EARLY VOTING sites are open today 9 am to 5 pm in Albany County. The North East Kingdom’s most famous former resident is not on the ballot this year but five constitutional amendments are on the backside of your ballot including the right to clean air and water and no excuse required absentee voting.
https://www.albanycounty.com/departments/board-of-elections
Voting shouldn’t be difficult, it should be the easiest way to have your voice heard. While early voting makes it a lot easier, especially for those who live next door to a polling place, being able to absentee vote is a great option especially for those who live in more outlying areas where there are few Early Voting sites.
New state laws tightening voting restrictions come in two basic varieties: those that make it harder to cast a vote, and those making it more difficult to get registered to vote in the first place.
A ranked-choice voting system (RCV) is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of the adjusted votes. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.
I was going through some of Albany County's public data servers and found an up-to-date (in theory) map of election districts in the county. While this will change after redistricting, still kind of handy to have for now for various projects.
Ballots will allow voters to rank their choices one through five. However, if they wish to simply only vote for one candidate and leave the rest of the bubbles blank, they can do that.
If none of the candidates get by with a 50 percent majority, the candidate with the least first rank votes is eliminated and second choice votes on the eliminated ballot are counted as first rank votes. If a candidate then passes the 50 percent threshold, they are named the winner. If not, the processes repeats until a winner is determined.