#ballot processing

[tomorrowusa]

Resources for Poll Closing Times 🕣 🗳

If you miss Net 1.0 you'll be happy to see that it lives on at this no nonsense site.

The Green Papers: 2024 Poll Closing Times for Statewide offices and Congress General Election Chronologically

First of all, it seems to have nothing to do with the useless Green Party despite the Green in the name.

The updated site, going strong for about 25 years, gives us the closing times converted into each US time zone – plus UTC/GMT. It even pays attention to states which are located in more than one time zone – hence more than one listing for some states. Those of us who have chafed under Eastern Zone hegemony need not do any converting here. 🙂

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This from Slate is a bit more typical as it includes analysis and commentary – not just times (which are all given only in Eastern).

An Hour-by-Hour Guide to What We’ll Probably Learn on Election Night

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The National Conference of State Legislatures has a listing of when each state begins processing and counting its absentee and mail-in ballots. They provide an explanation of the differences between processing and counting. Some states are prompt in counting these, others – not so much.

Table 16: When Absentee/Mail Ballot Processing and Counting Can Begin

A useful table but I often get 524 error codes there. Possibly a result of heavy volume which they're not used to getting. Fortunately, there's a recent archiving of this page at Internet Archive.

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Polls in Georgia close at 0000 UTC/GMT (6 PM CST). They close in North Carolina 30 minutes later. Both states should have discernible results relatively quickly. Biden narrowly won Georgia and Trump narrowly won North Carolina in 2020. So results for 2024 could be compared against those as they come in.

[grantmentis]

Failing my sarcasm detection roll, does IIHF have an actual cap for how many women they can induct at a time, or is it just unspoken sexist bullshit? (so their normal MO.)

Only two women’s hockey players can be inducted per year (four men’s players can.) women can be inducted as builders like sauvageau was and it wouldn’t count against the limit (two builders of any gender can be elected per year.) the hockey hall of fame has also frequently not even used their two slots for electing women in and have only used one (note that electing two women does not limit how many other spots can be used)

[ivygorgon]

''They rigged the election and I became President, so that was a good thing.''

Donald Trump, March 7th, 2025

last | next

📨 An open letter to the President & U.S. Congress

🗳️ Immediate Investigation Required: Fraud in the Presidential Election!

✍️ 38 so far! Help us get to 50 signers!

Donald Trump’s statement, “But then they rigged the election, and now we won,” raises serious concerns about election integrity. Widespread bomb threats at polling sites, ballot delays, and technical failures further undermine trust in our democratic process. With over 30 threats reported and potential foreign interference, a full investigation is essential. If necessary, a recount or re-vote must be considered to ensure every vote is secure and counted.

📱 Text SIGN PQNCWD to 50409 🤯 Text FOLLOW IVYGORGON to 50409 for more!

[thelaughingmerman]

Like most of the voting places in town are surrounded by signs and most of them are trump signs but there's a kamala or two scattered around but the first one I passed was just trump signs. Which figures because next door they always have this pop up trump shop where they sell trump merch including flags branded with trumps face which I'm pretty sure is against the flag code but that doesn't apply to them of course. I wish I was joking. That's where the people sell their fruit on the corner and the kids do fundraising car washes get that shit out of here.

I don't know. I just don't feel like any candidates signs should be littered outside the polling place no matter the party. Vote here signs should be sufficient. Also your poll workers shouldn't be allowed to wear shirts with their candidate even if they're outside the electioneering bounds.

[esperantoauthor]

We love to see it

[elytrafemme]

ok obviously i understand why this isnt the rhetoric because people want people to turn out to elections so nobody is going to say this but can we all just agree to cut the shit and acknowledge that voting especially by mail in ballot is insanely difficult. the amount of issues i have had trying to register to vote and now trying to find my fucking ballot is genuinely ridiculous. and nobody tells you what time you have to send anything by so i am trying to find a ballot that i might not even be able to eligibly send by the time of the election because nobody on earth has ever considered that i wasn't just innately born with the knowledge of when to send this by and if you don't explicitly tell me when you want my ballot how am i supposed to know when to send my ballot. i don't know why everyone i know is like number one voter having the easiest time with this maybe i'm just stupid? but this is like. so unfathomably bad. to me. is it really that hard to make the instructions clear and in one place.

[bookinit02]

mildly pissed at the world today

[lucysgraybird]

REGISTERED VOTER🗣️🗣️🗣️

[twelvebooksstuff]

To my USAmericans on here, please don’t forget your power. We live in a political system that can often make us feel powerless and helpless, but this is a chance to participate in a meaningful, impactful way. Don’t forget that!

there are enough tumblr users who can vote in US battleground states to literally swing the election, do you realize that?? the election is going to come down to like 80’000 votes in those states — that could be your vote! so if you live in pennsylvania, georgia, arizona, nevada, north carolina, wisconsin, michigan, etccc your vote is going to make a huge, huge difference. please for the love of god vote (and if you live in a different state, you still need to vote too)

[hug-your-face]

via @swatercolour here on Tumblr and also on [insta]

EDIT: I do not interpret "just managing" as "just suffering, just enduring, curling into a fetal position and waiting for it to be over." Managing is an active process.

So I'm using this post as a platform to make the reminder that "the power of the people is greater than the people in power," and we all are cordially invited to:

Take good care of ourselves. Mental, physical, emotional health. Hydrate. Move if we can, get outside if we can.

Keep up a routine. Remember quarantine and we all had to find a routine? This is the same.

Be intentional in our news consumption. Let's not stick our heads in the sand but let's not doomscroll either. Get an RSS aggregator. Subscribe to WTF Just Happened Today, Yoour Local Epidemiologist, Fix The News (for some inspiring hopeful news!). We'll check our feeds a few times a week, but no more than once a day.

Connect with friends and loved ones. Remind ourselves that while SOME people are horrible, for the most part people are awesome... if complicated. Share our fears but also our hopes. Eat together.

Now that we're keeping healthy, safe, sane, and hopeful... now we also fight. Quietly if we prefer, loudly if we prefer. But sustainably. I hate that I had to live through three rounds of this nonsense where a few people use half of us as tools to fuck over ALL of us, but here we are again. So let us take just one moment every week or so to...

Use 5calls to keep blowing up our reps phones. Tell them to either break ranks with the Orange Administration, or to stand up louder than just matching outfits and signs. Or to THANK them for standing up.

Use Vote411 to find elections before the midterms. A lot of villages, cities, townships etc have local elections that will affect where we live... and more importantly, the people in office there will affect things upwards too.

Use Ballotpedia to know exactly what's on our ballots ahead of time.

Protest, because it actually works.

Use Vote.org to make a plan to vote in the midterms. Make a plan that is immune to voter suppression tactics. Get our documents in order. Reach out to our friends to go to the polls as a group. Plan to livestream our visit, up until the point we have to turn our cameras off.

Make and share memes that promote hope, organizing, solidarity, and/or resistance.

Get involved with an action network like Indivisible, MoveOn, or Working Families Party.

Go to a local town hall meeting. Speak up.

Heck, start our own local activism networks, letter campaigns, call campaigns, or fundraisers with Action Network.

And we will remember our self-care. We will remind ourselves and each other that they want us scattered, focus is how we resist.

It IS coming back. Things ARE going to get worse. The world has become a place where a very few people are pulling levers and pushing buttons that are actively destroying much of what is good about living in a society where people care for each other.

Many others are in shock, sputtering "but can they do that?" MANY many others are waiting for someone to come save us.

But there are those who are actively, loudly, opposing.

And there are more people speaking up, acting up, every day. More people saying it's time to get scrappy. It's time to get into some good trouble. The shock is wearing off.

Yes, it's gonna get worse before it gets better (the long-term damage of the acts of the past momentum of all the damage that has been done will take that long to be felt -- but it WILL get better.

If WE will it.

[ctcnewsca]

🇨🇦 Canada’s federal election is set for April 28, 2025, following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s snap election call amid U.S. tensions. 🇨🇦 Discover all the ways to vote—election day, early options, and more—so you’re ready to make your voice heard 👇🏻

[theduckpipe]

i regret to inform you all that being registered to vote just makes it worse

[reasonsforhope]

"Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th congressional district, isn’t shy about her belief that politicians need to do things differently.

“We have a representation problem,” the first line of the “About” page on her website reads.

“As in, about half of Congress are millionaires and people born before the Moon landing. And that's part of the reason we're in this mess: Our leaders are out of touch.”

A journalist, social media influencer, and political commentator that GQ called “a lefty,” with a mission to revitalize the Democratic party, Abughazaleh built a following online before she launched her campaign in March of 2025. 

But now, she’s leveraging her platform — and campaign dollars — to help people in her community before ballots are even filled in.

“My congressional campaign is feeding people right now,” she starts in a recent TikTok video. 

“Part of the reason I decided to run was because I saw how much money gets wasted in politics, and I thought, ‘What if we spent it differently?’”

She adds that the campaign is focused on “direct action and mutual aid,” emphasizing that she wanted her run for office to be “dual-purpose,” in which she can get her message out and help people in the process. 

It’s a stark pivot from the traditional way of campaigning in the United States, which often includes pricey fundraising galas, attack ads, big billboards, and perhaps the most criticized and unpopular feature: massive donations from private businesses and interest groups. 

Abughazaleh has publicly congratulated the former incumbent of this seat — 80-year-old Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who has held the title since 1999, the year Abughazaleh was born — for her “decades of service.” 

Rep. Schakowsky will not seek reelection, but Abughazaleh called for others to run, hoping to participate in the “first competitive Democratic primary in the District since 1998.”

Abughazaleh has also shared that the average donation her campaign receives is $31. And according to GQ, 1,000 people signed up to volunteer for her campaign within a week of her initial announcement.

And while that volunteering does include marketing, canvassing, and getting the word out, it mostly adds up to actual on-the-ground volunteer work to help people in the local community.

“Our kick-off event, for instance, didn’t charge $500 a plate,” Abughazaleh shared in her TikTok. “People just had to bring a box of pads or tampons, which were donated to Chicago’s period collective. By the end of the night, we had gathered over 5,600 period products, which went to people who can’t afford them.”

Most recently, the campaign hosted a food drive for a local community fridge program.

“We asked folks to come out and donate food in exchange for a campaign yard or window sign,” Abughazaleh said. “And by the end of the day, we were able to fully stock the empty pantry and fill the fridge with frozen meals, produce, and eggs. That’s feeding people right now.”

“Don’t worry, we checked to make sure this is legal," she added. "And it is."

The campaign has also launched a High School Public Serve Grant program that encourages local youth to submit ideas for how to make the community better, and Abughazaleh’s campaign will support it with money, materials, volunteers, and her online platform...

“Something you’ll rarely see is concrete help in their communities during the campaign,” she said. “And frankly, to me, that just seems stupid. Not only do you get to help people — supposedly what you’re running to do — but it also shows what you’re about, instead of just providing lip service.” ...

“If every campaign adopted this model, then we wouldn’t be wasting money every single cycle. Every city, town, and village across America would be improved by their election process, and I think it would also get people more involved,” she said.

“We have local folks who have never voted in an election, but they joined our volunteer Discord server because they want to help, they feel like they have something to vote for.”

For those who might be inspired enough to run for office with this model, she says: Full steam ahead.

“Frankly, I would love it if other campaigns took our model. Use it, pretend it’s yours, I don’t care!” she wrapped up her TikTok. 

“Pair with organizations in your community that have been doing the work, talk with local experts, and try to spearhead any initiatives you can to show your values and help your constituents. It’s really that easy.”

-via GoodGoodGood, May 14, 2025

[firstoccupier]

The Hidden Challenges of Voting While Living Abroad

As U.S. citizens continue to grapple with political engagement, a significant number face daunting barriers that make voting from overseas a complicated process. For the estimated 2.8 million Americans living abroad, exercising the right to vote is often fraught with challenges that can leave them feeling disenfranchised and disconnected from the electoral process. From navigating complex…

[the-gay-prometheus]

Amending my statement slightly 😅

I knew the amount of money that was spent on challenging ballots, but was assuming the amount of ballots being challenged in my county based on that number, not knowing exactly how much it cost per ballot. That's my bad, my information was incomplete. The cost is $10 per ballot, which means it is actually between 700-800 ballots in my county specifically being challenged, not the "thousands" I had initially stated. Close to a thousand, but not quite.

The total amount of challenged ballots in Pennsylvania as a whole right now is right around 4,300, spanning across 14 counties.

^In the NPR article linked, you will also read about an issue in Lancaster county where there were fraudulent voter registrations. It is extremely important to note that this is NOT related to the challenged ballots. The ones responsible for that and the ones responsible for the challenged ballots are, to my knowledge, completely different.

Anyways. Here's a map of where the challenges have been made in case anyone is curious:

Unfortunately, these challenges are 100% legal. They're ridiculous, but they are legal. One could call these coordinated attacks (which they I would certainly say they are), but I don't think there's anything that can be done about the individuals responsible, and it likely won't be considered election tampering or fraud by the government.

PROOF IN CASE YOU NEED IT