My Mail-in Ballot Arrived

The U.S. citizen part of my dual-nationality received email notification today that my ballot for the November 2020 U.S. elections was ready for download.

The process started with sending a ballot request form through the mail to the Monroe County Board of Elections; that triggered today’s email, which gets me a ZIP file with the ballot, instructions, and a printable envelope for returning it.

Screen shot of New York State ballot downloading page for the 2020 election.

I vote, as I always have, at my last residential address in the USA, the apartment I lived in when I was born in Rochester, New York. Because I’m a non-resident elector I’m eligible to vote for President and for Representative in the New York 25th.

Never has voting-by-mail been such a topic of public conversation as this year; I’ll be sending my ballot off in the mail tonight to ensure it gets to Rochester in plenty of time. My envelope sports two stamps from the Canada Post Medical Groundbreakers series: the James Till and Ernest McCulloch stamp and the Julio Montaner stamp. Because, you know, science.

My envelope for my U.S. ballot

Comments

vbj's picture
vbj on September 16, 2020 - 18:17 Permalink

GO GO GO! We can do this! We MUST do this. Thanks for voting.

Karen Charette's picture
Karen Charette on September 16, 2020 - 20:34 Permalink

Nice stamps!🤣

Kathryn's picture
Kathryn on September 18, 2020 - 00:30 Permalink

What an interesting process! And the stamps are great - did you order them by mail also? My PO told me they did not get any of the new stamps issued since March.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on September 18, 2020 - 09:00 Permalink

The Charlottetown Post Office had all the new stamps. 

Kathryn's picture
Kathryn on September 18, 2020 - 17:23 Permalink

well, now I am annoyed. This was at a sub-PO at Shoppers. I was in a regular PO this morning and could have asked, but will the next time I am there - and will also tell the guy at Shoppers - he was figuring out how he could order them on the sly for that location.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on September 18, 2020 - 18:03 Permalink

As an added benefit, by going to a real post office you are supporting union labour. 

Kathryn's picture
Kathryn on September 20, 2020 - 15:41 Permalink

Well, that is true; however I do support (some of) the services provided by CP. I send actual mail - pay bills by cheque in the mail, send actual cards and sometimes letters, and parcels. And the mail that is delivered to the subs and from the subs is done by CP union members. Since street letter boxes have virtually all disappeared, these local subs provide a valuable service to those wanting to send lettermail. We are in a larger city and only 2 actual Canada Post outlets remain. We have had a PO Box at one of them for more than 25 years. My husband was a courier driver and a letter carrier at CPost for many years; I learned much about the system at that time. And coincidentally, this story from cbc archives showed up yesterday related to your comment! https://www.cbc.ca/archives/postal-demo-1987-1.5726256

Oliver B's picture
Oliver B on September 21, 2020 - 05:55 Permalink

If I my speak on behalf of my own and wager on behalf of the other, both of your nations thank you