this is what I usually do as it is, but it's because my area of CA has a problem with mailed ballots going missing. Another thing: double check that you're still registered and whether or not your ballot is being mailed out to you automatically
I'm wondering if, should someone receive their ballot weeks ahead of time, it should be safe enough to simply fill it out and mail it within a couple days, so that there are several weeks before it's due.
Please also keep in mind some regions have caps on how many ballots a single person can drop off in a given election! In my county, for example, it's ten. Total, not just per day.
Chiming in as someone who lives in Colorado where we have universal mail-in voting: the ballot drop off boxes work great and they are very secure. They're usually counted within the day.
I don't trust my state not to fuck things up if I try to mail anyting or throw it in a drop off box, if it means i have to go to a polling location in an inflatable T-Rex outfit, I don't even care. my idiot state and Cheeto in charge ain't going to deter me
And, while I'm sure most people here understand, don't get angry at the person behind the counter, because they may have jack and shit influence on policy changes.
(I've spent too much time digging into elections in washington, and sometimes out of my state, but if you need to figure things out you can normally look up "State" department of elections)
also not sure if it's been said yet, but don't forget to check your voter registration and often, especially if you're in a high-population red district and are registered blue
Amber McReynolds, the former director of the Denver Elections Division and the CEO of the National Vote At Home Institute, told Business Insider in April that election-related mail likely wouldn't strain the service.
A lot of mail-in ballots are presorted by a third-party (or in house if they're able to) which lifts some of the strain off the usps re delivering ballots to the voter
In many places, you can also walk your mail in ballot to the election office and/or polling place. This should also be documented with other voting information, such as options for early voting in your area.
also, also... if you, for whatever reason, cannot get to a drop-off box, drop off ballots to the blue mail boxes. that is regularly picked up... i should have mentioned that in the third plurk
by october, carriers are going to be swamped, so that's the best way to get out-going mail out on time. the reason why i'm saying that is carriers have to be back to their postal stations by 6pm, so that way, all that outgoing mail from that day leaves the sorting plant on time
we're having primaries in florida rn, i dropped my ballot off at an early voting site and it took max 2 minutes. the site even had a poll worker with the drop off box outside so i didn't have to go inside. it was definitely a more chill experience and i like having time to fill out my ballot at home.
And a postal service rep apparently confirming it here but saying that it's where "clusters" are. I don't want to like cry wolf or anything, but it seems like this is only a possible first step here. I know for me, the only places where there's clusters are like. In front of the post office itself and they're always full.
Man, I sign up for vote by mail finally and this happens I'm a poll worker, and so unfortunately can't just vote at my polling place, cause it may not be my district :/
While I can only say for WA, the last few years the ballot boxes in front of the libraries were picked up once a day by election officials directly as well, so they're just as good as being able to drop it off at say the elections office directly (I'm lucky, mine's on my commute home)
They may have frozen the box removal but I saw another plurk where instead of moving the box they put a lock on it so no one could use it to mail anything.
NY state had a heated Democratic election that was hotly contested after the election, 20K mail in ballots were considered tampered with. This is what absentee ballots are for, they are harder to get because you have to prove who you are before the ballot is sent
The vote tampering isn't coming up quickly in Google, although I'm seeing a lot of ballots discounted for lateness, minor voter errors, etc. I might have just not put in the right search yet, tho. Do you have a link?
When I force "tampering" or "tampered" as a search term, all I see is people saying that they're not accusing anyone of tampering, and reports of Trump insisting that there definitely is.
About the lock: a story says it's standard to lock the boxes on Sunday nights (against thieves, apparently), and the slots for envelopes are still accessible. I still wouldn't say "problem solved".
Different areas have different policies. This administration is such a trash fire of corruption and lying that it's easy to start seeing it everywhere, but sometimes the spades really are just spades so I'd be cautiously wary but not jump to conclusions.
I've never seen one with the long snoot like that that also has a slot in the back, since those are usually in drive-thru type locations outside the office
I'm that nerd who looks into Washington election policies way too damn muchAmber McReynolds, the former director of the Denver Elections Division and the CEO of the National Vote At Home Institute, told Business Insider in April that election-related mail likely wouldn't strain the service.