This article is part of a Sierra series about the 2020 election.

In Georgia, early voting for the 2020 presidential election began on October 12. The first day, so many people showed up to vote in Cobb County that people brought their own chairs. “I went from ‘yay love seeing all these people early voting’ to ‘I’ve been here over four hours, hungry and ready to go’” one Cobb County voter, Everlean Rutherford, posted on Twitter. She would ultimately wait nine and a half hours to cast her vote. 

Three days later, Rutherford’s statement, and a selfie she’d taken waiting in line, wearing a hot pink camouflage face mask, was in a German newspaper. This is because Rutherford’s vote—and the vote of every other person standing in line with her—has massive implications for international relations, the global economy, and climate change. Disenfranchisement of voters—particularly Black voters, but also college students and young people in general— through tactics like gerrymandering, closed polling places, restrictive voter ID laws, and interfering with the US Postal Service, is an openly discussed Republican strategy for holding on to political power in areas where a majority of voters are disinclined to actually vote for their candidates.  

So far, turnout for early voting across the country has been massive. In some states, it’s easier to vote early than it has been in the past—partly because of the pandemic.  The turnout is also a sign of how determined people across the country are to have their votes counted, and of a massive voter education effort sweeping the country. About 30 percent of Georgia’s registered voters have already cast their ballots, and Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, and nearly every other state have seen a sharp increase in early voting compared with previous elections. Which makes sense: Voting early is a way to avoid calamities that could happen on Election Day—from bad weather that makes waiting in line outside miserable to malfunctioning equipment to polling places that run out of ballots. Here are a few tips for staying safe while voting early.

If you’re mailing in your ballot (or using a ballot drop box) 

Try to do so at least a week in advance of the election. Some states will not accept ballots that arrive after Election Day; others will count them as long as they are postmarked the day before the election.

Double- and triple-check your ballot to make sure that you haven’t made any mistakes that would disqualify your ballot, like forgetting to sign the outside of the envelope in a way that matches your signature inside the ballot, or forgetting to have your ballot signed by a witness (which North Carolina requires).

Some states cover postage for ballots; others make voters pony up (two first-class stamps for this election because the ballots are big).

Once you’ve dropped it in the mail or into an official ballot drop box, most states offer the ability to track your ballot online. If you want more information about your ballot’s journey, the Brennan Center has a good survey of the various security procedures that mail-in ballots go through.

If you’re voting in person

Sites for early voting may be in different locations than the polling places for voting on Election Day, so be sure to double-check where you’re voting.

There is quite a bit of legal controversy over whether people who refuse to wear masks can be banned from polling places, on the grounds that the right to vote may supersede state public health measures. So, it’s possible that even if you live in an area where face masks are mandatory, a person who refuses to wear a mask will still be allowed into a polling place to vote. Some counties have contingency plans that will, say, have outdoor voting booths for maskless voters, and some will have masks on hand to give to voters without them. Others may not.

Fortunately, if you’re wearing a face mask, that will offer some protection (though not as much as if everyone is masked). COVID-19 transmission is extremely rare in the outdoors, and staying several feet away and not talking to people who aren’t wearing masks lowers your risk even further. Outbreaks are more likely to occur in families, and during group events like conferences, church services, and parties because proximity and length of exposure are both key factors in whether or not a person catches the virus, and possibly even how severe their case may be.

Make sure that you bring proper ID with you, if necessary. Some states don’t require an ID to vote. Others have very strict requirements. Check ahead of time to make sure that the ID you have fits those rules. If a poll worker tells you that you can’t vote, you can call the Department of Justice Voting Rights Hotline (800-253-3931) or the Election Protection Hotline (866-OUR-VOTE) for advice and backup. In many cases, poll workers only receive a few hours of training and may not completely understand the voting regulations in their own districts.

And no matter how you decide to vote, get other people to vote along with you. Not everyone in your circle may know when early voting is happening, or where it’s happening, or how to fill out their ballots properly. You can host a remote ballot filling-out party; you can meet up at the polls and stand in line with friends; you can just post vociferously about voting early on social media. No matter what, voting early will make Election Day easier for people who aren’t able, for whatever reason, to vote until then. 

Paid for by the Sierra Club Voter Education Fund, which seeks to raise key environmental issues in the discussions around elections and encourage the public to find out more about candidates’ positions on key environmental issues.