You can surrender your mail-in ballot at your regular polling place to vote in person, right?

Submitted by barchueetadonai t3_yhezbx in philadelphia

I'm just looking to confirm this with enough time before election day. I know that if you applied for a mail-in ballot, you can only vote in person if you surrender the mail-in ballot to an election judge, but I'm just looking to double check that "election judge" refers to someone who 100% will be at my regular polling place and understand what to do. I don't want to get caught in a situation where Dr. Fuckz wins by 1 vote. Thanks.

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jewishsuperhero t1_iude3gl wrote

I was a poll worker in the primaries. If you surrender your mail-in ballot you can vote in person. The Judge of Elections is one of the poll workers, they will definitely be there

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Wizard_of_Iducation t1_iue6cn0 wrote

Judge of Elections here: this is absolutely correct. Hand in all of your mail-in ballot material, including the envelope and we give it to the board of elections at the end of the night. Once you hand over the mail-in ballot we allow you to sign in to the poll book and vote on the machine in person.

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Final_Candidate_7603 t1_iudlohg wrote

Another poll worker here, confirming what others have said. There is a Judge of Elections at every polling place; they have to be there all day (as do several others), food gets brought in, the Judge is the one who closes down the machines at the end of the day, and announces the count while others record the information.

When you turn in your mail-in ballot, bring everything, including the envelope it came in. Like someone else mentioned, if something does go wrong, you can still cast a provisional ballot. Later, after they determine that you did not return the mail-in ballot they sent, they will count your provisional ballot. They are very serious about making sure that everyone who is allowed to vote gets to vote.

ETA: good on you for taking the time to find out for sure- this is what they mean when they say ‘make a plan to vote.’ For anyone else reading, if anything should ever go wrong on Election Day- like they mailed you a ballot but you never got it- go to your polling place and ask to speak to the Judge of Elections. They are trained to handle any last-minute questions or confusion, and if they can’t resolve it on the spot, they will almost always let you cast a provisional ballot. Again, things will get sorted out in the next couple of days, and if they find that you were eligible to vote and didn’t mail a ballot, they will count that provisional one.

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SgtKetchup t1_iudysnw wrote

If you are concerned about postal shenanigans, don't forget that you can drop your ballot off in a drop box, they are emptied every evening and you'll get your confirmation email the next morning.

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arslashjason t1_iudiwa8 wrote

Yes, if you surrender your ballot for the poll workers to spoil you can vote normal. If for some reason you don't have it you have to vote provisional.

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Prize_Addendum_4002 t1_iuezvwa wrote

Yes but be sure to bring the entire ballot including the envelope. A friend of mine had to vote provisional in 2020 because she had thrown out the envelope

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barchueetadonai OP t1_iuf00ri wrote

Thanks. If you vote provisional, would it still ultimately count once it’s determined that they only got one total ballot from you?

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Prize_Addendum_4002 t1_iuf06gb wrote

Yeah it will still be counted after all of the other votes are counted and they’ve confirmed that you haven’t voted already. It can slow down the voting process (if there are a lot) and so it’s better to avoid it if possible!

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lil_pay t1_iuiutv6 wrote

Moved to Philly from Montgomery country i put in for a mail in ballot but forgot to change my voting address so it gave me options for montogomery country instead of Philadelphia. is there anything that i can do so that I’m able to vote next week correctly with out committing a felony lol

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barchueetadonai OP t1_iuixeft wrote

I don’t know. You should make a new post for this ASAP so it gets seen.

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cracker707 t1_iug79b8 wrote

A provisional ballot, not a regular one.

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Sweaty-Inside t1_iuhxocm wrote

As long as they bring their mail-in ballot and the envelope (basically everything they got in the mail), they will absolutely be able to vote in-person on the machines like anyone else.

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[deleted] t1_iudqaj7 wrote

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philadelphia-ModTeam t1_iuhycxe wrote

Rule 5: All crime or missing persons posts are required to have credible proof - like a news article or police report- in order to prevent harassment and doxxing.

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