Here’s the proof – I printed the page off the county clerk’s website, showing that my ballot was in the clerk’s office within 24 hours of mailing.
I think mail in ballots are the best way to go. I put my ballot in the mail on the 25th, after noon, and it was at the clerk’s office by the end of the next day.
How do I know? I checked here:
http://clerk-recorder.buttecounty.net/BallotStatusLookup/Default.aspx
First I used the last four digits of my SSN, but it registered negative. So, I tried again with the last four digits of my driver’s license number, and there it was. It told me not only that my ballot had been received but that it’s condition was “good”. In other words, my votes will be counted, at least as surely as any that are turned in from the precincts on Election Night.
In fact, it was the problems we were having at the polling station that finally drove my husband and I to register for mail in ballots. My husband was a contractor, he’d leave town as early as 5 am to get to a job in Chester or Quincy. Sometimes those were overnight jobs, sometimes he’d come back after 6pm. There were many Election Days where we’d be dragging in with our kids after 7:30 pm. The polls, after all, are supposed to be OPEN until 8PM. They’re not allowed to lock the door and start closing up shop at 7:30, or 7:45, or 7:55. It’s 8:00 straight up. But twice they tried to tell my husband he was too late. Another time they tried to tell him his name was not on the list – he had to lean over the old crone and put his stubby glue-covered finger right on his name, our address being right directly across the street. “oh, well,” she says, and hands him a ballot without one word of apology.
We also found that our polling place was changed so frequently, we never knew where to go until the last minute. In the June 2011, the elections office closed a bunch of polling stations, saying it was because the students had left town and those stations were not adequately used. This was not true – at least a half dozen of my friends living on the south side of town showed up at empty polling stations – old fuckers who’d been voting in the same spot for years without interruption.
People are rightfully paranoid about their ballot being counted. If you wait til Election Day, you have no way of knowing, ever, that your ballot was turned in or counted. But, according to the county clerk, mine has been received and will be counted, thankyouverymuch!
Chico Taxpayers Association 