Early voting question

[nialla42]

I've been getting a ton of calls about early voting, which can only be done at set locations during set times. Of course there's not any on our side of the county, so it's pretty much going to the County Courthouse if you want to do early voting. Though it doesn't apply to me since I have to vote in another county.

What was interesting to me is a

Comments

[khek]

I'm not sure we can do early voting in Massachusetts. I know you can do an absentee ballot, but I think you have to prove that you're going to be out of the area. I may be remembering Vermont though, when I had to have absentee ballots when I officially lived there but was going to school in MA and RI.

I don't remember ever hearing about any other method of early voting anywhere until this year. If we can do it, I'm going to try next year! I hate going to the polling place because of work and parking.

[green_grrl]

I love early voting. A few years ago the county switched mail ballots from "have to request every time" to "you can permanently be on the vote by mail list," which I promptly did. The university has an early polling station, so sometimes I drop off my early ballot when I'm at work. Sometimes I drop it off at the early polling station at the county election office if I'm downtown (I just did that last night). And sometimes I'll drop by my precinct polling place on Election Day with my pre-filled ballot just to have that Election Day excitement. I don't know whether our election office is just really good at making sure there's enough polling stations or what, but I've never seen huge long lines. Maybe 20 minutes at worst?

[slashpile]

Early voting is awesome. Obviously, not if you're undecided ;)

But it lets you do it at a more convenient time (and sometimes place -- I cursed missing the advance poll two blocks from my house when I had to trek 15 blocks after dark & after transit, through an incredibly sketchy area for the last federal election).

And having missed the last provincial election because of illness, I'm planning on making it my new routine if it's in a convenient location.

Plus, sometimes they use advance polls for training staff and figuring out any new tech or procedures, so you're helping to build democratic capacity. Right?