Poli-Sci: Your VOTE! 2020 Experience

[farscott]

My wife and I voted today. In Alabama, there is no such thing as "early voting". There is absentee voting and in-person election day voting at your assigned voting precinct. This year COVID-19 is a valid reason for absentee voting, but my wife and I decided to vote in person as we wanted to insure our votes are counted. The way it works here is that you present photo ID, get checked against the voter rolls, sign on an electronic screen, and get your ballot. The ballot is a "fill in the bubble" type and the voter feeds it, once completed, into one of the ballot counting machines. The machine accepts the ballot or will reject it if there is an issue. A spoiled ballot can be replaced if the machine rejects it. That way the voter knows when he or she leaves if the ballot was recorded and counted. The paper ballot is backup should there be a glitch or issue with the scanned ballot.

Absentee ballots may not be counted unless a race is close enough that absentee ballots can change the outcome.

The line was about the same as or maybe a bit more than it is for any general election with POTUS up for grabs. From the time we left the house to the time we left the voting precinct was about an hour.

[Robinson]

My wife and I voted on the 26th. About 90 minutes total. Nothing unusual to report.

[Greg]

Dropped my ballot off at the County building about 10 days ago. No drama.

I prefer an Election Day in person vote (with required Photo ID) but Covid has horked that all up.

[Wondering Beard]

https://twitter.com/@twitter/status/1323296500164759552

[NEPAKevin]

Walking the dog out back in the impound yard, I look up at the cell tower and there, majestically lit by the setting sun is a mature bald eagle. (sorry, cell phone pic, grainy and I didn't frame the pic right)

[LOKNLOD]

A relative works at the county election board in my home county, and she had a fun one during the early voting last week.

Younger guy in a yellow fedora, white satin baseball jacket with a giant scorpion logo - dancing around, with a 10" knife in his hand like a swashbuckler. When confronted, he held it up in front of his face like a sabre salute and hollered "concealed carry!". Guess who got to meet the deputies in the parking lot?

[JAD]

A relative works at the county election board in my home county, and she had a fun one during the early voting last week.

Younger guy in a yellow fedora, white satin baseball jacket with a giant scorpion logo - dancing around, with a 10" knife in his hand like a swashbuckler. When confronted, he held it up in front of his face like a sabre salute and hollered "concealed carry!". Guess who got to meet the deputies in the parking lot?

Was he a Shark or a Jet?

[4given]

Was he a Shark or a Jet?

He was a Jet all the way ...

[blues]

He was a Jet all the way ...

From his first cigarette to his last dying day...

[JTQ]

I voted today (Election Day, 3 Nov) at my normal polling location at 1100 Central (perhaps the media will recall Florida exists in two time zones).

Crowd was a little bigger than normal, but that's not saying much.

I walked in (no line), they scanned my driver's license, I verified the data was accurate, I signed the electronic screen with a provided single end cotton swab (all I could think of was gun cleaning), they gave me a receipt, and sent me to another station to get a ballot.

Gave my receipt to the ballot lady, she gave me a two sheet ballot, both sides on one, the last page blank. I walked to the voting table/stand and filled in the circles with my own pen (Corona Virus concerns, you know).

After filling out the ballot, I encountered my only line at the ballot scanner/reader. There were two scanners and both were being used, and I got behind a lady who was also waiting. The two cleared out about the same time after about a 20 second wait and the lady I was behind and I went to the scanner. I ran my ballot through the scanner and walked out getting an "I voted" sticker.

The whole process took between 10 - 15 minutes from walking in the door to walking out the door. About normal for my voting location.