I voted yesterday... No Political statements just asking about the method you chose on casting your ballot.

[Karin1984]

What boggles most foreign people about the US elections how come election day is on a Tuesday. Most other countries have voting day on a Sunday where the majority of people have a day off. I don’t know is it a constitutional thing? Because if you think about it it really is stupid

Here in NL it's 1 day, not necessarily a weekend, and they are open from 7 in the morning till 9 in the evening, I believe. You can vote at any voting station in your city, and there are plenty in each city. If you cannot / don't want to vote in your own city, you bring an extra piece of paper that comes with your ballot, and go directly to the voting station in the city of your choice. We also have voting stations at train stations in major cities. So if you are going to / from work, you can also vote during your commute.

 

[Skippy918]

Those would be the old fashioned lever machines with a curtain? Found this video. Looks like it might have been transferred from film. The weirdest thing is where a write in vote goes.

I vaguely remember these machines when my mom took me to vote with her in the 80s. Are these still in use?

 

[bcla]

I vaguely remember these machines when my mom took me to vote with her in the 80s. Are these still in use?

Not typically. It seems that NYC has shifted to mostly optical scan machines, but they have most of their old lever machines in storage. I think the last time they were used in a general election was in 2010. They've brought them out a few times for short-turnaround elections (mostly runoffs) where using these was faster than going to a ballot printer. The city has even loaned them to private organizations for their elections.

https://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/d...sed-not-forgotten-unused-blog-entry-1.1788893​

The city — which does not charge for the use of the lever machines — does periodically get other requests to borrow them.​

​

For example, The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masonsof New York will use four machines to elect their officers in June.​

 

[NotUrsula]

Numbers of early votes cast are getting amazingly high. NYT is reporting that in a few states, the number of votes already cast exceeds 50% of registered voters. The normal definition of a good turnout nationwide usually averages out to a little over 60% of the rolls in a Presidential Election year.

 

[Rococoyourboat]

MI-with concerns about delay of ballot transit and vote counting I will vote in person tomorrow.

 

[bcla]

Here in NL it's 1 day, not necessarily a weekend, and they are open from 7 in the morning till 9 in the evening, I believe. You can vote at any voting station in your city, and there are plenty in each city. If you cannot / don't want to vote in your own city, you bring an extra piece of paper that comes with your ballot, and go directly to the voting station in the city of your choice. We also have voting stations at train stations in major cities. So if you are going to / from work, you can also vote during your commute.

In the United States it's typically at the county government level, although some larger cities run local election agencies. But the laws that determine the conduct of elections are mostly by the state. Then there are federal laws that may supersede state laws, but only regarding federal elections. To save on costs, state and local elections are typically conducted at the same time on one ballot.

We generally have "neighborhood" polling locations where they're going to have specific paper ballots that are printed for a particular voting "precinct". However, some states/counties have gone primarily to touchscreen electronic machines. For example, where I've typically voted in recent years, there were two different precincts at that location and the poll workers would check for a voter's name and address before handing over a ballot.

The method of voting is highly decentralized. We have everything from paper ballots that are filled in with a mark to those computerized machines with touch screens that I mentioned before. The latter can be further divided into machines that only store results in the machine's memory storage or ones that print out a piece of paper with the vote.

Some (most) states allow "early voting" at limited sites. I voted this way, and we used touchscreen machines that could be programmed for a ballot for any location in my county. My vote was stored on a piece of paper with a code to be counted later. It was dropped into a ballot box.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Massachusetts here. If I find myself over by the early voting spot, I'll run in and vote. If not, then I'll go to the polls on Election Day and vote in person. I have never waited to vote. In and out in less than 5 minutes. Once, for a local election, I stopped in while I was out for a run.

Four years ago I happened to drive by City Hall when they were doing early voting so I quickly pulled in to vote, but I usually vote on election day.

Update: I had to run to my parents for something about a week ago so I stopped by my early voting location and, well, voted.

I had to wait to go check in until someone finished checking in, but that took all of 30 seconds. I ended up waiting longer only because I talked to the poll worker about how creepy the abandoned school was. No one was behind me, so I wasn't holding up a line or anything. The man at my ward's table was very clear about the instructions and how to fill out the ballot and the early-voting envelope. It took me about 5 minutes to fill it out because lots of regional school board positions were open and then I dropped it in the ballot box and headed home.

 

[MrsDuck]

FL - voted by mail; confirmed ballot was received (won't be counted until tomorrow).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband was telling he was reading today that unfortunately some out of state voters who temporarily reside in our state and thus requested mailed ballots from their home state were returning them in our voter drop boxes. This will cause a delay and possibly for some those votes simply won't be counted in their home state. The counties have been trying to forward them to the appropriate state as they've found them but time has simply run out.

 

[NotUrsula]

My husband was telling he was reading today that unfortunately some out of state voters who temporarily reside in our state and thus requested mailed ballots from their home state were returning them in our voter drop boxes. This will cause a delay and possibly for some those votes simply won't be counted in their home state. The counties have been trying to forward them to the appropriate state as they've found them but time has simply run out.

It would be a really great thing if FedEx or UPS or some other commercial freight company would step up today to overnight those to where they belong. They could do 1-2 airports per state, and the counties could send couriers to pick them up.

 

[Bamaneer]

Mail In

 

[Southernmiss]

My place of employment is offering our large gathering space as a polling precinct for the very first time tomorrow.

Our state offers very limited early voting for only a very narrow and select group of qualifications and you must contact the county courthouse for information and ballots.

It's fascinating to me the number of people that have called or dropped by already insisting that I had to let them vote.

I have to explain that I am not an election official. I work for this place. We are only providing the building. They need to contact our county office for more information. I do not have ballots or equipment to allow them to vote.

 

[bcla]

FL - voted by mail; confirmed ballot was received (won't be counted until tomorrow).

That's just for your county? My reading of Florida election law is that opening can start almost immediately, and counting can start as early as 15 days before election day. But there is flexibility to start counting even after election day.

 

[bcla]

It would be a really great thing if FedEx or UPS or some other commercial freight company would step up today to overnight those to where they belong. They could do 1-2 airports per state, and the counties could send couriers to pick them up.

Depends on state law. Some require that mail-in ballots can only be delivered only by mail. Some counties (including mine in California) use P.O. boxes where only USPS can deliver. That being said, our rules for this year include a postmark by election day and a whopping 17 days after election day to be received. That's an emergency law for this year, but it's supposed to revert back to 3 days next year.

I found a photo of a stack of mail-in ballot return envelopes from this year's primary, and the address is a P.O. box. All of our counties are now required to use Business Reply Mail, which theoretically have a higher chance of not being postmarked because they have no stamp. Postmarking equipment is supposed to look for some special ink on stamps that glows in blacklight. However, USPS standards says that mail-in ballots are supposed to be postmarked. If anyone is paranoid, they can get them hand cancelled by a postal clerk. I notice that these have the postmark, but not the typical stamp cancellation mark in the corner.

I wouldn't advise relying on the USPS in most states though. Certainly not where it's required to be delivered by election day. Maybe not even where there's a few days to arrive. But in California with 17 days I think it's safe.

A few states allow courier services to deliver mail-in ballots. Not sure which ones though. I read that UPS and FedEx were saying that they certainly didn't want to do it because it wasn't anything like their typical services. Also - any kind of requirement for the recipient to sign for a delivery could mess things up.

 

[bcla]

I guess there's some controversy over whether or not Texas law allows for drive-thru voting. I heard this was requested by the Harris County registrar of voters and specifically green lighted by their Secretary of State's office earlier this year.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...-hear-challenge-from-Republicans-15693694.php

There have been over 125,000 ballots cast this way, but there's been a series of lawsuits (including one denied by the Texas Supreme Court last weekend) seeking to invalidate all these ballots. I'm not quite sure how they're supposed to do that unless these are paper ballots that are stored separately from the mailed-in ballots that have been processed. I looked up their mail-in ballot rules, which are that they can check them upon receipt, but at minimum need to wait until election day morning to count them. However, early voting procedures seem to depend on the county.

So this suit was denied.

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/02/texas-drive-thru-votes-harris-county/

 

[NYCgrrl]

I guess there's some controversy over whether or not Texas law allows for drive-thru voting. I heard this was requested by the Harris County registrar of voters and specifically green lighted by their Secretary of State's office earlier this year.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...-hear-challenge-from-Republicans-15693694.php

There have been over 125,000 ballots cast this way, but there's been a series of lawsuits (including one denied by the Texas Supreme Court last weekend) seeking to invalidate all these ballots. I'm not quite sure how they're supposed to do that unless these are paper ballots that are stored separately from the mailed-in ballots that have been processed. I looked up their mail-in ballot rules, which are that they can check them upon receipt, but at minimum need to wait until election day morning to count them. However, early voting procedures seem to depend on the county.

The lawsuit to invalidate the 125K plus votes already made via drive thru, was rejected by the Tx Supreme Court over the weekend and as of this afternoon, the Federal court. No idea if the plaintiffs plan to appeal the latest court decision which is currently in favor of Harris county.

 

[bcla]

My place of employment is offering our large gathering space as a polling precinct for the very first time tomorrow.

Our state offers very limited early voting for only a very narrow and select group of qualifications and you must contact the county courthouse for information and ballots.

It's fascinating to me the number of people that have called or dropped by already insisting that I had to let them vote.

I have to explain that I am not an election official. I work for this place. We are only providing the building. They need to contact our county office for more information. I do not have ballots or equipment to allow them to vote.

It's kind of odd how these things work. I may not have voted in every kind of location, but over the years I've voted at churches, community centers, elementary schools, home garages (that was really odd), and parks. I served as a party poll watcher at a college cafeteria (not limited to students) where I was going to school. I guess it gets really confusing depending on where the voting takes place.

I voted early at a nearby city-owned facility. A lot of normal operations were occurring. I tried following the signs, which were everywhere because the parking lot is pretty big. I've been there before and it got a little confusing. I tried going through one door first when I realized there was nothing going on there. Then I noticed the line. While I was waiting there, one of the poll workers was asking a maintenance worker there to not walk through certain areas because it might distract voters who might think that he was looking at who they were voting for.

But yeah - it sounds like a pain dealing with people who mistakenly believe that your regular election polling site is also an early voting site.

 

[bcla]

The lawsuit to invalidate the 125K plus votes already made via drive thru, was rejected by the Tx Supreme Court over the weekend and as of this afternoon, the Federal court. No idea if the plaintiffs plan to appeal the latest court decision which is currently in favor of Harris county.

I'm not sure what they could do if there was a ruling to cancel these votes. If they're counted already, is there any way to put the genie back in the bottle? Would these drive-thru votes have been committed to paper and then opened later, or perhaps counted separately where clearly segregated voting totals could be taken out? And if there was a ruling to invalidate them today, it might have been possible for affected voters to vote in person. If there's some appeals or US Supreme Court ruling to invalidate them later, it might be too late to vote again.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I'm not sure what they could do if there was a ruling to cancel these votes. If they're counted already, is there any way to put the genie back in the bottle? Would these drive-thru votes have been committed to paper and then opened later, or perhaps counted separately where clearly segregated voting totals could be taken out? And if there was a ruling to invalidate them today, it might have been possible for affected voters to vote in person. If there's some appeals or US Supreme Court ruling to invalidate them later, it might be too late to vote again.

Those bar and numeric codes on documents like ballots hold a lot of information such as the site a person voted at so it probably wouldn’t be difficult to sort and separate them if need be. A county in Pennsylvania had to do much the same during a lawsuit over voting.

 

[bcla]

Those bar and numeric codes on documents like ballots hold a lot of information such as the site a person voted at so it probably wouldn’t be difficult to sort and separate them if need be. A county in Pennsylvania had to do much the same during a lawsuit over voting.

I was thinking of what steps are taken to ensure a secret ballot. As far as I know, every local election agency in the US tries their best to maintain a secret ballot. When I've voted, there might have been a serial number of the ballot stub that I got to keep, but the ballot itself was torn off and didn't have any unique identifier other than the ballot type. Maybe they changed that as an option from the voting equipment supplier and ballot printer.

I do get that some printers put serial numbers on ballots, but election/poll workers aren't supposed to note those numbers anywhere. When I voted early with a touchscreen, the printed ballot probably had all that information needed like machine number and a serial number. But there wasn't supposed to be a way to trace the ballot to me once it was dropped in the box. Still - they recorded me as voting there. If they were to toss every vote from that site, I guess I could have been allowed to vote again.