59 days left until the election (#4235)

      Well today folks in North Carolina will be receiving their vote by mail ballots. North Carolina kind of snuck up on me as I have been trying to update on who votes early first. I knew that Pennsylvania in the past had started it's early voting 50 days before the election but could not ascertain whether they were going to do the same this year. But North Carolina was completely off my radar up until a couple of days ago and then I just decided to wait to see if they would actually go through with it. They did as ballots went out in the mail on the 4th. So actually some ballots could have been received yesterday.
     All this to say that it is beginning now and many folks are filling out and mailing back their general election ballots today, at least in North Carolina, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909597279/voting-season-begins-north-carolina-mails-out-first-ballots. There are a record number of voters asking for mail in ballots all over the country and the majority of them are coming from democratic voters. It makes sense since the control republicans have had the last decade over denying voting to the working middle poor class has kept many democrats frustrated at getting absentee ballots. Yet with the pandemic a new dynamic has emerged and republicans have relented in many places to allow for virus free voting.
     We still have to watch what is happening with our post offices because the trumps are not quitting on trying to slow down and impede mail delivery as much as possible. But early voting is a cure even if we feel the need to drop off our ballots at state election offices or collection boxes. What vote by mail has also done for us is make the 46.9% of voters who didn't vote last time in 2016 more available for voting. Which in the big picture should be a net gain for we democrats. Since before the obstacles to voting were at polling booths the obstacles are now not visible. Voting from our homes makes the act much more likely since we don't have to travel long distances and wait in wasteful and enduring long lines. This election is a foreboding to republicans and for that we the many are well pleased.