Easy to follow state-by-state guide on how to vote by mail

[FlowerPreciousLover]

I've shared this site with others because each state has different procedures to apply for and receive mail-in voting ballots. Hope it may be of help to others here as well. represent.us/how-to-vote-20...

[Zebra2018]

Oh, thank you so much! It is really good info on this crucial time for us and for our country. No matter ‘whatever your party is’ you need to vote!

[Hidden]

Thank you so much for the reminder and the link/info!

So important for everyone to vote, and I imagine the issue of healthcare is important to many of us!

[stardust1965]

It’s interesting but not very helpful to me but then I am British and live in the UK 🇬🇧 😂

It is sooooooo important to vote though, especially now. My husband stays up all night to watch the American election results every four years! The results have a global impact. Vote wisely gals 🤞🤣 🇺🇸

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to stardust1965]

Aw, shucks, Stardust, Apologies that the state-by-state voting info isn't more helpful for our friends across the seas! very big smiles...

Kudos to your hubby for his staying up for U.S. presidential voting results stamina. Alas, you may need to start preparing more snacks and have more than usual coffee on hand because this year's final vote count may take much longer. Sigh.

And just want to share that in our country, where caustic divisiveness on so many levels is becoming more the norm than exception, following BBC news, clips of your royals and British PBS and Netflix mysteries often bring much needed smiles and hopeful respites so needed by your little sisters across the sea.

[stardust1965 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

No need to apologise, but you’re forgiven anyhow 😂 I hadn’t realised there were different rules for different states when it comes to postal votes. So I guess I learn a lot more from this board than just about cancer related issues, which is great.

I’m happy that the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has such a positive impact and global reach! 🤣

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to stardust1965]

Stardust, I do like your sense of humor!! Glad to spread some happiness and Yes! Your vast Kingdom holds great allure and affection for this Texan. Our "united...states" has disintegrated into a bazillion tiny fiefdoms with each little berg or village creating its own rules and regulations. And laughing because my post in the MBC forum probably didn't get the readership it might have on another forum but alas, one does what one can...right??? Smiles

[stardust1965 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

Sometimes laughter is the best medicine!

[Mary115]

Flower Precious

Thank you for the State-to-State Voting Information.

Helpful since I am making phone calls on where to vote and how to vote by mail.

Stardust,

My girlfriend lives in the UK. We hold each other up through Brexit challenges and our US troubles in addition to our medical challenges. I know that, for me, with the metastatic breast cancer ups and downs I need this across -the pond- friend in all aspects of life. Dealing with/handling this discord together is helpful ,for both of us ,in staying grounded in our healing processes too. Like you, I like that we are learning so much too..

Thank you.

[FlowerPreciousLover]

Well said, Mary! Especially during these uncertain times we need to support one another and sharing with others whether throughout one's country or "across the pond" helps us all remember that we share more than specific health problems or differences of political beliefs or cultures when we stay connected.

[Julie2233]

Part of my job involves working on British elections, I’m particularly involved in the postal voting system. It’s hard work, it’s not perfect and we process thousands of votes leading up to the count but all of us who do are passionate about it. It’s a lovely atmosphere.

We have one system for postal voting and we have observers come in to check what we are doing. I find it difficult to understand how you can have different systems. Thank you for posting this 😊

[stardust1965 in reply to Julie2233]

Julie, that must be interesting work. In the mid 1990’s I was an election monitor for the first independent elections held in Azerbaijan. The country was newly independent from the former Soviet Union. It was another interesting time in world politics. Now I am happy to watch these world events from the comfort of my living room 😁

[Julie2233 in reply to stardust1965]

How exciting. My boss does international monitoring from time to time. I’m happy to do my part without leaving the County. 😊

[stardust1965 in reply to Julie2233]

Julie, we are grateful for that. I hope you are keeping well on your new treatment.

Take care x

[Julie2233 in reply to stardust1965]

Yes a lot of people are grateful that I don’t leave the county 😁

Started new treatment last week and so far so good! Thank you for remembering 😊💕

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to stardust1965]

Stardust, fascinating to learn of your work as an election monitor in Azerbaijan. Were you apprehensive about your work and for your safety? Like you, I am thankful to be retired from public education now as families across the nation struggle to juggle work and their children's education. Elections like public education affect us all wherever we live and my heart goes out to all involved in both.

[stardust1965 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

At that time we were living in Azerbaijan for two and a half years. It was not a dangerous place although the country was at war with Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno Karabakh. But we did live through two attempted military takeovers. It was a difficult place to live as the country was emerging from the long term effects of communism and the infrastructure was broken. We had adventures in the Caucuses mountains which were beautiful and drove over to Tbilisi in Georgia. Food was scarce but the people were very friendly. I guess it was a pioneering thing to do back then. We then moved to Thailand which I always say was a picnic in comparison!

Oh, and their first general election unsurprisingly was not deemed to be free or fair! Good luck America!

History lesson over for the day!

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to stardust1965]

Stardust, I can only imagine what it must be like to have lived through food shortages and two attempted military takeovers in a foreign country. Were you in fear for your lives?

Although our chronic health issues bring us to these support forums, it is an added benefit to learn and share more about our life adventures in other avenues of life as well.

My husband and I traveled extensively during his years as an oil and gas consultant. Our young daughter would roll her eyes in exasperation as I eagerly began to recount our travels..."Yet, another history/geography lesson, Mom?" So your comment brought a smile of remembrance.

And a big thank you for wishing us well in our upcoming elections. The U.S. is in a period of great unrest and concern over several crises that we seem unable to deal with successfully. Our days and weeks ahead leading up to the election will be trying at best.

[stardust1965 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

As you are probably well aware the oil industry was well represented in Azerbaijan in the mid ‘90’s. Lots of Texans and lots of fun to filter out the history-in-the-making. It was all very character building stuff, but no, as expats we were not in any danger! After twenty years we did finally get to go back for a brief holiday in the summer of 2017 to silence the voices and to see if/how the country had benefited from their rich resources. Some people had, most had not 😔 Although my husband is not in the oil and gas sector I wonder if the stars aligned and our paths crossed at some point? Not beyond the realms of possibilities.

God help America in her Covid fight is all I can say right now.

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to stardust1965]

Glad you weren't in imminent danger! Drove by an elementary school on my way to a morning appt. At 8:10am hordes of children of all ages...kinder through 5th grade were playing, hugging, doing all sorts of kidlike things. Not One of the many, many were wearing a mask! Returning, I circled the school campus and one area had a small group with 2 teachers/aides and thankfully all were wearing masks. I stopped and walked over; told one adult about early morning experience and as a long time, now thankfully retired school district educator was curious about no masks earlier. Only the 4th & 5th graders are required to wear masks....So I ask you, does this mean that in Texas, 5 yr olds through age 8's don't get or spread Covid??? I sometimes think I am existing within a perpetual hallucination. Yes, God, the Universe, all friendly aliens and common sense mortals: Please come to the help of the U.S. We need a Winston Churchill brilliance and guidance for this time of pandemonium in our land.

Really like your philosophical take that your time in Azerbaijan was "character building".. had to have been unsettling to at times? Were you closer to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, or the Caspian Sea? Didn't make it to those but spent time in Dubai, China and India. The contrasts between the "haves" and "have nots" were notable in each.

[stardust1965 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

Good to hear you got an answer to the school mask wearing policy. There so much contradictory information circulating relating to Covid. I’m a mask wearer and have been wearing one on flights since my trip to California in October last year. It’s one that protects me. I’ve had to delay going back on Ibrance this week as my neutrophils were 0.8, even on the lowest dose of 75. ☹️

I’m not sure where you’ll find a “Winston Churchill” like figure any time soon, certainly not in the UK! I’d be rooting for a Jacinta Ardern - New Zealand’s female Prime Minister!

In Azerbaijan we lived in the capital city of Baku and our apartment overlooked the Caspian Sea. Snap! Our first posting was to India in the early ‘90’s and after several other postings in between we returned from Dubai 6 months before my MBC diagnosis in 2018. Seeing so many different worlds makes me truly grateful for the life I have lived so far.

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to stardust1965]

Oh, wow! stardust, what a view you must have enjoyed overlooking the Caspian Sea. Lovely! We Really might have crossed paths along our travels because we also spent consulting times in both India and Dubai. In the early 80's so may have been long before yours?

Yes, while I am so very grateful for the earlier travel experiences, I am also content reflecting upon them while no longer packing my bags and facing the hassles that airports, hotels and sudden changes to plans required.

[stardust1965 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

Alas no, we started our global nomadic lives in the 1990’s. In the ‘80’s Dubai was a completely different place to the one I lived in. What a privilege for you to see it back then. I had a glimpse into the UAE’s past when we flew from Azerbaijan to Dubai for my 30th birthday in 1995, about twenty years before we moved there. There is a fantastic little museum in Bur Dubai down near the Creek that shows the rapid development that took place. It’s well worth the effort to visit that part of the city and is quite different to the image most people have of Dubai.

We are packing our bags again at the end of this month!

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to Julie2233]

So good to salute someone working in the British postal system! I am so grateful for our postal workers in the U.S. It must be very hard work for postal employees everywhere because of timelines you have to meet, additional volume at holidays and elections. So many of our postal workers here are beyond dismayed at the funding cuts, system/ procedural changes and withdrawals of sorting machines and neighborhood drop boxes that some are taking early retirements. I fear there will be more mayhem at election time.

[Julie2233 in reply to FlowerPreciousLover]

In the U.K. it’s local government that are responsible for processing the postal votes. The royal mail deliver them to the local government offices, where Local government officers open, check the votes are in the envelop and verify the identifiers that come in with the ballot papers to ensure there is no fraud. Once verified, the ballot papers are sealed into ballot boxes ready for counting. Sounds simple 🙂

The Royal Mail sorting offices ensure we get all the votes that have been posted in time before the count, they are very good at getting them to us. I think everyone appreciates how important it is. We’ve heard media reports about interference with your mail system to make it difficult for people, we hoped it was just media hype.

[Mary115 in reply to Julie2233]

Julie,

Unfortunately, interference in postal service is true in anticipation of this election cycle.

The push toward doing away with the national postal service and replacing it with a corporate private money making postal service is real.

Scary days..

Thankful for the solidarity and support of solid people everywhere..

[FlowerPreciousLover in reply to Julie2233]

Nope, not media hype, fact, Julie! Your U.K. postal and vote counting system sounds like one that works! Kudos for that!!

My children moved to the state of Colorado a yr ago this August. Colorado has been voting state wide successfully with mail in ballots for years. National tracking system has published such a minute number of "double votes or fraudulent ones" that it would be laughable if not so terribly concerning.

Our reigning Idiot King is Now publicly encouraging voters to send in Both mail-in ballots and Gasp...are you ready for this?? ...also going to the polls in person to cast a Second voting ballot. Says if the mail-ins were counted reliably, voter would be prevented at polling locations to cast a second vote. Voting Twice is illegal in the U.S. as elsewhere in the world at large. Please send guardian angels our way; we really need some commonsense leadership from the top!

I recently imposed another self-moratorium on t.v. news watching because I don't need the sudden rise in b.p. it imposes. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to stay positive with daily reports of rioting, crowds of no-maskers, public education in total disarray, and the understandable loss of support by our long standing international allies. "Sunshine Sally has been dualing with Cloudy Claudia" for daily moods.

My daughter keeps reminding me to hang tight because we've "made it" through the last months of Covid-19 disruptions and we can survive the next few until elections.

I do apologize for the venting but do feel better for sharing in a group where I feel safe. Thanks for listening. Off to load my monthly pill boxes and hope for a Sunshine Sally day! Best to you and all.

[kearnan]

I plan on going in person. It is not that far from my house and I am determined to get the man out. I can wait on line for other things, so I can wait on line to vote.

[jersey-jazz]

I too have worked at the polls for years and, sadly, because of MBC and age, cannot go there and help voters to vote. I am helping in other ways.

Because this is not the place, I cannot send you a picture of the White House with a a corona virus symbol over it. The words are, One FLU Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Please acknowledge with more.