My Ballot Has Arrived

Yesterday I received an important piece of mail, something that I had been waiting for this week... my mail-in ballot!

Each state has its own voting regulations.  Here in Ohio, beginning last Tuesday, registered voters could go to their county board of elections to vote early in person.  For the last several general elections in November that is what I have done because I was going to be in Mexico on Election Day.  This year, because of the pandemic, I applied for a mail-in ballot.  In Ohio every voter is allowed to mail in their vote.  Some states are more restrictive, while in other states voting is done entirely by mail.   The mail-in ballots were sent also sent out on Tuesday.  It was feared that the postal system would not be able to handle the enormous amount of ballots being sent this year.  Indeed, three days to receive mail from just seventeen miles away was a tad longer than normal, but it really was not a major delay.

This weekend I plan to fill in my ballot.  The only research I have to do is to check out the candidates for the Ohio Board of Education.  Rather than send my ballot back in the mail, on Monday I will probably drive to downtown Cleveland and put it in the secure drop box by county board of elections.  I will be able to check online that it has been received.  In Ohio, the early ballots and the mail-in ballots will be the first ones to be counted on election night.