The only sure way to guarantee that your vote is counted is to stand in line and vote in person.
Put on your face mask, practice social distancing, and wait your turn.
Trump is trying to discredit mail-in ballots and absentee ballots.
He hopes to throw the election into the courts, where he expects to fare better than with the electorate.
Trump and his hand-picked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are doing their best to mess up postal service. If you are in a battleground state, bags of mail from certain districts might get “lost.”
Don’t take that chance!
Block that coup!
Show up. Cast your ballot. Vote to save our democracy.
Every vote counts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
New Florida Chamber of Commerce poll shows Biden winning Florida by 5 percent. Hopeful, but. . . .
take no chances!!!
In NJ, we should bring our ballots to the board of elections. That is far safer than any other process.
We are lucky to have one of our two County Clerk’s offices just 3 blocks away. We will be able to deliver our ballots in person there (presenting drivers license or NJ-issued ID). Should be receiving our ballots within the week.
I agree. Vote in person. Make your vote count on Election Day. Be the first in line. Take nothing for granted. If your state allows voting in person before Election Day, vote as soon as the polls open, in person. Let nothing stand in your way.
I will be there to vote if I have to crawl over broken glass.
BTW…just watched the press conference from Walter Reed…..Trump’s oily doctor with a platoon of all sorts of other doctors and nurses around him.
Somewhere in America at the very same moment a typical citizen was being ground to a pulp by the piranesian gears of our crazy, wasteful health care system. Facing death, alone and terrified.
The toadying of the doctors talking about Trump reminds me of those stories from the time of the court of French kings.
Vote as if all our lives depend on it….because they do.
Trump is the beneficiary of socialized medicine.
Exactly the VA and Military Hospitals are Government owned facilities whose doctors are in the employ of the Government .”Owning the means of production” .
But an even greater irony is that our taxes are paying for Trump’s healthcare .. While he pays no taxes and try’s to take away Obama care from 20 million tax payers .
As for voting even here on Long Island I will vote in person early so that on election night the vote will be overwhelming . Of course I have never waited 10 minutes to vote no less the 5hr waits designed by Red States to suppress the vote.
As an election judge here in Colorado, I say use the mail in ballot. It is safe and convenient. We have abundant ballot drop boxes throughout the state that do not involve the post office.
Only if you do not receive a ballot in the mail would I advise you to go to a polling station to vote in person, or receive a paper ballot.
Colorado has used mail in ballots for over a decade very effectively. I can make no claims about other states, just that Colorado is how voting in a democracy should look like.
Stay healthy,
Ed
The danger is that Trump is trying to discredit mail-in ballots and have “his judges” disqualify them. His strategy is to encourage his base to vote in person, take the lead election night, declare victory, then fight mail-in ballots in courts. His hope is that he has reshaped the federal judiciary.
Of course, mail-in ballots are safe. But why do you think he has been railing against them for months?
If you use the drop boxes, it doesn’t go through the US Mail. shouldn’t that be safe and fast?
The USPS isn’t the primary problem.
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/22/904693468/more-than-550-000-primary-absentee-ballots-rejected-in-2020-far-outpacing-2016
I know, but apparently the rejected ballots seem to be from people across the political spectrum who don’t follow the directions carefully enough, so it balances out. I’m almost afraid to fill mine out for fear I will miss some essential step.
Does it matter whom we vote for?
Or just that we vote in person?
If your mail-in ballot doesn’t get counted, as Bernie predicted it won’t be, then it really won’t matter who you voted for or whether you even voted. If you vote in person, even if you vote for Mickey Mouse, as some fools will, you will prove David Coleman of Common Core and College Board wrong. Someone will count your vote and show that it’s entirely untrue that, as Coleman said, “Nobody gives a sh-t what you think.” All votes matter.
If outright authoritarianism and demagoguery is your thing ;than it does not matter. For the rest of us it does.
Not saying it doesn’t matter if you vote. It does matter. And don’t vote for anyone but Biden-Harris. I’m saying it won’t matter if Republicans are able to stop the vote counting after election night.
On the other hand, and it’s so sad, but who knows what will happen by election night because certain Republicans have Covid. Very sad.
By the way, Joel
That was tongue in cheek.
SomeDAM Poet
Glad to hear that. My TDS is through the roof.
Vote in Person
Vote in person
Not for person
Person’s worse than
Poet’s versin’
Other states have extremely high rejection rates for mail-in ballots, especially for first time mail-in voters. In New York’s primary election this summer, about 20% of the mail-in ballots were rejected. Other states (including battleground states) have similar histories. Maybe Colorado has a better track record.
Maybe that’s an issue with NY state.
If I lived in NY, I’d sure as hell make sure I voted in person, particularly in the primary. No doubt about it.
It is an issue with NY, but NY isn’t the only state where it’s an issue.
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/22/904693468/more-than-550-000-primary-absentee-ballots-rejected-in-2020-far-outpacing-2016
More to the point, if I lived in NY, I’d move.
And actually did.😀
I already voted by mail and tracked my ballot, it has been received. I think it’s safe to use the USPS in NJ, just my opinion based on current usage. If you vote in person, you will be given a provisional ballot to fill out, you won’t be voting on a machine.
This just in: Chris Christie has tested positive for the C-virus, the latest in a long line of GOPers testing positive for the virus. Not to mention the bloviator-in-chief. Will Trump go the same way as Herman Cain? I don’t wish this virus on anyone and take no pleasure in the grief or illnesses of others. I just recently went shopping, I could very well have gotten the virus, so I am not mocking anyone, just reporting the news, so to speak.
Trump has been both shopping for — and shopping around — the virus of late.
Virus shopping
Shopping corona
Shopping the virus
Like Arizona
Naught to inspire us
In my town you can vote early in person at our city hall. They open in person early voting a few weeks before Election Day. It’s worth contacting your city hall to see if they have this option.
I second the “vote early in person if you can” strategy. This is ideal for those who live in states that have early voting. If you can’t do this, do you best to ensure that your ballot is counted by either finding a way to vote in person on election day or by returning your mail-in ballot as early as possible. In many states, mail-in ballots that are returned well before election day can be scanned and tallied (but not reported) before election day, which means they will be reported on election day along with votes cast in person. That prevents these from being effectively challenged, since they will help make the election day vote count go against Trump, eliminating his opportunity to declare victory and try to stop the counting on ballots. In some states, you can also do an effective early vote by going to a county elections office, getting and filling out your absentee ballot on the spot, and turning it back in without ever leaving. This works in Pennsylvania, for instance, which does not otherwise have in person early voting.
I had to send in my passport 3 times for renewal due to problems with the pictures. First two times were before Dejoy changes and I received the return receipt after mailing in about one week. Third time I mailed in the passport it took about one month to get the return receipt!
I have been going to early voting for years. Either poll I go to will be manned by my relatives. The irony of their having to get me to show a picture ID is perfect. One of them changed my diapers once or twice.
I will go to the basement of a building that was a bank where my cousin, Young Williams used to keep books. Somewhere around where he used to have a desk, I will punch a button on a machine and hope all is on the up and up. Being ignorant of the safeguards that keep our vote sacrosanct, I will trust our local people to be fair. I must admit that this is the first year I have wondered how I can have confidence.
I live in California and have voted by mail for decades. No matter what a Trump loyalist judge rules in one of the court challenges Trump’s lawyers and the puppet attorney general are doing to throw them out, I am still going to mail my ballot. The battleground states are where voters have to risk their lives and vote in person if they want to get rid of the virus in the White House that is more lethal than COVID-19.
If Trump’s latest coup plot works, then we will fight it out on the streets in a bloody civil war that could last years or days depending on what the military does to uphold the oath they took to protect the U.S. Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic and Trump fits in both categories.
Here in Michigan I can fill out my absentee ballot, drive down to the city clerk’s office, walk in the front door, and drop it in a box right next to the clerk’s counter.
Uyah has had safe and secure mail in voting for years. There are almost no in person polling places in Utah as a result. I will mail in my ballot early, but I will mail it.
Where’s Uyah?
Next to the tonsils
Geography Lesson
Where is Uyah?
Idaknow
But Hairizona’s
Down below
Ha!! Thanks for that. I teach Geography, so it’s particularly embarrassing.
But think what we would have missed if your fingers were smaller!
Where’s Wynona?
Where’s Wynona?
Near the Coda
Just above the
The call of Rhoda
Sorry. Big fingers, small phone keys.
In Michigan and in many states we can return our ballots in their security envelope and in their return envelope with our signatures etc on the back to either a ballot box at our Clerk’s office [City, Village, Township] or if their clerk has secure drop boxes outside or in other public areas. You don’t have to use the USPS to return your ballots.
Vote early and use one of these ways to return your ballot without unreasonable exposure to the Trump Virus.
If Ugh! suddenly dies, do our Biden votes count? 🤔
If Biden unexpectedly dies (I hope not), do our Biden votes count? 🤔
I’m lucky that my town is the county seat, so I have not far to go to get there, too. Last election I brought mine, my husband’s and my mother’s to the board of elections on Election Day. There was a small line, but not bad. Ballots should be received by Oct. 5 in NJ. Still waiting for ours.
Daily Beast reported about new research. Fox is up to 5 times more likely to use the word, “hate”, in programming than its main competitors. Fox’s anchors describe liberals, political elites, media, and Democrats as hating and, the anchors describe the targets as, “us” and/or “Christians”.
Nationalism and religion enables fascism and justifies entitlement
Merriam-Webster reports that lookups for the word “schadenfreude” have spiked 30,500 percent.
I don’t care if that statistic is real or fake. That’s awesome!!
Trumpenfreude
Trumpenfreude:
Happy that
Trump enjoyed a
Covid spat
In Ohio we have EARLY voting. That is where you go to the county elections board and vote just like you do on the day of the election: signature verification and using the voting machines.
No issues with absentee paper votes or challenged signature matching. Little to no waiting lines.
It would be wonderful if ALL citizens voted.
Early in-person voting starts in New York on October 24.
Early voting start date and times in Maine is on a town by town basis. Many cities and towns start in-person voting tomorrow (10/5).
I’d consider your risk factors and the conditions at the polling site before deciding to vote in person. If you decide to vote by mail, carefully read the instructions. If you’re comfortable with having someone proofread the ballot, do it. An extra set of eyes is always helpful.
After 44 years of voting, I have learned that no politician is worth dying for.
There’s no early in-person voting in NJ, so far as I am aware. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. From the AARP web site: Some state lawmakers are pushing for early in-person voting this year, but New Jersey does not offer an official early voting window. In some areas, including Camden County, early voting centers will let you fill out and submit mail-in ballots in person prior to Election Day. end quote
From NJ Elections webpage:
“There is not an in-person (polling place/vote center) early voting period.
However, voters will be able to return their vote by mail ballots early to a secure ballot drop box, by mail, or in person to their Board of Elections office. Dropbox locations can be found here on the 2020 New Jersey Voter Information Portal.”
https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/vote-how-to.shtml
Not in Georgia. If you stand in line and vote, then you are going to be filling out your ballot on a Ballot Marking Device. These are new devices which they just found were missing the latter half of candidates for the Senate, which would include the leading polling Democrat Raphael Warnock. They are supposed to be more secure because we get a printout receipt, but the computers are counting the QR code not the listed votes. If a bad actor (the vendor, the state, the county, a hacker) introduce code that generates a vote Trump but the human-readable shows a vote for Biden, then the only way to find that out is a hand-recount. One that will only happen if the results are less than 1% in difference.
My county found that the computers miscounted the absentee ballots too. The only reliable count is a hand-count.