As someone who has voted at the same polling place for over 40 years it sort of baffles me that people don’t understand that states, and counties run all of our elections. We never had to show a picture ID until either the 2020, or 2022 election. Prior to that the county BOE mailed out to each registered voter a sample ballot. You took you sample ballot with you and they scanned the bar code that was printed on mailing. Then after 20-25 years of fighting over photo ID we have to show a photo ID.
When I first started voting we had punch card ballots, which changed to electronic ballots, which changed back paper/fill in the circle ballots that were are electronically read.
The county changed from assigned polling stations you had to vote at, to county wide polling stations. I still vote at the same place, since I’d have to pass it if I’m going somewhere, or coming back from somewhere. And it’s got plenty of parking.
What I can’t wrap my head around are the folks that think there are problems, yes running out ballots at one polling station can be a problem, unless of course you have no assigned polling place and go to another polling place. Then they bring up vote by mail, well some Republican states have used this method for decades. Then there’s electronic voting, do you use an ATM? There will always small hiccups, i.e. weather, now the postal system, and black outs-that’s why they have paper ballots on hand.
The US population is more mobile than ever, no one stays in one place anymore, except me. And I’ve seen the methods that I have voted change over time. This is nothing new. The only thing I’d recommend is to check that you’re still on the voter rolls, a couple of times before the election.
