Third time was the charm. Voted last night, after opting not to stand in a very long line the first two days we tried. About a 20 minute wait last night.
We register annually for vote-by-mail ballots (over65). Didnāt do it on time for the primary election so voted early in person this spring.
We were out of town when ballots were mailed but could see them in our Informed Delivery app, so we knew they would be in our held mail bin.
Filled them out Tuesday, put stamps on and drove them to the post office (inside drop slot). Iāll check in a couple of days to see if they have been accepted. Texas doesnāt have ballot drop boxes but we have lots of early voting days and you can vote at any early voting location in your county. On Election Day you have to go to your home precinct location.
Didnāt get a sticker .
ETA thanks to @Youdon_tsay , my comment on Election Day voting doesnāt seem to hold true any more. Hooray for computerized databases.
Voted a few weeks ago with my husband and my son who was home from college on fall break. Three locations for early voting in a county of over 330K people. Locations open every day but Sunday. Wait wasnāt too long on a weekday early afternoon. Helpful efficient volunteers. Filled out paper ballot and placed in the scanner. Easy
Weāre going to vote on Election Day. We live in a small town and I donāt expect long lines. Weāll see! I just enjoy voting on the actual day.
FYI, I donāt know where you live, but in my county you can vote in any precinct, even on Election Day. I would check that as I would hate to have misinformation spread.
I used to enjoy voting on Election Day, but the lines were ridiculous the last two elections. I think people are shocked to find that there are races other than President, Senator and Representative. They spend lots of time trying to figure out who to vote for on the āsurpriseā races. I get perturbed, because I want to say, āJust leave those blank if you are clueless!ā Thatās not how it works, though, because people have a right to vote no matter what ⦠so I now prefer to just vote from home for the big elections. It keeps my blood pressure from spiking!
We like to vote on election day and it is easy for us to do so that is what we will do next Tuesday. We have a lot of local and state races and propositions that we will be voting on too. We always fill out our ballot ahead of time so that the actual voting in person is easy.
I love that our state does mail-in ballots. Last night, I sat down with three voters guides and worked my way through the ballot. On my lunch break, Iāll walk my ballot over to a drop box near my work. After about 24 hours, I will be able to track my ballotās receipt and processing online. I did try to make sure my signature was good, because Iāve been contacted once or twice in the past for verification because my signature has changed over the years since I registered.
So, I have a paper trail, a digital trail, and confidence that someone is actually looking at my arriving ballot. And I could even wear an I Voted sticker if I wanted to (it was tucked in with the ballot).
Where I live if you go to the wrong precinct on election day you can only fill out a provisional ballot.
Note too, @dragonmom . It must vary by state.
They will try to get you to the correct precinct first if itās not too late to make it.
H and I decided to take our absentee ballots to one our countyās early voting centers to run them through the machine ourselves. We figured that it would be two less ballots our clerk has to process. We decided that if there was a line, weād take them to our clerkās office - but there was just one person waiting in line in front of us. It was easy ⦠we completed a voter slip with name, DOB & address. Then we gave our drivers licenses to someone who compared signatures & ran the information through the system to verify that we hadnāt already voted. She took the top part of our ballots and recorded that we were there to cast our votes. That worker gave us a ballot sleeve and put our voter slips in a plastic pouch on the outside. After that, we walked to another table where a worker took our voter slip from the pouch on the sleeve and told us to feed our ballots from the sleeve into the machine. No workers were at the machine watching us (in other words, no one was trying to see our ballots!). The machine told us our votes were recorded, and we were outside in no time. Easy!!
We are getting a little off topic hereā¦
But election guidelines and locations of polling places vary by state, and locations vary by town.
Please call your registrars of voters to find out where you go to voteā¦early or on Election Day (and those locations might not be the same).
Better to go off topic a bit and give correct information, IMO.
I dropped off my expat partnerās ballot at the American Embassy in the city where heās on a work assignment. They put the ballot through the x-ray machine, then I dropped it into a lock box. They will be sending absentee ballots by diplomatic pouch.
My husbandās voting experience, with some fun sound bites for everyoneās enjoyment:
- āWhereās my mail-in ballot?ā On your desk.
- āBut where on my desk?ā Right there in front of you, honey.
- āHow do I open this?ā Just like any other piece of mail.
- āHow do I do this?ā Read the instructions just like you would with anything else.
- (prior to yesterday) āYou donāt understandā¦Iām REALLY busy.ā Ok, so am I and so are the rest of us.
- āBut Iām REALLY busy. I donāt have time for this.ā Thatās fine. If you choose to not vote, then you donāt get to complain about presidential politics for the next 4 yr.
- (to me reminding him of the deadline to mail in his actual ballot) āBut you donāt UNDERSTAND! Iām BUSY!ā Life is all about choices, honey.
Am happy to report that I played the role of a supportive wife and dropped it off at the post office so it could go out in yesterdayās mail.
I have a question about early (in person) voting, because my state does not do that.
Many people (and news stories) are talking about the long lines for early voting. Does that mean if those states did not allow this early voting, the lines on Election Day would be much, much worse?
Lines vary by your precinct, and how many people are registered to it. IN all my years of voting in this state, I only recall waiting more than 15-20 minutes in 2008 and 2012. I voted by mail in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Early voting is available in limited locations. That is why the lines are long. On election day all the polls are supposed to be open, so the voters should be spread out across all the voting precincts. Sometimes on election day, lines are long at many precincts.
Short answer: yes. Although in my county, MANY more places are open on Election Day than the 40ish or so early-voting locations. Still, it would be a nightmare if there were no early voting.