D’OH!!! :smack: That’s brilliant, Shayna! I should have taken a photo of my ballot; I had the camera sitting right there. And all the election judges already thought I was nutty, anyway.
I just got back from voting at a middle school in Amarillo Texas. It was a new location. We use touch screens. I had less than ten minute wait, everyone was polite. The only problem was that the entrance we were to use was not well marked and it looked like most folks went to the wrong one at first.
Texas is quite republican and my area staunchly so. I am not a republican so my vote is pretty much wasted. Actually, the only reason I went at all was to vote for the new sheriff, and to write in a candidate for county commissioner. Ours is a Preacher who molests women who come to his ministry when they ask for help.
Well, it was pretty hard. I weighed the options considerably…and I already knew one was the clear favorite. I actually knew the votes were tied at the time that I voted…so I told myself my vote actually mattered this time.
And finally, after much deliberation…
…I voted in favor of having eggs instead of pancakes. Since my brother and his girlfriend had voted eggs and my mom and stepfather voted pancakes, my vote actually made the difference.
They were delicious.
The line petered out a bit around 9:15ish, so I walked across the street and waited all of a minute to get to the check-in table. Got my ballot, was outta there by 10:15.
Actually I’m agog that people are finishing their ballot in 10 minutes. The judges election completely filled one side of the ballot, which was about 13"x19". There were easily 50-60 judges to go through (and cross-reference against the research I’d brought with me, and double-check to make sure I’d filled it out correctly). And then of course there’s also the front side of the ballot. How on earth do you finish that fast?
My county in Washington switched to all-mail-in votes. I voted about 2 weeks ago and handed my ballot directly to the mailman.
Somewhat alarmingly, he said, “I wish I knew which ones of these are Obama votes, I’d throw 'em out.” Then he added, “Just kidding.”
I just missed seeing my mother at the polls. I did see my neighbor on her way out, though, and we chatted in the parking lot before I went in to vote.
No line. There was a bit of irregularity with the ballot in front of mine, but I was voter number 90 at 8:30 in the morning. I live in a teensy precinct.
I beat the lines by not showing up when polls opened. Apparently there were 200 people between 7 and 8 AM; there were about five people in process of voting and no lines when I showed up at 9. I was not, as I kind of expected to be, challenged or anything (which meant I showed up with five different types of ID in my backpack and printouts of state requirements for no reason at all.)
Paper ballots, which I was surprised at, which you then fed into a scanner.
I have to admit that I did no research whatsoever on one issue. There was a question asking whether we should allow school boards to increase in size and allow mail-in ballots in school board elections, an issue which I really don’t care about either way. So I just voted the way that the local alt-weekly’s election guide recommended.
Then, after swinging by the grocery store to pick up some snacks (and beer) to get me through tonight, I got a free cup of coffee at Starbucks, and took a free bus ride back home, because hey, free stuff.
I was the third person in the door at my polling place, and the second ballot accepted by the scanner. Apparently Voter #2 had not already decided how they wanted to vote before they got there.
The people who set up the equipment were pros - all of the booths, ballots, markers and the scanner were set up and ready to go. At the crack of 7 AM, someone turned the key and we were off. Unfortunately, the people handling the paperwork were not so good at finding names and addresses. Strange process - the first person finds you on an alphabetical list, and you sign next to your name. The second person finds you on an addressabetical list and checks you off. The third peson gives you a ballot. Then, you go vote. After you’re done, tear off the stubs and slide the ballots into the scanner under the supervision of the fourth person. The fifth person takes the privacy folder and marking pen, then gives you the sticker.
All told, we were done in under ten minutes. Hooray for small precincts!
Interesting statistics on the news about early and mail-in voting. In California, over 46% of registered voters have already voted before today. For comparison, in the 2004 presidential election, total turnout in CA was only about 57%.
Not everybody has a lot on the ballot. I didn’t vote on the school board people, because I feel uninformed about them, and we just had three constitutional things and a couple stae and local elections, some of which were unopposed.
I live across the street from my polling place, and I was excited to see more traffic than ever before right at the opening at 7 this morning. We waited until about 11 to amble over, two districts vote there and ours was the more crowded side but we still only waited 15 minutes. Things were set up very smoothly, paper ballots and about 80 little privacy booths to fill them in, one electronic reader per district chomping up 1 or 2 ballots a minute.
Oddly, one of my bosses was walking around as a poll watcher, he doesn’t live in the area so who knows how he got assigned way out here. He’s a complete tool, but I smiled and nodded.
As I waited outside for my boyfriend to finish up, I hear the boss guy talking with an outside volunteer watcher. A gentleman pulled up into a handicapped parking space and sat there for twenty minutes until one of the watchers finally went and asked him if he was okay. He asked for help, claiming to need a wheelchair and saying he’d been told one would be available. None were, and the boss and other volunteer were making disparaging remarks about how if he were really handicapped he’d already have his own wheelchair, how’d he get into the vehicle, etc.
I had my (large) 15 year old son with me, so I asked the boss if he’d like my boy’s help to assist the fellow in. They’re both good sized guys, so how hard could it be to help one older dude, right? The gathering crowd of volunteers making fun of the poor dude still sitting in his car all laughed, saying there was no way they were getting involved, what about liability issues, the guy should have made some prior arrangements.
:rolleyes:
By then my boyfriend came out, I explained the situation and he and my son went over and slowly assisted the guy into the polling. An election official inside showed us where to seat him at the single handicapper electronic voting machine and helped him again and again as he was pretty confused by how it worked. The boyfriend had to leave for work, but my son and I stayed and helped him back into his vehicle when he was finished.
Took over an hour, but luckily I’m off work today and the kid has the day off school. I still think the Boss is a butt-munch but at least one more person got to cast their vote.
Oh, and they were just into the 800s when I turned mine in. I overheard one of the officials saying there were not quite 1000 votes altogether in 2004, so when the afterwork crowd gets there it’ll probably double.
Is there any way to see what the ballot for your district is going to look like until you get there?
I voted by mail some time ago because this is my first time and I was afraid I’d hold up the line or look like a moron while I tried to figure out what to do. I just sent it in regular mail, so now I’m sitting around going, “Gee, I hope they got it.”
Today, my husband heard a news story about the record voter turnout and decided not to go because he didn’t want to wait in a long line, but when we passed our voting place there was hardly anyone there, so he’s going to vote now. I was silently disappointed, because I know his vote will cancel mine, but he said he would throw me a bone and vote against the “marriage = one man one woman” bullshit. He claims I’ve convinced him to see the light on that one. I have my doubts, but whatever.
There might be. I know I can look at mine on mich.gov, did you try your state’s site?
Rock on, the state site directed me to the county site which gives me a sample ballotfor my area. (warning, PDF)
That’s pretty cool.
I took the day off work becuase I figured the lines might be long here in Cleveland, we’ve had some problems ijn the past. Waited until about 10:30 AM to let the early voters who were going to work clear out. The place was busy, but mostly because there were 4 precincts voting in this location. When I actually got to the table for my precinct I was the only one in line, got my ballot and voted. It took about 15 minutes to vote, what with all the issues and judges on the ballot.
I have to say it would be pretty hard for the machine to misread one of these ballots, it was the scannable type with the ovals. But the ovals were much larger than those I was familiar with in college grading, maybe 1/2’’ by 1/8", and well separated from adjacent ovals. Hopefully machine error won’t be a factor at all in this election.
Info for Cook County, plus links to other counties, if anyone else needs 'em.
Walked out my front door at 12:50, back in at 1:05. Apparently, there was quite a crowd early on, I’m glad I waited for the rush to die down. In 2004 I was voter 53 in my ward at 4:30 in the afternoon. Today I was #168.
My parents usually vote around 4 or 5 o’clock and are usually in the low 100’s, today they went at 11 and were number 284 and 285. (different town).
I went on my lunch break. Took 10 minutes, including parking my car, walking to the school, and walking back.
My 6-year-old daughter feels strongly that she wants to go and be a part of it, so my husband will take her when he goes later. She can ride out the lines. My 4-year-old son, who has a limited attention span for things that he’s not interested in, really would not be able to, and then the 2 of them would start acting up, etc.
I’ve taken my daughter for the past 2 years. One year, in trying to explain elections to her, we had a mock election at our house. She nominated her favorite Halloween candy and then had to campaign—i.e., convince others why hers was best. We talked about doing that again this year. Her candidate was this novelty gummy hamburger candy That’s like the Ron Paul of Halloween candy elections but, hey, it’s her candidate!
Perhaps it’s a testament to the level of bureaucracy in Chicago. 