Question for those who voted early at a satellite location (Reston: camp, live in)

[BOS2IAD]

We have been trying to vote at our local satellite location. Yet every time we've driven by the place the lines are incredibly long.

How was it for those of you who used a satellite location? Did you have a very long wait? If you had a short wait, which location was it?

If we decide to show up before our local one opens for voting, would there be clear signage stating where the line begins? If there is clear signage, we are contemplating getting there very early and bring a camp chair for my husband as he can't stand for very long periods.

And, yes, with hindsight being 20/20 vision, we should have gotten a mail-in ballot. We hesitated because we read the instructions to mean that the only way to return it would be to mail it. We found out too late that there were ballot boxes around.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[reebo]

I live in Loudoun County and voted at the local rec center. My husband is retired so we chose a day midweek and went after lunch to avoid people who were voting before work. There were plenty of signs directing us where to go. We waited briefly in an appropriately distanced line and proceeded inside to vote. The entire process took about 15 minutes.

[BOS2IAD]

Thanks, everyone.

My local satellite location is the North County Government Center in Reston. We had considered going the first day of early voting but decided to give it a week to see if there would be shorter lines. The times we have checked, the lines are incredibly long and no one was keeping safe distance. Both times we checked, it was mid-afternoon.

We could go to the library in Herndon where early voting is also taking place. In fact, we've wondered if lines would be any shorter there...

One way or another we will vote---if not early, then we'll go to our polling place on election day. Maybe by then, the line won't be as bad given how many are voting early.

If anyone else has done early voting, I would interested in hearing your experiences, too.

[boyd888]

You can go to any satellite location in your county to vote, not just the one closest to your house. I'd try the libraries or the Fairfax Government Center.

[ersatz]

There were huge lines near my Fairfax County location for several weeks but they have been much shorter recently. If you want to vote early, the early voting closes Oct 31.

[BOS2IAD]

Originally Posted by boyd888

You can go to any satellite location in your county to vote, not just the one closest to your house. I'd try the libraries or the Fairfax Government Center.

I know we could go to any county satellite location to vote. In fact, I was considering going to the Herndon Library. We will definitely look into doing just that. Thanks for the info as to the libraries regarding early voting.

[BOS2IAD]

Originally Posted by ersatz

There were huge lines near my Fairfax County location for several weeks but they have been much shorter recently. If you want to vote early, the early voting closes Oct 31.

Well, I had thought that as early voting progressed, the lines would be shorter. Thus, it's been surprising to see the lines at the North County Government Center are unrelenting.

[Mikemapva]

We live between the North County Government Center and the Herndon Library locations, and had heard about the lines at the North County site.


So, we started focusing on the Herndon one. Most days, it seemed to be a line of about an hour and that was too long for us. We went by around 5:30 on Thursday evening and got through in 30 minutes.



Hope that helps.

[LocalGuy61]

We live in Sterling (Loudoun County) and voted last Tuesday evening. We were in and out in about 10 minutes.

[BOS2IAD]

Thank you both.

Mikemapva --- Thanks for the info on the Herndon Library. We are planning to check it out tomorrow.

LocalGuy --- We moved out of LoCo three years ago. Never did we have to wait in long lines to vote there. However, circumstances are so different this year as we now live in Fairfax County.