I voted on Monday, and I’ll vote again in November. And I’ll get away with it, too!
We had an incident Monday, which I didn’t learn about until yesterday when a county election official gathered us around at 6:30 a.m. and talked about it. Apparently a man who either was not qualified to vote or who had already voted, insisted on following his wife into the voting booth (apparently to supervise her selections) and got belligerent when asked to vacate the room, concluding with a shove to one of my fellow judges.
We were advised to step up our line management oversight to not allow anyone over 18 who was not specifically invited by a voter (as an assistant) into the room. We check-in judges also stepped up our watchfulness (not easy because we were busy as shit) and our aggressiveness in challenging anyone who was there but not checking in to vote. AND to promptly call the police if somebody gets physical. Maryland Chief Judges are lawfully empowered to order someone’s arrest for disruptive behavior (and the police are required to obey).
It’s ok for a voter to request assistance, happens all the time with the infirm. But there’s a little paperwork to do first.
Just got notification that was ballot was counted, so include me in the list of I Voted!
I don’t get to vote often this year 
i was a poll worker in the spring, and “voted” a lot of late-arriving absentee ballots. That is, i took them to the lady checking off names, confirmed they hadn’t already voted, she marked them as voted, and i took the ballots and feed them into the ballot box. I volunteered again this fall, but they have more volunteers than needed, so i wasn’t selected.
Oh well, that means i don’t have to wake up before dawn.
My sister is working the polls on Election Day and a few days of early voting. We are doing our part by watching the annoying puppy for her.
Thank you for your service. 
Keep an eye out for those rotten kids …
Adding to earlier post:
I continued my long run of never voting a straight party ticket.
I accomplished this by voting for one of the judges on the Working Families line.
(In NYState, when candidates are endorsed by more than one party, the votes for a given candidate on both/all lines are added together. It’s common for the D’s to also run on Working Families, and for the R’s to also run on the Conservative line; though I’ve seen other combinations.)
That reminds me of an interview on CNN I watched this morning with Ann Jacobs, chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The interviewer asked her what was keeping her up nights as the election approached. Her answer: Election workers being attacked or killed.
Question for our Poll Workers - despite pushback, we all know that prominent wearing of the American flag has been all-but entirely co-opted by the so-called party of “American Values” - ie MAGA. But it’s still, technically, a patriotic and non-denominational symbol of the nation. Is it an issue wearing flag-based apparel to the polls?
Not where I was. In fact, one of the two official “watchers” yesterday was completely bedecked in flag-oriented hat, shirt and pants. As long as he wasn’t wearing explicitly partisan clothing, that’s ok here in Maryland. He looked like a fool and it was doubtful that he was a Democrat.
The guy cheerfully acknowledged that he had no idea what to watch for or even how things worked. After an hour or two, he got bored and left.
The other watcher was dressed entirely normally but kept close attention to our procedures, including writing down tamper tag numbers at beginning and closing. Fantastic, she watched us doing our jobs correctly.
If there’d been a poll worker there with time to do it, I’d have given him a really detailed lecture about exactly how things worked. (He’d probably have gotten bored and left even sooner.)
ETA: does an official poll watcher get to get bored and leave? and wouldn’t an official one have gotten that lecture before hand?
Or does “official” in that sense mean only “the location must give some random two people license to stand there and watch”?
Wait. Are you saying that more Republicans than Democrats are voting early in Maryland and that most of the first time voters and new Registrations are Republicans? That really worries me. Maryland should not be a swing state.
My wife and I voted “early in person” today. She’s an immigrant and recent citizen. She’s all in for Trump. I convinced her to leave the president vote blank. I wrote in Ron DeSantis. We both voted R for Senate and Representative.
So–two potential Trump voters and NO votes for Trump. You’re welcome.
No, just that a higher percentage of registered Republicans have voted during the first four days of early voting than registered Democrats.
My county is reliably red - about 48% Republican with the balance split nearly evenly between Dems and independents - but the state as a whole is still bigly blue.
At my early voting center, most, but not all, of the first time women voters were Democrats. Most, but not all, of the first time male voters were registered Republicans. That’s based strictly on the first time voters I personally checked in but I think my experiences were pretty representative.
It also felt like I checked in more women than men yesterday but I’m a little less sure of that.
In Maryland watchers have to be appointed by approved entities - the criteria is kinda loose - and have credentials from the Board of Elections before setting foot in the polling place. But they can be there during both setup and closing.
I’m pretty sure they can leave and return as long as they check with the Chief Judges when doing so.
“Your signature has been verified. Your ballot was counted.” I have officially voted. Yay me.
I cast my pointless DC vote Monday. My main motivation was to vote against initiative 83, which will almost certainly pass. Also just to get that sweet “I voted” sticker.
ETA: despite their records not matching my actual birthdate it was painless. Despite the error it took less than 15 minutes. Everyone was friendly and helpful.
My NY mail in ballot was received on Oct 25, according to vote.nyc. Today I received a second ballot in the mail…guess I’ll keep it as a souvenir?
Yeah, I mean that is fine. My parents committed to never voting Trump again after January 6…but I think both did it anyway this year.
I was kind of hurt they would go back on their word on that, but it’s kind of a cult of sorts.
Good on ya’ for skipping the presidential one or writing in another.