November 2026 Voting - Non-Political

Parent Cafe
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Hoping we can have this thread to just share about the Nov 2026 voting experience - not the results or anything candidate related.

Have you voted? Not going to ask if you’’re voting, cause everyone is of course, right?

How are you voting this round? Early vote? By mail? In person on Election Day? Do you have choices or no?
If you voted early, were there lines? Hear any good stories or meet any interesting people?

Did you get your sticker? Do you wear it?

Less than a week out! Share your experience. And maybe your state.

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I’m in Ohio and early voted last Friday. It was a very foggy morning which I think kept the lines down but I still waited about 20 minutes to get to a machine. Chatted with a couple I knew whose daughter was one of D1’s long time school pals. I had waited 40 minutes earlier in the week but had an appt and the line was much longer so had to leave.

I took a pic by a “sort of” selfie area just outside the voting space and sent it to the family - a tradition we all do. Wore my sticker all day.

D1 got interviewed by her local news after early voting and made it on the air!

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I voted a few hours ago at a pop up early voting site close to me.

I typically enjoy going to the polls in Election Day ( I think it has to do with my FOMO), but wanted to go early this time.

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Same. I prefer to go on Election Day but this year some circumstances mad sense to vote early.

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Ever since Covid, I do mail in ballots, except I walk it down to the early voting center (1 block from my office) and turn it in. They check everything to make sure it will be accepted. This way I can also turn in H’s. I also can avoid all the people holding up signs and trying to talk to me as I vote, and I can take my time with all of the issues on the ballot.

I just looked ours up online - we turned them in on Sept. 28th. I knew it had been awhile. Definitely no lines.

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I voted the first day of EV in a place we’ve never voted before. I was told that the lines there usually aren’t long. They were that day. Waited an hour, but I’ve waited longer than that in the past.

I used to love going on Election Day, but once I found out that voting early gets you off the rolls and reduces the calls and texts I started voting on the first day of EV.

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H filled out his ballot on Friday and we ended up having a productive discussion about a couple of people and issues.
I filled in my ballot on Sunday and dropped both of them off in the box outside our local library branch.

I remember tearing home from work on Election Day for years, hoping that I’d get there before polls close. Sometimes it didn’t happen or I’d have business travel that came too late for absentee voting. I love, love, love having the time at home to go through all the candidates and measures.

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I m a poll worker. I will be moderating at my polling place on Election Day. I also worked early voting one weekend day.

I voted early because there is no guarantee I will be able to stand on line ON Election Day…I have a job to do at my polling place.

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I dropped off my ballot at the official drop box at the library on Monday; there was someone ahead of me and someone else dropping off their ballot as I was going back to my car. Husband dropped his yesterday and said there were three people ahead of him.

I stuck my “I Voted” sticker above the doorbell to hopefully keep people from annoying us until election day. But what I really need is a “No Solicitors” sticker, or “No roof or window or solar salesmen”.

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DH and I both voted early a couple weeks ago here in Georgia at our local library. Early voting in GA started on Oct 13. It was a quick in-and-out with almost no one in line for both of us, although we’ve heard that there are record numbers voting this year.

D22 is in Nashville right now for grad school, but she drove home last weekend for her fall break to vote. She also had a quick experience, same library by our house.

S25 is in-state in school, but a couple hours from our house in another county. On Fridays he commutes to take a specific class in another location, and he was able to drive a little out of his way last Friday on the way back to his dorm to stop at an early voting location in our county to cast his vote. (It’s a giant county, lol.)

D26 is also in-state for college, but her school is actually in our county – about 45 minutes from us. They had early voting one day on campus last week for students registered in our county, so she was able to go do that easily. She said there were only a couple people in line in front of her.

Georgia has had peach stickers for years, but this year there are also two new designs.

Earlier this year, I moved my parents from assisted living in Florida to a senior living facility about 10-15 minutes from me, although it’s in a different county. They’re not very mobile, so I helped them order absentee ballots. (It says they’ve been approved and sent, but I haven’t talked to them in a couple days to see if they’ve arrived. Our oldest daughter had trouble with absentee ballots when she was in undergrad in Houston – it worked twice, and the third time she just never received the ballot.)

In any case, I’m hoping to take their completed ballots to a drop-box location – I’m allowed to do so as their daughter. If they don’t arrive, I might have to take them to vote in person, although that will be hard if they have to stand and wait in line. Friday is the last day for early voting, so maybe I will take them then if the ballots haven’t arrived.

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I mailed my ballot last weekend. I do more research on the candidates and ballot measures than my spouse, who tends to vote according to the newspaper endorsements.

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Voted early in person last evening. In and out in about 3 minutes. I used to always vote on election day but since NJ instituted an early in person option, that’s been my preferred mode.

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I was home sick last week so spent one afternoon going through the sample ballot and making my choices. Filled out my sample ballot and saved my sample ballot for my husband to look through. We dropped out ballots in a county election box on Friday. Yesterday we both got messages our ballots had been received and will be counted. Prior to Covid I used to enjoy going to vote in person. When my kids were young I’d take them with me. I hope I had influence on them as they all are voters.
Passed along my sample ballot with research sites to my local kid.

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Back when I voted in person on election day, I went with the sample ballot marked with my selections that I determined at home in the preceding days. Voting was just copying the selections from the sample ballot to the real ballot.

Now, I get the ballot in the mail, mark it at home, and put it in the ballot box in front of the library. Ballot Trax sends text and email indicating when the ballot was sent and when it was received. You check if it is available in your area at https://wheresmyballot.com/ . If so, you can sign up.

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They have consolidated the place where we used to vote in person with other places in our area. As a result it is very busy on election day if you try to vote in person. H and I will fill out our ballots this weekend and walk over next Tuesday to our election site and drop them off.

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All 3 of us are voting early and hand delivering our ballots to the registrar’s office. We are luck that ours is close to home.

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Haven’t voted yet, deciding whether to use our mail-in - but would drop in the ballot drop box not use usps - or vote in person, which is still kind of a novelty to us as relatively recent citizens. But there are so many things on the ballot we would need to take a list of choices with us! I voted in person in the 2020 presidential election, which was also the first time I was eligible to vote. I was working as a poll worker in 2022 and my husband and older kid came to vote at the polling station, that was kind of fun. That was both their first election since they became citizens so they wanted to do it in person. (They should have become citizens a few months after I did, but the pandemic got in the way and delayed them by over a year.) We did drop box in 2024.

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In your area, do you get a sample ballot for this purpose?

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My ADHD brain would lose or forget the sample ballots and they all came from whatever political party or initiative sponsor. The newspaper recs this time prompted the discussion with my husband on one candidate- what they wrote and what was in the voters pamphlet led to two different conclusions.

My husband gets a text message when his ballot is received and entered, I go into our county’s election site to check mine.

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I voted early yesterday, on day #4 of early voting. There were no lines, and the poll workers were so friendly. The kid in front of me was voting for the first time, and all the workers congratulated him.

D and SIL will likely vote early, because even early voting in their very politically active town draws lines. Election day will probably be crazy. H will just vote on Election Day, because even if lines are crazy, he has all day & he can always leave and come back later because the polling site is very close to our house.

I will be processing absentee ballots Monday & Tuesday. We have to claim a party in order to work the polls, and although they needed additional workers to do the final processing Tuesday evening, they had enough from my party. I’ll probably be glad about that by the end of the usual shift on Tuesday!

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