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NNadir

(33,368 posts)
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 08:32 AM Aug 2020

I can hand carry my absentee ballot to the Board of Elections and Circumvent Trump's Destruction...

...of the Post Office.

Concerned about the politicization of even the US Post Office, I emailed my commissioners. Here is the exchange:

Dear Mr. XXXXXX:

You are entitled to deliver your Mail-In Ballot to the Board's Office and you may utilize any secure drop box located throughout the County. The list of drop boxes to place the ballot in will be updated prior to the November Election. Please note that if you and your family elect to hand deliver Mail-In Ballots to the Board, the ballot must be completed prior to arriving at the window. The Staff will have a form to complete to confirm your delivery.

Anthony R. Francioso
Mercer County Board of Elections

From: XXXX <XXXX@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 8, 2020 12:37 PM
To: boardofelections mercercounty.org <boardofelections@mercercounty.org>; Corrigan, Mary <mcorrigan@mercercounty.org>; Francioso, Anthony <afrancioso@mercercounty.org>
Subject: Questions connected with absentee ballots.

Dear Commissioners:

It has become clear that the US Post Office is under attack in connection with the election, and efforts are being made to politicize it by the officials in the current federal government.

In connection with my personal responsibility to help our democracy survive, I want to be sure my vote will be counted and not trashed or deliberately "lost."

As such, can I and my family request an absentee ballot and hand deliver the filled out ballots directly to the board of elections?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Best regards,

XXXXX
Such and Such Road.

Some town somewhere, NJ ZZZZZ

This is what I'm going to advise all four Biden voters in my family to do.
21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I can hand carry my absentee ballot to the Board of Elections and Circumvent Trump's Destruction... (Original Post) NNadir Aug 2020 OP
I plan to bring my ballot to the county auditor's office, as my bullwinkle428 Aug 2020 #1
We are doing the same here! Alliepoo Aug 2020 #2
You have to have it mailed to you first. My mail is soooo bad right now I don't know if mucifer Aug 2020 #3
Download your absentee ballot from vote.org eppur_se_muova Aug 2020 #9
It's an application, not a ballot. LisaL Aug 2020 #12
Oh, right. Doesn't help. nt eppur_se_muova Aug 2020 #13
Exactly. All of this plans to supposedly avoid USPS still involve USPS. LisaL Aug 2020 #14
No, this is overkill Cicada Aug 2020 #4
That's you're opinion. I happen to follow climate change in great detail. NNadir Aug 2020 #5
Did Rush Holt win by one vote? Or tie? Cicada Aug 2020 #10
Rush Holt won when absentee ballots were counted. NNadir Aug 2020 #19
What are the odds an early mail in ballot won't be counted? Cicada Aug 2020 #20
Much higher than the odds that I'll further tolerate this silly conversation. n/t. NNadir Aug 2020 #21
Same here. LastDemocratInSC Aug 2020 #6
That's what I'm doing. ananda Aug 2020 #7
We have a drop box in front of city hall here in New Haven. CTyankee Aug 2020 #8
You need to have a ballot to drop off. LisaL Aug 2020 #15
Yep. We just put our applications for absentee ballots in that box. CTyankee Aug 2020 #16
I sent my application too. LisaL Aug 2020 #17
I trust that the city of New Haven is doing the right thing here, or as best as they can. CTyankee Aug 2020 #18
You still have to get this ballot delivered to you. LisaL Aug 2020 #11

bullwinkle428

(20,626 posts)
1. I plan to bring my ballot to the county auditor's office, as my
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 08:36 AM
Aug 2020

"safe circumvention" around any potential mail issues. Our county auditor is a fantastic Democrat, and she's worked very hard for several years to maximize voter participation in our area.

mucifer

(23,374 posts)
3. You have to have it mailed to you first. My mail is soooo bad right now I don't know if
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 08:42 AM
Aug 2020

I will get it

LisaL

(44,962 posts)
14. Exactly. All of this plans to supposedly avoid USPS still involve USPS.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:33 PM
Aug 2020

Your ballot has to be delivered to you before the election. If USPS is completely messed up, that's not going to happen.

Cicada

(4,533 posts)
4. No, this is overkill
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 08:45 AM
Aug 2020

There are environmental and other costs associated with a special trip. I do business via mail so I have watched postal performance carefully. There are definitely delays, typically 2 days. Sometimes five or six days, in rare cases. But so far everything I have mailed has gotten to the intended recipient. So mail a week early. Or 10 days early to be safe.

And honestly your single vote is not going to change the result. I vote as a moral act, not as a practical act. And it makes me feel good. If your vote is lost? Joe is still going to win in California by three million. He is still going to lose in Wyoming. But it really does cost you several dollars in gas and repairs to drive. And it does add pollution to the air.

Just vote by mail.

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
5. That's you're opinion. I happen to follow climate change in great detail.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 09:08 AM
Aug 2020

Many of my posts on the topic are in the Science forum on this site.

What you think is serious is trivial, and what you regard as trivial is not.

The carbon dioxide that can be saved by having a person who is aware of climate change will easily dwarf the grams of carbon dioxide a drive to my Board of Elections will produce.

As for your theory that votes don't matter; that's bullshit supreme. Maybe you think you're vote doesn't matter, but mine does and I think anyone here with a brain knows would agree that there votes do matter.

This was made abundantly clear in 2000, particularly where I live where not only Bush/Gore was contested, but also my congressional seat (which Rush Holt won by a hair) and the town council (a one vote difference) were all close.

Cynicism is ugly and, frankly, under the circumstances less than moral in my opinion.

Cicada

(4,533 posts)
10. Did Rush Holt win by one vote? Or tie?
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:29 PM
Aug 2020

How many congressional elections in the past century have been decided by fewer than 10 votes, let alone. If what I said, that your one vote will not matter, is bull shit give me one example of an election decided by one vote. Then tell me how many electoral races have there been? I think there are 500,000 elected officials in the US, 500,000 elections per year. So if you can find one election decided by one vote then to get the probability divide it by say the ten million elections in the past twenty years. Everyone here will vote. I will crawl over broken glass to vote for Joe Biden. But some calculator in my head knows that I am not motivated by the real probability of changing an electoral outcome.

I know I am not supposed to say that. I told my wife you hate me for posting that, don’t you. She said no. She is lying. But what I said was not bullshit.

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
19. Rush Holt won when absentee ballots were counted.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:52 PM
Aug 2020

One of those was mine. I was in Italy in election day.

It came down to a few hundred votes. All we needed was a few hundred people to engage in the asinine theory "my vote doesn't matter" and I would have been deprived of the best congressperson I ever had. I note that throughout his tenure in Congress, Dr. Holt was a leader on preserving electoral integrity, particularly with respect to the issue of electronic hacking. He was of course a physicist, so he was acutely aware of the nature of computation.

He was ahead of his time.

As it happened the town council election that year in my town did come down to one vote.

In calculus, the integral represents a continuous summation of infinitesimals. The nature of the infinitesimal has bearing on the result. Change the infinitesimal as you change the result.

I'm glad despite an attitude I personally find appalling that you'll vote. I however find your statement on carbon dioxide and wear and tear on my car parts to be one of the silliest arguments I've seen here, and I can't fathom how it could be expected to be taken seriously.

Cicada

(4,533 posts)
20. What are the odds an early mail in ballot won't be counted?
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 07:19 PM
Aug 2020

About zero. Voting early by mail will produce exactly the same vote count as delivering the ballot yourself.

I mail and track envelopes as part of my business. About 200 or 300 letters and envelopes per year. Since I started doing that Jan 1 1992 only one failed to reach its destination. And my clients pay a lot for what I send them so they let me know. There are delays at times and I get called.

Once there was a 10 day delay, the longest delay I know of.

Please don’t insult people who post on DU. Why make this forum unpleasant?

LastDemocratInSC

(3,625 posts)
6. Same here.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 10:49 AM
Aug 2020

In my county in South Carolina (maybe in the whole state but I'm not sure about that) any registered voter 65 or older qualifies for absentee ballot, no questions asked. When the ballots are available I will call and request one. When it arrives I will complete the ballot and hand deliver it to the county voting commission. Done.

CTyankee

(63,771 posts)
8. We have a drop box in front of city hall here in New Haven.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 10:52 AM
Aug 2020

I'm not worried about this super liberal city. It will go Dem BIG this year!

LisaL

(44,962 posts)
15. You need to have a ballot to drop off.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:35 PM
Aug 2020

Which means it has to be delivered before the election to you. Which still means USPS has to be functioning.

CTyankee

(63,771 posts)
16. Yep. We just put our applications for absentee ballots in that box.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:40 PM
Aug 2020

Sorry I'm confusing the two. The city is making sure your applications for absentee ballots are secure and we'll get them delivered through the USPS.

I'm scared of what Trump is doing to the postal service. I wish we could get an injunction against what he's doing....

LisaL

(44,962 posts)
17. I sent my application too.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:41 PM
Aug 2020

So far it's not showing as received. I am starting to get concerned that USPS is going to be so messed up, vote by mail will be all but impossible. If they do get my application, sometime in October they will send an actual ballot to me. Ballot still has to make it to me before I decide if I mail it back or whatever else I can do with it. So post office still needs to be functional for any absentee voting.

LisaL

(44,962 posts)
11. You still have to get this ballot delivered to you.
Tue Aug 11, 2020, 01:31 PM
Aug 2020

All of these plants still involve functioning post office.

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