptying the box so I handed my ballot to one of them. Got a text message at 1 AM that the ballot “had been received and will be counted”. Yay!
KnittyGal
I voted – in person early site in KY. I will be a first time poll-worker on Tuesday! (I can’t think of a way to write that without giggling!)
Brooklyn Dodger
Voted by mail 3 weeks ago, and was a little concerned because we mailed our ballots from out of state. Checked a couple of times online:
“Congratulations! Your ballot has been counted” is a sweet sentence.
gvg
@gvg: Update, my ballot now shows as counted!
WaterGirl
@something fabulous: Applause, wow!
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): It’s gratifying to hear that those threads helped you and others. So daunting, otherwise.
@KnittyGal: I know it’s wrong, but when I hear poll worker, I think pole dancer. Which is crazy because I have been a poll worker.
@Brooklyn Dodger: “Congratulations” is a nice addition.
@gvg: congratulations!
fun with duct tape
I live outside the United States and my ballot did not arrive. So I voted on Saturday via the military/overseas write-in ballot and faxed it to the Registrar-Recorder in Los Angeles County — they don’t accept e-mailed ballots, just faxed or mailed ones. They e-mail tracking updates, though, and they’ve just e-mailed me to say that my ballot arrived and will be counted. Whew!
I was prepared not to be able to rely on the postal service this year; if my ballot had arrived in time, I would have sent it via DHL to a friend in LA, who would have dropped it off with hers.
batguano
I voted and everyone is my household also voted absentee. All our ballots have been approved for counting. This is my stepdaughter’s first election where she is old enough to vote.
Edit: We live in Ohio
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
I voted! Long line here in Connecticut but it was worth standing in the cold for a while. Love the I Voted sticker they gave me. Suffragette Mary Emma Townsend Seymour, the first African American woman to run for the CT State Assembly.
la caterina
I voted! Only a one hour wait at my precinct in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. I traded places in line with someone further back who needed to get to work. Got a sticker AND a pen!
Old School
I voted in person in Wisconsin. It took about 20 minutes to get through the line and get my sticker. It felt good to put the ballot into the scanner.
Annie
Annie in San Francisco — went to my polling place. They make it so easy here — the polling place is 3 blocks from my home.
A woman in line ahead of me had her 5-year-old daughter with her and was explaining to her how important it was to vote. Took me right back to when my mother and I waited in line so she could vote, and her explaining to me that it was the most important thing she could do for her country.
That was 58 years ago. Hopefully the 5-year-old in today’s line will be voting in 2078.
frosty
In person, this morning. Longest line I’ve seen here in South PA. More, biggest overflow parking. We were in line when they called out A-G and we jumped to the front. We were done in 30 minutes!
arrieve
Just got back from voting in Manhattan. After my absentee ballot for the primary never arrived, I planned to vote early in person — this is the first time New York has had early voting. But the waits were 1-3 hours, and after walking by once and seeing the line stretching for blocks I decided to just wait and go to my regular precinct today, which is a five-minute walk away. It took me a total of 11 minutes from the time I got in line until I was finished. More people than I would have liked but they really enforced the social distancing and NYers are mostly very cooperative when it comes to the Covid. None of us want to go back to the dark days of April.
AWOL
In person. Northern Manhattan. No wait. Helpful polling workers. Lots of C-19 protection for desk workers. Some Biden canvassers in the general area. No MAGAts visible. Without early voting in NYC, I imagine I’d have a 30-45 minute wait.
Darkrose
Telesilla and I dropped our ballots off yesterday in Sacramento. The library was closed, so we went to the Sierra Arts Center, which was open for early in-person voting, and put them in the drop box there. Then we went to our favorite cafe nearby and sat outside for an early dinner.
Soprano2
Finally voted today in person because Missouri is so backwards.
JAM
I voted on Election Day at my regular polling place. No lines. There are usually long lines for early voting here (ok) because it’s only for the weekend before the election and only at the county election board offices.