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When and how are you going to vote?
When and how are you going to vote?
I mean specifically. What date? What time? Early Voting? Nov 5? Mail in Ballot? Alone? With a family member? With a friend?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you are late. Last week was the week for not knowing. This week is the week for knowing. If you don’t know, then spend some time today to get the answers. If you aren’t at least that committed to voting, then get so. Once having made these plans you are much more likely to execute them—instead of alternately excusing yourself for not getting around to something you never gave much thought to anyway.
I will give you a rare treat and offer some affirmative advice. Plan to vote with someone. I don’t mean show them who you are voting for but drive to the polls with them. Or sit down at one of your dining tables and read the ballot briefings and maybe even ask each other any last-minute questions that the other might be helpful with, and then both of you fill out your ballot, individually, privately. My wife and I always vote together. After 22 years it is a family tradition. It started as a blatant recognition that we often cancel each other out (one of us is a conservative). But now, we usually make it a date night. The polls and a nice dinner make a fine evening.
Anyway. However you plan to vote, start with just that: planning to vote.
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For me it is standing in the line and talking with fellow citizens especially right as the poles open; there is just something about that on the actual voting day that I enjoy. That’s just me though!! :-)
I will be voting when polls open (have to work) in rural Douglas County Kansas.
In WA, mailing in ballot today.
“I have never understood why anyone passes up that bargain. It doesn’t cost a cent, and for that couple of minutes, you’re the star of the show, with top billing. It’s the only way that really counts for you to say, I’m it, I’m the one that decides what’s going to happen and who’s going to make it happen. It’s the only time I really feel important and know I have a right to. Wonderful. Sometimes, the feeling lasts all the way home if somebody doesn’t bump me.”
Archie Goodwin, on voting, from A Family Affair, a Nero Wolfe Mystery by Rex Stout.
Voted last Friday. Took about 1 hour 15 minutes waiting in line. Showed my ID, they matched it with my registration, got the paper ballot to fill in the little spots, fed it into the machine. An elderly man ahead of me had to get new ballots because he had voted for more than one candidate.
My wife has some health problems that prevent her from standing in line, so we’ve ordered an absentee ballot. We still haven’t gotten it yet, which is concerning. I’ll probably vote on November 5th and I’ll go it alone. Since I’m retired, I can go at a down time at the polls (10 a.m. or 2 p.m.).
We’re in Kansas BTW.
My wife and I are poll workers, so I deposited both our absentee ballots at City Hall before leaving on a trip two weeks ago. The presidential race is a forgone conclusion in red state Idaho, but there are several issues and down ballot races where we might make a difference.
Voted for Trump in Massachusetts two weeks ago by mail. Will stand in line on Election Day to assure that my name is crossed off and if it is not, will vote live.
Everyone should vote for Trump even if resident in a clearly red or blue state, we will want to win the popular vote this year.
I have been predicting that we will get wiped out this year. While I continue to be pessimistic, we can win this if we show up more than they do. Encourage your friends.
Yes it *should*, but it never *will* be. The genie is out of the bottle, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Since the left is 50% of the populace and early voting favors them, it is a fact and will always be one. So instead of grousing and being tricked into voting early, you should make an effort to do so.
What state are you in? This seems ripe for a SCOTUS challenge.
I would love to see NY cut into two states, Gotham and Upstate. That would give us three more red electoral votes.
vote in person early on election day.
Found out my polling station is at our local zoo. It’s within walking distance on a nice day. It also gives me some insight on how this all might shake out. I might need to stock up on food, booze, guns and ammo if the animals are acting up. They’re always the first to know.
The county has six early voting sites. One in each of the smaller towns, three in the larger town. Voted last week at one of the small town sites. Almost an hour with four poll worker check-ins.
The Party info booths were lonely, everybody came decided. The Dem booth had a pic of a stern-looking RBG, pointing her finger at you with the tag VOTE! The Dem worker was hectoring everyone with “Do you need information about the school bond issue?”
I told a Republican activist about it. He said the GOP should have said “Do you need information about the massive tax-increase-triggering bond to fund porn in our schools?”
We deposited our ballots in the same drop box as four years ago, by the public library in Playa Vista, 90094. That’s a nearby techy town of polite young families, well-behaved dogs, and even quieter Teslas. No lines, plenty of parking, and this time no gloves or masks in sight.
I do miss the old voting machines, though.
The slow part is researching and inking up the paper ballots mailed to all. Six pages of propositions and minor office holders before our Donald. Judges are tricky, no party labels. Just study the websites and endorsements and it’s not too difficult to discern the lesser-Left Democrat.
For the many ballot propositions, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association recommendations are a real time saver.
I used to use the Costanza Method — do the opposite of whatever the L.A. Times or L.A. Weekly recommended. Now we do the research, which feels empowering and more like doing our bit.
The big local race will be District Attorney. Can we rid ourselves of George Gascon, a Soros-sponsored non-prosecutor on the wrong side of everything? Gascon is kind of like a white male version of Erin’s boss on Blue Bloods. So the local hero this year is Nate Hochman, Gascon’s opponent.
I have oral surgery on November 5th, so decided to request an absentee ballot (so did my wife). We sat down yesterday and filled out our ballots with Sharpies. Big mistake. Our marks bled through to the other side of the ballot and I was afraid that these extra black marks would confuse the machine that would read the ballot, so we hopped in the car and drove to the early voting location at the county courthouse. I was pleased when a poll worker asked about my absentee ballot and was able to cancel that one. She told me that the bleed through marks would not confuse the machine, but I told her that I would feel better if I started over with a fresh ballot. My wife and I cast our votes and fed them into the machine, which sounds a lot like the process described above.
King County, WA, where I live, does not offer polling places, other than a half dozen “vote centers” with assistance for voters whose disabilities provide the need for one reason or another. These open the Saturday before Election Day and operate through Election Day. Other counties may still have polling places, I do not know. I miss the whole civic ritual of a physical polling place.
Probably going Friday at the fire department within walking distance. Daughter has the day off work so I’ll probably go with her.
(I’ve never understood the whole “Make your plan to vote” thing. You’re casting a vote, just like we have for hundreds of years. It’s not invading Normandy or the Japanese Home Islands.)
Already early voted, in person, on the first day that my county in Florida made it available. By the time I got there at 9 AM, 50+ people were already in line. We’re a solid Red county, in a state that Trump will win handily, so I was thrilled to see that people are fired up, instead of staying home on the assumption that their votes won’t really be needed. We need to run up the score EVERYWHERE, including in reliably Blue states. An EC win is great, but a Popular Vote win would be fantastic.
Fingers crossed!
That’s convenient – if you stop by the reptile house, you can view the politicians before you vote.
Voted early in GA on Friday, October 18.
Any not found there can be observed in the monkey house.
On Nov. 5th at my designated polling place, walking distance from my house.
My voting procedure is well established. There are always at least two tables positioned a few feet from the entrance, one staffed by Republicans and one by Democrats, each team keen to thrust into a voter’s hands a sample ballot favoring their side. I approach these tables, stand between them, hold out an open hand to each, and ask loudly, “Who wishes to buy my vote?”
This sally invariably triggers some good-humored banter with and between the fascists and the communists staffing the tables. I was once offered a donut, but except for that, nobody has ever volunteered anything of value. Simply by making the offer I’m rendering myself liable to a fine and/or imprisonment under the terms of 18 U.S. Code § 597, but so far nobody has turned me in. The tables are mostly staffed with the same people election after election, so my audience is familiar with my shtick and even after multiple repetitions seems to get a kick out of it, although everyone’s so polite and good-humored on the day I doubt I could tell if it was otherwise.
With a pen. I’ll mail it in tomorrow.
A friend and I (who also chooses Trump) went on the first day of early voting last week, here in Nevada. Every other election in my life (I’m old) I have voted in person on Election Day. She and Mark Levin talked me into early voting.
I voted early, 3 days after early voting started in Georgia. I would have had a very hard time voting on election day as I work out of the area where I live, and have an hour commute both ways, and work 9-10 hrs a day. So early voting was a necessity.
On Saturday we waited in line for an hour and a half to vote. Poll workers handed out bottled water, slices of pizza, and Halloween candy to those in line, which was nice.
I like the reason to vote early that it would prevent someone voting in your name. It reduces the chance of fraud by just a tiny bit. The Ruthless podcast people also suggest that there is a chance that something could come up preventing you from voting on the real election day.
My wife and I voted by third day of early voting. After 2.5 days there were 1800 votes cast in heavily Democrat Dearborn a city of 110,000. Much higher than i expected. My friend supervises elections in a nearby suburb and indicated they had 1000 votes by the end of the second day in a city of less than 30k. That city usually splits 50/50. The totals indicate to me the low propensity voters are turning out