Massachusetts here: ballot arrived yesterday. Only signature required. (No date or witness. If you need assistance to fill out (ex: blind) the person assisting has to sign, and date). The return envelope is even postpaid.
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Not an option for me because the powers that be in Alabama have a vested interest in making voting as difficult as possible and the means to enforce that.
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USA voting on a weeday istead of saturday and sunday or sunday and monday, seems to me a strange quirk anyway.
I think that voting in person it’s more visible than voting by mail, and that’s it: especially in a small countryside town everyone could see people going to vote, while with vote by mail it’s way less noticeable.
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For me, it’s also a celebration of democracy. Going to the polling place is a ritual, it affirms your membership of society. Of course, this is from a German perspective, where voting happens on a Sunday, ballots are hand-counted and still counts are ready within a few hours of the polls closing and where you don’t have endless down-ballot choices tacked on that need deep research that is maybe better done at home.
I’ve always enjoyed voting in person. Since moving away, I am forced to use postal voting, of course, but I am allowed to vote (in person) for local elections here in Norway, which gives me that feeling of being a part of society as well, despite not being a citizen.
Still, what I really want is a democracy sausage, but that’s only for Australians.
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My ballot is out in the mailbox … need to get it.
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The argument they would make usually went something along the lines that voting should involve effort and inconvenience and sacrifice, because it’s such an important part of being a citizen and visibly showing your commitment to the community. It was truly boneheaded Protestant work ethic stuff, steeped in privilege, from people who (unlike conservatives) should have known better.
I haven’t heard that argument from on Internet forums (at least not from liberals) in about a decade, but I have no doubt that older Dems are still out there who believe that nonsense.
To be clear, I don’t have any problem with people who like voting on election day. They just shouldn’t limit everyone else’s options.
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Oh, sure you do. They are there to watch for and challenge anyone who does not look like a Real American™. White, old, male, red-hat-wearing, the usual indicators of Real American™. I really do wish I was kidding. I have to think that being Black or brown and running the gauntlet of MAGAt “poll watchers” would have to be intimidating. I hope there will be some sort of security, especially against idiots photographing and harassing legitimate voters. And I suspect the “First Amendment Auditors” will be all over this. God, I hate this timeline.
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Some of those “poll watchers” might also try to open-carry to “express their Second Amendment rights” in districts where that kind of intimidation is allowed to slide. Partisan signs and apparel may be prohibited around polling places, but there are other ways that these thugs can signal their political affiliiation.
In recent years, international observers have also become elements of U.S. elections. It’s truly embarrassing, but the MAGAts and other anti-democratic forces have made it necessary.
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Here, there is a 100 ft (I think. or maybe it’s yds?) limit to any kind of electioneering at polling places, and there is a sign at that point. Beyond that it is the wild west. I live in a very Trump-heavy area, and don’t expect much action here, although we do have an increasing Hispanic population which I am certain causes much pearl-clutching among certain folk. In more diverse areas, though, I do expect to hear about assholery.
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Swapped to it here in Illinois and I can’t go back. I live in a fairly nice area and even our poll lines can be long - we waited nearly 2 hours to vote for Obama’s second term, for example.
A law allowed you to permanently opt in, passed in the pandemic, and I’m all in on it. You have tons of tracking - notice when it’s coming, notice when it’s mailed, notice when they get it back, notice when it’s counted. I know less if I actually do it in person!
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I loved having access to vote by mail in California.
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Since TFG has been on the ballot, I actually enjoy some of the pageantry of waiting in line to crush his dreams. I wish there was a huge NOT THAT FUCKING GUY button we could slam. I would not want to subject anyone else to the inconvenience, and think vote by mail is a good thing. Back in 2004 or 2008, I was voting, and there was an early adopter of idiocy ahead of me, who was loudly complaining to the poll worker that he wasn’t being asked for his ID. When it was my turn I made sure to thank them and that I appreciate them doing the work. Waiting in line is also a good place to practice your Spanish.
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They made early voting early and convenient locally. I don’t even know where my regular polling place is.
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I’m a Dem block captain in GA, and I urge Georgians to vote early, in-person if at all possible. It’s the most reliable way to vote in this state. Mail-in ballots can be lost, and are the easiest for election deniers to challenge. If you have a disability or otherwise cannot vote in person, mail-in is better than nothing. Voting in person on election day carries risks of weather, power outages, long lines, discovering that you’ve been un-registered, etc.
Vote early and in person if you live in a GOP-run state and are able to.
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UK votes on a Thursday but polling booths are open 7am-10pm which is good. Annoyingly it tends to be the one closest to your house which is a pain if you have a long commute.
For the UK, it was because Thursday was Market Day so farmers were going into town anyway, so it was originally for convenience, not to make it harder.
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I really want Texas to have universal mail in voting and automatic registration when you get an ID or driver’s license. Alas, those of us who believe every citizen should vote are still working on it.
Unlike Alabama (yikes!) we do have early voting. I didn’t realize there were places with out it!
My county is blue and implemented a vote-anywhere policy the state GOP/MAGAT haven’t successfully quashed. You can vote at any polling place in the county.
The county sets as many voting sites as possible on school grounds, because guns aren’t allowed.
I and my spouse will be voting early at our usual polling place. There is almost never a line unless life got in the way and we are voting day-of. I do not have the patience to be a poll worker. My spouse has signed up to be a poll worker but they haven’t called him back sad 
they may not need election day poll workers. But if you want to work the early voting, you have to be available to do all the early voting days. This is the plan for retirement.
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They haven’t seen an Oregon ballot and voter’s pamphlet. Each jurisdiction has about 50 choices to make per general election, between federal, state, and lical partisan candidates, state ballot measures, local measures, levies, and bonds, and the nonpartisan judges. Some people skip those last or just vote blindly because they rately run opposed but I still do the research. I won’t vote for an asshole, even if they are running unopposed.
It takes us about an hour to go through all the options and research everything in the voter’s guide.
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Before CA went to vote-by-mail ballots, I used to write up a cheat sheet (½ of an 8"x11" sheet) for all races, propositions and county/city measures after doing my research. I preferred using the sheet rather than bringing my sample ballot because I could go in and and just punch it out in 2, 3 minutes tops.
Now with vote-by-mail, it takes a bit longer to fill in the bubbles. It’s also takes additional time to drive over to the LA County Registrar’s office to use their dropbox. (I prefer doing this because I’m guessing they collect the envelopes several times a day.)
The last time I voted in person (2018), it was a hot mess. The location listed on my sample ballot was slightly off as the school decided to move the voting booths from the auditorium to the school’s library, which was significantly smaller than a typical classroom. The auditorium typically held 15 booths and people cycled in and out rather quickly. The small library could only fit three voting booths and the wait was unnecessarily long. I now welcome the luxury of dropping off my ballot.
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Same with us on Tuesday. Church Sunday, go to town for market Monday, vote on Tuesday and head home. Those days is long gone, and date to when it was only land-owning men who could vote, anyway.
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