If you live in the US, STOP SCROLLING
This is your reminder to make a Voting Plan!
Step 1: Check your Registration
Registered already? Go to Step 3!
Step 2: Register to Vote
Step 3: Learn about your state's Early Voting Options
Like early voting and have that option? Skip to Step 5!
Step 4: Explore your Day-Of Voting Options
Step 5: Research Candidates
Step 6: Share your Plans
Detailed sample down below!
Step 1: I'm in California, so I clicked here at https://www.vote411.org/check-registration
Clicking on that took me to my state's registration check page, where I filled out in those fun black squares with my info...
...and there's my confirmation! This also provides info on where I'm currently registered to vote, which is good to know when looking up ballot drop-off locations.
Step 2: Since I already am registered I could skip this, but just to show it off here's what the online tool at https://www.vote411.org/register looks like!
The site asks you to put in your name and mailing address, and then sends you off to your own state's voter registration page to finish it up!
Step 3: Since I'm in California, I went to https://www.vote411.org/select-state and selected that state to bring up CA's voting information page.
And here's what my info looks like! The top of the page gives a quick overview of registration deadlines...
...and scrolling down reveals a bunch of additional info for any further questions! I've selected Early Voting on the lefthand tab to bring that up here.
Skimming this, it looks like California offers voting by mail, which is what I want to do.
Scrolling further down the lefthand menu I pulled up the Vote by Mail tab to learn more...
...and based on the information there I went to find the tab that would tell me about Drop Boxes in California!
Following that link brings me to California's early voting drop-off page.
For now let's just use Disneyland as our address to see where we can drop things off. Entering the county and city information we get this list:
Checking the box to Display Results on Map, it looks like there's a drop off location right by Disney that is open 24 hours! I went ahead and screenshotted the address on my computer, and opened it in google maps so that I could keep track of where it was.
Perfect, I now have a plan for dropping off my mail-in ballot!
Finally, I want to know where my mail-in ballot is. Assuming you live in a state with mail-in ballots but haven't seen yours yet, you can usually track them or request new ones if your address has recently changed.
I just googled "California mail in ballot tracking" and wound up on this page.
Filling out the little form at the Where'sMyBallot link (name and date of birth), I can see that my ballot has been sent out and is en route!
Since it was sent on October 7th, I suspect it's already arrived, and lo and behold checking my mailbox there it is buried under all the political mailers!
Step 4: Since I will be voting by mail, I will skip Step 4 for now (though vote411.org lists traditional voting areas/what I'd need to bring so that's where I'd get that info if needed!)
Step 5: When doing research I started with https://www.vote411.org/ballot, since it gives a preview image of all of the items that will be on my ballot based on my address.
I can click on any of these to see the candidate options, and their statements if they've been provided. However for many of these options on vote411.org there aren't too many additional details, so I want to do my own research looking at neutral voting summaries and candidate endorsements by groups I align with politically!
For the election summary, I started with the General Election Official Voter Information Guide booklet that was mailed to my address a few weeks ago. This is the best source of unbiased voting information in my opinion, especially when it comes to state and local propositions since it will summarize them and also include opinion pieces written for and against each one. You can also access it online, as shown below!
To find it, I googled "California Official Voter Information Guide", and made sure it was sourced from my local government.
Another good source of information I used is npr.org, or National Public Radio. NPR provides news that is free to read and listen to, and is one of my personal favorite ways to stay informed. There's also local branches of the station for every state, and each one will usually have a voting guide with side-by-side comparisons that makes it easy to read.
To find mine, I googled "California NPR Voting Guide"
Finally if there was anything on the ballot where I wasn't convinced one way or the other on certain candidates or initiatives, I checked out some political endorsements!
A few of the ones I looked at are Planned Parenthood (women's health and abortion access), the Sunrise Movement (climate activism), the Sierra Club (climate change, national park preservation). I found these by googling "[Name of org] voting guide california".
Since I'm voting by mail I could keep these webpages opened as I filled out my ballot.
For voting in person, I'd recommend writing candidates down as a cheat sheet to bring into the poll so you can remember what you want to vote for! https://www.vote411.org/ballot will let you arrange that cheat sheet real easily.
Now that my ballot is filled out I'll just drop it off at the address I found in Step 3 - setting a time for myself, I'll plan to drop it off when I go for a walk this afternoon! 👍
Step 6:
After I finished up I went ahead and posted on facebook and to my friends in discord on how I'd made a voting plan, to help encourage friends/family to do the same!
You can be as public or as personal as you want here, but sharing can help encourage others to put a plan together too - if you made it this far it can even be as simple as reblogging this post with a message saying "I Made a Voting Plan"!
