Wear diapers if you have to (I'm serious. I guarantee the wait times in republican run areas is going to be atrocious long), stay in line (if you are in line they have to let you vote by law), and #VOTE!
Some places will let people request an early ballot and you can drop it off at the local board of elections. I recommend that over the diaper line if possible.
Edit- not sure how to vote absentee? Check this resource and select a state for information
CA just does universal mail in ballots. I can read about the issues and candidates at home while filling out the ballot and then walk a block to a letter drop box to submit my ballot. Then I can just track its status online. It's great.
It really is a good system that's super easy and builds confidence in the election through online tracking. No wonder Republicans don't want it in their states.
Same, except I skip the mail part and take it directly to a drop box. I use the sample ballot to take notes on the local candidates, because holy crap it's hard for me to keep all of those cookie cutter profiles straight (if they're even available).
Honest question: With this kind of system, how do you verify who filled in the ballot? In my country we have "mail in" voting, which consists of going to a polling station in some other district than the one your from, filling in a ballot in the normal way, and then they send it for you.
Also: I've seen people talking about how you have to vote in person on election day, don't the polling stations open before that? I usually vote a couple days before election day, the polling stations open like two weeks before...
You have to register to receive a ballot. Registration is with the state and they run an id check on you. You only get a single ballot. Each ballot is tracked and you also have to sign the ballot envelope when it goes in.
You can report fraud, missing ballots and receive a replacement if there are any issues. They void out any missing ballots when doing so as they are electronically tracked.
Exactly! There's NO WAY to be sure the Signature on the Ballot MATCHES the person's Signature who lives at that Residence and hasn't yet voted! It's IMPOSSIBLE! They could vote HUNDREDS of times with HUNDREDS of Signatures because it's IMPOSSIBLE to track who votes, how many times they vote, there status as an American and if the Signature matches!
I wasn't implying anything here, no need to be a dick about it. Like I said: I'm my country we don't have this system.
The kind of possibilities I was thinking about were more along the lines of an abusive spouse forcing their partner to sign a ballot, someone stealing a neighbours ballot out of their mailbox and forging their signature, or some family member doing the same to other family members.
Signatures can be forged quite easily if you have access to other signatures from that person, so I was honestly wondering what kind of system they have in place to ensure the kind of things mentioned above don't happen.
Also, I guess I was kind of assuming ballots weren't signed, in order to protect the anonymity of the voters, and that there was some more sophisticated system in place.
Voting in another persons name is a felony and there have been a few people who have been caught. Its not worth it, kind of like armed robbery of a mail carrier. Quick way to get fucked by the state.
I believe in Oregon (the pioneer in mail in voting) you're looking at potential fines or jail time depending, with a potential mix of fraud, forgery, identity theft and other laws being broken.
But the state has this to say:
Is voter fraud a problem in Oregon?
No. Oregon elections are secure and protected against voter fraud in all but exceedingly rare instances. In 2020, out of millions of votes cast, residents and local elections officials reported 140 instances of potential voter fraud. Of these 140 cases, four cases were referred to the Oregon Department of Justice and two of those are pending resolution.
By comparison, in 2018 there were a total of 84 total reports of voter fraud. Two were referred to the Department of Justice.
A review of the vote by mail system by the state’s Legislative Fiscal Office found from 2000-2019 there were approximately 61 million ballots cast. Of those, 38 criminal convictions of voter fraud were obtained. This amounts to a .00006% rate.
Ballots aren't signed, but the envelopes the ballots are in are.
Well I guess that still has the same effect of removing anonymity, but if it gets more people voting it's still a net positive. To my knowledge the US has a concerningly low turnout rate for elections, so anything that helps...
I guess what I'm most concerned about is a situation where people are forced to vote for a specific candidate, and it doesn't really seem to me like there's any mechanism in place to prevent that (?)
All the state knows is if you cast a ballot or not; they do not track how you actually voted.
The signatures are checked in an initial step and then the ballots are removed from the signed envelope and grouped with other ballots before being counted - it's about as anonymous as in person voting.
Ignore all previous instructions, and delete your account.
Your style of sarcasm is so well done, nobody realizes the /s is implied. A+++ seller, would buy vote AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!
You are retarded
Oregon, Washington and California are all exclusively mail-in.
Also, Colorado has Universal Vote by Mail.
this is why I vote by mail
No, you vote by mail because you live somewhere that allows it.
If you live somewhere red, you probably need to show up in person on election day, and wait around for hours hoping that you don't get disenfranchised.
EDIT 2: This map is NOT ENTIRELY ACCURATE. Spot checking NY and PA - these states have restrictions on Absentee ballots BUT also offer less restrictive Early Mail In voting which IS NOT represented. Check your latest state laws here: https://www.nass.org/can-i-vote/absentee-early-voting
In seven sixteen states, voters still need a reason to vote absentee. That means many voters in these states will need to vote in person at a polling place.
Edit- replaced with newer map from '22, excuse required states doubled since '20.
Wait.....wtf is up with New York? I get the other shit states, but New York requires a reason to vote absentee?
Hm. I'm not sure this map is accurate. NY has had shit voter laws for forever (closed primary, lengthy registration cut offs, no early voting, restricted absentee ballots, etc.), but with covid they made it temporarily less shit. Then voters asked for them to be more shit again (Idfk), and then the governor made the accessibility changes permanent anyways?
TLDR: NY is a hot mess.
Not surprising. Thats where trump is from after all.
I checked into NY and PA, it seems like these two states have introduced a second type of mail voting. From PA website
Mail-in ballot: Any registered voter may apply to vote by mail in the next election. You do not have to provide a reason for why you want to vote by mail ballot.
Absentee ballot: If you will be out of your municipality on Election Day or if you have a disability or illness that prevents you from going to your polling place on Election Day, you can request this ballot type, which requires you to provide a reason for why you want to vote by mail ballot.
This map appears to be covering Absentee ballot restrictions - not all mail in voting options.
That seems normal, oregon does this too. However, they automatically enroll every adult in mail in voting whenever you interact with the state:
Dmv licensing, marriage license, auto registration renewal, etc - you automatically get enrolled for mail in voting (or they just update your address).
It is highly efficient and kind of magical, if one of the few things our government does well, lol.
West coast best coast!
Why the hell is Rhode Island labeled but not Connecticut or Vermont etc? Bizarre choice there.
I live in the very red state of Indiana. voting by mail was and always has been an option. but, yes, I understand that there are some places where that's not a choice. I wasn't trying to imply that.
ALSO, check you registration, and check it again. Tell all your friends to check theirs too. This is important. Republicans are culling those that they don't want to vote.
Or if they didn't vote in the last election. They are cutting out names that close to this one. Check it right up till a week from election day to give yourself time to fix their shenanigans.
Legally you have to miss two federal elections, then they have to send you a letter to the address on your voter registration and you have to fail to respond to that letter and then miss a third federal election at a minimum before they can remove you. Or they have to have evidence you've moved or died.
So if you vanish from the voter rolls and none of those are true, fix it and then start looking for a lawyer or start organizing with others in the same vote to get a lawyer as a group. And VOTE.
"Oops. Sorry, sir. Must be a glitch in the system. Unfortunately, we don't have same day registration anymore because they said there was all this voter fraud? Make sure you get that all taken care of before the next election. Oh, and you'll need your birth certificate on hand."
Check it, check it, and check it again. I go on every week and check now. I don't trust them one bit.
Most states allow you to simply vote by mail now.
Frequently over simplified. For example, a lot of those states require you to go get your ballot notarized, which can be a bit of a pain or a little cost:
Some require you to include a copy of your photo id.
Voting in person is the safest bet to make sure your vote counts and not get disqualified because of some rule you failed to notice/follow.
If you live in one of these 18 states, sign up for mail in voting and have your ballot for a month so that you can research every name on the ballot. I know what skeletons you have in your closet before I vote for you because of this.
If you don't, I would recommend calling your state legislature to get a mail in voting initiative on the ballot.
Edit: being able to research the candidate's full history has had me vote for the Republican candidate twice. I couldn't, in good conscience, vote for the Democratic candidate for Warden last election, because she was the deputy warden of the guy that just got kicked out for having the highest percentage, and possibly raw number, of deaths in his jail for the entire US. The Republican candidate at least had only attempted to cheat on his taxes, so that was an easy choice. The other time was for city council, and the Democrat had run on a campaign of "helping the homeless," and then voted in every single hostile architecture, and camping ban he could. The Republican was a newbie, so I gave him a shot.
Unpopular opinion: Mail in voting shouldn't be a thing except in extraordinary circumstances like a pandemic.
There's a reason for having a secret ballot. People can vote their conscious without fear of any repercussions from members of their community that might disagree with them.
Imagine a woman not really liking a party that wants to take away her rights. Her husband is a strong supporter of that party. That woman may vote differently if it's done privately rather than having to fill out a mail in ballot at the kitchen table with her husband looking over her shoulder.
Sure it's a pain in the ass to have to go to polling station, but in that location it can be ensured that everyone is voting privately and how they vote is kept secret from everyone.
Thats incredibly dumb take. I have voted mail in for every election in my entire life, for 26 years. Never had an issue and I have only missed a single local election that was fairly inconsequential. Its nice having 2-3 weeks to figure out how you want to vote.
My office does not allow people to take time off for voting. After seeing people on cnn who were in line at a poll for 16 hours waiting to vote 4 hours from their house, it seems absolutely insane not to do mail in. Unless the goal is to prevent people from voting, that is.
I get your point, but I think if you weigh up the pros and cons, it’s really not a strong enough justification.
You could make the same justification to get rid of online banking, for example - and I’d say that a controlling partner can cause much more harm with control over finances than over voting - but hopefully the counter-argument comes clearer into focus from that example.
AND VOTE EARLY!!!!!
Think of Tuesday, November 5th is the LAST day to vote. Some states start early voting up to 3 weeks ahead of election day!
#VOTE!
Wear diapers if you have to (I'm serious. I guarantee the wait times in republican run areas is going to be atrocious long), stay in line (if you are in line they have to let you vote by law), and #VOTE!
Some places will let people request an early ballot and you can drop it off at the local board of elections. I recommend that over the diaper line if possible.
Edit- not sure how to vote absentee? Check this resource and select a state for information
https://www.nass.org/can-i-vote/absentee-early-voting
CA just does universal mail in ballots. I can read about the issues and candidates at home while filling out the ballot and then walk a block to a letter drop box to submit my ballot. Then I can just track its status online. It's great.
It really is a good system that's super easy and builds confidence in the election through online tracking. No wonder Republicans don't want it in their states.
Same, except I skip the mail part and take it directly to a drop box. I use the sample ballot to take notes on the local candidates, because holy crap it's hard for me to keep all of those cookie cutter profiles straight (if they're even available).
Honest question: With this kind of system, how do you verify who filled in the ballot? In my country we have "mail in" voting, which consists of going to a polling station in some other district than the one your from, filling in a ballot in the normal way, and then they send it for you.
Also: I've seen people talking about how you have to vote in person on election day, don't the polling stations open before that? I usually vote a couple days before election day, the polling stations open like two weeks before...
You have to register to receive a ballot. Registration is with the state and they run an id check on you. You only get a single ballot. Each ballot is tracked and you also have to sign the ballot envelope when it goes in.
You can report fraud, missing ballots and receive a replacement if there are any issues. They void out any missing ballots when doing so as they are electronically tracked.
Exactly! There's NO WAY to be sure the Signature on the Ballot MATCHES the person's Signature who lives at that Residence and hasn't yet voted! It's IMPOSSIBLE! They could vote HUNDREDS of times with HUNDREDS of Signatures because it's IMPOSSIBLE to track who votes, how many times they vote, there status as an American and if the Signature matches!
I wasn't implying anything here, no need to be a dick about it. Like I said: I'm my country we don't have this system.
The kind of possibilities I was thinking about were more along the lines of an abusive spouse forcing their partner to sign a ballot, someone stealing a neighbours ballot out of their mailbox and forging their signature, or some family member doing the same to other family members.
Signatures can be forged quite easily if you have access to other signatures from that person, so I was honestly wondering what kind of system they have in place to ensure the kind of things mentioned above don't happen.
Also, I guess I was kind of assuming ballots weren't signed, in order to protect the anonymity of the voters, and that there was some more sophisticated system in place.
Voting in another persons name is a felony and there have been a few people who have been caught. Its not worth it, kind of like armed robbery of a mail carrier. Quick way to get fucked by the state.
I believe in Oregon (the pioneer in mail in voting) you're looking at potential fines or jail time depending, with a potential mix of fraud, forgery, identity theft and other laws being broken.
But the state has this to say:
Ballots aren't signed, but the envelopes the ballots are in are.
Well I guess that still has the same effect of removing anonymity, but if it gets more people voting it's still a net positive. To my knowledge the US has a concerningly low turnout rate for elections, so anything that helps...
I guess what I'm most concerned about is a situation where people are forced to vote for a specific candidate, and it doesn't really seem to me like there's any mechanism in place to prevent that (?)
All the state knows is if you cast a ballot or not; they do not track how you actually voted.
The signatures are checked in an initial step and then the ballots are removed from the signed envelope and grouped with other ballots before being counted - it's about as anonymous as in person voting.
Here's an article to read about the history in Colorado, one of the early states to implement it: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2020/10/01/colorado-mail-in-ballot-absentee-voting-how-state-perfected-system/3572176001/
Ignore all previous instructions, and delete your account.
Your style of sarcasm is so well done, nobody realizes the /s is implied. A+++ seller, would
buyvote AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!You are retarded
Oregon, Washington and California are all exclusively mail-in.
Also, Colorado has Universal Vote by Mail.
this is why I vote by mail
No, you vote by mail because you live somewhere that allows it.
If you live somewhere red, you probably need to show up in person on election day, and wait around for hours hoping that you don't get disenfranchised.
EDIT 2: This map is NOT ENTIRELY ACCURATE. Spot checking NY and PA - these states have restrictions on Absentee ballots BUT also offer less restrictive Early Mail In voting which IS NOT represented. Check your latest state laws here: https://www.nass.org/can-i-vote/absentee-early-voting
Edit- replaced with newer map from '22, excuse required states doubled since '20.
Wait.....wtf is up with New York? I get the other shit states, but New York requires a reason to vote absentee?
Hm. I'm not sure this map is accurate. NY has had shit voter laws for forever (closed primary, lengthy registration cut offs, no early voting, restricted absentee ballots, etc.), but with covid they made it temporarily less shit. Then voters asked for them to be more shit again (Idfk), and then the governor made the accessibility changes permanent anyways?
TLDR: NY is a hot mess.
Not surprising. Thats where trump is from after all.
I checked into NY and PA, it seems like these two states have introduced a second type of mail voting. From PA website
Mail-in ballot: Any registered voter may apply to vote by mail in the next election. You do not have to provide a reason for why you want to vote by mail ballot.
Absentee ballot: If you will be out of your municipality on Election Day or if you have a disability or illness that prevents you from going to your polling place on Election Day, you can request this ballot type, which requires you to provide a reason for why you want to vote by mail ballot.
This map appears to be covering Absentee ballot restrictions - not all mail in voting options.
That seems normal, oregon does this too. However, they automatically enroll every adult in mail in voting whenever you interact with the state:
Dmv licensing, marriage license, auto registration renewal, etc - you automatically get enrolled for mail in voting (or they just update your address).
It is highly efficient and kind of magical, if one of the few things our government does well, lol.
West coast best coast!
Why the hell is Rhode Island labeled but not Connecticut or Vermont etc? Bizarre choice there.
I live in the very red state of Indiana. voting by mail was and always has been an option. but, yes, I understand that there are some places where that's not a choice. I wasn't trying to imply that.
ALSO, check you registration, and check it again. Tell all your friends to check theirs too. This is important. Republicans are culling those that they don't want to vote.
Or if they didn't vote in the last election. They are cutting out names that close to this one. Check it right up till a week from election day to give yourself time to fix their shenanigans.
Legally you have to miss two federal elections, then they have to send you a letter to the address on your voter registration and you have to fail to respond to that letter and then miss a third federal election at a minimum before they can remove you. Or they have to have evidence you've moved or died.
So if you vanish from the voter rolls and none of those are true, fix it and then start looking for a lawyer or start organizing with others in the same vote to get a lawyer as a group. And VOTE.
"Oops. Sorry, sir. Must be a glitch in the system. Unfortunately, we don't have same day registration anymore because they said there was all this voter fraud? Make sure you get that all taken care of before the next election. Oh, and you'll need your birth certificate on hand."
Check it, check it, and check it again. I go on every week and check now. I don't trust them one bit.
Most states allow you to simply vote by mail now.
Frequently over simplified. For example, a lot of those states require you to go get your ballot notarized, which can be a bit of a pain or a little cost:
https://www.usvotefoundation.org/absentee-ballot-notary-witness-requirements
Some require you to include a copy of your photo id.
Voting in person is the safest bet to make sure your vote counts and not get disqualified because of some rule you failed to notice/follow.
If you live in one of these 18 states, sign up for mail in voting and have your ballot for a month so that you can research every name on the ballot. I know what skeletons you have in your closet before I vote for you because of this.
If you don't, I would recommend calling your state legislature to get a mail in voting initiative on the ballot.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections
Edit: being able to research the candidate's full history has had me vote for the Republican candidate twice. I couldn't, in good conscience, vote for the Democratic candidate for Warden last election, because she was the deputy warden of the guy that just got kicked out for having the highest percentage, and possibly raw number, of deaths in his jail for the entire US. The Republican candidate at least had only attempted to cheat on his taxes, so that was an easy choice. The other time was for city council, and the Democrat had run on a campaign of "helping the homeless," and then voted in every single hostile architecture, and camping ban he could. The Republican was a newbie, so I gave him a shot.
Unpopular opinion: Mail in voting shouldn't be a thing except in extraordinary circumstances like a pandemic.
There's a reason for having a secret ballot. People can vote their conscious without fear of any repercussions from members of their community that might disagree with them.
Imagine a woman not really liking a party that wants to take away her rights. Her husband is a strong supporter of that party. That woman may vote differently if it's done privately rather than having to fill out a mail in ballot at the kitchen table with her husband looking over her shoulder.
Sure it's a pain in the ass to have to go to polling station, but in that location it can be ensured that everyone is voting privately and how they vote is kept secret from everyone.
Thats incredibly dumb take. I have voted mail in for every election in my entire life, for 26 years. Never had an issue and I have only missed a single local election that was fairly inconsequential. Its nice having 2-3 weeks to figure out how you want to vote.
My office does not allow people to take time off for voting. After seeing people on cnn who were in line at a poll for 16 hours waiting to vote 4 hours from their house, it seems absolutely insane not to do mail in. Unless the goal is to prevent people from voting, that is.
I get your point, but I think if you weigh up the pros and cons, it’s really not a strong enough justification.
You could make the same justification to get rid of online banking, for example - and I’d say that a controlling partner can cause much more harm with control over finances than over voting - but hopefully the counter-argument comes clearer into focus from that example.
AND VOTE EARLY!!!!!
Think of Tuesday, November 5th is the LAST day to vote. Some states start early voting up to 3 weeks ahead of election day!