# Have you voted yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 12, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810 "2020-10-12T15:42:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/222 "2020-10-28T02:46:48Z")
My Town Clerk has reported to the Secretary of the State that my absentee ballot has been received, along with those of my wife and son. The Secretary of the State has a website where you can look this up. Our ballots were very simple this year: [Electors for] President & Vice-President, Representative in Congress, State Senator, State Representative, and a minor Town office. This is in Connecticut. There is some wonderfully archaic language used on the town website to announce the election: “The Electors of the Town of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ are hereby warned to meet at their respective polling places in said town on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, for the following purposes: I. To cast their votes for Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors, Representative in Congress, State Senator, State Representative…” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/223 "2020-10-28T17:21:06Z")
My mail in ballot was accepted by the Board of Elections, so I have absolutely voted now. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/224 "2020-10-29T19:50:43Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Sign-in sheet to enter the county office building, you had to sign that you weren’t experiencing any symptoms and had no known recent exposure. Person at entry making sure people did the sign-in sheet. Hmm. Interesting. I wonder what they do if you say you are experiencing symptoms or have a recent exposure. As far as I know, you can’t disfranchise someone for that reason. Would they bring the person a ballot but ask them not to come in? People who are ill not only still have the right to vote, but might be especially motivated at the moment. I’m not saying they should be allowed in, by any means. I just wonder if the elections officials have a plan for a person saying they have symptoms and also that they still want to vote. ---
**Author:** ![SoToasty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sotoasty/32/2803_2.png) [@SoToasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoToasty)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/225 "2020-10-29T19:55:35Z")
I voted yesterday. Took daughters boyfriend. Step Daughter and wife voted Tuesday. 4 Down 3 to go. Red all the way down the line. It’s going to be a blood bath. Ohhhh, it’s not opposite day. Blue Wave on the way. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/226 "2020-10-29T20:14:57Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > Hmm. Interesting. I wonder what they do if you say you are experiencing symptoms or have a recent exposure. As far as I know, you can’t disfranchise someone for that reason. Would they bring the person a ballot but ask them not to come in? People who are ill not only still have the right to vote, but might be especially motivated at the moment. > > I’m not saying they should be allowed in, by any means. I just wonder if the elections officials have a plan for a person saying they have symptoms and also that they still want to vote. My town just announced the guidelines for in-person voting during the pandemic. One of the required safety measures is to wear a mask. It then says that if you do not have a mask, one will be provided to you. If you cannot wear a mask, you should then ask for curbside voting. (We fill in bubbles on paper ballots that are then scanned.) It seems like having symptoms or a recent exposure would be another reason to ask for curbside voting. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/227 "2020-10-29T21:33:56Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > Hmm. Interesting. I wonder what they do if you say you are experiencing symptoms or have a recent exposure. As far as I know, you can’t disfranchise someone for that reason. Would they bring the person a ballot but ask them not to come in? I didn’t ask; but that would be my guess. It was the last day to ask for an absentee ballot, so maybe they’d have brought out an absentee and asked you to leave it in a drop box; I would hope that on the days after that, when early voting was still open but it was too late to get an absentee ballot, that they’d just bring a ballot out to you and then let you hand it back to them. But I don’t know how they’d have managed the sign in for the vote itself, in that case – I don’t know whether the equipment could have been carried outside; it was electronic, not the old paper book. A large part of the reason that I voted early was the fear that I’d wake up election day coughing or with a fever; or would have been called a couple of days earlier and told I’d been exposed and needed to quarantine. Maybe they’d have let me go vote anyway, but I’d have felt bad about it even if so; and, in NY, might not have tried (though there are a couple of downballot races that have just a faint chance of flipping a seat in the House and/or in the State Senate.) ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/228 "2020-10-29T22:06:47Z")
I went today to my designated early voting location in Brooklyn. Gotta say, the city has this organized and working brilliantly. Some locations have reported long lines to get in, but it seems that once you’re in, everything is working well. Locally, neighborhood word was that the lines could be long early in the day, just after opening, but get much shorter later in the day. That’s probably due to everyone getting there early to beat the lines, of course. Funny. And it’s been raining hard all day today, so I’m guessing a lot of people decided to wait for another, nicer day. So there was no line at all when I got there. I was in and out in less than ten minutes. So I’m done, I’ve voted. Oh, one other thing – I didn’t expose anyone to the risk of getting COVID from me – I was tested yesterday, got my negative result this morning. I know, I know, I was negative as of the time of the test yesterday, but I really didn’t go anywhere where there were people after that. And I was wearing a KN-95 mask anyway. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/229 "2020-10-29T22:07:50Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Yes, I filled out my ballot just yesterday and stuck it in the mail (it arrived late last week). I live in CA, so as always we have a bunch of propositions to consider. It took a couple of hours to really go through them properly. Yeah, I put off filling out my ballot simply because I didn’t have the psychic energy to devote to all the propositions. Did it this morning, filled out my ballot, and my sister will vote in person tomorrow and drop my ballot off at the drop box at the polling place. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/230 "2020-10-29T22:43:38Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, I put off filling out my ballot simply because I didn’t have the psychic energy to devote to all the propositions. It’s tough. I’ll admit, some of them I put less energy into. Except for rare cases, there’s not much harm in defaulting to “no” if you really can’t figure them out. Almost everything on there is something that the legislature (or even the courts) can and should be doing anyway, so if it’s important enough it’ll happen even without the proposition. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/231 "2020-10-30T01:06:36Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > My ballot was surprisingly short this year. It was only one side, and I don’t recall it being the entire side, either. Damn! Ours (in California) was like six pages. ETA: Yeah, Dr.Strangelove. In some years I’ve just skipped a few, because I wasn’t sure what they were even talking about! ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/232 "2020-10-30T01:11:28Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > > [@Morgyn](#): > > > > My ballot was surprisingly short this year. It was only one side, and I don’t recall it being the entire side, either. > > Damn! Ours (in California) was like six pages. That’s crazy! As I mentioned upthread, we had just five bubbles to fill out this year. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/233 "2020-10-30T01:15:30Z")
> [@robby](#): > > That’s crazy! As I mentioned upthread, we had just five bubbles to fill out this year. I’m in Los Angeles County, and we had at least 2 1/2 pages just for those specific issues. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/234 "2020-10-31T00:05:20Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > A large part of the reason that I voted early was the fear that I’d wake up election day coughing or with a fever That’s why i voted early. I didn’t vote in a local election in April because i woke up with a sore throat and a cough shortly before election day, and i didn’t want to expose the poll workers to whatever i had. (I’m in the ne, and i had possible covid exposure then.) It’s one of only two elections I’ve missed since i turned 18. I didn’t want the federal election to be another. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/235 "2020-10-31T04:01:09Z")
Same here - I voted exactly two weeks before Election Day. I didn’t feel a need to vote sooner (the lines were still long) because I knew if I got sick I’d clear the two week mark before Election Day. While I would’ve preferred to wait another week to avoid the lines completely I wasn’t going to take the risk. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/236 "2020-10-31T15:00:57Z")
I asked the state to mail me a ballot. So I voted not-too-long after the ballot arrived. Why wait until I lost it? My state allowed me to place the ballot in a nearby drop-box, so voting was easy and there were no lines. I’m quite happy with how the state has handled voting-during-a-pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/237 "2020-10-31T15:23:11Z")
Nope, Nov 3 I’ll vote in person. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/238 "2020-10-31T16:38:40Z")
I’m glad we have vote by mail and that I already voted. I woke up coughing this morning. Before we went to all vote by mail, I didn’t like the idea because I like voting in person. (And I had other concerns that have since been allayed.) I thought it was valuable to come together communally to choose our officials and make collective decisions. But this year especially, I’m very glad we made the change a long time ago, so these are all well-established processes. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/239 "2020-10-31T18:40:10Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > I woke up coughing this morning. Hope you’re OK! ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/240 "2020-10-31T19:05:16Z")
Thanks. So far, I think it’s just allergies. But I wouldn’t be able to vote in person, with that symptom. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810/241 "2020-10-31T20:56:45Z")
Do you have free COVID testing available? Hope so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-voted-yet/922810.md?page=13)