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BumRushDaShow

(163,458 posts)

17. Trust me, I was shocked

Thu Oct 23, 2025, 06:59 PM

Oct 23

I had been attending Telephone Town Halls given by my State Senator for a number of years and more recently had asked him about whether we would ever have mail voting and he laughed. And then one day in fall of 2019, it happened - Act 77.

The impetus behind it was that the GOP here HATED the option for "straight party voting" (i.e., being able to vote for an entire slate of candidates of one party with one lever click, button push, or filled-oval) and wanted to get rid of it. So they offered the mail voting (a/k/a "no excuse absentee ballots" ) in exchange for getting rid of the straight party voting as an incentive for our (D) governor Tom Wolf, to sign off on it. And he did.

And the first election to use it would end up being the April 2020 primary, which got pushed to June due to COVID.

We got new ES&S ExpressVote XL touchscreen machines here in Philly in fall 2019 and the November 2019 election was my first AND last time using that mess, and I have thankfully been able to mail vote since then!

(The chute on the right with the paper ballot strip that a voter would review before it got sucked into the machine had no backlight and where I voted, there was not enough overhead light to even read the damn thing... plus the "blank" paper ballots appeared to be some kind of "thermal" type paper, which was concerning to me)

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Your ballot or other mail may not get postmarked by USPS the day it's dropped off [View all] BumRushDaShow Oct 23 OP

Anyone waiting close to deadline before mailing their ballot ain't paying attention or trying. Silent Type Oct 23 #1

Kinda' with you here. Why exactly are we playng "last minute Larry' games with our vote? stopdiggin Oct 24 #22

Exactly. I'd compare it to someone deciding to vote at 15 minutes before the polls close on election day... QueerDuck Oct 24 #25

For tax and other payments, ask for today's legible stamp at the counter. Then bucolic_frolic Oct 23 #2

If you have to prove mailed by a date you need a "Ceritificate of Mailing" IbogaProject Oct 23 #3

If we can afford to give Argentina 40B we sure as hell can afford to sustain and improve out mail system. walkingman Oct 23 #4

President Biden wouldn't fire Louis DeJoy Mysterian Oct 23 #5

He couldn't because the Board would need to do it BumRushDaShow Oct 23 #7

That's the quaint part I mentioned Mysterian Oct 23 #9

The Postal Board of Governors is a weird one vs the various Commissions (simiarly the Federal Reserve) BumRushDaShow Oct 23 #12

Okay, true Blackjackdavey Oct 24 #40

DeJoy popsdenver Oct 23 #20

The "cause" PATRICK Oct 24 #32

If you can, drop it off at a drop box. usonian Oct 23 #6

Kick and rec. Wednesdays Oct 23 #8

I voted by mail in Virginia....early Grins Oct 23 #10

Same here in CA. 3 progress texts from drop off at post office to vote recorded by CA Sec. of State chia Oct 24 #23

We have the option to use USPS, or drop-box at the nearby community center (the option I choose). QueerDuck Oct 24 #26

I dropped it weeks ago. BidenRocks Oct 23 #11

Why would anyone still vote by mail in 2025? Polybius Oct 23 #13

PA implemented "no excuse absentee voting" BEFORE COVID BumRushDaShow Oct 23 #15

I did not know that PA did it before Covid, thanks for the info Polybius Oct 23 #16

Trust me, I was shocked BumRushDaShow Oct 23 #17

That is totally erroneous. Vote by mail has been around for a considerable length of time - stopdiggin Oct 24 #21

I now know that it was a thing before Covid, but many states expanded it during 2020 Polybius Oct 24 #24

understand what you're saying (and additionally, I'll give out points for stopdiggin Oct 24 #36

Simple. Hand your ballot to the postal clerk & at the counter; they physically will date stamp the outside of the mail. ancianita Oct 23 #14

Anything that requires a postmarked date I will go to the Post Office, wait for however long and watch them stamp it Cheezoholic Oct 23 #18

I've never expected that my mail would be postmarked before the next date after Jack Valentino Oct 23 #19

I vote as early as possible when I receive my mail-in ballot. no_hypocrisy Oct 24 #27

NOTE this is a fact . Historic NY Oct 24 #28

You suggest something intrinsically illegal PATRICK Oct 24 #31

The post office here has to send it 90 miles away to just come back to the area Historic NY Oct 24 #35

Frightening how quickly we get used to the water coming to a slow boil Torchlight Oct 24 #29

except that describing this as a 'consciously place obstacle' is in fact to misconstrue stopdiggin Oct 24 #37

I'll guess guile over incompetence. Torchlight Oct 24 #38

Nope. this is a function of the way the post office operates stopdiggin Oct 24 #39

If possible DownriverDem Oct 24 #30

BTW expecting the public PATRICK Oct 24 #33

If you're going to vote by mail, don't rely on the Post Office for your ballot to arrive on time meow2u3 Oct 24 #34

What goes wrong PATRICK Oct 29 #41