I’m in HI. we all get mailed ballots and have been for many years. I research issues, complete ballot shortly after I receive it and then put it in the ballot drop box which is a 5 minute drive from our house.
Before we were mailed ballots, I would walk over to the school where I was registered to vote—2 blocks from our house & vote in person. With ballot measures, I’d have to read up ahead of time to understand the issues. I prefer having the ballot mailed so I can research while I am puzzling over the ballot.
PA : mail in ballots, during COVID I had to drop it off to a specific mailbox at the township building that was monitored 24/7. Mail in ballots are requested per election cycle and are tracked online — you can see your request, the date your ballot was mailed, completed, received back, and counted. It has to be postmarked by midnight of election day but NOT received by then.
voted in person for many years, will vote in person in November. In my state, you can’t vote in primaries unless you are registered with a party (so no Independants)
My PA mom votes by mail now. At 92 standing in line is not possible.
CT. I vote in person; voted via absentee ballot when I was in college and a few times when I knew I’d be traveling on election day. But I love shaking hands with our local reps outside the polls (the candidates are careful to stand beyond the boundary); I love the buzz inside; I love seeing how hard the poll workers, monitors, and everyone else is working to ensure that everyone has a safe and legal experience. And watching the parents of young kids who bring them to the polls to watch “Democracy in Action” reminds me of the years I took my own kids.
I know poll watchers and monitors in other parts of the country who have seen stuff that would appall us if it happened overseas in some authoritarian regime. So I am grateful for the many volunteers who get trained and then leave their homes to travel to make sure we have fair elections.
I showed up at the ancient local elementary school gym (remember that waxed floor smell?), no one else was there, and the little old lady at the table looked at my ID and said in the wickedest Boston accent, “Ow, ya husband was heah about an owa ago. Take this ballot, vote fa Teddy, then give it to Henry ovah theah to put in the drum.” I cracked up. I’m sure she broke a whole list of rules, but I WAS there to vote for Teddy, so it was all good.
My polling place is a church social hall. It has that indescribable “church social hall” smell. Can’t pin it down exactly, but floor wax, disinfectant, decades of lemonade, fruit punch and bake sales are definitely part of it!
Voting is by mail. We receive our ballots, sit down together and go through the candidates and issues together, usually agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, but always voting our individual preferences.
We used to put them in the mail but now deliver them to drop boxes to save the government the postage cost.
I’ve voted in every election since I was old enough.
I’ve always voted in person ¶. During COVID I did mail in a couple of times. But PA has a bunch of weird rules (signing the outer envelope properly etc) and I was always worried I might mess something up. Plus I like the process of going in person and seeing neighbors etc.
My kids have all volunteered in PA during various elections (none of them have ever lived in PA) due to the complicated rules around balloting! The easy stuff- you get on a bus and during the several hours drive someone stands in the front and trains you. The harder stuff (the laws don’t always account for weird hiccups) requires training ahead of time.
It’s a big state; it encompasses several media markets some of which overlap so getting the word out via “public service messages” on TV and radio is complicated. I didn’t realize that voting by mail had so many nuances…
I liked voting by mail during covid, but have been going in person (often to early voting, since it’s conveniently located by my library) since. Gotta get that sticker!
We are in Mississippi. DH and I vote in person on election day. We can go to the courthouse to vote early if we are going to be out of town, but since my husband is a county election commissioner, we don’t travel during the election season. Even for our small county, you would be amazed at the work that has to be done to get ready for an election. I am a city election commissioner, so I have to be around for any city election. Of course, they never coincide. The worst is when there are multiple people running for an office and there has to be a runoff. My husband hates that.
Back before all mailed ballots, this state mailed a sample ballot that the voter was to mark and take to the polling place. I did so, and time in the booth was quick because I was just copying from my marked sample ballot to the real ballot.
Did other states mail everyone a sample ballot before the election?
This is my all-time favorite I Voted sticker. It’s the winning high school entry for our state contest in 2024, but there were still some at the primary in August.
I find it more difficult to get a sample ballot than it used to be. I’m not sure why that is. However, I am able to eventually find one & I research ahead of voting.
