Voting Experiences

[SirNitram]

Today there were Republicans handing out Voters' Guides in front of the church where the polling station for my neighbourhood is. I early voted, but I saw them. I'm unsure if it's illegal or not. The Democrats seemed to think it was- when I early voted, we were told to look over the Voters' Recommendations but that it would be wrong to take them in with us.

Electioneering laws. They vary and change the exact rules, and eyeballing it is rarely accurate, but you must never do such inside, and that includes having those silly things.

[Darth Raptor]

Keswick, Keokuk County, Iowa

No lines at all, and nice, hard, existent Scantron forms. Voted for Barrack Obama as hard as I possibly could without tearing the sheet. Voted for Tom Harkin and a bunch of other Democrats downticket. Only voted for one Republican, and that was at the county level. I know her personally. Left the judges and stuff blank. Only one ballot initiative: A proposition to change the language on those ineligible to vote from "idiots and other insane persons" to "convicted felons and those adjudged mentally incompetent". I LOL'd.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Yeah that whole back side of the Iowa ballot was a giant question mark for me.

[CmdrWilkens]

-Total aside but Haminal10 is voting roughly 20 minutes north and east of me and his Congressman also represents my parents whoe live 20 minutes south and west of me...who loves gerrymandered districts?

Technically, I am in the 3rd district (Towson is located at the boundry of the 2nd and 3rd), but the point is well taken. The 2nd district is one of the most contorted ones that I have ever seen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Unit ... _2_map.png

Actually I'm in the 7th which neatly cuts the 3rd into two segments. Honestly the 2nd and 3rd may be the most gerrymandered districts out there. The 7th at least is largely contiguous if admittedly bringing a huge mix of inner city Baltimore, suburban Baltimore County and rural Howard County. The hilarious thing from my point is that my parents live to the SW of me in the 3rd while you live to the NE of me also in the 3rd.

[Rogue 9]

Stony Brook, NY and we used those old mechanical machines.

Rochester, NY. I really hate those machines. I considered a write-in until I learned that a) your write-in vote only counts if it's for an official write-in candidate who filled out paperwork; and b) it's kind of weird in those booths.

There too, eh? When I was voting at college in Kentucky in 2004, there was also that problem. If the write-ins have to register anyway, you might as well put them on the damn ballot.

[CmdrWilkens]

Today there were Republicans handing out Voters' Guides in front of the church where the polling station for my neighbourhood is. I early voted, but I saw them. I'm unsure if it's illegal or not. The Democrats seemed to think it was- when I early voted, we were told to look over the Voters' Recommendations but that it would be wrong to take them in with us.

Honestly its a state by state thing. Maryland, for instance, allows voters to bring a sample ballot into the voting area with them while prohibiting any electioneering within 100 feet of the whole building. In DC you can get within 50 feet but once you step inside you aren't even allowed to have on a T-shirt or button which supports a candidate. So long story short it may be illegal it may not be but if there is ever a concern report it either to independent watchdogs or to the obama Vote For Change website and they can have election lawyers examine the case who know far more than we simle peons.

[Metatwaddle]

Hockessin, DE. I just got back from voting. There was literally no line at all; the polling place was extremely well staffed and had a lot of voting machines. We use electronic machines with basically no paper trail, which makes me pretty nervous, but there have never been any complaints about Delaware's voting machines.

I voted straight party Democratic, except for our state representative who's running unopposed. He's an okay guy anyway - moderate, cares about education, was a high school principal before he ran for public office. In addition to Obama/Biden, I voted for Jack Markell for governor and Joe Biden (again) for Senate. I really don't know who will be appointed in his place; I guess it'll probably be John Carney (currently Lt. Governor on his way out; he lost to Markell in a very tight primary), but I'm sort of hoping it won't be, because I think he'd be a mediocre senator.

The only vote I wasn't sure about was the House race: Mike Castle, our incumbent RINO, was running against challenger Karen Hartley-Nagle. I don't actually think Hartley-Nagle would be that good a Congresswoman, but I voted for her anyway because I want to put a dent in Castle's margins. His credentials as a "moderate" have been lacking lately. He did sponsor the stem-cell research bill that Bush vetoed, but he also voted for things like the Military Commissions Act (back in 2006 - legalized various forms of torture), keeps voting to authorize the Iraq war without a timetable, is no longer categorically opposed to school vouchers, and other stupid shit. I want him to have a bit of a scare this year so that we can get a good challenger and some funding from the DNC/DNCC/DCCC in 2010.

[The Spartan]

Did my civic duty in Houston, TX. Walked in, voted, walked out. No wait.

Obama/Biden for President/Vice President, of course. The rest, well I couldn't tell you if I wanted to there were so many names there was just no way for me to remember them all. The only particular votes I remember are voting against John Cornyn for Senator, against Tommy Thomas for Sheriff and for Ed Emmett for Harris County Judge.

[Metatwaddle]

P.S. My high school was on CNN this morning! Joe Biden was voting there. My sister said there was a small army of reporters and Secret Service.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

After volunteering for NO on 8 from 6am to 3pm, I went to my voting location, walked up (there was no line) and voted. I must have triple-checked to make sure I voted NO on 8. When your civil rights are on the line, this process can be downright scary!

[Alan Bolte]

I voted at the middle school I used to attend. There was no line, and the machines had those paper receipt things.

[Zadius]

I voted early a week ago. No lines, not waiting. I was out of there in 5 minutes.

[fgalkin]

Voted in Brooklyn, NY, a third of a block away from where I am. Voted straight Democrat using the old-fashioned lever machines. Could have voted more than once, too, since it seems that there is no way they could check how many times I pulled the damn thing.

There was no line or anything, the whole process took about 15 minutes, including me trying to figure out how the damn machine works. The other causes for delay was this old Italian lady trying to find my name in the book "is this first name or last name?" and this Russian guy helping his elderly parents vote "no, no, pull THAT one"

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[R1X5.13]

precinct 38.3 (fairvew), Buncombe, NC. (I worked at it)
the longest line we had was 15 people and 3 min at 6:45 am.
No lines what so ever the rest of the day.
but we had a tiny turnout 548/2900.


i voted for Obama, and Kay Hagan.

[TimothyC]

Three minute wait for the electronic machines for me, none for the paper. No one wanted to vote on paper it seemed. The lady in front of me screwed up and didn't get her issues right three times in a row (you get to reject your ballot twice so she was stuck with whatever she wanted the third time.

[TrailerParkJawa]

I went to vote at the main Voter of Registrar building in Santa Clara county. It went pretty painless but I got there around 4:40pm. I went there because I've changed locations in the county but never modified my registration. It was cool to see so many people who are not native born taking part in the process. It was busy but not crowded when i got there and only had to wait for a bit to get my ballot.

Here are some of my key votes:

President of United States - Obama
- I dont expect him to save the universe but his views on Iraq were more in line with mine.

Proposition 1A - High speed rail: NO
- High speed rail from SF to LA is a pipe dream. We don't have the money and it is a cost prohibitive project with limited utility to the average citizen.

Proposition 7 - Renewable Energy: NO
- Mandating 20% renewable use by 2010 is a little bit unrealistic and my understandign this is a poorly written bill anyway.

Proposition 8 - Taking away Gay Marriage: NO
- Why anyone would care is beyond me, further more you never made contsitutional changes that LIMIT citizen rights.

- Measure B - BART TO SAN JOSE: No
- I'd love to be able to take BART from downtown San Jose all the way to SF or San Ramon, but the reality is this is an enourmously expensive project of
questionable usefulless for the average commuter.

[LadyTevar]

East Carondelet, Illinois

Sometimes living in a small town has its perks, like no waiting time to get into the booth and a choice between touchscreen and paper ballots (I naturally want a paper trail behind my vote). You can add +2 to Obama's tally right now, as my mother and I just provided them. I do wish we had a straight ticket option, though; its absence makes going through and voting for positions like coroner and dog-catcher a real bitch.

The straight ticket option should be abolished wherever it's currently allowed, such as my own state. What the fuck does it matter what party the coroner or dogcatcher are from? They're inherently non-political positions; whether there's an (R) or (D) behind the name has absolutely nothing to do with who is the most qualified candidate. If you don't know which candidate is more competent at autopsies/catching dogs/whatever, either educate yourself before you go to the ballot box or abstain from voting on the position. Unthinking straight-ticket voting is simply ignorant.

It doesn't, and that's the point: being able to vote straight ticket would eliminate time basically wasted on relatively meaningless races such as those. I don't care if the county coroner is Democratic or Republican, but I do care that going through the ballot for such positions is inconvenient and time-consuming.

As someone who has to work with coroners and make sure they're filling out Death Certificates correctly -- FOR GODS SAKE FIND ONE WHO KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING!

[LadyTevar]

Oh yeah...

Nit walked me over to the polling place about 10:30a, it's in the elementary school one block over.

There was a line, 10-15 min wait, but mostly for those with names A-L. The line for M-Z was so dead, the lady working there was announcing "Hey, I've got M-Z, please come to me!" When I got my paper ballot (for the Scanitronic), I was lucky enough to have an open booth. Nit had to take a seat and wait for me.

I voted Obama in, Capito Out. Sen. Rockefeller and Gov. Manchin get to stay.

Several Magistrates up for election: Voted Zakaib (He called my ex-hubbie's attempt to sue me 'pathetic' and threw it out). Voted Fouty (my dad's ex-fiancee). Voted for several State Senators. Voted Douglas for Dept of Agriculture (hey, like Byrd he's been there for years and has done a good job).

Found myself voting for a lot of women in various races: Judges, Secretary of State, State Senate. Several races had only one Candidate, so I left them alone. Why vote on a one-horse race? You know who'll win.

The Scanitronic had jammed on a ballot by the time I was done, but they said someone would be along 'shortly' to fix it. The lady instructed me to place the ballot in the holding bin on the Scanitronic, and since I could clearly see the "Ballot Jammed" message flashing on the machine, I did so and left.

Then Nit and I went out to IHOP for brunch.

[Base Delta Zero]

Early Voted on November 1st, at Leon County Courthouse. Waited maybe an hour or so. Met three of the candidates , (for State house, County Court Judge, and County Comissioner-At-Large). Ballot was pretty simple, legal size document with little rounded rectangles.

Voted for Obama, obviously; Yes on Proposition 1 (remove congressional authority to 'prohibit or regulate' ownership of property by aliens. 'Hell no' on Proposition 2 (Yet Another Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment) and no on all the others (basically people's tax breaks).

[Cyborg Stan]

Cary, Wake County, North Carolina

Got up randomly around 6:00 AM, managed to find some shoes and got to the polling place, (where there were no parking spaces left open at the time) a fire station with about 2 minutes until it opened at 6:30. Waited about 30-40 minutes outside in some cold-ish, drizzling rain. Strangely enough, there were more people with D-H last names than all the others combined.

Voted for Obama/Biden on a scantron thing, was voter #111 according to the machine. However, there was a bunch of early voting all last week too. Got a sticker, forgot to wear it to get free shit. Went home.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I voted after work three weeks ago, I had Lost re-runs on, and then I mailed the ballot the following Frigga's day (Friday, for those non-norse week users) There were no lines at the post office when I put my sealed ballot into the mail drop.

[Lancer]

In & out in less than a minute. Lines were nonexistent, and there were multiple stations open.

Voted Obama-Biden, and Kratovil for Md District 1. Even the Republican incumbent (defeated in Primary) endorsed the Democratic candidate, that should be a clear signal that something's wrong with the Republican ticket.

[Ender]

We had a church tearing down signs because though they were over 100 ft from the polling station, they said they were allowed because it was still their private property.

And I got to deal with a skunk. How was your election day?

[Edward Yee]

It was rather a quick affair for me... which was crucial, as in a bit over an hour after I left the polls I would be reporting to my first day of (paid) work ever.

[Havok]

Hoped off the bike walked in all Darth Vader and scared the polling people. Of course when the helmet came off, I was all charming and smiles. There was a really cute short chubby pregnant brunette bending over and hanging her ass crack all over the place. I went and voted by her. I wrote down what I was voting for, so I just had to copy my answers down. Took all of about 5 minutes.

On the way home I passed some No on 8 supporters and did a couple laps around that block honking and waving my support. I even did a little girly wheely (soda can) and I'm positive I could have gotten some numbers from some of the girls...and guys there with my show of support and machismo... If I still needed numbers.

Highly positive voting experience.