The Observation Deck

Yesterday Early Voting started at the Board of Elections on 2925 Euclid. 1,876 people voted. Even when the lines were long, they moved quickly. There are three FREE parking lots nearby. Police all over the area directing traffic, helping with parking and crossing streets. Everyone was in a good mood, outside and at least 6' away with masks.

SO GO VOTE, here is what you can expect in a typical afternoon...


Outside on Euclid Avenue.


All are asked two medical questions and then you stick your arm through a hole, and get your temperature checked.

Then and only then do you get inside.


Like a Halloween maze, plastic lines the maze with good air movement, with front and back doors opened.


There are over 30 stations to get a ballot from and another 40+ to vote at. Everything is wiped down often. There are sanitizer wipes and hand cleaner everywhere.


See, even the line is fun! "6-Pies!" Hah, who can't remember 6 pies!


The entire length of time from parking to driving away was about 30 minutes. Not bad, when you see the lines in other places.

So no you know it is fast, easy, painless and fun. The earlier we vote the less we burden the system on November 3.

VOTE!

I can add that voting by mail seems to be operating well also: my ballot arrived before noon on Tuesday.

Some if not all of the ballots requested so far must have been readied and moved out of the Board of Elections just after midnight, in order to be delivered on the first day of early voting. (I know others received ballots also, including a friend in our sister city Cleveland Hts.)

So if anyone would still like to vote at home, but hasn't requested to, it seems like right now you will still have time to do so without any worry about lateness.

I just dropped my ballot in the box at Lakewood Post Office in time for the 11:00 pick up

The board of elections reported my ballot received and accepted for counting on Wednesday.

My ballot made the whole round trip of board to me back to the board in under 48 hours.

I would say at this point, vote by mail with confidence if you like that option. Track your ballot here: https://boe.cuyahogacounty.gov/en-US/tr ... allot.aspx

There are many ballots that are still on their way from the printer to the BoE, including mine. ABJ has reported this but Cleveland media is crickets. ETA early next week, still plenty of time.

I'll be following up on that printing company this week, but we were finally able to bring our ballots to the BoE Sunday night. I found a couple of sherriff's cars in the parking lot. They were probably there primarily to watch for ballot-box shenanigans, but the extra security in late evening was reassuring.