My oldest son just stood in line for 90 minutes to early vote in NC because his absentee ballot

[mnhtnbb]

has been "lost" in the mail by the USPS for more than 2 weeks.

He and his partner mailed their absentee ballots on Sept 30th. His partner's ballot was accepted Oct 4th.

On Monday, Oct 12th, I hand delivered my absentee ballot to the county BoE. I texted my son to ask if he'd checked on his ballot. He hadn't. That's when he discovered it was tracked as still in the hands of the USPS. He called the county BoE and they said wait a couple of days, because they were going to process a big batch of ballots on Tuesday.

By yesterday, the ballot was still tracking in the hands of the USPS. He called the county BoE again this morning and they told him to go early vote. If the absentee ballot ever showed up, it would be discarded since the early in person vote would prevail.

Well, on a rainy second day of early voting here he stood in line for 90 minutes in order to cast a ballot that would be counted.

I've been voting in presidential elections since 1972 and I have never had to stand in line more than 20 minutes to cast my ballot.

I think we're headed to a blow-out all time record for voter participation. I certainly hope so!

GO VOTE! And if you mailed your absentee ballot in, be sure to check that it has been accepted.

And Fu*k you, Trump and your sycophant Postmaster General.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Good for you all in being persistent and checking in on your ballots. A scary story indeed, and I

hope that the head thug in charge of the USPS (trump's stool pigeon) is tarred and feathered (in reality, I hope that he's charged w/ interfering w/ an election or something like that).

[blm]

2. Just finished voting in western NC. About 55minutes

from arrival to exit.

Baby blm’s first presidential, senate, and governor votes. ✌🏽

[barbtries]

3. I voted here in Durham in September.

like you, I took it directly to the BoE. I'm proud of your son. You'll have to keep careful track of his absentee ballot especially if it gets logged before his vote does? The situation makes me anxious, but hopefully all safeguards are in place to ensure his vote is counted.

[mnhtnbb]

16. His in person vote is completed as of

several hours ago.

They would not have given him a ballot late this morning to early vote if the absentee ballot had miraculously appeared between the time the BoE told him to go early vote and the time he reached the voting desk to get his early voting ballot.

So now the absentee ballot-if it ever shows up--is cancelled.

[FM123]

4. Yay to your son and his partner for their persistence!

Way to go Team Blue!

[Takket]

5. Somewhere Louis dejoy is laughing his ass off

But he won’t be laughing when our new AG nails his ass to the wall next year

[lagomorph777]

12. Louie DaJerk is headed to DaJail

[stillcool]

6. I just mailed mine the other day...

and haven't checked on it. Thanks for the reminder!!

[bullimiami]

7. ours never showed up. requested them online the first day the site was up.

voted this afternoon at the spectrum center.

many machines there, well more than the voters at the time, just 2 scanners though.

no line, in/out in 10 minutes.

[erronis]

8. If you're going to "Fu*k you, Trump", please include all the (r)epuglicons. All of them.

At this point there can't be a single honorable one - all the way from federal down to precinct level.

Many will be actively changing purported allegiances. They should still bear the stain for decades into the future.

[DAMANgoldberg]

9. I early voted yesterday @ Spectrum Center

Normally I do a regional branch library for early voting, but I have never been inside the Spectrum Center. No lines, no waiting (early afternoon Thursday) and lots of booths, helpful people, etc. to make it happen.

Also "The Bank" Bank of America Stadium, and "The Bo-Plex" Bojangles Coliseum were added to this years list of early voting locations. Early reports from yesterday of few lines in Charlotte, but it maybe because this is not our first or second rodeo on this.

[mnhtnbb]

13. We have 20 early voting locations in Wake County

none of which are stadium or arena size locations. We have 784,533 registered voters in Wake County, and it has the largest population of any county in NC.

[DAMANgoldberg]

23. Those locations are specific...

to this year. I did not see Belk Arena (Davidson College) or Halton Arena (UNC Charlotte) listed. Nor is Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord listed. That is truly the biggest arena/stadium in the region.

[blm]

22. And Mecklenburg County has one of the best Dem GOTV machines now.

Some of its best leaders are longtime DUers.

Wake and Mecklenburg turnouts are crucial to Dem victories in NC.

[bobandrileysmom]

10. Texas ballots?

Does anyone know how to track Texas ballots? The Texas site says only FCPA and overseas ballots are tracked. Can we track through USPS?

[mnhtnbb]

14. Track your Texas absentee ballot here

https://www.votetexas.gov/mobile/index.htm

[nature-lover]

15. Check with your county election clerk.

[yellowdogintexas]

27. your county elections office in Texas should have an online tracker

especially if you are in a city.

Harris county has it and also Tarrant. I live in Tarrant and have been tracking my ballot since I mailed it. It took only 3 days to arrive at the Elections Center.

I saw on Harris county's web site that the mail in ballot drop off location has been moved to a large arena (NGB ?). It will be open 24 hours on the Saturday before the election.

Considering all the controversy over mail in drop points, it seems Harris came up with a workaround.
Apparently if the Elections Office sets it up and there is only one drop point, they can place it where they wish. I think that is pretty cool

We have had long lines in Tarrant at some of the most popular early voting sites. Others not so much. ]
With 3 weeks of early voting, mail in and around 200 voting locations on Election Day, I would say that those who have decided to get in line and wait it out are doing it by choice.

[wryter2000]

11. Love you all in NC

I’m on the voter help line. Love the voters I’m talking to.

[AllaN01Bear]

17. i wish somone would take the rs to court and sue the heck out of them for 1 violating

the law and our right to vote .good thing. didint somone ask that people send in horror stories to the fbi and the fec? good on your persistance.

[titanicdave]

18. ....That Is Something....

......that your County BofE needs to trace down.......it would not surprise me if because they receive both ballots that they would cancel each other out and not count at all......these rethugs will stop at NOTHING to "win" any election of any kind on any day in any voting situation........

[LisaL]

19. Nobody received two ballots.

Son went and voted early in person. If his ballot every shows up, it won't be counted.

[mnhtnbb]

20. No, that is not correct.

The Wake County Board of Elections told him to go early vote and that would immediately cancel the absentee ballot if it ever showed up. If he had tried to early vote when the absentee ballot was already accepted by the county BoE, he would not have been given an early voting ballot.

There are safeguards built into the system to allow only one vote per person to be recorded.

[Blue_true]

24. There won't be two ballots.

The first to be counted cancels the second. In this case, the in person ballot cancels the mailin ballot when the mailin ballot finally arrives at the Board of Elections office.

When a person takes an active ballot, the first step in that process after ID verification is a check of the person’s voting status. If the person shows up as having not voted, he or she is given a ballot. Before the person is handed the active ballot, his or her voting status in records is changed to “voted”, so the person can’t vote via a second ballot. When a mailin ballot is received back at the BOE, the same voter status is made, if the status is “have not voted”, the mailin ballot becomes the active ballot and the person’s status is changed to “voted”.

Some people worry about Russians hacking into BOE computers. There are several defenses against them being successful, the most powerful of which is a paper ballot, either a mailin ballot or in person paper ballot. There are defenses for electronic voting. The Russians have a better chance of causing chaos when Democrats wait until Election Day to vote, if Russian hackers have invaded a system, a voter at best will get to cast a provisional ballot, because the process of figuring out that a person hasn’t actually voted when their status says voted can take several hours, time that election workers don’t have on the final day of in person voting.

[yellowdogintexas]

28. Today one of our early voting locations had problems with the scanner

A friend called me to ask what they could do about their vote.

So I called Elections and they were already aware of the problem and knew that some of those votes counted and others might not have. They were place in the emergency bin and kept separate from the other ballots. They will be scanned at the Elections Office on a different scanner and the ones which "took" will kick out while the ones which did not record will count.

If you decide to vote in person, you take your mail in ballot with you and surrender it to the clerk. The clerk calls the Elections Office and your mail in ballot is cancelled. Then you vote using the equipment.

[rockfordfile]

21. Sounds like somebody tried to steal your son's vote.

He's the same guy that mailed his vote with another person? and that other person's vote arrived? I remember in 2016 in NC a republican caught flipping votes.

[CRK7376]

25. My ballot came in shortly after I requested it!

I hand delivered my ballot, my 94 yo Mother in Laws and he husbands' 96yo ballot to the Forsyth County BOE about 3 weeks ago. Then a week later I dropped off my wife's ballot. Our daughter and her boyfriend(his first time voting) did early voting yesterday, stood in line about 30 minutes. Our eldest son is currently planning to vote Nov3rd and our middle child says he will early Vote in Wake county. Blue Tsunami headed trumpsters way.

[Tarheel_Dem]

26. That's really weird. I mailed mine on Sunday evening, and according to Guilford County BOE...

Ballot Inbound
10/12/2020
The Postal Service has indicated to us that they have your ballot, and it is on its way to your County Board of Elections office.

Ballot Accepted
10/14/2020
Your ballot has been accepted. Thanks for voting!

[yellowdogintexas]

29. mine has been received. It has been pending ballot board review since October 3

This tells me there are a LOT of them. Apparently Ballot Board has new equipment that is really impressive.

I have a friend on the Ballot board, and she says 75,000 have been mailed out so far and they are still mailing. Signatures have been verified on 10,000 ballots and there are 36,000 more already received.