They can cheat just as badly on Election Day as they can during early voting. But banking your vote makes it less likely someone will vote in your place and allow you to sit back on Election Day.
And whatever Election Day shenanigans brings (cybersecurity issues, Antifa gangs, a terror attack, ot even ballots too beg for the machines) your vote is locked in and that’s a good thing
When you entered the polling station how were you given your ballots? What’s the procedure to qualify to get a ballot? Do you get a piece of paper on entry before you go to a ballot table?
Did you all go to the same person to get processed? Also how many poll workers were checking in voters? Depending on who you went to might have determined the machine you put your ballot into
Is it possible the machine you fed your ballot into is for your precinct only? Different precincts will have different ballot styles And could that be the reason there were two separate scanners?
As a poll worker in my area we only have one scanner that one puts their ballot into. However, in my county we have at least 36 different ballot styles. When a voter enters we look them up in the data base (lap top) which prints out an ATV (Authorization to vote) form if they are registered and able to vote.
Then they go to the ballot table. Ballot table poll workers locate the ballot number from the ATV form then hand scan both the ATV form and ballot to make sure it’s the correct ballot for that voter’s precinct. Then poll workers write the number (includes which printer it came from on the ballot) before handing it to the voter to vote. After voting on ballot voter takes to the one ballot drop machine scanner.
Yes, it is a threat for sure. And just so you know the Republicans of NC just recently lost their case to remove anyone from voting overseas who have no proof they have ever resided in the state.
https://nsjonline.com/article/2024/10/judge-dismisses-part-of-hava-lawsuit/
In NC all absentee ballots have to be in no later than 7:30 pm on election night. NC is not one of the states looking to count absentee ballots beyond election eve.
But Military and oversea citizen mailed absentee ballots are given some extra time, (10 days generally) before canvassing, but these have to be postmarked no later than 12 pm on election day, But those overseas citizens and Military that vote online have to be done by 7:30 PM EST
I'll give it a gander.
Voting early locks in your vote before "they" can attempt to bring chaos on election day to keep you from voting.
What chaos you say? Everything from cybersecurity attacks, to having a county give the wrong paper ballot size (like they did in Maricopa Count) to keep Republicans from voting, to having gangs outside precincts (antifa, etc) to keep voters from voting.
Early is now. I wouldn't wait until too close to election day. Do it ASAP. I voted early last Friday a week ago before the weekend.
FWIW I am a poll worker in NC.
We have paper ballots given to voters after an ATV (Authorization to Vote) form is generated. This form has the voter's personal info on it, their precinct's, name, their political party (or not) and they have to sign that the info is true as well as attest to the statements on the form are true (one is that they are a USA citizen).
Each voter has a number generated on their ATV form written on the top of their ballot bc a ballot in early voting in NC is considered to be an absentee ballot (but one where you vote in person). The number records the precinct the voter votes in and the number of the printer that printed out the form and a generated number for that voter and ballot. We write this info on their ballot in a space provided before handing the ballot to the voter to vote. Once the voter marks their ballot, they take it over to the scanner which records how they voted. If they didn't over vote in a contest the scanner will tell them they voted. This info is all stored on a thumb drive.
As far as I know there is no way right now to manipulate your vote becuse the thumb drive in our scanner stays in the scanning machine with a protective seal and access by a special key until early voting is over. The scanning machine keeps a running total of all the ballots that have been accepted into the bin.
This data is no longer totaled before Election Day (new law this year) nor are the absentee ballot results added into the total votes until election day in our county.
Every evening these paper ballots are sealed into the blue bin then taken over to the county board of elections by our election director or assistant. These ballots are not removed unless they need to hand counted if an election result is contested. And are only removed by election board members with both parties present.
Every morning we have to check the scanning machine and sign off that no ballots are in the machine in the emergency bin nor in the new blue empty bin that catches the ballots that day.
Another thing I should add. When a poll worker in my county works the ballot table we are constantly updating the number of ATV forms the voters hand over to us to get a ballot. We make sure the number of ATV forms match the number of ballots that were scanned into the scanning machine. This is also another way to ensure accuracy of the count.
My thoughts are that a cheat can happen after the thumb drives are uploaded into an active computer. And that could happen on election day IMHO when the numbers could be manipulated in a main computer when it is transferred to the state board of election results. So in this case it doesnt matter when you vote if they could do that!
I suspect that with our voter ID in NC and everything else that was tightened up in our elections by our NC Republican majority state legislators we are less likely to have cheating. It can't be stopped completely especially if an illegal alien decides to register to vote and lies about being a citizen. But if that illegal alien does that and doesn't serve in jury duty if called due to being illegal, he WILL suffer the consequences then.
Noone has been stopped from wearing MAGA gear in my polling station.
Although, as a poll worker I am NOT allowed to wear anything political nor discuss anything political while working. We poll workers have to remain nonpartisan.
But I haven't removed my I love Trump button from my purse that is hidden under the desk when I am working there.
If I’m not mistaken there are some states that don’t have early voting in person. They only have mail in ballots. I think Washington State is one but I don’t know about Oregon.