Voting options in VA

[nocoincidences]

Absentee balloting is available, via the USPS.

Voting at my polling place on Nov. 3 is available.

But I discovered that I can early vote down at our Municipal Center in one of the offices there, beginning the last couple of weeks in September and through October 31.

The safest option seems like a no-brainer to me. Avoid the PO, avoid the crowds on Nov.3, and vote at the Municipal Center where I can monitor what the crowd/line is like, and sit in the parking lot waiting as long as I have to. Or come back a different day. I am retired, so I can do this easily.

Do other states have this option?

[LisaL]

1. Voting early is an option in OH, but they don't make it easy for large urban counties.

OH only allows one early voting location per county, regardless of the size of the county. Which might be fine for small counties, but pretty crowded for large counties.

[nocoincidences]

2. Virginia Beach is weird,

because it is a city but also a county. The only city in VB county is VB. I don't know why or how that happened. There are several city/counties around us, like Norfolk.

With only one early voting place in a big county, that is a big problem. I am really sorry about that. Maybe your dems will fix it, come January?

[LisaL]

3. We are also allowed to vote by mail.

Looks like this year it's going be a very popular option. Already lots of people are requesting absentee ballots.

[csziggy]

4. I only know about my Florida county, but we have a number of options

We can get vote by mail ballots and return them by mail, by dropping them off at the box at the Elections Office, at any of the early voting locations, or even take them unfilled into the Election Day poll place and vote a normal ballot. The drop box at the Election Office is pretty convenient since they moved a few years back to a shopping center so there is a lot of parking and easy access.

We can early vote at a number of locations scattered across the county, mostly public library branches. Any voter can vote at any early voting location so if there is one near work or shopping, or if one has long lines, voters can try another location. Since they are at branch libraries parking and access are excellent and even on busy voting days, the lines move quickly.

Then, of course, we can go to the polling place for our precinct. Since ours is rural it is seldomly crowded but I still prefer early voting.

[Blue_true]

6. The libraries in my counter are closed, but there are normally

something like 12-15 sites for the General Election in my county. I normally early vote at the County Registrar’s site, there are around 60-80 voting booths set up there, around 10 checkin desks and four optical scanners. I have never had more than a 10 minute wait to get a ballot.

I plan to in person early vote like you seem to be doing, then I am sure.

[csziggy]

7. I think the libraries here may still be closed, not sure

But the branch libraries have meeting rooms the open off the main entrance and that have a second door. They use the main entrance to bring voters in and the second door as an exit. I think somebody smart had that designed in when they put up the buildings.

Yes, my husband and I usually vote during early voting. There are two branch libraries about the same distance from our farm, one of which is usually not crowded, so we pick which one is most convenient .

[ITower68]

5. Each state has some different options

538 put together the different ways to vote for each state

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/how-to-vote-2020/