I Voted - Nov 2024 Edition

Politics & Elections
261

In St Louis County advance voting being is offered as ‘No excuse absentee voting”, meaning that you don’t have to provide a reason (e.g. ‘I’ll be in Honduras on election day”). There’s about a dozen sites, many of them libraries.

I voted today and my wife the day before. Took me an hour, and her about 75 minutes. The parking lots were packed and the lines extended out the front door. But it was pleasant and mostly efficent. The temperatures were mid 60s. Inside the line snaked thru various sections of the library and there were lots of comments about how nice the library was. I go frequently but didn’t know they offered board games and jigsaw puzzles. I’d never seen their large audio book section.

So it was no faster than the last presidential vote, but more fun, more relaxed.

The actual voting room set-up was identical to a regular election day, but with more workers and no student helpers. I’m not sure, but I think they were calling it ‘absentee voting’ to sidestep some new Missouri prohibition on advance voting.

262

In 2009, New Jersey eliminate absentee voting and replaced it with Vote-By-Mail Ballot. Save result, different name.

I need to figure my password and see if my vote got registered.

263

We have only offsite voting here; you can either mail your ballot in using a prepaid envelope, or you can take it to one of dozens of collection boxes around the county. We did ours yesterday.

264

First day of early voting in New York today. Got back from voting a little while ago, after waiting in line for about an hour. This is the first time I’ve had to wait any length of time to vote, but my fault for going on the first day, and of course there are fewer early voting sites than will be open on Nov. 5. If it hadn’t been a nice day, I’d probably have turned around and waited until Election Day.

This, by the way, in a heavily blue area. That WaPo site shows, in my Zip code, about 1200 Harris donors, for $300K, vs about 300 Trump donors, for $70K. Of course, there’s no question who’s going to win the NY presidential vote, but some of the local elections on Long Island are definitely in question.

265

Well, finally.

I dropped my ballot in a conveniently located drop box closest to my home on Wednesday. It’s finally reflected by the Oregon Secretary of State as “received” as of October 24th, but the website wasn’t updated with this information until today.

So far as I know, there’s no additional information to be gleaned from the site. If there’s something wrong with the ballot (there isn’t), they’ll contact me directly to remedy.

I voted!

266

Just checked my ballot status at the Secretary of State’s website: ACCEPTED. Submitted to be counted.

267

Logged in and confirmed that my ballot has been RECEIVED. Counting begins on November 5th, upon which I presume my ballot will be ACCEPTED, which means that it has been counted.

268

Voted straight D ticket, if a Republican was the only one running I did not cast a vote.

Had a mildly entertaining interaction at the poll station…

Inna and I were running errands and I was wearing my Harris/Walz t-shirt. We decided at the spur of the moment to vote as we were driving back - there were a bunch of signs at a nearby library, and I asked her if she wanted to go.

I mentioned to Inna that I may have to change my shirt, but she demurred, ‘I’m sure it’s OK, we’re right here’, all of it convincing me to go in.

So I park and we walk, arm-in-arm, to the back of the line. I noticed a man wearing a US flag shirt about 40 people ahead (halfway up), and some instinct caused me to lean over and say…

“Back in 1968, 69, some kid by the name Abbie Hoffman wore a shirt with an American flag on it to the House of Representatives… and was arrested for it, for wearing the flag was seen as a massive sign of disrespect…”

She thought this was amazing (Inna was born and raised in the Soviet Union, so her attitude is that the US is, and always has been, decadent with no respect for traditions), and I continued

“So, wearing the flag became a thing of the American Left, but, in time, the Right co-opted flag imagery to the point where, if you see someone wearing a flag nowadays…” and here I indicated Flag Shirt Guy… “you can pretty much assume they are on the Right, unless an underlying message says differently.”

So we discussed this, Abbie Hoffman, the wisdom of creating something called the “Youth international Party” given the inexorable nature of time and fickle definitions of “youth”, the regular patter which goes on while you stand in line for about an hour.

So we get approach the door, about 10-15 minutes away, when Flag Shirt Guy walks out, having done his Duty in Voting America towards our Fascist Future™. He sees my shirt, literally stops short, and barks “You can’t wear that in a polling location” (which is what I kinda thought, but oh well). He then walks on… but three seconds later he walks past me, back into the voting location, and I tell Inna - “that guy is reporting me, you just watch and see”. She didn’t believe me until the guy walks out, smug look on his face, and two poll workers trail him, a man and a woman.

(As Flag Shirt Guy walks away, exiting this story, I hear him remark to his wife “if we can’t wear our clothes, they surely can’t wear them to the polls”. I mocked him to Inna - “that guy tattled on me! Like we’re in the 5th grade or something!” - getting some chuckles from the crowd.)

The woman asks me if I’m fine turning my shirt inside out, I told her that was no problem, and the guy was watching the scene… watching me… to see what would happen. I made some crack about “being ripped, so I don’t want to embarrass the other guys, where’s the restroom?”, and went to the bathroom, flipped my shirt inside-out, and rejoined Inna for the last 20 minutes in line.

I finally get to the election workers, and the woman who approached me earlier came up and thanked me for being so polite, further explaining that yesterday they had some Trump supporter get so violent about being asked to remove his MAGA hat that they had to call the cops!

So, anyway, we all learned something that day. Well, except Flag Shirt Guy, but that’s to be expected.

269

Speaking as someone who volunteered to work the polls on election Day, thank you for being polite and understanding.

270

I’m intending, probably tomorrow, to leave my Harris and Wagenhauser buttons in the car before going in to vote; along with, just in case, my pocket knife. Though it occurs to me that I was in the same building last week with the (Swiss army) knife in my pocket; didn’t think about it at the time.

The buttons will go back on next to my (expected) nice new I Voted sticker as soon as I get back to the car.

271

You are very lucky. I’ve been accosted by the driver of one of those while Mrs. Martian and I were eating in a Mexican restaurant back in AZ. He was banned from that restaurant after that (he had already been banned from most other places in town). After he left the restaurant he drove back and forth past the entrance a dozen times or so - the owner was just about to call the cops when he took off (this was in the parking lot so private property).

And as I posted on another thread, here in Rehoboth Beach (when Mrs. Martian and I spend the Fall, as blue a town as you can find) we have this clown:

[Album] imgur.com
272

Only a handful of people at City Hall where I voted on Saturday afternoon. I’m still surprised that in MA, granted a very Blue state, most races the Democrats are running unopposed. The most interesting part of my ballot was the state and local questions, for sure.

273

It was no big deal to me, but apparently it was to this guy:

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/election-worker-assaulted-san-antonio-19863127.php

274

Now why would the sheriff do that?

Quality law enforcement includes notifying would-be scofflaws that the cops know who you are and you won’t be getting away with that crap.

275

It was on the actual report (also part of the public record), but Salazar (D), didn’t want to fan flames.

276

After a short visit to one of my doctors today (10/28/24) I drove two miles to an early voting site at a senior citizen center. Right lane to vote in the car, left lane to get to the one visible space in the parking lot for walk-ins. 30+ immobile vehicles in the drive-by lane so I hit the parking space. A volunteer traffic director handed me a list of all the democrats (on blue paper, by the way). A 50-foot walk to the end of the line, arriving there at 2:30. A volunteer outside the legal boundary handed me a list of the republicans (on white paper, BTW). 50-60 folk in front of me outside the building.

Moved along 4-5 folk at a time, around the building corner (sunny, 75°F) then into the building. Very efficient layout of stations, 10 voters now in front of me. Presented my photo-i.d. DL for mandatory inspection, got and signed a permit to vote, took it across the dancehall and got a two-sided ballot, waited for the next of 20 or so booths to vacate. Voted with the black ink pen they supplied, filling in the little ovals. Inserted the ballot into the automatic ballot machine, got my 'I voted" lapel sticker, and left at 2:50.

277

We are told to ask people to turn a shirt inside out precisely so it doesn’t need to be a big deal. That’s something you can do in two minutes in the restroom, without needing to go home and find other clothes or anything. (Removing a hat or button shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone.)

We also have police on site of anything gets out of hand, but it’s better if it doesn’t get to that.

278

Just now dropped my ballot.

279

My newly 18-year-old kid voted, today.

I’ve now managed to cancel THREE magas!

But, I live in Ohio, so…

280

3 down, only 10 million to go. :wink: