Holy shit. HOLEE SHIT! I am actually cautiously optimistic. The lines for early voting are like I haven’t seen since 2008, when Obama blew out all the averages.
I’m not talking about the people in line, because social distancing distorts the number of people in line, I’m talking about the number of cars lined up and down the street at the small library that hosts early voting. It was at least 5x the typical pace, and because I live nearby, I passed it more than once today. The pace didn’t slow, even in huge thunderstorms. The street was jammed. This is Day One.
I didn’t have to mess with that. I had requested a mail ballot way back in August, because who knew what we’d be dealing with now? But as early voting got closer, I realized dropping it off in person would be both easy and a way to see what was going on. I loved it.
I got to skip the line, and felt like (here comes a Disney connection) I had a FastPass! I got to get into the shorter line! I walked past the line that left the library, turned the corner, and went up the side street, and went to a shorter line that had only about 10 people in it. I slid my properly prepared mail ballot into the box and got my sticker, and was back at home at my desk in about 17 minutes.
I also signed up to track my ballot, so I can follow along to see when it’s counted.
So, unless something goes unexpectedly wrong, I think I’ll be an absentee/mail/ballot dropper henceforth. It’s a voting FastPass, and I still got the nice people at the box to hand me a sticker.
It’s been the same in my heavily DAR (dumb ass republican) state too. A few weeks ago the Biden-Harris campaign office here announced they were out of signs. My neighborhood is usually quiet politically as far as open displays for candidates, but not this year. People who have never sported so much as a discreet bumper sticker now have multiple signs for candidates, as well as BLM and pro-immigration signs. It’s a very encouraging sight, as well as the long lines at the polling locations.
Yes, the sheer volume of early votes and the huge surge in voters under 30 is making me cautiously optimistic when I’m between anxiety attacks.