It boggles my mind a bit the differences in early or regular voting as far as the materials used to cast your vote. I guess the answer is $$$$ and where your state decides to put it, but how is it that some states (or towns) people are sitting with paper and pencil and filling in bubbles and some states (or towns - including mine) have automated touch screen machines!!! 
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Not a pencil! Pens only! And the paper ballots seem much safer to me. This is the way we do it on Election Day too. In my county we stand in the voting booth and fill them out unless you have mobility issues and need to sit.
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Some schools are not in session on Election Day.
Re: use of community centers, libraries or other places…the whole building usually isn’t used for early voting.
Use what they provide when you vote. We used to use felt tip pens, but we now use ballpoint…because the felt tips can bleed through the paper, and we often have two sided ballots.
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I will vote on Tuesday at my polling place. DH is a county Election Commissioner. He will be delivering the voting booths and setting them up on Monday. On Tuesday, he is bouncing between his two precincts making sure all is going well. Of course, he is totally available for any problems. On Wednesday, he will pick the voting booths up. It is 3 full days for him. Last week he spent 2 full days checking and testing all of the voting machines.
There was almost a crisis this week at the clerk’s office. An electrical wire in the HVAC system started smoldering. It was caught in time and fixed by the fire department. I can’t even imagine what would have happened if there had been a fire. 
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That was a plot point in the show Succession!
Here the schools are all open on election days.
Way back when it was in-person, there were probably 5-10 precincts voting in the church basement. That’s no longer a church, and the owners won’t even allow people to use their parking lot, so I doubt they’d allow voting. The local library meeting rooms are fairly small.
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In my state (VA), I can remember having punch cards (remember hanging chads?) and touch screens, but for the last few years we’ve had fill-in-the-bubble paper ballots that are fed into a tabulating machine.
That seems to me like the ideal scenario. You can see with certainty who you voted for and there’s a paper trail for recounts if necessary. With the other systems (and the even older curtained booth where you pull the levers), you never physically see your actual votes.
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We have a touch screen machine system - I have to review who I have voted for - and it reminds me if I skipped any races/issues - so I can see it while reviewing, before submitting. Once my card spits back out (after I submit) I can also review it before physically submitting it in the machine that takes all those paper cards.
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Personally, I would never wait until Election Day to cast my vote (if we voted in person) or deliver my ballot, if I had any other choice. My vote is too important to wait until the last minute.
God forbid I got sick, got in an accident, had a family emergency, they ran out of ballots, there was some sort of closure, misunderstanding, bomb threat, whatever.
I don’t understand waiting until Election Day unless there’s no other option. I want to make sure I get it done.
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I still got a peach sticker this year. Voted early too.
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Early voting in TN closed on Thursday. I’ve heard local news report twice that statewide we had an increase of 45% in the number of early ballots cast compared to 2022 midterms. While everything I had heard or seen anecdotally indicated an increase, it’s nice to hear it confirmed in official stats.
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I voted in person on the first day of early voting. Early voting is centralized at a local community center. I reviewed the sample ballot prior to going and had my list with me. We have a touch screen system, you can review all your votes before casting, it’s printed out, and then scanned by a poll worker. You get a receipt. I got a sticker, wore it all day and posted a photo of said sticker on social media ; ). If I waited until Election Day, my polling place is two blocks from my house but the lines are always long and I prefer to vote early just in case something comes up on Election Day.
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I voted in person a few days ago. It was first time using early voting and it was nice and easy. I waited until I had other things to do in that area.
My kids are all absentee. D24 mailed hers on Oct 21 and it has not yet arrived. S22 and S26 put theirs into a Priority envelope and mailed it October 26. Also not here yet.at least that one has tracking. It was supposed to arrive Thursday but seems to be stuck about 15 miles from here.
They will be very disappointed if their votes don’t count. They have to be turned on by 8pm Tuesday to count.
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Many of the churches have preschools in their classrooms during the week. Our library is an old Carnegie library and so no big community room, just the main (gorgeous) original room with the stacks.
The firehalls have to put all their trucks and gear outside so voting can be inside the garage, so that is not ideal for more than one day.
I would love to early vote. I vote in person only because PA is so weird with its ballots. There are a thousand reasons they can be set aside, like you signed the wrong line on the exterior envelope, or didn’t write the date. I don’t want to take a chance.
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