I voted early today, in person. Normally I vote on Election Day, but this year I wanted to vote early in case I came down with something that prevented me from getting out. I’m too young to qualify for absentee voting here in the great state of Texas.

Our ballots are being delivered to our house today in Los Angeles, and we will go there tomorrow to get them. I put our mail on hold while we are in Cathedral City, but we are leaving tomorrow. I had thought that I had asked for the mail to be delivered on Monday, but the post office notified me that they are delivering today instead. I guess it is okay for my mail box to be full for one day.

We will probably mail ours at the post office, which is close. The nearest drop off station is listed as being in the sanctuary of some church, and I do not want to have to go inside a church to drop off my ballot. I do not trust churches to be safe places. If the drop off box were on the street, I might use that.

No postage required to mail ballots in California.

Funny, when I was a little girl, I spent time w my dad in the little neighborhood polling booth w pot bellied stove and a box for the ballots. X in the circle of your choice on paper ballot and drop in box. Easy Peasy.

I dropped my ballot off at the county administration ballot box two weeks ago. Received a text confirmation that my ballot was received and will be counted. This is the first time I have done this. Every other election I have voted in person

Forgot to answer above. We always had to show up to vote unless we had arranged for absentee. Mail in is newly available this year but I plan to vote on Nov,3. My new polling place opens tomorrow for early voting. Very close and across from Y, so I'll check it out tomorrow.

Usually pretty quiet out here, but I've worked many elections in the city where they had trouble getting workers. Lines very common even without distancing. Hope the early voting and mail in help eliminate those problems this year.

We got our ballots in the mail on Wednesday and dropped them at the courthouse drop box yesterday. We are a vote by mail state. Because we have so many initiatives and such stuff I do like doing it at home so you can look something up if you are uncertain. Some of them are written with the intent to confuse as in voting yes will mean a no or vice versus. I despise initiatives. We go to all the trouble to elect representatives and then have to make ill informed decisions about important things anyway. Normally we use the drop at the local town PO but we were going to be near the county courthouse anyway so did it there. Our state is going to be putting guards on some of the drop boxes this year. Sad bad times.

I'm bemused how some of you almost seem to view in-person voting as providing as some kind of a positive or desirably tactile or personally satisfying experience.

Richard, sorry. I'd assumed Stamps by Mail would be the same online as it is with the form through the postal service. I'd bought stamps with the postage paid form for years using our business card or check, buying 100 at a time. I now do that less frequently using a household account as DH has retired. I didn't mean to try to steer you in the wrong direction ;0(

To answer the question about if a candidate who is on the ballot dies it has happened. Normally if that person receives the most votes or even dies when in office the governor appoints someone. Several times it has been the wife but it could be anyone.

We requested absentee ballots several weeks ago. We have them ready to drop off in person at our local county elections office. Taking no chances!

"Normally if that person receives the most votes or even dies when in
office the governor appoints someone. Several times it has been the wife
but it could be anyone."

I suspect this varies from place to place and depends on the nature and jurisdiction of the elected office. Death is no different than resignation or withdrawal and happens not infrequently. It doesn't extend the term of office of the office holder. If an election is coming, oftentimes the seat remains empty and the living candidate getting the most votes wins.

In a neighboring community, there was a three candidate race for a judge position, including the incumbent. The incumbent got involved in a scandal and was censured for misconduct, so decided to "retire" and withdraw from a re-election bid. A second candidate decided she was no longer interested in running and withdrew but after the deadline to do so. There are still two or three names on the ballot (I'm not sure which it is, but more than one anyway) but only one who wants the position. That one remaining candidate has won and will take office no matter what the voting outcome.

When this is going on, I'm voting in person! Glad my community did it right. Everyone is beyond safe, taking care of each other. I'll avoid this forever! I don't trust them as far as I can look at them, much less, as far as I can throw them.

https://www.ocregister.com/2020/10/14/california-gop-ballot-box-scheme-is-bigger-than-previously-reported/

Mind you, other years I would have trusted it. I even helped my mother and child to vote via mail last election. This one is too critical to trust that kind of stupidity

I put mine in the country drop box two weeks ago and received an emailed confirmation the next day. First time doing this, but very happy to avoid my polling place. It's rarely crowded, but this time it has some hostility potential.

I voted 2 weeks ago myself, Alisande! The day we got our ballots here in PA, they were filled out, put back in the envelope, and driven to the post office (after I wrapped myself in Saran Wrap).

I had my confirmation of acceptance and validation back two days later. Since I certainly don't feel like exposing myself to any nasty viruses this time around, or any nasty people for that matter.

Now I'm just having to field poll after poll after poll calling and e-mailing and watching FiveThirtyEight like a hawk for the next two weeks.

I'm bemused how some of you almost seem to view in-person voting as providing as some kind of a positive or desirably tactile or personally satisfying experience.

For this election in particular, I do. This is the first year we can vote by mail, and I did so for the primary and will be happy to do so in future. But I want to stand on line if need be (lines are usually non-existent here, so it will be interesting to see if that changes) on November 3rd and cast my vote in person. I know it sounds a bit irrational, but then 2020 hasn't been a very rational year!

bookwoman, my comment was directed at all those with the sentiment "We always....." or "It's a tradition....." or "We normally..." ". Take a look, there's a lot of them. It's puzzling. Do these people see voting as a social occasion? For me, through my adult working life, having to be physically present to vote was not going to happen. It was absentee or no vote.

This year is an election like any other, opinions are polarized. I refuse to swallow the lies and propaganda about the USPS. Postal workers do their jobs every day. Maybe not enthusiastically or with a lot the level of productivity you'd hope to see but they don't care what the mail pieces are. In my state, ballots are business reply mail so I think they don't get paid until the envelopes are delivered. In an age of falling postal use, revenue means jobs so they're attentive to that.

I put my ballot in a blue box (the kind with the extended snoot you can drive up to) and I have no doubt my ballot will be delivered.

There was an article in today's paper about someone finding a bag of mail with absentee ballots in a dumpster in Kentucky. The ballots were later distributed to the people they belonged to.

And this isn't tripe. I just now Googled: ballots in dumpster

I didn't look at the article but that's a shame if true. There are a lot of things that happen in Kentucky that don't necessarily happen in other places.

We are voting in person. I am 72 and hubby 88.

I do not trust what is being implied about mail in voting by the person in the White House. I do not trust the Post Office since the Postmaster General is a creep who made changes to the workings of the post office. Took away overtime, cut hours and got rid of sorting machines.

If the ballots are not in by Election Day they won't be counted in our State (Florida). There have been too many implications made by the white house about mail in ballots. We decided the safest way to vote was to vote in person.

Had every intention to vote by mail due to our age, but decided to go to the polling place and slip our ballots in the machine.

Jane

"I do not trust what is being implied about mail in voting by the person in the White House."

There's little in the way of truth or fact that comes from that source. Ignore it and you won't be missing anything. And you'll be happier. Unfortunately, too much of the press coverage is incomplete for my taste because there are few "knowledgeable sources".

Everyone should do what they want. Absentee ballots can be deposited in reliable places. For me, that was a blue USPS box.

Mail delivery really has taken a nose dive since the new Postmaster General took office. Because I sometimes sell on eBay and belong to a couple of online groups with others who sell, I hear a lot of stories about missing packages--many more than anyone experienced before. I have a great relationship with my local Post Office, but once a letter or package is out of their hands I don't have the trust in the USPS I used to have.

It does depend on your locale and local offices. Mine goes above and beyond to do everything they can, and I'm on a first-name basis with my post-woman and post-man (weekdays, Saturday). The local Postmaster is great and a family friend, so no worries there either.

There are...reported issues...but with some walking back of a certain set of orders from a certain DeJoy, there have been certain improvements in delivery of ballots that should actually assist in mail-in ballots not being discarded.

Alisande actually makes an excellent point here. Had these not been fought, ballots mailed Election Day would, theoretically, have had around sixteen percent arrive "too late" in some states and been discarded due to... interference... at.... certain.... levels.

I'm desperately trying not to say what I'm thinking here because I don't use that kind of language and really hate voter suppression of any stripe aimed at anybody at any time.

FiveThirtyEight's coverage of election voting problems has been excellent and led me to that article. It is, sadly, not an isolated case. You can also follow their tens of thousands of daily simulations of current voting patterns to see their current estimate of win chances if that pleases you. The Economist also covers this quite well, and 270 To Win if you prefer a somewhat more condensed version.

Yes Jane_ny, it's much wiser to voter in-person and know that your ballot didn't go to file 13. There have been multiple reports of mail being discarded by postal employees recently, and those are just the ones that are discovered.

There are a lot of things that happen in Kentucky that don't necessarily happen in other places.

I don't know that I agree with that (being an Ohioan and living just next door), but I am ROFL that there is a venue called the KFC Yum! Center, and people go there to vote. :)

Yes Jane_ny, it's much wiser to voter in-person and know that your ballot didn't go to file 13.

There have been local to me reports of mail theft, but apparently people are looking for checks which they then alter and cash. I mailed my ballot in the apt mailroom, no one ever bothers the boxes there. And I am confident of the blue mail USPS boxes that are curved on top.

Is there some ballot theft/misdirection from the mail? I would say very little. I think the publicity/misinformation was put out there to prevent people from voting via mail in the hopes that they would not vote at all.

Is there some hanky panky with in-person voting? I imagine there is some of that too. But I think the vast majority of votes cast by whatever approved means, end up being received and counted.

"it's much wiser to voter in-person and know that your ballot didn't go to file 13."

I don't believe this is necessarily the case. I always choose truth over nonsense when it comes to information in the public arena. It's usually not hard to tell which is which.

If the USPS needs help, the president appoints its leader. Is the current USPS leader a solution to problems or a cause of problems? I think everyone knows the answer to this. It's ridiculous and also very transparently deceptive when someone gripes about problems caused by their own actions and inactions.

PS - anyone hear the story about the Republican Party in California putting out potentially phony ballot collection boxes? And the court order to stop, which is being ignored?

Elmer: I'm bemused how some of you almost seem to view in-person voting as providing as some kind of a positive or desirably tactile or personally satisfying experience.

Well, especially right now - I do. I mean, I live alone, so being able to see other humans is beneficial on several levels. And being a small town to which I am relatively new and where, I'd started to meet a lot of people here - to have that cut off last March.... hey, five or ten minutes to talk to neighbors is NOT to be sniffed at, frankly.

I'd probably be singing a different tune were I living in a metropolis with a ton of faceless folk, whether or not there was a high incidence of COVID in it. Especially if a waiting line was involved (mine is likely going to be ten minutes at the absolute longest).

Totally agree Artemis - we all need contact with people in person, all those little conversations are good for us.

I'll be voting in person on Nov. 3 at my rural precinct where the line has never been more than a few minutes long.

I usually vote early to avoid any “last minute” issues with my schedule on Election Day. I voted this past Friday at the election commission office. It took about 40 minutes from when I got in line to when I left. Not too bad as I was expecting it to take longer.

Picked up my ballot at my post office box yesterday and will be completing it and dropping off at an authorized collection site in the next day or two. Like someone else mentioned, we usually have a lot of local initiatives on the ballot and they take time to read and digest and I like to do that while reading my voter's pamphlet and having a cup of coffee :-)

I live in a vote by mail only state.

We put ours in the drop box on Thursday and got an e-mail confirmation that they received it on Friday. We had local drop boxes - didn't have to mail.

I am voting in person tomorrow, as is my DD. I would not mail in a ballot, as we have been having problems with mail mishandling (disappeared, dropped in the street, intentionally discarded, misdelivered, marked delivered but not, stolen from the blue boxes by theft rings abetted by USPS employees which has happened twice locally that I am aware of.....) for several years now - long before Trump took office.

So with that history it is hard for me to know if trashed ballots were trashed in order to affect voting, or just because the carrier didn't feel like delivering them.

Today. One hour wait in line. Pleasant weather so not bad.

Early voting started today in my town. Shortly after opening there were 70 people in line. At midday the wait was 1 1/2 hours. It’s kind of cold out. We were going to vote tomorrow, but maybe we will wait until Thursday.

I do remember that 4 years ago we voted early, and had a bit of a wait in line, but we were inside the whole time and could cram in, no distancing of family groups. I imagine this time around, there will be more people outside, to keep the spacing inside.

Hmm, maybe I could make a dime or two by making Starbucks runs for people waiting?

I will drop mine off tomorrow at an official official (not a typo) drop box at the library. Why does the repub party get away with these things??

Good news from SCOTUS for PA voters: https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/922411176/supreme-court-rules-pennsylvania-can-count-ballots-received-after-election-day

mama goose, the KFC Yum Center is a sports arena. I don't think it's been used for voting until this year.

The ballots that were tossed in a dumpster in Louisville were, reportedly, supposed to be delivered to a neighborhood of primarily Republican voters. This information was from a Liberal news source, so I assume it is true. Louisville is a very Liberal-voting city, so I'm not surprised this would happen there.

I also enjoyed voting in person. I liked chatting with my neighbors while waiting in line, and everyone is friendly and courteous. I wish I was still able to stand in line to vote, but unfortunately I'm not, so it's an absentee ballot for me this year.

Thanks to our Democrat governor, there won't be any voting at the schools this year. He continues to keep the schools closed, even though it isn't children who are the most susceptible to the virus.

Glad yall have better USPS service, I requested an absentee ballot and never received it and according to our county they were mailed out September 12. We went to registrars office to vote and I had to do a provisional ballot in case my absentee ballot showed up, nothing as of yet. Neighbor has to usually deliver at least one piece of mail a week that ends up in his box.

Woodrose, the danger is that children are spreaders, usually without knowing it.

We got our ballots today - we had to pick them up at the post office, even though we had requested our held mail to be delivered. Anyway, since it was not delivered yesterday when it was supposed to be, we just went to the post office anyway, and they had all of it. Next time I think I will have it forwarded or else tell them to hold it for me, and I will pick it up. In the past, they did deliver collected mail.

We'll go over the ballots today, and then I think I will take them to the post office and mail them inside. If I go to a drop off location, it will be inside a strange building, such as the sanctuary of a church or an airport hotel ballroom. I have not seen any curbside drop off locations, but on Sunday, there was a report of a drop off box in Baldwin Park that had been the target of arson, and several ballots were burned. I hope this is an isolated incident. Baldwin Park is 32 miles east of here, and so it is not that close, but still...

Got my ballot this morning, filled it out, took it to the Board of Elections building where there is a drop-off box outside. The parking lot was full but not many people outside, just a steady trickle in and out. I didn't go inside the building at all. Couldn't stay long because others were waiting on my parking space.

So I did go to vote today at the county Board of Elections office. The line was long, past 2 small and 1 large businesses, (plus quite a length of the elections office which is a former Kohls store, so past 2 of the 3 former entrances) and then down the side of the business and around the back. However, it moved steadily, and I think it was about 30 minutes before we were inside - from there it moved rapidly - no more than 10 minutes for me, because I brought my list of who I wanted to vote for - to check-in, choose a paper ballot or voting machine, go to your choice, (after that point they had separate lines for those needing to vote a provisional or a replacement ballot), then actually vote.

There were several of the candidates for various court benches positioned along the long outdoor line, making their cases for themselves. Also lots of Democratic volunteers handing out "official" sample ballots (some made a point that it only pertained to Democratic candidates, others didn't)... only one Republican volunteer that I saw. There was a BoE volunteer going up and down the line to answer questions (ie, do I have the right proof of address with me?).

It was a very organized and efficient process IMO.

I voted yesterday. I took it to the Board of Elections drop box. Not as satisfying as going to the polls, but I did get a sticker. Dropped my mom’s absentee ballot in the mail.

Put my ballot in the mail eight days ago. Online check with Board of Elections shows it was received.

Mailed 4 days ago. Went on line yesterday and received confirmation of receipt and counted! Very easy to find the on-line Washington State web site. Remember the old song ' Signed, Sealed and Delivered? lol Efficient system!

Our ballots just arrived today! There was a problem with the printer being overloaded with work and not able to fill the orders in a timely manner. It was nice we were kept informed though.

Our ballots will be dropped off at the local board of elections this weekend. It will be great to have it done and over with!

The last presidential election was the only one I ever missed in my life because I was too sick to go vote. Ever since then I make sure to absentee vote for all the big elections.

both my DD's ballots went to our local Board of Elections.

we will vote in person.

11/3/20 cannot come soon enough!

We filled out our ballots this morning, and I noticed that there was an official drop box close to me in Westchester, in front of the Loyola Village Branch Library, and so I went there to drop them off. The slot was so narrow I could barely get two ballots in at the same time, but they seemed to go in okay.

I decided to go to the drop box because I did not want to overload the post office with yet another ballot. Also, this is a different experience for me, as I have mailed ballots before but never deposited them in a special drop box.

This location is next to the Westchester City Hall, and so that made it seem more official than dropping it off at a ballroom or church sanctuary.

I got an email saying my ballot was received and recorded. I wish that exempted me from seeing any more political ads or getting political mail. Since I live in PA, an important swing state, I am bombarded daily. Glad I did my bit to help bring about change.