As I sat here yesterday marking my mail-in ballot, I watched the long, long lines in Texas on their first day of early voting. All I can say is thank you, Colorado, for our wonderful mail-in voting system! At my age I don’t think I could have stood in a line for several hours. At least not without dragging a lawn chair along with me. Yet in Texas I probably would have had to since they allow only one ballot dropbox per county. (Voter suppression, anyone?)
Instead, I walked a block up to my mailbox two days ago and picked up my ballot. Yesterday, I pulled out my previously marked-up blue book and carefully transferred all my choices to the ballot, triple-checked it, sealed it in its special envelope, and signed the envelope. Today I drove 1.5 miles to the nearest official dropbox and dropped off my completed ballot. Done and dusted. I have voted. Now all I can do is wait.
___________________________
Friday, Oct. 16: County Election Board website confirms my ballot has been validated and accepted for counting. Woke up this morning (Sat.) to text message confirming same.
YEA!
Look, I don’t know what voting images you are seeing of TX.But it’s not completely true or accurate. Media is can’t seem to help themselves causing trouble and spreading half truths and encouraging chaos.
We voted yesterday – the first day – at high noon lunch hour. Parked easily. Walked in to see a large room with maybe 30 voting machines available, 4 people actually voting a long table of people waiting to check people in ( Voter photo ID/ gov. card and voter reg. card – or just be on the voter rolls) Walked up, got signed in, got my ballot registration number, walked over to one of a long line of empty machines with my q-tip COVID stick to push “buttons”, voted, and done. NO wait at all.
There are so many voting places in our small town and the entire county you can drive past one to get to another for early voting (hrs 7-7 until Oct 30 )
For Harris county/Houston there’s even a website that tells you the wait time for voting locations. We have several drive-up stay in car and they hand you a voting machine for drive-in voting (24 hrs a day). Or you can mail ballots – without stamps even. Or you can drop ballots off at the official county location. (Get free rides there by several groups including Houston metro system, voting groups Lyft and UBER are either free or discounted depending on county and location). Houston even had bands and parades with marchers going to polls together yesterday? (Did you see that? Cute – baton twirlers and all!)
Those people in the national new pictures, I guess chose to go to a crowded location. (You can get free rides there) or they just didn’t think to look/plan ahead. Maybe they just wanted to be on TV. Who knows why people make weird choices.
Bet most states have had some areas of computers going down for a bit, or too many people showing up at one time. I have seen one place in Fort Bend county – it is NOT voter suppression.
Please. If anything TX is known for letting people vote even after they have been dead for years…and letting people vote multiple times…no discrimination with either of those HAHA
People shouldn’t complain – wait or not, it’s a privilege. Half the world wishes they had it – even if it means sitting in the sun.
Glad you voted.
Glad we did too. Easy Peasy
Well you know the media. It wouldn’t have been an interesting story if they hadn’t showed lines stretching around the block. I’ll have to remember that q-tip tip. Goodness knows I’ve got enough of them lying around.
Glad to hear you voted — and easily at that.
SO much hype. Media loves to hate TX since before LBJ HAHA
Oh, another wierdity.
Did you see the CDC has released report showing 85% of hospitalized COVID cases with “wore masks all the time” or “most of the time” (70% always wore) and they still got sick
It’s so typical of real science – form hypothesis, test and then rethink and adjust hypothesis.
Now they are back to the virus exists on surfaces for some time.
ARRRRRggggg
We are still with lots of hand washing and staying the heck away from people…and wearing a serious mask when have to be places indoors and getting in and out quickly.
What a weird mess. It’s going to take years to get through this. 🙁
I can understand the CDC updating us when they learn something new. But at some point their reports got tangled up with Trump and shook some of my lifelong trust in them. Dr. Fauci has become the source I trust above all others.
And yes, I’ve hardly been out of the house since the first of March. Several overdue doctor appointments, trips to the pharmacy and vet. Always with a mask (I keep one in the car). Lots of handwashing if I go out, etc. Safe at home because I live alone and nobody comes in.
CDC and WHO have lost all credibility.
Fauci is a typical researcher.I’ve worked with a ton just like him. Many had few social skills in med school or residency or in the labs. That’s why they went into research – being around people not necessary (which is fine. There’s spot for round and square pegs in science and medicine) Most work best in isolation or in small groups where knowledge of human psychology and skill in addressing/working with/relaying information in a usable fashion to the general public is necessary. He is terrible on PR and public consumption for science and virus – doesn’t seem to understand the general public thinks in absolutes and not in the constantly changing hypothesis and discoveries of science.
Someone with better people skills should have been the point person. Someone who could keep public’s confidence as we learn more about this virus – which has no track record – nothing has ever been like this one even in the SARS family of viruses.
Yep as COVID discoveries go on, personal responsibility has never been more important.
Did your dad keep saying “No one watches out for you as well as you will for yourself”?
My dad didn’t say it; I just assumed it. I figure I’m at least as smart as the reporters trying to interpret things for me. Guess that makes me either skeptical or arrogant. Maybe both.
And a social/ media mine/mind field survivor!
Actually, here is the study that trump supposedly got that number from, and nowhere in it does it mention a percentage of any amount for mask-wearers. In fact, that’s not what the study was even about. Now, I’m going to be honest, I don’t understand this study. It’s not your typical “x-number of people” and “x-percentage.” But take a look. Those who understand stats better than I do may understand it better. So, the 2nd link is from CNN which explained that study in a language I can understand.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6936a5.htm#contribAff
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/politics/fact-check-trump-cdc-masks-85-percent/index.html
According to CNN:
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. The CDC study, which was released in September, did not say that 85% of all people who wear masks get infected with the coronavirus. In fact, it did not even attempt to figure out what percentage of people who wear a mask get infected with the coronavirus.
Also, just think about it. If 85% of people who wear masks get COVID19, then our hospitals would have a skeleton staff. And I mean skeleton. Like 3 doctors or nurses instead of 20.
Once again, trump finds something to twist and make it fit his agenda.
Glad to hear that your experience was positive. You may want to think outside the box, though, to understand that it is not YOU that they are targeting to disenfranchise. Sure, if you live in Houston you may be able to get free transit. But Texas has a lot of more rural locations, no? And maybe demographically one could calculate that if you only allow one drop box per county, more rural counties might suffer the most? Trust me when I tell you, the powers that be in the Republican Party have said out loud that if everyone voted, they, the Republicans, would never win another election. So while you are pleased with how the system treats you, let’s not forget that there are very real efforts going on right now to do the opposite for others. Thank goodness that we have a free media that can share those images with us so that we can see with our own eyes the true picture.
Hey – you are making a lot of assumptions with little to go on.
1. I do not live in Houston.I live in a small old town. I have family on small farms
2. I’m not a happy camper with “how the system is treating”
3. Fort Bend that was on the news with long waits and the old old man suffering in the heat is run by County Jusdge George – a Democrat. The voting authorities there are mostly Democrats…so the ones being suppressed are…Sadly this is one suburb that the Dems have been hoping independents who are the majority in this area would continue to turn blue.
The weird thing is the whole “glitch” there was dumb. The laptops the county voting authorities have were not double checked before early voting started. The laptops are locked and will not run until the morning of the first day of voting due to programing. What happened is that the authorities forgot to change the date to start the machines when the Gov (Rep.) added 2 weeks to early voting period (7am-7pm – and has said he will extend hours if needed). So it took a couple of hours to reprogram. Why they didn’t tell people other places nearby to go – even run a bus up there for transportation – is dumb and inept. Or say “People you have 3 weeks to vote early – come back when we figure this out”
Can’t always believe any of the media these day to tell the whole story – ALL of them – both ends of the spectrum- are slanted and have agendas..and tend to cherry pick and edit stories to fit their desires – which are usually to cause outrage it seems this year. You really have to dig through multiple sources .
Like data (speaking as a data hound and researcher) media can be managed to say whatever you wish it to.
In Austin and Dallas near the universities they signed lots of new voters up but apparently forgot to tell them you have many many days to vote. But first day of voting here can be something of a party – they had jazz musicians out near UH and TSU (historically Black university in downtown Houston) last year. Sometimes people show up with guitars. They used to have cookies to hand out this year, but not with the rush in and out of COVID.
PS. You do know that Houston proper is a democratic stronghold (like Austin, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio…rural areas are mostly conservative ) – a minority majority city (check the demographics), with a Democratic mayor ( had one of the first Lesbian mayors for several terms as well as multiple Black mayors)
Here’s we’ve been multicultural and multilingual for a long time
And tend to vote for whoever can do the job best.
And tend to work together pretty well – cause we try to.
True picture.
Yep, one of the pics I saw was on a campus in Austin.
UH, TSU, and Rice U also had lines (40-50 min wait, actually that’s a pretty normal wait sometimes…but it was so darn hot that day! And people are in such a frenzy.
The entire Med Center also probably wants to go to the Rice U location as it is so close to walk during a break and the oak tree paths are so pretty.
The whole deal is that people have until Oct 30 for early voting and there are so many options – and so many locations in every county – you can go anywhere to vote now.
While everyone is sick sick sick of this campaign period, people sometimes don’t use common sense.
Whatever.
High Five for planning ahead and personal responsibility! Cheers!
And cheers to you for doing the same. Now we just wait. That will probably be the hardest part.
<3!
Feels good to have gotten it done. Waiting for the final count is going to be the hard part.
The first time I voted I was a senior in college – Johnson vs Goldwater in 1964. This is the very first time I’ve not voted in person and dropped it off in an official dropbox. Needs must, as they say. But it still feels weird.
That was my first election too. I’ve never missed an election but I haven’t been to the polls to vote in 15 or 20 years. And I haven’t missed standing in line, not even a little bit.
From the Hill: The president also significantly misrepresented a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study, claiming that it showed “85 percent of the people wearing the mask” catch the virus.
In actuality, the study of COVID-19 adult patients in 11 healthcare facilities found that about 85 percent of those surveyed reported either often or always wearing a face mask.
I must take time to wade through all the propositions then drop off my ballot soon before election day. There have been voter suppression efforts in too many places, and I expect Texas is no exception if the right areas are visited just as its true elsewhere.
Lots of propositions here too, Some are very complex.
Precisely why I don’t listen to anything he says. You can’t trust any of it.
Me and my housemate are both voting on Election Day. There’s a school about a mile from here that is never busy so I don’t foresee any waiting in line other than a few minutes to check in. We both want to submit our votes in the machine – don’t want to risk the USPS. Or ballot boxes.
Just be aware that some pictures I saw of long lines noted “there’s never been a line here before.” And Colorado voters are reportedly voting at 24 times the rate they were voting at this time in 2016.
Friday, CNN reported that out of those who have voted early so far, 2.4 million are registered Republicans. And 4.5 million are registered Democrats. I’m feeling so much more hopeful after that tidbit of data.
Simiar ratio being reported in Colorado. I like those national numbers!
Just heard the NM numbers. Basically the same. One-third Republicans. Two-third Dems. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, don’t forget us independents. We’re ⅓ of the registered voters in Colorado.
Yeah. But can’t guess with you guys. I’m sure there are plenty for trump, too.
Loved the woman here who, when she got the order to evacuate ahead of one of our fires, said the first thing she grabbed was her ballot!
Yeah?? That’s awesome!
Hi 'Pied Type'
Just thought I would say we have postal votes here in England and they are very convienient when you can't vote in person. However there has been alot of fraud associated with the system too. People who are dead or elderly or blatent false identities. Local elections here are usually targeted. After the last big flap about it they even had us taking ID to vote in person. Nice to know your view can be heard though.
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 11:15 PM
We’ve been using mail-in ballots long enough in Colorado to have developed a pretty good system with no reports of problems or fraud. I do worry a bit about states that might have implemented them for the first time just for this election. But I think the biggest problem is Trump trying to denigrate them in order to confuse or suppress the vote. Not to mention actively trying to interfere with the postal system.