Early Voting

[poppy]

Yes. New this year. It's marvelous.  The fewer barriers to voting, the better.

[AmandaVT]

Yup, once I settled on who my choices for state and local officials were, I voted last week. Voting early in my town is great - I get to sit at the comfy conference table at the town clerk's office (which is 5 min from my house) and fill in my ballot there. She also always has voting candy. :-) 

[creekland]

Sure, but I'm guessing a lot more eligible voters lose out on voting on Election Day because of something unfortunate yet not as extreme. Having the flu, getting in an accident, running late due to traffic, not being able to get out of work...those are hang ups that certainly affect many more people than actually dying in that window of time.

 

DH is voting early because he is having surgery a week before the election, and he's not taking any chances. What if he contracts an infection, or can't walk by then, or any number of things?

 

My state and area make it very, very easy to vote. I would think that ought to be the goal of every American, no matter what your party affiliation.

 

You're probably correct with the two cancelling each other out.

 

I'm in favor of some early voting because trying to do it all on one day is really tough for some people/places and that's not right.  I suspect my ideal time for a voting window would probably be a week though, not a month as some places have (and absentee ballots for those where even a week isn't enough time as with my college boy).

[Spy Car]

No way. Showing up at the polls on election day is sacrosanct for yours truly.

 

Bill (hide-bound traditionalist :D)

 

 

[bettyandbob]

In VA we have absentee by mail, which my DD is doing from college. We also have in person absentee, which looks a lot like early voting, but it's not. I voted in person absentee yesterday. I was at the local county offices for an appointment and I had extra time do I did the in person absentee while I was there.

 

To vote absentee, whether by mail or in person, you have provide a reason. They list about 30 reasons I think. My dd's is the obvious, out of town on election day. The choice I select is that I am the primary caregiver of a disabled person. I forget all the other choices available.

 

I think in person absentee is shut down a few days before election day.

 

I gotta say it was a relief to get that done. I shall hide from all election talk until the dust settles.

[FaithManor]

With as unreliable as the post office is - and as polar as elections can be - it would take a lot for me to trust a vote by mail system. (Oops - forgot to get these there...)

 

I like having paper ballots that are backups for the machine we feed ours into at the polling place.

 

If I had to vote by mail as some states require, I would want to drop mine off where it belonged (for supervised counting) in person.

Me too. We have a terrible time with postal service too. That said, I am not looking forward to voting day.

 

Michigan - no early voting.

[sassenach]

I vote by mail (early).

[Lanny]

"MOVE" voter here. That's the Federal law for Military and Civilians who are Overseas.  I mailed my Absentee Ballot 2 weeks ago.  Everyone needs to vote!

[ktgrok]

We have early voting...I think maybe a week and a half? Sometimes it is busyer than the regular election day. Depends when you go. We also now have mail in ballots and you don't have to provide a reason to request one. 

 

Usually I vote on election day, sometimes during early voting. This year I'm doing mail in, as I'm honestly afraid of possible fights breaking out at the polling places. 

[bettyandbob]

I do like going to the polls. At my polling station sometimes it seems like a great social gathering. We snake through a line and see neighbors we've been too busy to chat with because our lives are out of whack. It's actually fun. So I will miss that experience this year. I can't imagine a fight at our polling station, but this year has been a mess....

[mellifera33]

I liked going to the polls, but our state is vote-by-mail now. 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Huh. I thought all of our local voting spots were elementary schools and didn't realize you could actually do it early. Just looked up the local places! We are, and actually always have been, absentee voters. Normally I vote right away and return our ballots, but I am secretly holding out that some crazy (viable) alternative is going to present itself. Yes, I will vote, when it comes down to it.

[busymotherof4]

We were mailed ballots this week. It's really nice to be able to look up the different candidates/issues. We can then drop them off at a bunch of different places including the local library. Way easier for my husband since I can drop it off for him. There are secure drop boxes and attended locations. It can be mailed in but that is not recommended since it needs to be received by Election Day not just post marked.

[livetoread]

I have waited until Election Day, voted absentee, and voted early in person, and I've decided my favorite is voting early in person. I like the ritual of going somewhere and going through the process rather than filling stuff out at home, but I also like going before Election Day just in case something happens. This year I have volunteered to help my candidate's campaign on Election Day itself, so I plan on taking my 18 yo son and voting early on Monday.

[Lady Florida.]

Yes, because it wasn't "a dead person's vote." It was a vote cast by a properly registered living voter who later died. As long as it was cast in accordance with the established times set according to the laws, their vote is legitimate. I see it as no different than a person who cast a ballot at 7 am on election day but died before final votes were tallied that evening. Technically, they were dead when the final votes were tallied and the decision made, but the vote was cast legitimately.

Exactly. Theoretically you could vote on election day then get hit by a car or die of a heart attack as soon as you walk out of the polling place. Your vote hasn't been counted yet since they don't start until the polls close, but it should still be included in the count. An early voter's vote is no different if they die before the polls close.

[mamaraby]

We had early voting and I remember in 2008 there were quite a few lines to cast your vote. We use the same ballots as on election day. I think it's considered in-person absentee voting. Then they passed a bunch of laws and they restricted early voting quite a bit. Then a federal judge overturned the limits and early voting is back. In our county, all of the municipalities have coordinated their hours and included evening and weekend hours. According to an article I read in the paper, it's really popular.

 

In person voting for me is kind of annoying. My ward is incredibly busy. For the spring primary, we shared a polling place with three other wards. The other three wards had no line, but ours was out the door and starting to go out the building. They moved us to another polling location for the fall primary, but there's like maybe room for four people to stand in line before you're standing outside and then there's one scanner to read the ballots and two other wards there with ours. I can't for the life of me figure out how this polling location is better.

 

Anyway, long story short, I have voted many ways (absentee, in person absentee, on the election day). This year we may vote early and we might just wait until the day of. I like having options. Anything that gets more people and a higher voter turnout percentage is a good thing in my book.

Edited October 22, 2016 by mamaraby

[KarenNC]

We were mailed ballots this week. It's really nice to be able to look up the different candidates/issues. We can then drop them off at a bunch of different places including the local library. Way easier for my husband since I can drop it off for him. There are secure drop boxes and attended locations. It can be mailed in but that is not recommended since it needs to be received by Election Day not just post marked.

 

We can print a sample ballot for our district from our Board of Elections website, which is very handy. I actually just printed off mine and marked it up today, doing a bit of research on the couple of local races I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to yet. I'll take it with me and just copy it onto my regular ballot when I vote.

[Anne in CA]

We voted today because this whole election is just so yucky we are trying to move on. Locally we have a great candidate who has already served well and yet been unfairly treated. The signs her opponent puts out are really upsetting us so we are trying to just get this done with. But... if someone is doing a great job... and you just don't like their last name... do you have to run against them to make trouble???? Really.

[Guest]

Yes, we have both absentee/absentee in person (voting at another poll location than your district), and early voting in several locations.

 

I've already voted.

[Jenny in Florida]

Usually I vote on election day, sometimes during early voting. This year I'm doing mail in, as I'm honestly afraid of possible fights breaking out at the polling places. 

 

I usually go day of, too, although in my case it's often because I don't get my act together to actually go to one of the early voting sites until there's already news coverage about long lines.

 

I have voted early a couple of times, though, and it's great when it works.

 

And, yes, I am starting to feel concerned that some of the rhetoric being tossed around this year may prompt actual confrontations. Since it's my son's first year voting, I do want him to have the experience of voting in person, but we're planning on going early to try and avoid some of the potential craziness.

[SemiSweet]

I vote early/on Election Day based on what's going in my life, for the primaries this year we voted early because I was working as a poll worker on primary day. This year I'm leaning toward voting early because of some of the scary rhetoric being thrown around. I'm now down for confrontations or people "watching" me, though I'm not in a swing state so maybe that's not relevant.