My early voting experience

[mithriltabby]

I decided to give early voting a try today, and drove down to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters carrying my own pre-marked voting guide and obsessivewoman’s sealed absentee ballot. Getting there was the actual challenge; the directions from Google Maps were good, but the signage getting off of 880 was a bit confusing.

Once there, I was a bit surprised— I had expected to see ranks of touchscreen machines waiting, but there was just one (for people needing audio help). I was informed I needed to fill out the application for absentee voting from my voting guide, and handed a number just like at Baskin-Robbins. I barely had time to fill out the card before my number was called; I went in, handed it over, and received my very own absentee ballot. There was ample space at the tables outside, and I only had to get one detail clarified: the instructions say to detach stubs from the ballots before putting them in the envelope, and my ballots had no apparent stubs. It turns out that they do that for you when you’re there in person to do early voting.