Voted early in person, no wait at mid-morning on a Tuesday in my suburban neighborhood in a swing state.
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I am in a deep blue state, MA. We can vote early by mail and in-person. For the most part, the voting location is at a town hall.
It is open 7 days a week from 10/19 -11/1. We were there this past Sun. People trickled in. There were only 3-4 people in front of us. The whole experience was relaxing and very convenient.
I remind my friends about this in-person early voting because it is new to us. There should be no excuse re. too busy to vote. It is 7 days a week for 2 weeks!!!
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To be clear on concept - this thread is about your experience. It is not about anyone elseās. Itās not about news articles relating to ease or difficulty in voting. Itās not about attempted restrictions on voting.
Posts not in compliance are subject to deletion without comment
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All mail in voting in my non swing state. I have one more ballot measure to research tonight and will drop my ballot in a secure ballot box tomorrow. In a couple of days, if I havenāt already received the text notification I signed up for, I will check with the state elections website to confirm my ballot has been received and counted.
As another poster mentioned, voter rollsāincluding who is registered, who voted and who has not votedāare public information. PSA to anyone who is concered about election integrity: in most states you can confirm online that your ballot has been counted and, if you are so inclined, check the voter rolls yourself too.
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D signed up to vote at 18. Sheās now in mid-30s and her handwriting has changed frequently in that time.
We usually vote on election day, but have done absentee and early in-person once. We decided to do early voting this year. Drove to the county courthouse, site of the early voting. Entered the parking structure where there were signs for voting. Walked to the building entrance, where there were corrals for major parties and candidates to hand out literature for the endorsed candidates. Walked into the building, followed the blue line for early voting which led down some escalators to an area with about a dozen stations for checking IDs and handing out ballots. Had a choice of touchscreen and hand ballots. Entered another room with 30 + voting machines where you insert the ballot and use the touch screen to make selections. After reviewing selections, you hit a button that prints your selections and take it to a scanner. Then you get handed the āI votedā sticker and follow the line back to the parking structure. There was a very steady stream of people voting, but the longest process was finding a place to park. Oveall the process was very smooth and easy.
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Voted two weeks ago (Illinois). Husband and I were the only ones there. Easy Peasy!
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Voted early in-person, this afternoon. Not a swing state and my vote wonāt change anything here, but it was important to me to cast my ballot. There are fewer early polling locations than on Election Day and this one was atā¦a church.
The line wrapped around the side of the building and the whole process took about 30 minutes.
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Iām in a swing state in one of the ground zero counties for election challenges in 2020. We are recieving so many texts encouraging us all to vote, trying to sway our votes one way or another, or making sure we know that our friends and family will be able to see whether or not we voted, with varying degrees of ominous wording. Every TV ad is political. So tired of it all. Iām not really looking forward to the election aftermath either.
I filled out my mail ballot today. Four total long form pages, two pages front and back. Husband filled out his yesterday but sealed it into the return envelope with only one of the two pages inside, so he will have to go to the early voting polling place to fix the problem. I usually go to the polling place to drop off the mail ballots because I donāt trust the USPS with it, but Iāve also used ballot drop boxes that arenāt located inside the polling places. In the past Iād drop off the completed mail ballot on Election Day but Iāve stopped waiting till the last minute and delaying the count :-). We can check online or set up text alerts to see when our ballots are mailed to us, and when they are received and signature verified and counted.
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Definitely not a swing state! Mailed in ballot through USPS. Received text a few days later that vote was received and counted. Easy peasy.
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We went to early voting last week. Blue city in a red state. No lines but every booth was in use. About 20 minutes in and out.
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Voted in person on the first day of early voting. (Our state does not allow mail-in voting unless you met fairly restrictive criteria such as over 65, disabled, or out of state during the entire voting period.)
Took an hour (lots of down ballot races and a line that moved slowly) in our suburb of a non-swing state. Turnout in our area so far has continued to be higher than 2016 or 2020 and is by far voters 50 and older. Hoping younger voters get to the polls!
Now to wear my āI votedā sticker at some of the places offering treats to folks sporting the stickers!
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The last traditional election day polling place I went to before COVID-19 was in a church (Baptist). Previously, it was in a school. The church had more space and nothing else going at the time, unlike the school. The poll workers were not necessarily members of the church (at least one was very unlikely to be a member, based on his name).
In college, I remember a polling place in a fraternity house and another in a cooperative house.
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Just used the tracking system in my state for the first time. Thanks to this thread I am now sure my signature passed and all the last few votes were counted, too.
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In Colorado I feel comfortable dropping my ballot off. Got confirmation text today that my ballot was received. But certainly I understand why others may be uncomfortable with it.
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When Iāve lived in in-person voting states, my polling place was often in a church. In-person voting was on election day only, so the churches covered religious symbols and paintings during polling hours, or kept polling to a less explicitly religious area like the rec room, which I suppose supported that church-state wall.
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My kids and I voted absentee from France, two of us in California and one in Ohio. My daughter and I have voted absentee in California in past elections, and sometimes they contact us by email when an election is coming up, but this time we submitted a request for ballots, which they kindly mailed to us. We also mailed our ballots back, although we could have faxed them. A few days ago we received confirmation that our votes had been counted. My son voted in Ohio, and that was more complicated, although the county election board was very responsive and helpful. Everything came by email, but he had to print out an envelope form that then had to be turned into a security envelope for the ballot. And then he had to print out another form that was pasted onto the outer envelope. Then everything had to be mailed back. It wasnāt bad, but it was sufficiently complicated that someone who wasnāt determined to vote might have thrown up their hands. He checked online this week but there was no confirmation yet that his ballot had been received.
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In person early voting opened here on 9/20.
I walked in on 10/17. One person was at the registration desk ahead of me, but there were 3 stations so I walked right up, got my ballot, filed it out, and fed it into the scanner. Took under 5 minutes.
Iāve heard there is a wait on weekends.
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Smaller Ohio city, voted October 9, the day after early voting started. We tried on October 8, the first day, but the line was around the block. As usual, a good experience (our board of elections is pretty efficient).
We went early on October 9 (8:30) and got right in. By the time we left, the line was out the door. My niece experienced the same thing in upstate New York, on a Saturday.
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