I got my mail-in ballot a month or so ago but I'm very likely just going to go to the polls myself to vote. Unlike a lot of the country, I live in an area that generally doesn't get the stupid long lines that you see in the news; I think the longest I've ever had to wait at my polling place was 30 minutes and that's cause I went right at 5pm and likely ran into everyone else thinking right after work was a good time to go vote. I got the mail-in ballot because at the time they were available to be requested, I had no idea what COVID was going to look like so I wanted to have my bases covered if Minnesota turned into a shit-show like some of the other states...
I do see that I can just drop it in the mail-box (at least according to these instructions) so maybe I'll just do that instead of going to the actual polling place. While minimal risk given Minnesota's handling of COVID, me staying away is just one less person that the Poll Worker people have to worry about getting them sick.
Yea, usually here we have a lot of elderly, retired poll workers, and they are also a vulnerable population. I hope they too make it through this okay. I worry that the people we most have to worry about spreading it are the ones who are also the least considerate. You are lucky they allow anyone to vote by mail in Minnesota, here they have special requirements and have been battling it out in court to even allow people to have ballot drop boxes.
We have people walking around pulling their masks below their noses and taking them off in these spaces even after being told to wear them for the safety of others, but they often don't seem to care if they are the ones who are responsible for making others sick. When I was at the post office the other day, A woman walked in with her mask off, pulled what looked like an ineffective sequin sparkle mesh mask out of her purse after a postal worker asked her politely to put it on. Then she pulled it down below her nose and walked past everyone ignoring all the social distancing marks on the floor, brushing up against me and others and then she put her hand on my shoulder while leaning over me to access an envelope on a stand. I moved out of the way and am sure the look on my face was not pleasant at the time. She then licks her fingers thumbing through them WHILE they are on the stand, so if anyone else needs an envelope later, they will be getting one with her saliva all over it. It was just rude and gross and thoughtless.
I imagine for poll workers, they are going to have tons of people like that, but so much worse.