Voting experiences today?

Pretty quick in and out, although there was a surprisingly (in a good way) steady flow of voters streaming in. Kind of saddened by the "new" town hall. Being frugal, the town updated to a light commercial building that had housed a few failed small businesses and was available on the cheap. Upgrade was necessary, as the prior building literally lacked indoor plumbing but I really, really miss the Norman Rockwell sort of setting with the pot belly stove stoked up right in the center of the old town hall. But hey, as long as I have the choice I will opt for paper ballots too; so I guess that's just me.
 
Small town here with one person checking voters in and handing them a ballot and another checking voters out after they have cast their ballots. Probably 5 people voting when I was there. No ID, just give them your name (but they know most everyone anyway.
 
I went to vote on my way to Wendy's for breakfast about 9:00am. There are two precincts voting at our polling place. My precinct wasn't too busy, but the other one (which is larger) was packed! Several races as well as several referendums this election, so it took a few minutes to get through them all. Total time of about 10 minutes, start to finish.

All in all, a pretty good turn out today, due mostly to the fact that we have a hotly contested governor's race going on!

And not to brag (too much anyway), but I've never missed an opportunity to vote in any election since I turned 18.....39 years! And, heck, once in a while my candidate wins! Ha!
 
I went to vote around 10:00 am this morning. My neighbors were walking out as I was walking in, so we chatted for a few minutes. There was only one other person inside voting when I entered, the least I've ever seen in our precinct.
 
Votes went in the mailbox over a week ago.
Even though there has never been a line where I vote in person, I got really turned off by the poll workers over time, so for the last few years it has been mail.

The incompetence and bureaucratic officiousness of poll workers seems to be a general problem, at least in this part of my state, since so many people I know have commented on it.
 
Quick and easy, stood in line for about 5 minutes. I always vote, my parents attitude was that if you did not vote you couldn't complain about politicians.
 
No hassles and quick. The poll workers are neighbors of mine, so a little chit-chat about the dogs, the weather, and what we ate for lunch. Most of the ballot was filled with folks running unopposed, so not much of a choice.
 
I used the electronic voting booth for the first time. Worked great. It printed your ballet onto a paper spool in case the machine were to crash or something. That was neat.
 
Went mid afternoon so it was pretty quiet as I expected. But maybe 4 other voters in at the same time?

One thing that bothered me a bit, was that the section on the several referendums (referendi?) was slightly confusing (or maybe just not as clear as it could be). The ballot is in both English and Spanish, and the "Yes/Si - No" ovals are below that section. But they didn't have a clear divider between the different referendums, so it was a little difficult for me to see that the Yes/No I was filling in matched the English description. You had to look at the ovals, and then go up to make sure things matched. This was not too bad, but it was even worse on the mailing I got - there they listed the referendums in multiple columns, and I seriously could not figure out which Yes/No was for which question as they were all scattered around, and my Spanish is poor.

If they are going to provide multiple languages, they need to have some clearer dividing lines. I guess I should write our election officials.

So now, listen to the results.

-ERD50
 
Went at 730a...took less than 5 mins...only weird thing was that they were asking every voter what party they were in before they would let them vote. Never seen that before.
 
Voted last Wednesday. Today back from Cancun.

heh heh heh - weather and trip were great. Isla Mujeres. :cool:
 
Last edited:
Nodak said:
Quick and easy, stood in line for about 5 minutes. I always vote, my parents attitude was that if you did not vote you couldn't complain about politicians.
Click to expand...

It's important to vote, but I don't accept that old saying. Too many times, the ballots have only bad choices. Unless you are in a position to actually run for office (and few of us are), then I think not voting doesn't mean you can't still complain. Politicians will sometimes try to appeal to get more votes out, and sometimes those are the ones that make the difference. If approx half vote for one party and half the other, just a little swing in getting people to vote can make a difference. Not voting is sometimes a statement in itself.

-ERD50
 
More worker than voters at my polling place. I tend to vote in the mid morning so I never see a crowd but it was really quiet in my very blue precinct.
 
ERD50 said:
It's important to vote, but I don't accept that old saying. Too many times, the ballots have only bad choices. Unless you are in a position to actually run for office (and few of us are), then I think not voting doesn't mean you can't still complain. Politicians will sometimes try to appeal to get more votes out, and sometimes those are the ones that make the difference. If approx half vote for one party and half the other, just a little swing in getting people to vote can make a difference. Not voting is sometimes a statement in itself. -ERD50
Click to expand...
Until they make voting mandatory it is still the right of every citizen to vote, or not, as they see fit. They still get to voice whatever opinion they want as they are still citizens.
 
Heh, heh, easier (and quicker) than going to the doctor. Only had to show a picture ID. At the doc, they want SSN, picture ID, Medicare card and supplemental insurance. And THEN I have to give them money.

I don't understand those who don't vote. I'll admit that it seems futile sometimes (especially in my state where we really only have one party.) Still, I had very carefully checked each of the candidates, their platforms and proposals and then cast my vote. Even if the candidates I voted for do not win, I do not feel disenfranchised. I had my chance to vote and I used it. Now I feel qualified to whine for the next few years :LOL: YMMV
 
Voted in morning. Just old folks. Print name, sign in. No request for my ID. Electronic voting. Would rather have paper. Serious-faced poll workers. Free candy! Took 5 minutes from parking to driving away.
 
I'm an election judge (poll worker). We had a 42% turnout which is good, but still wondering what people are doing that is more important than voting (especially when there are hotly contested races or referendum issues). The only problem we had was with people who don't know where they are supposed to vote, or didn't bother to re-register when they moved or got married.
 
Our tiny precinct voted at the parish hall of our church. So we walked out out back door and to the adjacent building where, at around 3 PM, we were the 97th and 98th people to vote. This is apparently even more than were voting in the 2012 presidential election, according to the folks working the polls.

That said, turnout here tends to be on the weak side sometimes because the county is 80% Republican and the primary is the *real* election here (and for many statewide races).
 
The government can only represent the will of the majority of voters so as far as I'm concerned it is extremely important to vote.
 
There are less than 17,000 people that live in my county and it has 14 different polling locations. :facepalm: There's only one town in the entire county that has over 1000 people within it's city limits. (I guess not everything is bigger in Texas :)) I think about 4000 people in the county voted.

My polling location was a local country Baptist Church about 7 miles from home. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw 4 cars (no pick-up trucks:)) I was surprised that many people were voting that early out here in the middle of nowhere. When I walked in I saw 4 ladies running the polling operations at that site (each one drove to the location so that accounted for the 4 cars) So no lines...
 
No issues voting. Went in with our youngest son (his first time eligible to vote and he was excited to do so). Took about 10 minutes.

I still wonder how folks complain about how "inconvenient" it is to vote and complain about traffic, waiting on line, etc., as compared to countries where coming out to vote may get you killed and they still have a larger percentage of eligible voters voting than the U.S.
 
Another thing I remembered about my voting - despite their advanced age, I see many of the same poll workers at my local polling place every year. Some of them recognize me and remember me from the year I was a volunteer poll-watcher at the closing time. This was when we still used the old lever machines from the 1950s, so it was fascinating to see what happens when the polls close and they open up the back of the machines and post the numbers by row/column onto a multiple-copy paper.

Many years ago, one poll worker recognized my name from a recent letter I had written to our local newspaper about our school budget when it came time to vote on it a week or two later. She still addresses me by name when she sees me if she is working at the table I sign in at (we have 2 or 3 election districts voting in our polling place).

Here in New York, we have some unusual ballot rules so that candidates may appear on multiple lines on a ballot including third party lines. But sometimes candidates (usually judges) are cross-endorsed by both major parties so it is really no different from a candidate running unopposed.
 
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