
Want to vote in 2020? Do it early - pmoriarty
https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election/2020/8/27/21369269/vote-early-guide-mail-postal-service-ballots
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smt88
Title should have "(US)" added to the end of it, since HN is international and
this article is US-specific.

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jonny_eh
It's good advice for any country though.

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gus_massa
Is post by mail common in other countries? I have the polling station like 5
block away from my home, the election day is on Sunday so I'm free that day, I
can choose to go from 8am to 6pm but if I go at 3pm there is probably only one
or two persons in the queue. [Hi from Argentina!]

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wjossey
Some countries have vote by mail. Many US states do as well.

In the US our voting is on a work day, which is not given off by law. State
politicians also control where polling locations are placed and how they are
staffed, which leads to significant waiting times for people at polling places
(hours and hours in many situations).

The introduction of electronic voting machines has created additional
bottlenecks, as you can’t scale out those machines horizontally the same way
with paper ballots. You’ll often end up with just a couple of e machines in
place of a location that would typically have 20 or 30 booths for paper
voting.

Did a bunch of research on this before our midterms in 2018:

[https://medium.com/@eagerlabs/if-voter-turnout-spikes-our-
vo...](https://medium.com/@eagerlabs/if-voter-turnout-spikes-our-voting-
infrastructure-wont-hold-up-dc782672b914)

~~~
gus_massa
> _In the US our voting is on a work day, which is not given off by law. State
> politicians also control where polling locations are placed and how they are
> staffed, which leads to significant waiting times for people at polling
> places (hours and hours in many situations)._

I know. I know. I just wonder why if we in Argentina (that is not the most
organized country in the world) can make a reasonable election, it is so
difficult there. [The elections are not perfect here anyway If you have some
popcorn I can add a few anecdotes.]

> _The introduction of electronic voting machines has created additional
> bottlenecks, as you can’t scale out those machines horizontally the same way
> with paper ballots._

It is weird because we once tried here with mixed voting machines. (You choose
whom to vote in the machine, the machine gives you a paper version, and you
put it in the urn.) And it was faster than the manual version. You just need
more machines.

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andrew_
> All this is eroding faith in the exercise of democracy this November — and,
> potentially, in the election results themselves.

Anecdotally, in my circles not a single person has expressed lost faith or
that their faith has eroded. If anything, the current climate has emboldened
my peers' belief that it's important and effective. From my perspective, the
media is doing more to try to convince people that democracy in this country
is in decline than any other force, and I suspect it's financially motivated
more than anything else.

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flanbiscuit
> If anything, the current climate has emboldened my peers' belief that it's
> important and effective.

This feels true to me now as well.

In 2014 there was a report[1] released that concluded that the US was an
Oligarchy and that our vote did not count. Personally that seemed to align
with how my friends and I felt, where corporate campaign donations and
lobbying influenced our politicians decisions more than the every-person
voter. Back then I had a more bleak view on the effectiveness of our democracy
and I'm sure others felt that way as well. I still voted though, I have always
voted since I turned 18.

But ever since the 2016 election (and the 2018 mid-term elections) we've seen
just how important voting is. If every eligible voter in the US got out and
was able to vote, we'd have a much different government right now.

1\. [https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-
echochambers-27074746](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746)

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andrew_
> If every eligible voter in the US got out and was able to vote, we'd have a
> much different government right now.

That's a dicey assertion to make, because we don't know how those who stayed
home would have leaned. All of the conventional widsom in 2016 pointed to
someone else in the White House, and yet here we are. It's just impossible to
gauge how those who stay silent truly think.

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microcolonel
Good advice for any voting year: get a checklist and check things off in
advance so that voting is extremely convenient when polling time comes.

