A Reminder to Ohioans: Last Day to Register to Vote
Posted on October 5, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
I’ll repost my tweet about it here:
Also, it’s the last day to register to vote if you live in:
•Arkansas
•Arizona
•Florida
•Georgia
•Hawaii (allows same day registration on Election Day)
•Indiana
•Kentucky
•Louisiana
•Mississippi
•South Carolina
•Tennessee
•Texas
So if you’re in one of those states and you haven’t yet registered to vote, there is literally no time like the present.
Also, while you’re registering, make a plan to vote and vote early if you can, to avoid the rush and/or attempts to keep you from casting your vote. I will be voting early myself! Tomorrow, most likely, I’ll be going to the Darke County Board of Elections and voting there. Early voting starts at 8am! And after, I’m getting donuts.
(And if you’re in a state/US territory that isn’t closing up registration today — register today anyway. Why not? It’s a thing you can do! Check to see if your state allows you to register online here.)
— JS
There used to be–as recently as 2019–a laugh line about “vote early and vote often, but that joke has been taken away from us by you know who.
Wherever you live, you should do a Google search for national association of secretaries of state; they have links to official voter information for every State.
FIND OUT DEADLINES.
BE PROACTIVE.
CHECK THE RULES FOR YOUR STATE.
For instance, check who may take another voter’s ballot to the drop box under what conditions. Check what happens if somebody who requested an absentee ballot changes their mind and wants to vote in person. Find out whether there is a way you can track your own ballot.
In fact, there’s a link to the National Association of Secretaries of State in the sidebar here —
I’m the only one in my household who has not yet received a ballot; this is literally the first time in 12 years that this has happened. I’m on it today, come hell or hell.
Also, there are “poll watchers” at my local polling place, so if you don’t hear from me in the next few weeks, you know why.
I have my mail in ballot that I will complete and mail tomorrow, Fingers crossed for a good result.
We turned in our absentee ballots last week.
Here in VA:
1. We requested ours by mail.
2. They arrived.
3. A few days later, we took them stll-unopened to the polling place across the street and voted early.
4. This way, we put the ballots into the counting machine ourselves.
Easy-peasy. Highly recommended to anyone who lives across the street from the county courthouse.
The county started mailing ballots last Monday, I got mine Thursday. It’s filled out and waiting to go straight to the dropbox outside the election office today. With some of the things being said by politicians this election, the idea of leaving it over the weekend in an unattended dropbox … yeah, let’s not.
I voted Ohio absentee last week! I have lived abroad almost uninterrupted since I turned eighteen, so I have never voted in person (I skipped voting in 2000, the first election year I was eligible, and learned a hard lesson). The instructions were DEFINITELY more complicated and labourious than ever before. I read through the attached checklist three times and would not be at all surprised if my ballot is disqualified. But I tried my best.
In a local-issues election for which I voted absentee in 2019, my ballot was initially rejected. I misread and printed my name where I was supposed to sign. The Board of Elections emailed me about it, and I was allowed to email them a scan of my signature, which matched their files. My vote was counted, to my great relief. Very much doubt they’ll be giving voters second chances this fall.
To Sarah Marie:
Call 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) after checking the Georgetown University website. They have the state you are in, with each state separate.
Thanks, Mary.
I’ll do that. :)
I’ve not only registered, but I’ve already voted early!
I’ve gotten my absentee ballot over the weekend. Now it’s time to plow through the voter’s guide to what I’m voting on.
WA State has has vote by mail for quite a long time and it has worked out fine. Disabled voters have the option to go to various election centers where they have machine assisted ballot marking. There are lots of ballot drop-off boxes, and I prefer that to sending them by mail. Very few actually get chewed up by mail machines, but “a few” is still > 0. Those ballots are reconstructed by election workers, observed by representatives for as many parties as show up.
The slow step is not tabulation, but signature verification. The first step is carried out by temp employees hired to work for a few weeks. They get computer visualizations of the last six signatures submitted. I have (as an elections observer) seen that it is pretty easy to verify signatures this way. If there is any doubt at all, those ballots are held out and turned over to professional handwriting experts. Just about everything is resolved this way–exceptions get notified twice by email or a phone call, and once by a written letter which offers them the chance to submit a new signature. And sometimes people forget to sign.
Ballots are counted by scanners, and audited by random hand counts. A hand count is mandatory if candidates differ by less than 0.5% If a ballot is turned in with more than one vote for office, the state rule is that voter intent determines the result. (Oddly, a few people will sometimes fill in the circle for candidate X and then use the write-in line to say “candidate X DA MAN!”) Some state throw those out, but here it counts as a vote for candidate X.
> Also, it’s the last day to register to vote if you live in:
Just the last check on my voter registration. Still good.