I Voted

[dreamshark]

It was easy and quick and felt totally safe. The polling place (a large gym) had at most a dozen people in it (mostly poll workers)  during the short time I was passing through, and people kept spritzing my hands with hand sanitizer. Everyone wore masks. Arguably, the most dangerous part of the whole experience was when I paused to have a short conversation on mask construction with the poll worker guarding the exit door. 

I voted at about 10am, and was number 113 for the day. Usually the number is well over 1000 by the time I get there (at least for regular November elections). Even for a primary election, that's a tiny number. It looks like most people really are voting by mail. I was adamant about voting in person because I wanted to be sure my ballot was counted, and there are so many pitfalls in the Vote by Mail processes. But I suppose I'm glad that a lot of people are trying it out in the primary, just to give everybody a chance to get some practice with the system before November. But because of that, we probably won't see results for days, if not weeks, which takes some of the fun out of voting. 

It's important to vote in the primaries in Minneapolis because we are a one-party town, which means that for local offices and Congressional Representative the November election is actually decided in the primary. 

Comments

[laramie]

I mailed in my ballot, and found a tracker that told me it arrived on July 11 - plenty of time.

If all this hinky business with the Post Office continues, I've been taking note of places where mail-in ballots can be delivered directly.

[dreamshark]

I think that an absentee ballot dropped off directly has a better chance of being counted than if you add another hop through the Post Office. That has always been the case, but it's even more true this year.

The problem with absentee ballots is that there are so many steps, and an error at any step can lead to your ballot being disqualified. That online tracker is a key piece of making this work, and hasn't gotten enough publicity IMHO. I found it and checked on Richard's mail-in ballot. I was pleasantly surprised at how well that worked - quick and easy.

The best approach is to get your ballot in as early as possible and keep checking the tracker until you have confirmation it has been counted.

[laramie]

I am absolutely incensed at the putative president's attempts to undermine the election by going after the Post Office.

Remember Spartacus? Let's all stand up for Election Day and declare "I Am a Postman!" The mail will go through with or without the official service. I will do all I can to deliver ballots to the local Election board offices.

[dreamshark]

Or just encourage everybody to vote early, as soon as absentee ballots are available. It's not that the USPS won't deliver the ballots at all - they just may not do it in a timely fashion.

And that also works in favor of getting The Trump out of office, since it seems pretty clear that if the election were held today he would lose. Normally I'm not particularly in favor of early voting BECAUSE it means voting before you have all the facts (whatever is going to happen between the time you vote and the election). But in this case, I think we have all the facts we need.

[laramie]

That, too. I'm ready to vote early and help anyone else who needs help doing it.