Items
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absentee
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2020-11-22
Voting during the pandemic
The 2020 election was supposed to be my first chance to actually vote in person: unlike my peers, I was only 17 during my senior year of high school, and I had spent almost all the subsequent years out of state. And while I might have had the opportunity to visit my polling place in 2019 that was no longer an option once I signed up to be a poll worker and was assigned a precinct that was not close enough to mine to make it during my lunch break. Covid already disrupted my plans to be a poll worker for the 2020 Ohio primary in March and I forwent the opportunity to work the polls during the general election due to the risk of virus spread. Although I myself do not have many risk factors, I live with my mother who is in a higher risk category and occasionally visit my grandmother who is even more so, therefore I try to limit my exposure as much as possible. With voting in person seeming too risky, I went with my old standby of voting by absentee. However, while I normally complete the entire process by mail (the Ohio Secretary of State automatically sends me a request form at this point), I did not feel entirely confident entrusting my ballot the USPS this year. Rather I made use of the drop box at the Hamilton County Board of Elections so that I could be assured my vote would count and not be affected by the widespread postal service delays partially induced by the virus. Thankfully, the BOE has the functionality to allow me to track my request form, my incoming ballot, and it being recieved and counted so I could be doubly sure of everything working. -
2020-09-15
US Postal Service notice on voting by mail during COVID-19
On September 15, 2020 I received a post card mailer from the U.S. Postal Service. The message is: "If you plan to vote by mail, plan ahead." The reverse side had my information and a note detailing a list of suggestions to prepare for mailing in a ballot during the 2020 U.S. Election. Personally, I've voted in many elections over the past few decades and voted by mail for a long time before this election as well - I've never received any information like this. You can tell that during the pandemic there was going to be a lot of pressure on voting by mail. Personally, I turned in my ballot at least a month before the actual day in fear that the postal system would be overwhelmed in the days right before the election. This is the first year where voting by mail didn't seem like a convenience, but felt like it was a large part of election history. The pandemic seems to be shifting our daily lives in ways that no one would've expected at the beginning of 2020.