Believe it or not I’ve booked the next day off so I can stay up throughout the night to look at the BBC and US coverage.
Although I’m not American I’m a current affairs freak and love looking at these things live. I’ve done the same with the British elections as well in the past although the time difference isn’t as bad
I will be drinking a bit, smoking a bit, throwing things at the tv every now and then. I seriously doubt I’ll see a result on the night but still will be hoping for the one I want.
Ideally, I’ll be in class all day, hang out a bit, do some homework, eat dinner, and get to bed at a decent hour.
In reality, because I’m a compulsive news junky with no will-power, I’ll bring my books to the common room and watch CNN on the big screen and feel disillusioned with my fellow liberals (read: the rest of my school). Followed by staying up way to late, followed by being late to class the next morning.
Meant to add that the feelings of disillusionment really doesn’t matter on the outcome. I’m an Angry Young Liberal; of course I’m going to be pissed off on election night.
I always vote on my way to work in the morning (my polling place is across the street from my apartment building). That evening I have a singing class from 8-9:30, so for a little while I’ll be out of the loop. Once I get home I’ll turn on NBC and see what’s going on. If I’m very lucky, by the time I get home things will be more-or-less settled regarding who won what races.
I’m just hoping that this time the election won’t be as messed up as it was for the 2000 election. :rolleyes: Yeah, that was fun.
Oh, and smartini ? I want to be just like your mom when (if) I grow up!
We’re having a hurl mile on election night. The rules are simple: Every participant must run a mile and drink 72 oz of beer. The beer may be consumed before, during, and after the run and does not have to be retained. We all throw $5 in the pot and it is split between the fastest male and female.
By the time I stagger home, I should be half-drunk, sick to my stomach, and tired - just in time to catch the election fiasco on TV!
Thanks Saltire, I agree. We have a lot of fun with it. We are a pretty vocal lot and do our share of policy wonking and carrying on but it seems like at some point you have to celebrate the process.
Thank you for manning to polls. I feel a bit of guilt to admit that I have never done that and should. When my daughter was litttle I always took her to the polls with me and held her up to punch my card. All of the poll workers were delighted to have her there, gave her her own sticker, etc. Nice people there.
I’m one of the few volunteers for my party of choice who doesn’t have a heavy work schedule on Tuesdays. I teach for a couple of hours in the afternoon, but I’m free for the rest of the day. And I have a working car.
I’ve volunteered to give rides to people who have problems getting to the polls on their own. I’ve got a lot of energy, and we’ve got a serious shortage of people able and/or willing to shuttle people around. I fully expect to start the Scribblemobile going in the absurdly early morning, keep it ferrying people to the polls until around noon, head to campus and teach, and then have said Scribblemobile scurrying around until the polls close.
There is the possibility that I’ll end up hanging out in my polling place, doing what I can to raise the spirits of people sick of standing on line in a stuffy, overheated church basement. Stuff like that can go a long way towards limiting the number of people who walk away from the line and don’t manage to get back before the polls close. But I think it’s more likely that I’ll be driving.
Read lots of my book as to avoid the politicking online.
I want to go out for a nice leisurely dinner somewhere downtown, stroll down the streets afterwards with an ice cream cone or sweet coffee drink (depending on the weather) and go home and watch movies with my sweetie.
I’ll probably cheat and check CNN between films, but I’m NOT going to do what I did in 2000, which was sit with my roommate’s friends (the Green Party kids from KU) until 4 am when I finally kicked them out.
I’m afraid you have the right idea. I must tell you all, the way things are going in New Mexico, this one’s going to end up being decided by the courts.
My husband will be going out of town that day, tho his flight isn’t till noon, so he can vote in the morning. I’ll vote after work, then probably just do miscellaneous chores around the house, avoiding the news like the plague. I’ll wait to find out on Weds morning.
Even so, what are the chances of it really mattering? (Yes, I am a little worried that they won’t get my absentee ballot counted, due to sheer numbers.) The race will be really tight if five electoral votes swing it either way.
Sorry, the OP specified nonpolitical. I just think that we might know only if there is really a landslide that so far has not been predicted by polling.
Anyway, I plan on probably watching either CBS or the Daily Show, if they are doing any election coverage. I’ll probably switch a bit too, but if it gets to be 1 or 2 AM, I’m definitely going over to listen to Dan Rather ramble and come up with weird folksy sayings.
I’ve already voted by absentee and I’m supposed to be working 2 p.m. - midnight that evening. And I might.
Then again, I might not. Though I usually try to avoid most of the political debates on this board, I am always keenly interested in such things and I do tend to become a channel-flipping junkie on election night. I like surfing around listening to and watching the rumpled, hollow-eyed, sweat-stained, over-caffeinated anchors and talking heads blathering on into the tenth straight hour of coverage. Quite entertaining in a tense, torturous sort of way :p.
That’s harder to do at work, where we only have a crappy 13-inch TV with taped-up rabbit-ears and malfunctioning remote that gets piss-poor reception at the best of times. Whereas at home I can either hang out at my place with abundant snacks or shuttle over to my next-door neighbors/friends as the mood strikes me during the evening and flit amongst the cable news channels on 32" screens. So I am actually considering burning some vacation time ( easy to do - I have internal coverage that day ) just to enjoy the show in comfort :D. I do have two hours of comp time I have to get rid of before January anyway.
I’m a pollworker (the whole board, sarcastically: “Oh, reeeaaaallly?” Shut up, you jerks!) and have to report at 5:30 in the ayem and will not be off-duty until 9:30 in the night. Elementary school lobby/gym/cafeteria (warn’t many people in this part of da Bronx in 1922) with hard benches and very drafty. But it’s a nice neighborhood with plenty of nice places to eat and I’ll know all the old folks who come in to vote. And it is mostly them for most of the day.
We’re not allowed to have radios, TVs, or laptops, so even though I’ll be at the heart of the process, with probably about 500 voters at my machine (one of ten there), the only news I’ll get all day is when I close the machine at night and the numbers appear. I expect to be bedeviled all day by press and poll-watchers for the candidates.
Then I’ll go home and switch between CNN and Comedy Central. Gaaaah.
Smartini, your mom sounds so cool! But she wouldn’t let me into the party because when we vote in NYC we get no stickers, stamps, cards or lollipops, just the warm glow of satisfaction. At least I hope that glow is satisfaction.
Mehitabel, come on down! I am sure she will waive that requirement for a pollworker*…maybe you can get a ride with World Eater since you’re both invited and are neighbors!
*being from a Blue state won’t hurt either but by far not a requirement!!
Since I wasn’t invited to smartini’s house ( ), I plan to gather my family around the tube for what I hope to make an election night tradition: nachos and Danger!!Deathray.
Oh, who am I kidding, I’ll be here, listening to the returns and commiserating.
), I plan to gather my family around the tube for what I hope to make an election night tradition: nachos and Danger!!Deathray.