Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@selenagomez
Topics: Celebrity, Politics, Selena Gomez, Social Media, TikTok
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Celebrity, Politics, Selena Gomez, Social Media, TikTok
Selena Gomez's social media post on voting has left some of her fans across the globe a bit puzzled about how the system works.
Counting down the days to election day, the Only Murders in the Building star took to social media to encourage her followers to vote.
In a video shared to TikTok earlier this week, Gomez shared footage of herself traveling to the Wizards Beyond Waverly Place premiere, however, not without a stop along the way to hop out and pop her vote in a drop ballot box.
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The Rare Beauty founder can be seen hopping out of a car in her red dress and heels and running over to a drop box along a sidewalk.
However, the video has left some of her fans from outside the US confused by the voting system across the pond.
One Twitter user said: "I’m sorry do Americans just... drop their ballot into a random box on the street????"
"This is wild to me because in Australia you have to show up to a polling centre set up in a primary school, get your name marked off a book and then they give you a ballot paper which you fill out in a booth," another responded.
A third commented: "How long have you been voting like this??? Did you not question this method till now? Also, it's unsupervised? Who in the burning Hell thought this was a good idea?"
But there's a reason why ballot boxes seemingly pop up at random locations in the street.
Dubbed 'drop boxes,' the US Election Assistance Commission explains: "A ballot drop box provides a secure and convenient means for voters to return their mail ballot.
"A drop box is a secure, locked structure operated by election officials where voters may deliver their ballots from the time they receive them in the mail up to the time polls close on Election Day."
Ballot drop boxes may be staffed or may not have anyone overseeing them and some are permanent while others are temporary.
"Unstaffed drop boxes are typically available 24 hours a day and permanently anchored in place. Staffed drop boxes are typically available during regular business hours and monitored by trained workers during those hours," it continues.
Some people prefer drop boxes because they don't trust their vote will always make it if they mail it, favoring being able to see it delivered in person.
Drop boxes also ensure if you forget to vote until the last minute that you have more of an opportunity to do so.
So, as Gomez said: "ITS TIME TO GO VOTE!!!"