A woman I know has never voted. I have given her shit over that for decades. She just sent me a selfie with an “I VOTED” sticker. She said she was doing it for me. I’m teary eyed.
This year is also the first time my 30 year old daughter voted, and she encouraged several coworkers to vote as well.
Considering that in Texas more people voted early this year than voted period in 2016, I can’t imagine lines are long here. There aren’t many voters left!
I voted today.
There were just too many republican shenanigans for me to be comfortable with voting any other way. Slowing down the mail. Some mail carriers not delivering mail. Lawsuits trying to disenfranchise early votes in a number of ways.
I am in Illinois so that stuff was not so likely here since where I live is solid blue (Chicago) but still…I wanted to see my vote go in the machine and be counted.
It was really easy. No lines at all.
Went in around 7:30, waited in line maybe 5-10 minutes (which is unusually long for smalltown Mississippi, but then again, I usually go later in the day when people are at work), got a sticker AND a free pen.
Random observation: Like usual, we had several ballot initiatives. Two of them were reasonably straightforward (yea or nay on the new state flag design with a helpful picture, yea or nay on abolishing our dumb-ass state-level equivalent of the electoral college with a fairly clear explanation of what the changes would imply). The third one was a two-parter (do you want a medical marijuana initiative, and if yes, which of these two specific medical marijuana initiatives should pass?) and if I hadn’t done my research beforehand, I would not have been able to make head or tail of the second part – there was basically no comprehensible information provided about what either of the options would do and how they differ from each other. I’m sure a lot of people ended up voting at random on that one…
I’ve voted here in North Alabama (near Huntsville). BIG crowd this morning about 10am, 250-300 people in long lines outside (weather is sunny and in the 60’s). Took about an hour to get to vote, but they kept the line moving. Not much to vote on, 6 amendments to the Alabama Constitution (which is longer than War and Peace) and when I saw a write-in option for opposing Mo Brooks (R-Cretaceous), I filled it in and wrote Donald Duck, he being a lesser quack than Mo.
Crowd was quite and serious, 95% of folks had masks on outside (and 100% inside) and only signs I saw were for Biden and Doug Jones.
This will probably go solidly Republican, but the numbers of voters is encouraging…at least to somebody.
Voted this am. Got there right at 7 and was 34th in line! Longer lines than I had ever seen here. Everone was masked and polite, no apparent Trump thugs, er “poll watchers”, in sight. Heard one young man state it was his first time voting. The lady he was with wore a BLM t-shirt (they were white). Cautious optimism.
Just got back from voting. No line at the “first letter of last name” table I go to. They were also giving out high-quality free pens. I was number 276 at the precinct, although I don’t know how that compares to other years.
FWIW I should add that in all my years voting in Chicago (30+) I have never waited more than five minutes in a voting line (maybe 10 minutes one time) and often have none at all. That said my GF reported a long line for early voting at the local library once (not this year) but that seemed an exception.
I voted today, didn’t have to wait long. Made me sad 4 years ago I was married with a house and children. I lost the wife and house and now only get to see the kids on the weekends, a lot can change in 4 years, sigh…
Thanks Obama!
/s
I’ve decided that if California didn’t have so many dang propositions, I’d send in my absentee ballot ahead of time. It’s always a mess.
Dropped it off at the drive-through at City Hall. There were three poll workers at the end of the line and a couple of cops leaning against a cop car at the beginning of the line.