General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhich is more secure? To vote in person, or by mail?
Not necessarily which is more "safe".
But, if I cannot get my ballot mailed with at least two weeks left until Election Day, I will choose to stand in line to vote, if necessary.
It's sad that there is so much doubt about out voting system.
hlthe2b
(102,188 posts)I will take mine the next day to the Voter Registration/Office of the County Clerk and drop it off. I nearly always place it in a drop-off box, but the convenient ones tend not to be "open" until the week before election day. I want to get mine done and counted as quickly as possible.
Throck
(2,520 posts)He's a master manipulator and would have his goons steal the ballots from the post office.
I'm going to mask up and shower in hand sanitizer but I'll vote the bastard out of office in person.
I'm tired of his shit.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)He is already promising to send some goons to polling places.
Throck
(2,520 posts)But it will be on video.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)Anyhow, people are already asking for absentee in large numbers. So absentee will be a very large part of votes in states that allow it.
Throck
(2,520 posts)Travel in groups. Going to make MLK and Ghandi proud.
Aviation91
(114 posts)I cant take a chance with the most important election in the history of this country!
LisaL
(44,972 posts)I am voting by mail, hopefully.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Virginia only legalized mail in voting (without an ironclad "excuse" this cycle, so this is all completely new to me, and a little bit anxiety-producing.
Nay
(12,051 posts)actual ballot gets in before Election Day. VA is not infamous for screwing with the voting process, but if the USPS is ruined by Trump before Nov. 3, there's no way to 'backtrack' and vote another way.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)I am still getting mail.
So I am hoping for the best. I can drop the ballot in a drop box if I deem it necessary. If it comes to worst and I won't be mailed a ballot in time, I can vote provisional on election day.
Chainfire
(17,515 posts)Green Line
(1,123 posts)I put it in the box on Sunday and I was able to using ballot tracking to find out it was accepted on Monday.
pwb
(11,258 posts)do not to believe the doubt? That is trumps thing.
mitch96
(13,883 posts)yortsed snacilbuper
(7,939 posts)I used mail to vote in the primary, so I'm already signed up for the GE?
LisaL
(44,972 posts)You better figure out what the rules are.
In my state I had to ask for an absentee ballot for general even though I voted by mail in the primary. Your board of elections website should list the rules.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)LisaL
(44,972 posts)one early voting place per county.
I don't feel like mingling with bunch of people right now.
As I am still getting mail, I am hoping my voting by mail goes smoothly.
mcar
(42,287 posts)I bring our ballots to the Elections office and track them on the supervisor's site.
It is very secure.
Javaman
(62,507 posts)Wish I did, but I have to vote in person.
Jeebo
(2,023 posts)If you don't want to get the virus, and if you want your vote to be counted fairly. Please bear with me while I explain that belief:
Here in Boone County, Missouri, before the March 10 primary, the last time I voted in person, you have to fill out your ballot and then take it to a machine that counts the ballots and stick in the slot and the machine sucks it in. I always feel nervous as hell when I do that, because I don't trust those machines as far as I can pick one of them up and throw it. How do I know what goes in within the electronic innards of that machine is counting my vote fairly and accurately? I don't know. I just have to trust it. What other choice do I have?
On the other hand, a Boone County elections official who works in the county clerk's office explained their procedure for opening and counting mail-in ballots. That official posted the procedure on a local community message board online. S/he said that each ballot is opened in the presence of one Democratic and one Republicon observer, and then counted, also in the presence of those same observers. That sounds to me like the mail-in ballots are hand-counted. If that is true, I trust that procedure MUCH more than voting in person at the polling place.
I am not sure I can trust the mail, though, so when I get my ballot, I am going to fill it out right away and hand-deliver it to the county clerk's office. I voted by mail in June and August, and I used the online tracker to see that they did receive my ballot, but regardless, this time I'm going to hand-deliver it.
-- Ron
LisaL
(44,972 posts)Counting them by hand would take forever.
Especially considering there is not just a presidential race on the ballot.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)to the BOE office in my county.
Locutusofborg
(525 posts)Then I drive over to the Registrar of Voters office and hand the ballot to a collection person. Its a drive through set up so I don't even get out of my car. I go at off hours, days before the election and I'm back home in half an hour.
XanaDUer2
(10,626 posts)Taking the chance, but don't trustTrump.
Gothmog
(145,046 posts)I will find the study on this
Celerity
(43,240 posts)but also will challenge (or try to) damn near every mail-in ballot if they are allowed to be observers when that counting ensues.
Long ago, before the DeJoy and Rump USPS shite had become front page news, I tried to post articles on mail-in voting issues (with advice to overcome them), backed up with scientific studies (MIT did one for instance), and from Democratic Party friendly, VERY anti-Rethug sources, and I got smacked down (ludicrously) for pushing RW talking points, so I no longer get involved via attempting to do OP's on it.
cheers
Gothmog
(145,046 posts)This is a good study that shows a higher rejection rate. I had heard that there was a 2% to 3% rejection rate but this study shows a higher rate https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/25/how-likely-is-it-that-your-mail-in-ballot-wont-get-counted/
In an article forthcoming in the Harvard Data Science Review, I have worked to quantify how much riskier it is for someone to vote by mail than in person. Depending on the state in which a citizen is voting, the increased risk of having your vote lost meaning, not counted in the election ranges from 3.5 percent to 4.9 percent.
Lost votes is a term coined by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project (VTP) in its 2001 report Voting: What Is/What Could Be. Heres what it means. Suppose a voter wakes up on Election Day, fully intending to vote, and does everything required to do so. If the intention is thwarted, that is a lost vote. For instance, she might arrive at the polls at 6 p.m. and finds the line is so long that she leaves and cant return to cast a ballot by 7 p.m. when the polls close.
If she intends to vote by mail, heres what might go wrong. In states where a voter must apply for a mail ballot, the ballot application could get lost in the mail; the local election office could lose the application or deny it; the ballot might not make it back to the voter, for instance, getting lost in the mail; and the marked ballot might not make it from the voter back to the local election office. Even if the ballot arrives, it could be rejected because it arrived late or lacked a signature the two most common reasons for rejection. Finally, the ballot could have an error that she could have caught had she voted in person....
Estimating these risks is difficult. Its nearly impossible to find hard data on whether the ballot request makes it to the local election office. I approximated this by relying on USPS performance reports, which indicate that approximately 0.4 percent of first-class mail and 0.7 percent of marketing mail fail to reach its destination within three days of the delivery standards set by the Postal Service. I assumed that 99.9 percent of the time, when local election officials do receive a valid application, they respond by mailing out a ballot. If we apply the 0.4 percent failed delivery figure both to the voters application for and return of a mail ballot, and then add 0.1 percent chance of it getting lost in the office and the 0.7 percent failed delivery figure for the election offices response, this suggests that 1.6 percent of mail-ballot applications fail to deliver a ballot to the voter.