If early voting is a thing in your state

[pugz]

Take a minute and share on your social media or text a few friends to make sure they have the info about where to vote early and why it's important to vote early.  A friend just told me her friend was exposed and is now quarantined, thankfully they just voted. Not worth the risk! Lots of people here have never voted early and don't know a think about how it works (i.e. that you can vote at any early voting site, not a designated one like on election day).

I'm texting for the campaign I work for tonight and quite a few have asked for the info on where to vote early and thanked me for it. 

[StrawberryBlondie]

My state has a law (enacted years ago) that allows you to request someone to deliver you a ballot and return it for you if you unexpectedly get sick or are hospitalized or something on election day and can't make it to the polls.

I literally learned this today, despite it being a long standing law. I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before. This seems like a perfect year to be screaming that from the rooftops.

[pugz]

StrawberryBlondie wow! I was thinking about it today like... if I was in the hospital on election day and it wasn't something super serious I'd totally sign myself out AMA to vote, lol. My insurance would throw a conniption fit about it.

[wanderingback]

Oct 27, 2020 19:37:27 GMT -5 pugz said:

StrawberryBlondie wow! I was thinking about it today like... if I was in the hospital on election day and it wasn't something super serious I'd totally sign myself out AMA to vote, lol. My insurance would throw a conniption fit about it.

Here’s the website that can help people with guidance on how to vote from the hospital. When I did inpatient medicine we’d always let people know it was an option and guide them.

www.patientvoting.com/howtovote

[brooklyn]

NJ is all mail in, or early voting via designated ballot boxes throughout the state. Of course none in my new town, and I don’t have a car or a license yet.

My amazing neighbor drove me to the ballot box in the next town over tonight. 💗

[lust2hart]

I just went to poll worker training tonight where I learned that curbside voting is allowed. I had no idea!

[ellipses84]

@-ish I texted my little brother. It’s his first time voting, although he wished he was old enough to vote in the last election! He said he already did, of course. I’m super proud of the adult he’s turned into. He still lives with boomer parents and loves to start political debates with them. They’ve hardly left the house since March, and basically the only places he’s gone to are BLM marches. It gives me hope for GenZ saving us all. I’m an old millennial, 2 decades older than him, and his generation has grown up with so much more acceptance for those who are different / anti-bullying curriculum, that’s it’s just unfathomable to him how so many people could be supporting the current administration.

[winecat]

Dropped mine off in a ballot box this morning.

[jene]

Oct 27, 2020 19:24:30 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

My state has a law (enacted years ago) that allows you to request someone to deliver you a ballot and return it for you if you unexpectedly get sick or are hospitalized or something on election day and can't make it to the polls.

I literally learned this today, despite it being a long standing law. I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before. This seems like a perfect year to be screaming that from the rooftops.

I really wish this was more widespread knowledge. The only reason I know about it from campaign volunteering.

[hocus2]

Early voting is fairly new in my state and I've used it for the last few elections. I always post about it on my feed since it is often faster since folks are spread out over several days AND removes any election day issues like a sick family member or craziness at work or just really bad weather.

I have very engaged friends who plan to vote on election day and I'm just not clear on why.

[wildrice]

Oct 28, 2020 14:03:54 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Early voting is fairly new in my state and I've used it for the last few elections. I always post about it on my feed since it is often faster since folks are spread out over several days AND removes any election day issues like a sick family member or craziness at work or just really bad weather.

I have very engaged friends who plan to vote on election day and I'm just not clear on why.

Honestly, I think it's an emotional thing. I'm planning to vote early (tomorrow! Early voting just started this week here) but 2016 was the first time I voted early, and I remember feeling kind of bummed on election day that I wasn't present for the excitement of the day. It's an exciting thing to show up on a big day and participate. Of course 2016 turned into a nightmare so in the end the excitement didn't matter anyway, I guess.

This year I'm more concerned about avoiding crowds than anything else, and I just want election day to be over with, so I guess my emotions are very different. 

[Susie]

hocus2 , I was originally planning to vote on election day, and I consider myself engaged with the issues.  Voting on election day would have meant one less thing to think about in my busy life.  I know exactly where to go, and I know there probably won't be a line because there hasn't been in the 12 years since I moved to my current house.  Election day would (will) feel weird without the ritual of voting, I will miss it.  I voted for HRC in that polling place, I voted for NY's first female/first black AG there.  I have warm fuzzies.  It's not rational.

In contrast, early voting is in a different place, that is further from home (only 6 locations for my county).  Wait times can be long, and are definitely variable.  Friends are reporting waiting 20 mins at off times, an hour or several at busier times.  My experience was 45 mins.

IDK, wanting to vote on election day makes as much sense to me as voting any other time.  As it happened I voted on Sunday, I went out to donate blood and since H had the home front under control I made a plan and tacked on a 45 minute stop at one of the early polling places on my way home, that I thought might be less busy than others.  My desire to mentally move on from 45 ASAP, and my fear of being exposed to covid and having to quarantine on election day won me over.  But I am 100% confident I came into contact with more people early voting than I would have in my polling place on election day, and it felt mildly anticlimactic to me.

As long as we all vote sometime, it's all good either way.  

[hocus2]

Oct 28, 2020 15:25:04 GMT -5 Susie said:

hocus2 , I was originally planning to vote on election day, and I consider myself engaged with the issues.  Voting on election day would have meant one less thing to think about in my busy life.  I know exactly where to go, and I know there probably won't be a line because there hasn't been in the 12 years since I moved to my current house.  Election day would (will) feel weird without the ritual of voting, I will miss it.  I voted for HRC in that polling place, I voted for NY's first female/first black AG there.  I have warm fuzzies.  It's not rational.    

I understand there is a romance or nostalgia about voting on election day but for the 2 folks I know I doubt that is the reason. Voting on election day will likely mean longer lines than early voting. I'm super busy too but the early voting seemed more convenient since I could plan it out around my schedule vs having to make it work on Tuesdays which are often super busy and  a remote learning day too. Voting while the kids had in person was helpful for me. But if your local poll location doesn't have lines I see it. I know there will be long lines here. I was all our polling place a lot in 2016 helping with something else that was going on in the same facility and lines were long most of the day and turn out will be higher this year. 

[jlt19]

Technically Missouri doesn't have early voting, which is what it says when you google it. So I didn't think we did. But we DO have absentee voting (which I assumed was just via mail because that's what all the websites talk about). But there IS in person absentee voting and it was the easiest thing ever. Yes, it was further away from my house, but even with a small line, it was far faster than on election day dealing with 95 year olds that don't know how to use an ipad. Plus, I have no clue what I'll be dealing with on election day (lines/weather/etc). I am very annoyed that it isn't widespread knowledge here. I definitely put it on FB and hope others saw it and did it as well.

[DarcyLongfellow]

That's a great suggestion. My FB newsfeed is absolutely flooded with people posting selfies from outside the early voting locations. I'm honestly surprised at how many people are voting early, but I'm in Florida where we've had early voting since 2004 so people are used to it.

[susiebw]

I voted early this week, and have been posting on my social media about it for about 2 weeks now. People seem to think that early voting = vote by mail, so I'm trying to do my part to help explain. Keep up the good work, everyone!

[downtoearth]

Oct 28, 2020 14:03:54 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Early voting is fairly new in my state and I've used it for the last few elections. I always post about it on my feed since it is often faster since folks are spread out over several days AND removes any election day issues like a sick family member or craziness at work or just really bad weather.

I have very engaged friends who plan to vote on election day and I'm just not clear on why.

Early voting and mail in ballots are super common and used a lot in my state - have been for like a decade or more. It's probably b/c it's rural. But that being said... there were a lot of my GOP-family who were disappointed that they had already cast their ballot via mail in ballot or early voting when Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter days before the election. They couldn't "take back" their vote and have since forgotten about it since he turned out to be a great stooge to the Trumpster, but at the time there was like 60% of the vote already cast. 

Otherwise, I do like the in-person voting on the day of. It really does have more energy and make you feel part of something larger. I appreciate that we get "I voted" stickers at the drop offs now... that helps too for some weird reason. 

[jane6672]

hocus2, my early polling option is a 20 minute walk and people I know who voted at early at that location had a 2+ hour wait.

Meanwhile, my voting day poll location is literally on my corner and I've never (so far, knock on wood) had to wait in line at all when voting there.

[hocus2]

Oct 29, 2020 13:31:59 GMT -5 jane6672 said:

hocus2 , my early polling option is a 20 minute walk and people I know who voted at early at that location had a 2+ hour wait.

Meanwhile, my voting day poll location is literally on my corner and I've never (so far, knock on wood) had to wait in line at all when voting there.

Sure if this is your specific dynamic waiting makes sense.

Here I think lines will the same or longer on election day. I could be wrong. Right now we're at ~25% of the 2016 vote and I'd guess we'll hit the low 30% before early voting closes this weekend. That means 65% or more (if turn out is higher than 2016) of the electorate is planning to vote on 11/3. There are more locations but that is still a ton of folks voting on election day.

[TBM]

Oct 29, 2020 13:10:56 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

Oct 28, 2020 14:03:54 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Early voting is fairly new in my state and I've used it for the last few elections. I always post about it on my feed since it is often faster since folks are spread out over several days AND removes any election day issues like a sick family member or craziness at work or just really bad weather.

I have very engaged friends who plan to vote on election day and I'm just not clear on why.

Early voting and mail in ballots are super common and used a lot in my state - have been for like a decade or more. It's probably b/c it's rural. But that being said... there were a lot of my GOP-family who were disappointed that they had already cast their ballot via mail in ballot or early voting when Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter days before the election. They couldn't "take back" their vote and have since forgotten about it since he turned out to be a great stooge to the Trumpster, but at the time there was like 60% of the vote already cast. 

In some states, you can take back your vote and change it.

I guess Trump was telling people to change their votes to him, or he was saying that people were telling him that they wanted to change their vote to vote for him....whatever, it was one of the top things googled in recent weeks.

[downtoearth]

Oct 29, 2020 15:32:45 GMT -5 TBM said:

Oct 29, 2020 13:10:56 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

Early voting and mail in ballots are super common and used a lot in my state - have been for like a decade or more. It's probably b/c it's rural. But that being said... there were a lot of my GOP-family who were disappointed that they had already cast their ballot via mail in ballot or early voting when Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter days before the election. They couldn't "take back" their vote and have since forgotten about it since he turned out to be a great stooge to the Trumpster, but at the time there was like 60% of the vote already cast. 

In some states, you can take back your vote and change it.

I guess Trump was telling people to change their votes to him, or he was saying that people were telling him that they wanted to change their vote to vote for him....whatever, it was one of the top things googled in recent weeks.

Wait... that is a thing? That really seems to muddy the election and ballot counting. Wild! Why was Trump telling people that?! I mean, it's not common to do or anything right. I just googled my state and I don't think it's possible here unless you have a fraud or tampering claim. 

[TBM]

Oct 29, 2020 15:38:30 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

Oct 29, 2020 15:32:45 GMT -5 TBM said:

In some states, you can take back your vote and change it.

I guess Trump was telling people to change their votes to him, or he was saying that people were telling him that they wanted to change their vote to vote for him....whatever, it was one of the top things googled in recent weeks.

Wait... that is a thing? That really seems to muddy the election and ballot counting. Wild! Why was Trump telling people that?! I mean, it's not common to do or anything right. I just googled my state and I don't think it's possible here unless you have a fraud or tampering claim. 

That was my reaction when I saw an article or news story about it. Wait...what?!? I thought if Trump was saying it, that it had th o be false. lol

I guess up until election day, in some places, you can go through a process to invalidate your first ballot and fill out a provisional ballot.