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Are you going to mail in your ballot by UPS or FEDEX...? (Original Post) kentuck Apr 2020 OP
I will drop it off personally. 33taw Apr 2020 #1
That's what we do eleny Apr 2020 #22
Me, too. MurrayDelph Apr 2020 #24
Me too. no_hypocrisy Apr 2020 #29
Well, FedEx runs about $20 for two day delivery. dhol82 Apr 2020 #2
That means FedEx and UPS can't keep leeching off of their Final Segment Delivery Services! TheBlackAdder Apr 2020 #35
Oregon has 100% VBM leftieNanner Apr 2020 #3
Actually, I think the Postal Service is required by the Constitution? kentuck Apr 2020 #4
Not true. I looked it up. n/t rzemanfl Apr 2020 #10
Probably talking about the "Postal Clause" kentuck Apr 2020 #13
Thank you. I was too lazy to do all those keystrokes. n/t rzemanfl Apr 2020 #25
Congress is not required to establish post offices. It merely has the power to do so. Celerity Apr 2020 #31
That was the source of my comment. I am so lazy. You have the advantage of youth. n/t rzemanfl Apr 2020 #33
my gran on mummy's side has more energy that you, me and 10 other posters put together Celerity Apr 2020 #37
Who will bring you this ballot? LisaL Apr 2020 #9
This message was self-deleted by its author Totally Tunsie Apr 2020 #23
How do you receive your mail in ballot if the postal service is shut down? Brother Buzz Apr 2020 #5
Good question! kentuck Apr 2020 #7
Your congressperson will put them in a box outside his/her local office, rzemanfl Apr 2020 #27
Oh, that's sweet. I'll pick up a couple up dozen of them because as my pappy used to say..... Brother Buzz Apr 2020 #42
In my county, you can drop them off at the board of elections. nt luvs2sing Apr 2020 #6
If you have to go t board of elections to get your ballot and then go back to drop it off, LisaL Apr 2020 #8
Here we can also drop them at a polling place on election day. 2naSalit Apr 2020 #11
Here you can drop them off at any early voting site csziggy Apr 2020 #21
I have no idea 2naSalit Apr 2020 #36
I grew up when absentee ballots were hard to get here csziggy Apr 2020 #40
We need Internet voting customerserviceguy Apr 2020 #12
Don't trust the Internet. kentuck Apr 2020 #14
But mail, you trust? customerserviceguy Apr 2020 #16
Can tens of millions of postal votes be hacked as an internet vote can ? OnDoutside Apr 2020 #30
It all comes down customerserviceguy Apr 2020 #43
Actually there are lots of internet votes everyday that are skewed OnDoutside Apr 2020 #48
I demand a paper trail. Perhaps a hybrid approach with a paper trail would work Brother Buzz Apr 2020 #17
Or, maybe customerserviceguy Apr 2020 #18
Our Registrar Of Voters and her staff worked with the go-to IT whiz at the nearby university Brother Buzz Apr 2020 #19
Since these are privately owned branches I have no confidence in them at all. Baitball Blogger Apr 2020 #15
I probably won't be able to vote by mail. GoCubsGo Apr 2020 #20
Can it be done by fedex? Meowmee Apr 2020 #26
I already do that, just because. 2naSalit Apr 2020 #38
Good! Time to get a small camera phone ir just a digital cam 😊 Meowmee Apr 2020 #44
Phones all come with cameras but I diable them at purchase. 2naSalit Apr 2020 #45
Great! Meowmee Apr 2020 #46
Last I checked.... Arthur_Frain Apr 2020 #28
we must not let the USPS fail handmade34 Apr 2020 #32
State and Federal Courts rely on the mail system for a lot of things. rzemanfl Apr 2020 #34
I don't see how they can succeed this time around but 2naSalit Apr 2020 #39
I vote in person Polybius Apr 2020 #41
USPS is very unreliable right now MichMan Apr 2020 #47

eleny

(46,166 posts)
22. That's what we do
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 07:31 PM
Apr 2020

Plenty of easy drive up options around here. A nearby town's city hall is closer to our house than our city hall. So I just drop it off there. And now our local library branch has a drop box out front.

It couldn't b easier when a state makes the commitment to voting participation.

MurrayDelph

(5,281 posts)
24. Me, too.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:01 PM
Apr 2020

I live in a town in Oregon where the voting dropbox is two blocks closer to my house than the Post Office is.

no_hypocrisy

(45,774 posts)
29. Me too.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:14 PM
Apr 2020

Fill out the ballot in the Board of Elections, seal the envelope, and return it. Plus it won't get "lost in the mail."

dhol82

(9,351 posts)
2. Well, FedEx runs about $20 for two day delivery.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:03 PM
Apr 2020

Don’t know if there’s a cheaper method.
Possibly horse drawn wagon.

TheBlackAdder

(28,076 posts)
35. That means FedEx and UPS can't keep leeching off of their Final Segment Delivery Services!
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:36 PM
Apr 2020

.

That means all of the money those two are saving by having the USPS make house calls goes away. All those tens of millions in congressional payoffs gets FUBARed.

Neither firm has the infrastructure to support many suburban & rural deliveries.

.

leftieNanner

(14,998 posts)
3. Oregon has 100% VBM
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:04 PM
Apr 2020

And we have community drop off boxes everywhere. Mine is three blocks down the hill behind the library.

That being said, we cannot lose the USPS for ANY reason! So I'm going to order some stamps. Since we are locked down anyway, maybe I'll write some paper-and-pen letters and send them to all of my friends. I'm going to have to get out my crayons to make some homemade birthday cards since the card store is closed!

kentuck

(110,950 posts)
4. Actually, I think the Postal Service is required by the Constitution?
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:06 PM
Apr 2020

Seems I read that "somewhere"?

kentuck

(110,950 posts)
13. Probably talking about the "Postal Clause"
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:31 PM
Apr 2020

Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads".

Celerity

(42,671 posts)
31. Congress is not required to establish post offices. It merely has the power to do so.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:16 PM
Apr 2020
http://postalnews.com/blog/2015/05/07/postal-myths-it-would-take-a-constitutional-amendment-to-eliminate-or-privatize-the-postal-service/


Here’s what the Constitution actually says in Article 1, Section 8

The Congress shall have Power To establish Post Offices and post Roads


That’s it! You don’t need to be a constitutional scholar, or even a lawyer to interpret that sentence- it’s very clear. Congress is not required to establish post offices. It merely has the power to do so if it chooses to. And it chose to do so in 1792 when it passed the “Postal Service Act”. That Act of Congress established the Post Office Department. All it takes to repeal an Act of Congress is another Act of Congress- not a constitutional amendment.

Celerity

(42,671 posts)
37. my gran on mummy's side has more energy that you, me and 10 other posters put together
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:40 PM
Apr 2020

bloody shame she is a wicked old Bajan and it is hate that drives her



Response to leftieNanner (Reply #3)

rzemanfl

(29,540 posts)
27. Your congressperson will put them in a box outside his/her local office,
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:06 PM
Apr 2020

like ours did for Florida Unemployment Compensation Applications because the system is broken, libraries are all closed and people without computers and printers are just as fucked as Rick Scott wanted them to be all along.

Brother Buzz

(36,217 posts)
42. Oh, that's sweet. I'll pick up a couple up dozen of them because as my pappy used to say.....
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 09:27 PM
Apr 2020

"Vote early and vote often"

LisaL

(44,962 posts)
8. If you have to go t board of elections to get your ballot and then go back to drop it off,
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:21 PM
Apr 2020

you might as well just vote in person.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
21. Here you can drop them off at any early voting site
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 07:26 PM
Apr 2020

Early voting is two weekends and the full week before Election Day - for the presidential primary on March 17, early voting was from Saturday, March 7 through Sunday, March 15. There are 10 locations in our small county, mostly library branches.

I always figure if I've got to go in to turn in a ballot, I might as well vote in person. The scanners used to read our paper ballots will immediately reject any ballot that has a problem - undervote, overvote, or extraneous marks - so that is a check to make sure the ballot is accepted. Plus, now that they have added stylus to put the signature on the little screens, it's quicker to verify them than not being sure if your mail in ballot might be considered invalid.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
40. I grew up when absentee ballots were hard to get here
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 09:04 PM
Apr 2020

You had to have a reason. I voted absentee once or twice as a college student living away from home. That was long before the Supreme Court said students could consider their college domicile as their address for voting purposes, but even so I probably would have voted absentee since Mom was a poll worker and arranged for them to be sent to me. It's been so long I don't remember the exact circumstances.

Since getting out of college I have always voted in person and since Florida started early voting I always vote early.

customerserviceguy

(25,183 posts)
12. We need Internet voting
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:29 PM
Apr 2020

Millions of financial transactions are completed everyday, with a minimum of hassle or fraud. Surely twice a year, we can have professionals conduct an election that way.

customerserviceguy

(25,183 posts)
16. But mail, you trust?
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:37 PM
Apr 2020

Ever get anything lost in the mail? My New Yorker magazine from last week still isn't here. It probably went to an elderly neighbor who is too scared to leave the house to put it back in my mailbox. Two weeks ago, I got a magazine for the neighbor across the street, and put it into her mailbox.

Banks have been targets of thieves for god-knows-how-long, and they've figured out how to thwart evildoers who would love to rob them blind.

I'm reminded of people who won't use a credit card on the Internet, but think absolutely nothing of handing that card to a restaurant server who whisks around the corner with it.

customerserviceguy

(25,183 posts)
43. It all comes down
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 10:07 PM
Apr 2020

to who is opening the envelopes, and what they do with them. And I've never heard of any Internet vote being hacked, have you?

Way back when I was a kid, they had these big voting machines, there was no paper trail, just levers and gears, and wheels that tallied up votes. Sure, a group verified totals on the machine, but that was "hackable", too.

I look at a world in which millions of online transactions safely and securely take place daily, and I ask myself, "Why don't we handle as many things as possible that way?"

OnDoutside

(19,908 posts)
48. Actually there are lots of internet votes everyday that are skewed
Mon Apr 13, 2020, 04:30 AM
Apr 2020

and hacked. Here in Ireland, those sort of unverified votes are called Shinner votes, after a political party whose members are notorious for hijacking internet votes to big themselves up or attack another party. I've been a software developer for 35 years, so I'm not a philistine with regards to technology, in fact I love tech/gadgets. Internet voting is open to massive abuse, not just at voting time, but at transmission and tabulating time. And because you don't know it's happening, you may never hear about it.

Paper based voting has it's negatives, in time taken to count but people do generally have confidence in the system, and that matters. Actually the number one Republican tactic is to dissuade and deny people from even getting to vote in the first place. If the current system was so insecure, they wouldn't even bother with voter suppression as much as they do.

Brother Buzz

(36,217 posts)
17. I demand a paper trail. Perhaps a hybrid approach with a paper trail would work
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:45 PM
Apr 2020

Sign up with your Registrar Of Voters, login for a printable number coded ballot, then drop it in a lock box at your city hall, police station, or whatever.

Just an idea.

customerserviceguy

(25,183 posts)
18. Or, maybe
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 06:10 PM
Apr 2020

have IT professionals handle voting systems, instead of county bureaucrats who went to a quickie seminar on the subject. We have the technology for secure voting, we just refuse to use it.

Brother Buzz

(36,217 posts)
19. Our Registrar Of Voters and her staff worked with the go-to IT whiz at the nearby university
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 06:51 PM
Apr 2020

He was professor in engineering, but was totally dialed in; he was one of the first persons to raise the red flag on the pitfalls of Black Box voting before it even became an issue.

I have total confidence in the security of my county system.

Baitball Blogger

(46,576 posts)
15. Since these are privately owned branches I have no confidence in them at all.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 05:34 PM
Apr 2020

Last edited Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Imagine your right-wing neighbor manning the store. No confidence at all.

GoCubsGo

(32,061 posts)
20. I probably won't be able to vote by mail.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 07:18 PM
Apr 2020

My governor has his head so far up Trump's ass, it's buried embedded in Lindsey Graham's ass, who got up there first. The state legislature is controlled by the GOP, so I doubt we'll be allowed mail-in voting. We also have to jump through a ton of hoops to vote absentee. So, I'll likely be donning my mask and voting in person.

Meowmee

(5,164 posts)
26. Can it be done by fedex?
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:06 PM
Apr 2020

If so yes I will ask for a pick up to mail all of ours in. Make sure to make a copy of your ballots and photograph them for proof of voting etc. I did that at the 2018 polling office as well.

2naSalit

(86,068 posts)
38. I already do that, just because.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:41 PM
Apr 2020

Which is why I like voting by mail since you can't do that in the booth unless you have a camera phone... which I don't.

2naSalit

(86,068 posts)
45. Phones all come with cameras but I diable them at purchase.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 10:23 PM
Apr 2020

I want a phone that is a phone, I'll accept text but that's as afar as I am willing to allow on my phone. I do have a reasonably nice utilitarian digital camera that I use for artistic purposes but it takes good shots of ballots too. I also make a hard copy. I always vote so I have a file for those.

rzemanfl

(29,540 posts)
34. State and Federal Courts rely on the mail system for a lot of things.
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:29 PM
Apr 2020

There would be a lot of re-writing going on if the USPS were to disappear.

2naSalit

(86,068 posts)
39. I don't see how they can succeed this time around but
Sun Apr 12, 2020, 08:42 PM
Apr 2020

it does mean that we will need to reinforce the USPS immediately after inauguration.

MichMan

(11,790 posts)
47. USPS is very unreliable right now
Mon Apr 13, 2020, 12:39 AM
Apr 2020

Been waiting for over 10 days for a check from Detroit ( 2 hrs away) that hasn't arrived. Packages that are scheduled to arrive in 2 days are taking well over a week. Been happening multiple times on stuff I have mailed and also being mailed to me.

If you check the tracking numbers, they are being sent all over the place with 2-4 days between being received at a regional center and being sent out for the next destination. Things I have ordered sent via UPS or Fed Ex are arriving right on schedule with no side trips or delays.

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