It’s time to vote.

Yes, I know election day is the 3^rd of November.   But, many of us are fearful of waiting in line, surrounded by folks who may elect to NOT wear a mask, who may be infected with COVID 19- but we want our voices heard.

For the first time ever, I am not voting in person.  I’ve been voting in primaries, local elections, state elections, and national elections since forever (about 142, if I didn’t miss any). Yes, I will be using a mail ballot this year.

The US is expecting this year to be the largest vote-by-mail election in our history.  The pundits even think that the highest percentage of eligible voters will actually cast their ballots, to boot.

And, if you’re like me, you want to make sure your ballot gets counted.

Here in Virginia, we have a new site- Ballotscout.  I enter my name and address- and there it is- exactly where my ballot is (as of 20 September 2020).  I’ll be checking it again soon.

But, if you live in California, there’s a different website set up-  Where’s My Ballot. (Note- California is one of many jurisdictions using BallotTrax, the largest vote tracking business in the US.)  We simply enter our name, birthday and Zip code. Et, voila!  We get voting updates, get texts when our ballot is in the mail, when it reaches the electors, and when it’s counted.  We can even get texts when our ballot is in the mail, when it’s on its way back to election officials and, eventually, counted.

Other states are following suit- DC, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, and Oregon.  But, don’t give up- routinely check to see if your state is joining the bandwagon, too.

But, it’s also possible that your state wont be participating.  Why?  Because up until this year, voting by mail has been a niche business- very few of us even thought about using the privilege. (Some jurisdictions are just too cheap, too- they won’t spend the two cents per voter to track a ballot.)  We have routinely voted in person.  But, after the voter suppression techniques of 2018 (where slews of polling stations were closed) and the COVID-19 pandemic, voting by mail this year is bound to be epidemic.

(You can also try to track your ballot using Informed Delivery, a service of the US Postal Service.  It works reasonably well for packages- but I have no experience with its ability to track our ballots.)

Being able to track our ballots means we are accountable, our state is accountable- as is the US Postal Service.

And, don’t get confused.  These ballot tracking apps do NOT let us vote online.  They just track where our ballot is- not even for whom we voted.  (We do STILL have a secret ballot across this great land.)

The tracking works because our ballots go in in special envelopes.  They are numbered (and barcoded) for easy tracking.  That also lets the voting officials ensure that we only vote once.  (Sorry, Donald, it is illegal in every single jurisdiction to even ATTEMPT to vote twice.  Yes, even in Chicago, nowadays.)

These tracking sites will also let us know if we forgot to notify our election officials that we moved.  Because if we type in the salient information, we would then be told that our ballots were mailed- but were undeliverable.  So, we can update the address  and still be legally empowered to vote.

Now, we have to hope that BalletScout and BallotTrax really do have viable security.  Because some nefarious folks (Bob Barr, perhaps?) may attempt to breach their systems to report to us that our ballot hasn’t made the count.  And, folks will show up to vote in person- swamping the polling stations, and having the voter risk arrest for multiple voting. (Please note that’s never happened- but we do know that TheDonald is preparing a slew of impediments to ensure that our ballots aren’t counted.)

Just vote.  America is counting on you.