Yes I voted today, and no the lines weren’t very long. In fact they were amazingly short. However, I had some friends that voted this weekend and they said it was really crowded. I think that all the early voting made a big difference in why it was a lot less crowded than usual.
-XT
It is odd - but one data point is that the Gallup polls that use two likely voter screens were finding significantly better results for Dems when they “loosened” the screens. Nate Silver put out a hypothesis in his “How Dems Could Surprise” post that perhaps the super-enthusiastic GOP was “crowding out” less-enthusiastic-but-still-probably-going-to-vote Dems.
We will know for sure tonight I suppose…
I voted.
Then I went outside and pissed into the wind.
Then I beat my head against a brick wall.
It was busy (N.E. Indiana) and people seemed to be taking quite a while to cast thier vote.
Busier than normal, with only a moderate level of mayhem. It was at a Christian school, so the children were screaming “Preacher! Why is that man killing that other man!!! Are those intestines!!! Gross!!!” I got tired of listening to that crap so I just cranked up RATM on my MP3 while I voted an all write-in ticket using the cast of The Young Ones.
Yes, I think this is a factor. I went to a swimming pool on Thursday that happened to be right next to an early voting site. They had people out directing traffic because it was so crowded. There was a line all the way down the sidewalk, and this was at about 10 in the morning on a weekday.
What the hell? Is that what goes on in Christian schools?
I just got back. My precinct (I assume mostly on-campus, and most of the folks in line looked college-age) was decently busy (a line about 10 deep to sign in; nothing to discourage folks from long waits), but the precinct at the next table over had almost nobody. That might just be due to the time: Probably a lot of non-students are at work right now (the University has voting day off). Still, if there’s significant turnout from college students this year, that could make a huge difference.
Fortunately for us, there is never a shortage of new bums.
Too right! I prefer them big and round and…
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…Oh, you meant the other kind. Sorry…
-XT
Voted ~9:30am. Eight Voting booths full, with 12 people in line. Quite a bit of material to vote on, using the “Complete the Arrow” style ballot with an ink pen. About 30 minutes later, it was about the same when I finished and left.
Only the groovy ones…
(in all seriousness, it was slightly busier than normal, very calm, and I noted that even being in my 40’s I was the youngest person there)
I have to admit that I didn’t do my homework this year and research all the candidates and propositions, judges and such that I usually do. 
I’ve been really busy and traveling a lot and just didn’t have the time or inclination to do it…just couldn’t get really excited about this years elections.
Basically what I did was ask my dad how he was voting (he did the early voting and had one of those work sheets that you can fill out before you do the actual ballot). I took his work sheet and basically voted exactly opposite to everything he voted on (which was pretty easy, since he didn’t bother with any of the individual voting and instead selected Republican All). I figure that if he is voting for X then Y is definitely where I want to be (besides which, there are no 3rd party candidates to vote for, so you pretty much have to pick one).
-XT
I swung by the polling place on my way home from work to see what the turnout was like, and there’s SOMETHING going on up there…there were police cars and an ambulance in the intersection. Don’t know if it was election-related (one of the geriatric election volunteers had a stroke?) or not.
I voted at about 9:30 this morning (in Santa Barbara, since I don’t think my location shows up). There was no line at all, but there were about twenty booths in the place, and I would say about 15 were occupied. Voting took a while since I had bothered to check which judges were good and which weren’t. Usually, I just skip that part. It was a nice atmosphere. There were parents with their children, giving lessons in democracy, and a dog or two running around, which I didn’t really like but whatever. Also, the election judges were mostly in their 50s, I’d say, with a couple people older and one very attractive twenty-something. Well worth having to get up earlier than I’d like.
Voted.
Mild activity, no real lines.
My voting place is in a volunteer fire station in the little town of Bright, Indiana. There’s never a wait there, not even during presidential elections. There’s one ballot machine and five voting stalls.
Yes, I voted, and yes, it was busy even though we only had four races to vote for.
I voted. The place was dead. No lines, only 3 or 4 other people in the voting booths.
I voted - 12 minutes from leaving my car to returning.
One person ahead of me signing in. Slight line to go to a booth (could have just gone to a table but decided to wait). On person ahead of me to put my ballot (optical scan) in the machine - I think I was voter 717.
Brian
I just got back from my usual polling place and time. Busier than usual, with about 6 people in line.