We voted

No politics please! Otherwise, we'll shut this down in a heartbeat.

As we've done for a number of years, we voted via absentee ballots. I used this ballot to demonstrate to Chris what the concern is with unsolicited ballots.

Whatever your political affiliation, please vote!

Your next door neighbors are watching this with bated breath. We have a provincial election coming up this month that could get very interesting!

We voted Thursday with what Iowa calls an ?in-person absentee ballot?. We go to the courthouse, request an absentee ballot, fill it out right there, hand it in, and it goes straight into a ballot box. Easy, safe, and done!

We have our ballots. We'll fill them out this weekend and hand deliver to the board of elections on Monday.

We're accustomed to voting by mail in Oregon.  No big deal.  We usually deposit our ballots in the ballot-only mail drop in front of City Hall.  Our ballots will be mailed on October 14th and will be deposited the very next day.

As Tom mentioned...I don't care who you vote for but please vote!

We have our absentee ballots filled out and will be dropping them off at a ballot drop box.

As usual, I'll be going to the polls during Florida's early voting period, October 24 through 31.

The town clerk mailed our absentee ballots  to our FL address per the address we put on the application because we had planned to be in FL earlier. . I was hoping to get them before they mailed them but I was a day late. The campground called us the other day and they said they are holding them in the main office. We'll fill them out on 10/19/20 and will drop them in the mail. Should get back to NH in plenty of time.

We got ours in the mail today. Filled them out right away and will deliver to town hall tomorrow.

In Colorado the ballots arrive by mail, we mark them and mail them back to the County, or drop them off at the county offices in a secure drop box.
Last time we stood in line to vote was six years ago.
Every state should be this easy.

[quote author=LarsMac]In Colorado the ballots arrive by mail, we mark them and mail them back to the County...[/quote]
That's how we've done it in California for a number of years,

I got my Nevada ballot in today's mail.  Choices are to mail it in, drop it off at the County Clerk's office or take it to the city-wide polling place starting on October 17 and trade it in to vote in person.  The voting machines use an iPad-like touch screen that records your vote electronically and prints a backup paper copy you can review through a window before it's stored inside the machine.  A very good system, IMO.

Pahrump and Nye County have interesting politics.  This area is so heavily Republican that Democrats didn't even bother to put candidates on the ballot this year for any of the local races.  For the past month there's been an independent vendor doing a brisk business selling Trump and MAGA paraphenalia out of a trailer in the local shopping center's parking lot

Two years ago brothel owner Dennis Hof was elected to the Assembly in spite of dying three weeks before the election.  This became a national joke, but the reason he was elected was so the County Board of Commissioners could appoint another Republican in his place.  The Democratic candidate put on a minimal campaign, including not even bothering to show up for a televised debate.  The Republican incumbent is running unopposed on the current ballot.

LarsMac said:

In Colorado the ballots arrive by mail, we mark them and mail them back to the County, or drop them off at the county offices in a secure drop box.
Last time we stood in line to vote was six years ago.
Every state should be this easy.

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Are they absentee ballots you have to apply for annually or do they mail them To the same address every year. How do they know if you?re still living there or even  if you?re alive?

I keep reading about the "Discarded ballots"
My ballot was "Solicited" in that I contacted the City Clerk's office.  Using the official form to request same. They sent me two (Mine and my Sister-in-laws. that one went back unopened)
I filled it out.

Then I put my ballot in a proper "Secrecy envelope"
Put that in the OFFICIAL ballot return envelope, pre addressed to the city clerk
Signed the back of that envelope
Put on postage

Returmed to mail box at post office

And tracking says it is in the ballot box/safe at the city clerk.

The discarded ballots were downloaded from the internet and mailed in plain white wrappers.
By law or to be more exact by order of a court following a successful law suit they had to be discarded.. NO matter who the voter voted for. 

This is why following the procedure is important.

John From Detroit said:

I keep reading about the "Discarded ballots"
My ballot was "Solicited" in that I contacted the City Clerk's office.  Using the official form to request same. They sent me two (Mine and my Sister-in-laws. that one went back unopened)
I filled it out.

Then I put my ballot in a proper "Secrecy envelope"
Put that in the OFFICIAL ballot return envelope, pre addressed to the city clerk
Signed the back of that envelope
Put on postage

Returmed to mail box at post office

And tracking says it is in the ballot box/safe at the city clerk.

The discarded ballots were downloaded from the internet and mailed in plain white wrappers.
By law or to be more exact by order of a court following a successful law suit they had to be discarded.. NO matter who the voter voted for. 

This is why following the procedure is important.

Click to expand...

There is the Crux of the Argument.  John Requested his voting county to send him a ballot. 

Everyone is cool  ) ) with that. 

Think of the eXpense of a mass mailing.  Why? 

People have to get on with their lives to include voting Absentee, in person. 

Glad to live in this Great Land of ours. 

I love taking my chances here in the USA!

Ohio was supposed to mail ballots starting the 6th.  Our ballots were in the mailbox on the 6th. On the 7th we dropped them at the county BoE drop box.  There were 20 cars in line. Early in person voting also proceeding apace. Our county reporting about 375 votes per hour capacity.

Everything seems orderly and well organized. No drama...

Record early voting and mail in voting for sure...

Several months ago the Delaware elections office mailed everybody a letter  if you filled out the questionnaire indicating you wanted a ballot mailed to you they would do so. We received our primary ballots for senate and a few state offices awhile back and received the ballot for the general election a few days ago. We filled out our ballots and placed them in the envelope provided, signed and dated the envelope. The elections office is about ten minutes from us. We dropped the ballots off yesterday into the ballot box. There are two boxes at the election office. The office is open M-F from 0800-1630. The boxes are chained and locked outside and taken inside at 1630 and brought outside at 0800. Easy peasy.

Oldgator73 said:

Several months ago the Delaware elections office mailed everybody a letter  if you filled out the questionnaire indicating you wanted a ballot mailed to you they would do so.

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Did you have to sign that questionnaire after you filled it out?  I guess my question is how do they know it was you who filled it out. Do they have a way of comparing signatures just to make sure it was you who actually filed it out.
This type of voting is all new for us in N.H. the only way we can vote by mail is by going down to city hall and filling outa application for a ballet. Then when I send it in through the mail, they can compare signatures from the application and on the ballet.

Rene T said:

Did you have to sign that questionnaire after you filled it out?  I guess my question is how do they know it was you who filled it out. Do they have a way of comparing signatures just to make sure it was you who actually filed it out.
This type of voting is all new for us in N.H. the only way we can vote by mail is by going down to city hall and filling outa application for a ballet. Then when I send it in through the mail, they can compare signatures from the application and on the ballet.

Click to expand...

Ignore the media hype (in most states) - In Ohio you fill out a ballot request form. This year they mailed one to everyone, usually you have to request it. You mail that in. You can also request in person or by phone.

You get your ballot in the mail with instructions and two envelopes
You vote the ballot - just like a normal paper ballot - you don't sign it.
You fill out the privacy envelope with your voter details and either drivers license number, last 4 of social and you sign the envelope
You put only the ballot in the privacy envelope and seal it.
You put the privacy envelope in the "mail back" envelope. If you don't have a D/L or don't want to reveal the last 4 digits of social you can photocopy several other types of ID and include that in the mail in envelope.

Not so clear on this part but I understand in Ohio no one sees your ballot. A person checks the privacy envelope and loads it into a machine. The machine separates the ballot from the envelope (somehow unfolding it?) and then it gets scanned.

There is a county BoE watcher and party watchers from both/all sides.