Please purrsist and help others like you have never purrsisted and helped before!
I went to early vote at my usual polling place. It was not open.
I went to early vote at the nearest polling place that was open. It was supposed to open at 10 AM, I was there at 1005. They had just decided not to open until noon.
I went back to early vote at the same place, as there were very few people around when they were not open. Now that they are open, the line rings the entire large parking lot! Most were wearing masks, but there was no social distancing. I asked people in line: The line is barely moving, they’ve been standing there for hours. I can’t stand for hours. It’s also very cold today. There was also no place left to park. And I have a Mom and critters depending on me. Since it’s now Friday afternoon, they’re likely to be busy all weekend, and they aren’t open Monday, I gave up on early in-person voting.
So I went to the county board of elections to pick up absentee ballots for myself and my mother. I had the wrong address!
In looking more closely at the website, I need to have Mom sign an absentee ballot request with me as her designated picker upper and delivererer. I was able to successfully download that request and transfer it to a thumb drive.
Since I no longer have a printer, I needed to go print that out at the library.
During the pandemic, the library requires an appointment. They had one for today. I successfully drove with my thumb drive to the library, used their hand sanitizer, passed my security check, and printed out the request. I eventually figured out how to safely eject my thumb drive (computers had signs — no technical help is available during the pandemic)!
Now Mom has to fill out the request and I still have to find the board of elections at the correct address on Monday. They say they will provide absentee ballots through Monday November 2. They can be turned in up to Election Day at any polling location that day. But just in case, I’m thinking now that I might go back to try to vote early in person after all, if I can get there early tomorrow or Sunday morning! This weekend, they open at 8 AM. Of course, I won’t be surprised if many others have the same idea! But it’s worth a shot, in case anything goes wrong on Monday. I can take a chair and something hot to drink in a Thermos, but how long I can stay will depend on how Mom and Ginger are doing tomorrow and/or Sunday. It’s a day by day thing.
This would be a funny comedy of errors if it didn’t mean that some folks might be discouraged from voting. So remember! You want to ensure you are allowed to vote. Be prepared to try more than one method! For the kittens. The best laid plans… gang aft a-gley.