US presidential election: Mail-in voting and how it works

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00:00This is the kind of ballot that millions of Americans have received by mail in recent weeks now

00:04This one is a dummy ballot

00:06So it won't be used to vote

00:07But you may be wondering what all of this text is for well like every Election Day Americans

00:11Don't just vote for president and for Congress. There's a long list of other races, too

00:16This ballot for residents of Maricopa County in Arizona is four pages long state senators school supervisors

00:23Citizens are asked to weigh in on a number of elections, but also

00:26Propositions which are citizen driven initiatives the ballots are mailed out four weeks before Election Day two pages front and back

00:33There's a lot of candidates and races ballot measures on there that voters need to educate themselves on

00:38So with that comes the comfort and convenience of being able to vote on your own times

00:43Once the ballot is complete voters have three options bringing it in person to a polling station

00:49dropping it off at an official ballot box or

00:52good old snail mail

00:55Ballots then arrive at the Maricopa County tabulation center before they're counted election workers

01:00Make sure that the signatures on the envelopes match those they have on record

01:04But the system hasn't always been foolproof two years ago Nate's vote was not counted due to a signature mismatch and nobody called him

01:12I'm a proponent of creating a holiday and doing it all in person and

01:17eliminating as much of

01:19the gray area as possible so that we

01:23Can trust it a little bit more than we can today

01:26Despite the distrust of some voting by mail remains a very popular option for millions of Americans

01:31One of the reasons the very long lines that voters could encounter when voting in person early or on Election Day

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