we vote in person, historically always on election day. This year we have tried to do early in person voting twice (Saturday and yesterday). Both times, line was out the door and around the building. We did not stay. Will try again today or tomorrow, and eventually will concede to waiting in a long line, if necessary.
Our usual polling place for in person, day-of voting is a church, but itās always in the church hall so thereās nothing overtly religious. Itās a convenient location with a huge parking lot, which I suspect is why itās chosen.
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When I lived in another state, our polling location was the local school. I just looked and itās the same.
Voted in the gym at the local high school.
Made attempt #2 today and failed again. This time I went to a different library with a larger parking lot and got there a half hour before the polls opened. Cars were already lined up unable to enter the parking lot. I will keep trying, but maybe give up on going before work.
While home I have always voted in person on election day. While in the military I voted via absentee ballot. Typically, the voting location has been my local elementary school.
My greatest frustration has been checking sample ballots a couple weeks before the election to check on down-ballot candidates and referendums, and either the sample did not match the actual ballot or I could not find information about local officials like school board members or judges.
I had a good experience voting early, mostly because everyone else who was there at the same time happened to live on streets at other points in the alphabet, so I had no wait while they had perhaps 5-10 minutes in line.
The workers, on the other hand, for some reason didnāt have any sort of scanner so had to input all the information manually. One of them was massaging their writing hand as I was leaving.
Iāve always voted in person on election day. As I have moved, so obviously has the polling venue. For the foreseeable future, it will be a church a few blocks from my house.
- The longest Iāve ever waited was about half an hour
- Though there is (now and then) chatter in line, nobody has ever tried to pull me into a political conversation or influence me.
- Iāve never witnessed violence at a polling place
- As for the voting itself, typically Iām aware of the candidates on the front side of the sheet. But when I flip it over onto the back sideā¦ these are folks I am clueless about. So I hate to admit it, but I use eenie-meenie-minie-mo, or some other arbitrary method, to vote for the local spots. If I end up disagreeing with local politicians, I canāt really complainā¦ can I?
Our early voting opened last Thursday. Iāve always voted on Election Day but am working this year so went on my day off yesterday around 1pm. It was busy but I didnāt have to wait. We had a choice of electronic or paper ballot. I was in and out in 10 mins.
Right after I left my youngest, who is a college sophomore, sent me photos of her at her desk filling out her absentee ballot. She was very excited to vote for the first time. She got a much better āI Votedā sticker than I did - hers is representative of our State (MD) while our early voting location just had the generic stickers. S21 also voted for the first time, absentee, but sent his back a couple weeks ago. My older two have not voted yet, nor has DH.
D19ās sticker that came with her absentee ballot:
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Why not decide on all of the candidates beforehand and bring a marked sample ballot or cheat sheet to the polling place with you? Then, when you have the real ballot, just copy from your sample ballot or cheat sheet.
But yes, it is true that it can be hard to find information about local candidates other than maybe a generic statement about stuff that everyone wants.
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I mean, there are local-pol yard signs, but in the heat of the moment, I still donāt really recall the names very well. But even if I did, I wouldnāt know what anyoneās stances were.
I would have to spend some time reading up on them ā effort. hehe
Voted early last week at the county election office. Five voters in line to check in but six poll workers so the line moved very fast. Those poll workers were a well-oiled machine! There were about 30 cubicles for voting, most of which were occupied. The office is located downtown which would normally require finding and paying for parking, but during the early voting period the county takes over an adjacent surface parking lot and makes it free parking for voting purposes only. There is even a friendly guard at the entrance to ensure no parking for other reasons. City, non-swing state.
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Non swing state. Voting was easy. There were two places in our town, one where we would have to pay for parking (and itās often hard to find during the week) and the other where we wouldnāt. It was at a church which houses a nursery school. Early voting started on Saturday (which I skipped figuring there would be lines and I was told there were). Sunday was available, but we were doing other things. We went Monday around 11 am. It turned out there were a lot of people picking up kids from daycare, but the lot still had plenty of space. There were several tables for check-in and you could use any of them, and there were also several machines for sticking the paper ballots in. You can use a sleeve if you want, but I donāt bother any more. The process took a maximum of five minutes.
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Very blue state. Small town. Went on the 2nd day of early voting. Didnāt want to risk anything happening between now and election day and not being able to vote. It felt important to do it in person. Mid morning. I was the only one there. Had already figured out my view on the questions. So in and out. School kids in our town designed the I Voted stickers. All were great had a hard time choosing one. Brought grandkid with me who loved having a sticker.
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I live in a suburb of Los Angeles (so definitely not in a swing state) and we received our ballots in the mail a couple of weeks ago. My husband, daughter and I filled them out this weekend after doing our due diligence on all the state, county and local measures (13 of them this time). I then dropped them in a nearby ballot dropbox in front of our local library yesterday. I expect to get a notification from BallotTrax by tomorrow that they were received. Very easy and convenient!
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Please refer to the previous mod note and keep posts on topic to your voting experience this election. Off-topic posts have been deleted. Thank you for your understanding.
Our Washington ballots arrived in the mail on the 18th. We filled them out yesterday afternoon & I went by the library and dropped them in the ballot collection box.
Easy-peasy.
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Blue state suburb:
I walked into town hall, paid my property tax bill, and early voted, all in about 5 minutes. There was one person ahead of me to pick up the ballot.
I also was the scribe for my fatherās mail in ballot because he doesnāt have the dexterity to fill in the ovals. He had strong opinions on the presidential election and a couple of the referendums. I signed the envelope as his assistant. Easy.
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My California ballot was picked up by our mail carrier at our house yesterday at 4:30. Just got this email:
Your ballot for the November 5, 2024, General Election was received and counted. Thank you for voting!
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Voted early last Friday at a local uni. No line.
We voted there in 2020 and waited an hour, but this time, arriving before noon when students were in class or asleep, no wait.
Polling place less than a mile from our house has had long lines since early voting opened.
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Voted the 3rd day of early voting. Long lines. 45 minutes. Swing state.
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