Any predictions what early voting will be like in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Taking my chances on early voting and didn’t request a mail-in ballot. Mainly because I have the flexibility to take a half day off and don’t have serious health concerns, so may as well just go in person. And it’s not that I don’t trust a mail-in vote to be counted, but I do gather the system is a bit overwhelmed this year. But now I’m second-guessing my decision since MD “early” voting us actually pretty late compared to other states. Any predictions what lines will be like next week or if any polling places will be less inundated than others?

[Anonymous]

The one in Gaitherburg is always crowded. I went there last time and decided to go up to Germantown instead. That was much better.

It's hard to tell. Almost everyone I know got an absentee ballot. What I've heard on the news is those who requested absentee tend to be upper middle class white people, and lower income people of color were less likely to do that. So areas of the county that have larger lower income populations might have a lot of people at the polls.

The one person I know who will vote in person works right next to the Executive Office Building in Rockville, and plans to vote there. She can keep an eye on lines throughout the day and go when it's not busy.

The County Board of Elections had a real-time counter of crowds at each site during the last election. I assume they will have that again, and you can check on line.

[Anonymous]

SS civic center was pretty crowded in 2016. I have no idea but I do think a lot of people got a nail-in ballot. I saw an announcement from the county about real-time tracking of wait times so going to track that over the first couple days. I wish the early voting period was longer like in VA.