What's it like where you vote?

TragicMonkey said:
A biography of Lenin might be funnier to take to the polls.
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Actually, my idea was to try to find an opportunity to say something like, "Voting isn't rocket science. THIS..." (I would hold up the Feynman book) "... is rocket science."

It turned out that the lines were relatively short. The volunteers ran things very smoothly, and I had very little wait.

The ballots were different this year. In previous elections, we had the "draw the line" ballots, but this year we had the "fill in the oval" ballots. I made my selections, double-checked them, turned in my ballot, picked up an "I Voted" sticker, and walked out. The whole business took perhaps ten minutes.
 
Brown said:
It turned out that the lines were relatively short. The volunteers ran things very smoothly, and I had very little wait.

The ballots were different this year. In previous elections, we had the "draw the line" ballots, but this year we had the "fill in the oval" ballots. I made my selections, double-checked them, turned in my ballot, picked up an "I Voted" sticker, and walked out. The whole business took perhaps ten minutes.
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I hate you. The hour and half I waited in line meant that I hit even more traffic than usual in my hour long commute, and I managed to get stuck because there was a triple car accident with two fire engines and three cop cars in attendance blocking the interstate. I'm only amazed the drawbridge wasn't up and the train wasn't passing. Argh! Then my boss just arrived and said he had to wait ten whole minutes. And he got a better sticker than me.

We're still using the paper punch-ballots. You can be sure I checked carefully for hanging chads.
 
Brown said:
The whole business took perhaps ten minutes.
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I'm using my psychic powers here....


........there's a polling place very near to you....

Am I right? :)
 
CFLarsen said:
........there's a polling place very near to you....

Am I right?
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It depends on what you mean by "near," I suppose. I went to my polling place from my office, which is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) away. That's more than walking distance, but it's a convenient drive.

I am aware of some folks who have said they can see their polling places from their windows, and will go to vote when they see the lines are short. I did not have that luxury. Basically, I thought the lines would probably be shortest between 9:30 and 11:00 a.m., and between 2:00 and 3:30 p.m. So I set off to the polls at about 9:30.
 
I voted early here in Houston--about 10 days ago. I could vote a location close to me, regardless of my precinct--all I needed was my driver's license.

Walked 4 blocks to the central downtown location, flexed my democratic muscles, and went back to work.

Easy as Apple Pie.

A lot of un-opposed republicans on the ballot.
 
Brown said:
Actually, my idea was to try to find an opportunity to say something like, "Voting isn't rocket science. THIS..." (I would hold up the Feynman book) "... is rocket science."

It turned out that the lines were relatively short. The volunteers ran things very smoothly, and I had very little wait.

The ballots were different this year. In previous elections, we had the "draw the line" ballots, but this year we had the "fill in the oval" ballots. I made my selections, double-checked them, turned in my ballot, picked up an "I Voted" sticker, and walked out. The whole business took perhaps ten minutes.
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IIRC, you are from Minny, like me. Took me about half an hour because I arrived shortly after the polls opened. Pretty simple, but a couple things, not process-related disturbed me:

1) A woman in line making a claim that she didn't want people who register at the polls to vote because they are not likely to be "informed." Yeah right. Know why I didn't register until this morning? Because I didn't have to, and I knew how easy it is in my state. Idiot.

2) Some guy's flippant comment that "Democrats are gonna be bussing in people off the street to vote." In jest, but not entirely.

Where I live it's probably at least 60% Republican, so it wasn't much of a surprise I guess.
 
My polling place is the VFW up the block about 100 ft. Problem is, I'm very busy today. I have to pick up my son from Kung-Fu at 3:30 and be back at work at 4:30 so I'm going to try to fit it in then.

Could somebody please float me the answer key? It'll make it go much faster!;)
 
Woke up at 5:45, fed the dogs, drove 3 mins down the road to the Community Center. Line was about 100 people long, only took 20-25 mins though.

My family use to run elections, my sister still does, so I feel for the election workers, they are going to have a long day.
 
c0rbin said:
A lot of un-opposed republicans on the ballot.
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Um, duh. You live in Texas.

I was the 186th voter in my precinct, which I thought was low. This was about 1.5 hours after the polls had opened. I asked a poll worker and she said they typically had around 200 voters ALL DAY. Big turnout.

PS: Whole thing took about 5 minutes and the church (yeah, I know) served free donuts, coffee, etc. to voters.
 
I left work to go vote. My precinct voting location is the clubhouse of my apartment complex.

I was voter 187 at 10:45 AM. Not sure how many voters in the precinct.

We have had electronic voting machines since I moved here. Never had seen them before. No receipt for a recount. We have not had controversies involving the machines in the past.

Several people ahead of me did have problems. Most appeared to be first time voters. One person claimed that the person before him had not finished the ballot and left the machine open with the local issues undone. The poll workers check the number of voters and found no problems.
 
Snide said:
IIRC, you are from Minny, like me.
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Yeah, I'm in a suburb of St. Paul. At my polling place, I didn't hear a single word about politics, either in the building or out in the parking lot. Everybody was pleasant.

After voting, though, I noticed a city truck driving around picking up all of the campaign signs that had been posted on public property overnight. There were a lot of them.
 
A few people having around the building handing out samples ballots, of course these ballots "suggest" which votes you should make.
 
Brown said:
Yeah, I'm in a suburb of St. Paul. At my polling place, I didn't hear a single word about politics, either in the building or out in the parking lot. Everybody was pleasant.

After voting, though, I noticed a city truck driving around picking up all of the campaign signs that had been posted on public property overnight. There were a lot of them.
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I'm in Eagan. The two things I heard were all I heard. Not bad in retrospect. Plus, I can't profess to say I know how much "truth in jest" there really was.
 
I cant believe that ya'll got stuck in line. It took me a total of like 5 minutes. This was 8:30am.
 
Well, I voted first thing this morning. We had the new fancy, smancy electronic voting machines. I wonder if they ever figured out the bugs? Anyway, it was crowded! I don't ever recall ever seeing it so crowded at an election before. I had to wait in line. I have never had to wait in line before, and according to the election people, half the registered voters in Carson City, NV had already voted during early voting!

Anyway, my choices are set until someone re-programs the machine to change my choices to something else. [sigh]
 
Snide said:
2) Some guy's flippant comment that "Democrats are gonna be bussing in people off the street to vote." In jest, but not entirely.

Where I live it's probably at least 60% Republican, so it wasn't much of a surprise I guess.
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I think the bigger point is, AND? So what if they do? Shouldn't people on the street be able to vote?
 
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