Just finished filling out my absentee ballot

Submitted by Kodiak01 t3_yfufek in Connecticut

People talk about early voting from the "access" viewpoint, but there is another area that isn't talked about, particularly when it comes to absentee voting: Having the time and resources to make a truly intelligent decision.

I do not believe either side really wants people to have that kind of time. This is why so many are against mail-in ballots. As I was filling mine out this morning, I was looking at several races where I really didn't know much about any of the candidates. Half of these races, I bet people don't know ANY of the candidates. In cases like this, the average voter would likely just vote their preferred party line and call it a day. That's what the political parties want.

Instead, having the ballot without an immediate time limit to fill it out let me actually take a look at all the candidates and learn what their individual priorities are.

Quick, without looking, who is running for Comptroller and what specific priorities have they announced?

Thought so.

Now many even when given the time will not do such research. There are some that will, however. The best voting populace is an intelligent and informed voting populace. Everyone should have that opportunity.

Oh, and just for the record, I actually voted for a Democrat in one election this time around. First time ever, too. No, I'm not saying which one. I also wrote in "None Of The Above" on a few of them because they're all shades of kooky.

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Screaming_brain t1_iu58ylj wrote

Do you have the internet?

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koushunu t1_iu7454t wrote

And if you don’t, city hall (where you pick up your ballot in person) will have a list of the candidates.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu59zxx wrote

Do you spend half an hour googling candidates at the voting booth?

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Sid21EA91 t1_iu61ny6 wrote

Ballot questions and candidate date positions are available weeks if not months ahead of Election Day. A 10 minute session on google will inundate you with all the information you could possibly ask for. I seriously don’t understand your point.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu6d1bp wrote

And how many people that vote that you know of actually go off anything other than whats been stuffed in their mailbox or their ears via media?

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Flimsy-Field-8321 t1_iu5czyb wrote

There is plenty of info on all of the candidates for a long time before the election. No excuse absentee ballots are a good idea for a myriad of reasons and to say that both sides want people to vote without information is just false.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu5dhav wrote

I said that many on both sides DON'T want people to have all the information. They want voters to show up, realize they had no idea that half what is on the ballot is even being contested, and blindly vote the party line instead of being able to make a truly informed decision.

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Flimsy-Field-8321 t1_iu610mo wrote

Well the Dems have worked for years to get no excuse absentee balloting and early voting. Repubs have tried to block it at every turn. Seems to me that one party wants to help people vote (knowledgeably) and the other - doesn't.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu6d7r3 wrote

I'm a Republican and I want early voting, absentee voting, and most importantly a change from closed to semi-closed Primaries similar to MA where the Unenrolled can pick whatever party's ballot they want on Primary Day.

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Flimsy-Field-8321 t1_iu6ddhn wrote

You are not representative of your cohort unfortunately. But it is wonderful you feel that way.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu6e2g8 wrote

If I'm going to tagged with all the kooks on my side, the other side must endure the same. That would make all Democrats meth-peddling, gangbanging cop killers that go shooting at Congressmen during charity softball games.

Are you?

If a comparison or insinuation is good enough for one side, then it must be good when employed in reverse.

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mkt853 t1_iu59tle wrote

I always get a sample ballot ahead of time and research the candidates. These days you don't even have to do that. One party believes in Jewish space lasers, taking away rights, making the country a Nationalist Christian one, litter boxes and stripper poles in schools, banning books, and sexy M&Ms. The other is the Democratic Party. Pretty easy choice even if you don't necessarily like the candidate with a D next to their name.

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Synapse82 t1_iu8s2hl wrote

I agree, especially for my small town. I hardly get info on who is running and for what. Even the town website doesn’t have like an election thing or place to put the candidates.

I always show up seeing names I don’t know.

Just got the Blue post card in the mail yesterday that said “Vote Row A, Democrat”

Fine, but we can at least put an attempt to be informative. Lol

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu8tkm4 wrote

If you want real chaos, let's just put names and omit their political parties altogether. It could be said that listing the party could be providing undue influence to vote for someone they otherwise wouldn't.

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Synapse82 t1_iu8u7q7 wrote

Haha, I’ve always said that. But you would expose and embarrass a lot of people if they started voting on issues only ;)

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu8uhss wrote

At this point I would settle for the semi-closed primaries to allow Unenrolled voters to vote in them. Wherever that is used, the kook quotient seems to be much lower.

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Synapse82 t1_iu8uru5 wrote

I noticed you put “none of them” on one. When going in they always say “each line must be filled in or it won’t take your ballot”

I’ll have to look into that option, I’ve always just picked a random person if I didn’t like the top 2.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu8vx2u wrote

I did fill in every one, put it on the "Write In" line.

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CT_Patriot t1_iu6955z wrote

We do not need "early voting".

We've been voting the same way all these years with no problems.

Just because of COVID, it came up as an idea. There's ways to vote (even in nursing homes) so no, we don't need early voting.

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rsjem79 t1_iu6fdd7 wrote

Waiting in a two hour line before or after going to work was a problem.

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CT_Patriot t1_iu6g7u3 wrote

That may be true, then again cities and towns need to spread out voting locations

Towns/cities grow, but seldom do they add additional voting locations. Mostly due to money for equipment and town/city manpower.

I was happy with the older lever machines. As long as they had enough. Some of those did break down with mechanical issues.

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Afraid-Pattern4478 t1_iu58kdx wrote

If you don’t vote democrat across the board you are literally a fascist. Connecticut is NOT maga country. We must defend the republic with blind party-line voting.

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Kodiak01 OP t1_iu5a3rz wrote

Thank you for demonstrating the exact type of close-minded kookiness that party-line voting brings out. I pity you for being so hateful and emotionally empty.

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Afraid-Pattern4478 t1_iu5ajm6 wrote

I was just doing my best impression of an average ct Reddit user, as you’ll see many people will have serious responses that sound just like that.

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CT_Patriot t1_iu68ve8 wrote

I'm sorry to burst your bubble....there's more of us than you know..

We're just not loud and obnoxious as you guys, that's all .

Voting Democratic is to hate America.

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