(no subject)

[potofsoup]

hey folks, was told I should post some of my election efforts here.

1) Voting comic: https://summercomfort.tumblr.com/post/626311829792112640/i-made-a-chart-of-some-nitty-gritty-info-about

2) Spreadsheet of vote by mail details: http://tinyurl.com/votingdeets2020

3) PPT of California information, with some specificity to our county. (we're printing it out and posting it downtown): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1j26GjAbyH6vkhBAY2oKbrW2C2NdQMv8H4hPvq_PnlG4/edit#slide=id.p

Re: Spreadsheet -- I collated data from pre-COVID and pre-USPS-FUBAR times -- if your state has recent changes, please drop a comment so that I can update. Trawling through state election websites has been... difficult. Just the other day I found information that isn't on our county election website.... on a grocery store shopping cart. Yes. >_>

Comments

[redbird]

For the 2020 election, Massachusetts is allowing everyone to vote by mail, without giving a reason. (This is 2020-specific, because of COVID-19.)

[potofsoup]

Corrected, thank you!

[potofsoup]

follow-up question -- are ballots still mailed out a mere 21 days before the election?

[redbird]

I don't think so, but the timing on this was compressed enough that the COVID-related everyone votes by mail gave the Secretary of State five days to get absentee voter applications sent to every registered voter in the state. My ballot was mailed (according to their website) on August 7, for a Sept. 1 primary; cattitude's reached us a few days after mine, even though we put both application postcards in the mail at the same time.

For the general election, they might get them sent a bit sooner. Ballots for the primary have to arrive by September 1st to be counted, which should give them a bit more lead time for printing the general election ballots.

[potofsoup]

Okay, 3.5 weeks is definitely better than 3 weeks. I guess y'all are still in the throes of primary stuff. A lot of these ballot mailed-out dates have a state-set minimum (which I think is still 21 for MA), but local counties can go beyond the minimum. Local counties are especially bad at getting voter info out beyond the county, though. The best local voter info I've gotten for my county are from NextDoor and shopping cart ads...

[teaotter]

Fivethirtyeight has a great page for state info: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/how-to-vote-2020/

The US Vote Foundation has good info, too, that goes down to county or other voting district: https://www.usvotefoundation.org/vote/eoddomestic.htm

And Democracy Docket has a great page on ways of voting with a TON of informative links: https://www.democracydocket.com/2020/08/usps-delays/

[potofsoup]

The Fivethirtyeight page is great! But it doesn't get into some of the nitty gritty stuff that I care about. For example, in some states you're required to get your mail-in ballot notarized. That knowledge might change whether someone decides to register for Vote By Mail or not.

Yes, I link to the US Vote foundation in my spreadsheet -- it's good for finding the county level voting office information, though sometimes that's different from where the ballot should be dropped off.

I've already incorporated the ncsl and vote.org information into my spreadsheet. Bless NCSL and vote.org

Still to find a rundown of WHEN the ballots get mailed out that isn't NCSL. NCSL is good in that they've done the hard work of looking at state-level policies, but they haven't adjusted for the latest changes. For example, due to the USPS FUBAR, California now accepts ballots up to 17 days after postmark, but ncsl data only says 3.

"Early Voting" data is also extremely vague. A lot of places lump mail-in ballot drop-off with Early Voting, but it really needs to be disambiguated this year. For example, the ad that I saw on my grocery store cart from our county election office said: "Vote By Mail and Early Voting" starts on Oct 5, but then also says "Vote Centers open Oct 31 -- wear a mask!" Which probably means that Ballot drop-off locations are open starting Oct 5, but in-person casting of ballots doesn't happen until Oct 31. So if I'm someone who is worried about ballot drop-off boxes getting vandalized, then I should wait until Oct 31. Or deliver to the county election office in person. But is there a form of "early voting" that isn't vote centers? If not, why does it say that both of those start Oct 5?

Also, I'm very wary of Democracy Docket's suggestion to do community collection of ballots. I put this in my spreadsheet, but most states only allow immediate family, and often have a low upper limit on how many a single person can deliver (4 or 6, usually), mostly to prevent ballot harvesting.

[rydra_wong]

NBC's got a guide to state info which might be useful:

https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/plan-your-vote-state-by-state-guide-voting-by-mail-early-in-person-voting-election/index.html

[potofsoup]

Ooo! That is handy and has a lot of great info! Thank you!

[jazzyjj]

Thanks for all the great info. I've never heard of Democracy Docket but will check them out. I've been rather busy with social commitments left and right, but during the shelter-in-place orders I actually had a good amount of time to kill. So one of the things I did was fill out a vote-by-mail application. It turns out that I also got one via postal mail sent to my apartment. I found that out a couple days ago. I have a handy little app on my phone that reads text, among other things. It's kinda hit-or-miss at this time only due to my accuracy, but it notified me of the voting application. So I guess I could fill out both applications, lol. After all, we need as many people to vote in November as possible.