We have always been mail-in. But we went online and re-registered as non mail-in (took 4 minutes) so we could go vote in person on the 3rd. This is the first time that we have not felt that our voting system is working right, with all the lost ballots, late ballots, ballots that have been mailed out to dead people and stories of ballots just laying around on the ground (no offence to our postal service, but ? ) and all the other stories we have been seeing in the news... Voting is a privilege that some other countries don't have .
I agree that we all need to be more careful this year.
If you have a mail-in ballot, and want to vote in person, you just need to surrender the mail-in ballot at the poll.
If you don't have a ballot to surrender, you can get a "provisional" ballot. They'll check to make sure you did not vote twice.
Last time I voted (in person) it was a paper ballot that would be machine counted at the Registrar of Voters facility, so filling out your mail in ballot and taking it to the poll would be fast and at least as accurate.
I think the post office is safe as long as you don't wait for the last minute (postmarks count). I'm less certain of the Registrar's drop boxes like the one at the library (I trust the system, but one box was vandalized in L.A. County).
I've never been a poll worker, but I have assisted with ballot collection and transportation -- the system is pretty good. You'd have to convince the poll workers, Registrar's staff, and at least one Law Enforcement officer to tamper with ballots in transit.
That was in a different county, but I got curious and read the law (Elections are always governed by STATE LAW) and the process is pretty much laid down in the statute with little room to deviate.
Also, contrary to what has been said in the media, the Registrar of Voters can begin counting early ballots and mail-in ballots ten days before election day. Since they forecast the biggest turnout since 1908, I'd expect them to start counting as soon as they can.
Citizens have the right to observe ballot processing/counting.
