My ballot is off. I ended up going USPS Priority with signature confirmation. Way overkill, I know, but... that's just the way I roll, and...

... there are people posting on my local Nextdoor app, photos like this:



(not a mailbox in my own area, but very similar to this photo)

... my local PO was already kind of mess before the most recent shenanigans. Hopefully sending it well in advance, and with priority shipping/tracking and requiring a signature, will make sure it gets to the right place on time.

The ballot for my state/parish/city actually had a ton of local judgeships up for election, along with district attorneys and ballot initiatives -- including that odious initiative #1 on writing anti-abortion language into the state constitution. I'm glad I voted and was happy to give some money to the USPS, I want them around for a long time to come.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Good job!

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

I saw LOTS of mailboxes that looks just like that on monday when I had packages to ship. I went to my local PO at 2PM and they were CLOSED! In these horrible days I've come to expect to see them closing at 3PM instead of the posted 5PM, but this was REALLY early. There was a dozen of people milling about confused and confounded.

So I went to the central PO a few miles away to see 100 people milling about looking confused. The lobby was open, but the actual PO was CLOSED and by the looks of the mailboxes outside (they looked just like the pic above) it sure looked like even the CENTRAL PO was closed ALL DAY.

I went home and started writing about it right here when it suddenly dawned on me: It's Columbus Day.

hahahahahaha! I even made a 'only bankers and PO workers have the day off' joke just the day before.

I would bet everything I own that that pic was taken on monday - It might even be one of the POs I went to on monday.

Yes, I noticed when I looked for a good photo to post, that there were a bunch of them I could have used...

And I *am* concerned about this, from the balloting perspective, anyone could come along and grab whatever they wanted. I can't understand why anyone mailing anything would be so foolish as to do what you're seeing in the photo ... it's practically begging someone to steal your mail, open stuff up, and do a bit of identity theft and/or regular theft with things like checks, etc.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Those drive through boxes are often filled by office workers dropping a whole box of envelopes on the way home - they don't care about the security of that mail.

yay!

Quote
hal
Those drive through boxes are often filled by office workers dropping a whole box of envelopes on the way home - they don't care about the security of that mail.

? That makes no sense ... if they're headed home, why not just leave the mail at their office and send it out the next day in the normal way? It's obviously not going to get delivered any faster by doing this, and might even not get delivered at all this way.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

It’s about 6 weeks since I applied for an absentee ballot, and one week since I contacted the voting office that I hadn’t received it yet.

What recourse does a registered Democrat in Lindsay Graham’s constituency have, when suspicious voting exclusion like this happens?

If I have to, I’ll risk catching the Trump virus to vote in person. Hopefully, applying for an absentee ballot does not disqualify me from voting, when ballot was not received.

S. Pupp,
If you vote in person and your absentee ballot never gets cast I doubt anyone would care. The question is, would your name be on the local list, or flagged as being sent a ballot?

I don’t think so, despite it maybe being a good idea in some cases. Go for the provisional ballot if all else fails, or just vote for Graham like you know you should so that nothing goes wrong. Sometimes I type stuff at the end to see if things are read.

Quote
deckeda
S. Pupp,
If you vote in person and your absentee ballot never gets cast I doubt anyone would care. The question is, would your name be on the local list, or flagged as being sent a ballot?

I don’t think so, despite it maybe being a good idea in some cases. Go for the provisional ballot if all else fails, or just vote for Graham like you know you should so that nothing goes wrong. Sometimes I type stuff at the end to see if things are read.

Thanks - good advice (except for the voting for Graham recommendation: LOL!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2020 04:34PM by S. Pupp.

Congrats Peter B!

Thanks everyone, and S. Pupp, if I were in your shoes -- I would directly and immediately contact your local Registrar of Voters (document, document, document everything!). Mine was VERY responsive when I asked questions about what my various options were, and I also checked with them when I hadn't received the ballot, to find out what was going on. (Turned out they were doing -- not surprisingly -- a massive mailout.)

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Quote
S. Pupp
It’s about 6 weeks since I applied for an absentee ballot, and one week since I contacted the voting office that I hadn’t received it yet.

What recourse does a registered Democrat in Lindsay Graham’s constituency have, when suspicious voting exclusion like this happens?

If I have to, I’ll risk catching the Trump virus to vote in person. Hopefully, applying for an absentee ballot does not disqualify me from voting, when ballot was not received.

Sorry to hear this!

Not sure if this will help, but have you checked the status of your application online?
[info.scvotes.sc.gov]

You can also call the SC Dem Party's voter protection hotline:
855-785-0222

more info about voter protection in South Carolina:
[scdp.org]

Thanks PeterB and Lemon Drop!

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

Turns out that the ballots were being mailed to an address with a different house number and similar street name.
We were able to correct the matter and cast our votes without standing in the half-mile line.