Early voting started Monday in TX. My son and I went today mid-morning. We only waited in line about 5 minutes. Plenty of poll workers and plenty of voting machines - more than I remember from past elections. Anyway, despite our short wait in line, the number of people voting about 10 a.m. this morning surprised me.
I’m glad to be done with it all. I’m wondering who else has already voted.
My absentee ballot is sitting in my mail pile. I’d better get it in! I won’t be home on Election Day. I’ll be in Ohio, working on a political campaign.
I’ve been working on the campaign in my state. Because California is not in doubt, we’ve been calling swing states. It’s interesting to find out how we’re doing different voting emphasis in different states. We’re calling North Carolina to try to get our voters to vote early; in North Carolina a voter can register and vote, at the same time, until Nov. 5th. We’re calling Arizona to get our voters who have requested Vote By Mail ballots to send them in.
My goal is to fill out my absentee ballot this weekend and send it in. CA has so many propositions to read through it’s crazy. This is the first time I will be doing it absentee — I thought it might be nice to have it done early. Someone on another thread suggested wine and snacks while filling it out…I think I might just try that. 
We don’t have early voting so I have to wait until after I’m done with classes two weeks from yesterday 
My husband and I voted yesterday afternoon. The place was packed. I hope early voting means less of a crunch on election day. And the best thing about early voting is that when your wingnut (of either stripe) friends send you political spam, you can shut them down with “I’ve already voted, thanks.”
They seemed to have changed the name of an absentee ballot to vote-by-mail. This is the first time I ever remembe mailing my ballot and needing TWO forever stamps to cover the postage. In neighboring Alameda county (CA), I was told they needed 3 forever stamps to cover the postage.
The one glitch we had here in Northern CA was with the voter handbook, covering all 17 (?) propositions, arrived about 2 weeks after the sample ballot and about 10 days after the “real” absentee ballot arrived. You’d think they could have somehow arrived simultaneously. I had already researched the propositions online and mailed in my ballot a day before getting the handbook. Tho online version, at least from the website I used, was not as thorough as the handbook that was mailed.
4 of my 5 Ds and I sat together a couple of weeks ago, with a glass of wine, and filled out our absentee ballots. Then we walked to the mailbox and put them in! My D in London did hers with a group of about 20 friends doing the same.
Voting starts tomorrow here in MD and I will be there (proudly) to exercise my civic duty. Looking forward to it!! =D>
We voted last Sunday.
I voted 3 weeks ago - mailed it in.
I didn’t realize voting in California was such an onerous task necessitating a handbook. Ugh! I feel for you all.
No early voting in my state. We all head to the polls on 11/8.
Called my Town Clerk today because the college kids in my family haven’t received their absentee ballots yet despite turning in the request some time ago. Typically, the turn around is very quick. The clerk repeatedly cut me off trying to tell me one child wasn’t registered to vote and wasn’t in her registry. Both kids have voted numerous times before and there are only one of 3 people with the same last name in the town including the sibling who the clerk had no problem locating on the registry right above my other kid in the listing. Once I got her to listen, Viola! the name was there after all. Turns out she had their absentee ballot requests in the wrong pile and will be sending out their ballots today. Glad I called! 8-|
I voted already through absentee ballot. In MN, we do not need to add postage. I will be in town on election day, but I saw a link online to order a ballot so I did.
Voted on Monday in FL. I’m relieved that I encountered no crowds and have it done. We also have a packed ballot that’ll doubtless lead to a long wait time on election day.
I witnessed a precinct captain screaming at a pollworker, because a woman wanted to know if her son was still registered at their address. The election official made quite a scene. The woman screamed that a pollworker could not tell anyone anything about another voter, relative or not.
So interesting the different rules in different places…
I voted last Thursday, the day my ballot arrived. Had to send D2’s ballot to her at school, and they only sent us one of the booklets with all the info on the races and ballot initiatives. So I got it done so I could send both to her.
My parents just proudly texted that they sent in their absentee ballots. We’re in a semi-competitve state and they didn’t want to risk not being home to vote since they have a perpetually sick child (raises hand).
I keep forgetting to print out a sample ballot for me and Mr R to take with us. We can do straight ticket voting in our state but it’s hard to remember all of the non-partisan positions!
Voter records are public record, at least where I live, @CTTC.
Typically, to vote absentee, you need to pick up a ballot request form or print one out online. This year, one of the political parties actually mailed forms to both my children with their name and address already filled out as they had been on the record as having voted by absentee ballot many times. They party is taking the step, I assume, as a way to increase voter turnout by making it easier and reminding their party members to vote.
There is no other way to vote in Colorado than by mail. They mail all ballots, and then you can mail them back, drop them in special boxes at the bus/train stations, at ‘polling’ places, or on election day at several different places. You can vote on the old machines in some of these places, and you’d have to certify that you didn’t vote by mail.
They’ve tried different types of voting over the years. They used to have early voting (for about a month) in grocery stores, and the lines would take up the entire store. One year you could vote anywhere, so they had to pull the correct ballot for your address. It took forever. People were in line past midnight. Scrap that idea. I voted in a fire station for years, but the traffic became too dangerous. Voted at a church, and people complained about that. Voted in an apartment clubhouse, no parking. Now they just do the mailed ballots that you can drop off or choose to stand in line.
Voter rolls are public information in all states. There is no record of how one voted - just party afflliation and elections in which voted (that’s how pollsters know who likely voters are -even though they also ask when polling.) I worked with a professor in grad school on local races and we used the voter rolls to conduct our polling. We also conducted exit polling on the day of election. This was conducted outside very specific polling places to determine the race outcomes and each polling place had a specific number, for example, every 10 voters exiting polled, based on the demographics/election outcomes of the district(s) selected from previous elections.
That’s how many races can be called when just a very small amount of vote totals are in.
No early voting in NY but no citizen initiated propositions at present allowed in NY, so our ballots are very short and takes only a few minutes to vote here.
H and I will do early voting tomorrow. Can’t wait to get it over with! We have several amendments to vote on, none of them printed in easy to understand language. I’m glad I’ve done some research and will bring my cheat sheet.