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U.S. Election Day In Progress: What's Been Your Experience?
Today is Election Day in the U.S., and polls are open even in Hawaii now. The current Slashdot poll gives a snapshot of how many readers have voted or plan to vote; more rigorous and wide-based polls are easy to find. If you're taking part in today's election, what have you found? Did you or will you vote electronically, or on paper? How long did you wait to vote? Did you vote weeks ago by mail? How much time did you put into making your choices? It would be helpful if in comments you start the subject of your post with your 2-letter state abbreviation, like this: "TX - About to go get in line to push some buttons."
Voted first thing this morning... Based on the number of commercials running in Ohio, and the tight margin between the candidates, I've been watching the news online expecting to see some controversy start brewing. Fortunately, I've been disappointed thusfar.
In and out, kind of how I wish sex was...
My drivers license expired in 2005, and I never bothered getting it renewed. So I don't have a "valid ID" even though I'm on disability.
I was turned away not allowed to vote for not having a valid id :)
I said oh well, not like voting matters anyhow due to electoral college bullshit and went home
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in.
Not a Democrat, so my choices are basically worthless. Why waste time voting when there's no chance of it counting?
Long ballot, lines moving quickly. Heavy turnout.
Waited 15 minutes in line and then voted electronically on a diebold machine with no apparent problems.
Hi -
Punch card ballots, as always. No crowds at all.
- Tom
VA - Filed registration 45 days ago, didn't take effect, told yesterday by three election offices to vote where I was previously registered, two hours of driving, turned away, told to file provisional ballot where I live, provisional ballot where I live must be defended.
Apparently these guys made their money and did their job:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/virginia-voter-fraud-case-expands-to-focus-on-gop-firm/2012/11/02/76285252-24eb-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html
I've read about this happening to other people but can't believe it happened to me. Understand what voter ID laws are. They are voter fraud laws - they create voter fraud. Can't believe it happened to me.
Went pretty smooth out here in minnesota, but I went bright and early!!!
~Bchickens
But fuck: I'll take another four years of Obama then...
For me the kicking and screaming and foaming was all over a coupla weeks ago.
The best of it: Gave me time in the privacy of my own home to leisurely read through the pro and con positions on things, choose local officials, flip coin, etc.
The worst of it: Didn't stop the junk mail or advertising. :P
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
NJ -- Voted at 7am before getting onto the bus to work. EZPZ
i used the provisional ballot at a polling place by my house, then by my kid's day care and at work during lunch
just to make sure at least one will be counted
1. Go at 10 AM and you beat the morning and lunch rush.
2. Huge numbers of people have voted early or by mail. That reduces poll turnout.
Paper or electronic were a choice. I chose paper. I still have no way of verifying my actual votes based on the receipt. Why is that?
No obvious voter fraud here.
Same day the ballot arrived in the mail.
No line when I went in, very small line forming as I left (less than dozen people) No issues went smoothly.
Voting started at 07:00 out by 07:30.
Everything was orderly and calm at the polling place in our hometown. I was in and out of the polling place in 10 minutes.
I'm curious to know how many places are using computerized voting machines in the country? MN still uses Scantron machines; it's hard to screw up, and cheap to operate.
root@allevil:~#
Annoyingly long line this morning but no big deal. It's only once every 4 years. Strangely noticed 5 to 1 male turn out, in a largely suburban precinct. Don't know what to make of that yet.
I forgot to update my polling place when I built a home. So, I got to fill out the sweet provisional ballot.
Waited in line at the polls for around an hour (8am, pre work rush?), but happy that I got to cast my first ballot for the POTUS.
There is no chance in hell of Kentucky going to Obama (who I would vote for) and since the popular vote means shit I don't see the point in leaving work when I have more pressing issues to address.
I probably would have voted for R-Money, but he's already got this state on lock
http://www.sos.georgia.gov/gaphotoid/default.htm
A Georgia Driver's License, even if expired
The way that all polls should be run.
a) Got in line to receive a ballot voucher. Last names A-G, then H-R, then S-Z in three separate lines. Identified myself (no photo ID) and signed by my name in the voting register. Received a marked ballot voucher from the poll worker.
b) Got in the next line to exchange the ballot voucher for a ballot from another poll worker. Scantron-style, fill in the bubble.
c) Got in the next line to wait for an open poll booth. Marked my ballot (was tempted to write in Lizard People) in secret.
d) Got in the next line to insert my ballot into the electronic reader. If I had mismarked the ballot it would have been rejected at that time, it would have been marked spoiled, and I would have received a blank ballot with instructions to fill in the bubbles properly.
e) Got my "I Voted" sticker and went to work.
The longest step in there was c), which had about ten people in line for a dozen voting booths. I was in and out within twenty minutes and this was with the pre-workday rush.
The only improvement that I would make would be in c) above, which is where electronic balloting could be worthwhile, with the absolute ironclad requirement that d) above be used. An electronic voting machine is acceptable if and only if it produces a human-readable ballot, which I then verify for accuracy, and then submit into the electronic reader, which will tally the votes and retain the actual ballots for recount purposes.
Hanging chads? No paper trail? Voter suppression due to ID requirements? None of that here. Same-day registration, too, which is why MN consistently leads the nation in turnout.
There was no option for Gordon Freeman so i just voted Romney
Somewhere in San Joaqin Valley. Started right after the polls opened (0700 PST), there was practically no wait...though I imagine it's going to get much busier after business hours. Decent age cross-section, too.
Washington state is all vote-by-mail. Works great -- can set aside a few hours to research the issues and make well informed decisions instead of "guessing" based on memory recollection.
Voted first thing this morning as well. Went fine. Bigger turnout than I was expecting at that time.
But maybe an open sourced voting machine run by a non-profit? Maybe a civilian department? Private companies making voting machines doesn't seem like a great idea. And there are always the conspiracy theorists who will use it as a psychological out so they never have to accept a loss. Let them find another out. Like the Illuminati and mind control or something..
Hello to Jason Isaacs
My postfix server has been voting all day in NJ.
My line in Florida was long as hell. I waited two hours and the line was longer than when I left. My district is tiny, so it seems like everyone came out this morning to vote.
All sigs are created equal.
Headed out latish in the morning to avoid the lines - things were busy, but not insane. No problems with my somewhat complicated ID. My helpful online guide had not given me all of the right judgeships on the ballot, so I ended up leaving a few blank having no clue as to who these people were. (It could be worse - my labmate had a similar experience, but in his case it cost him a chance to vote against the person who thinks that jihadists are trying to infiltrate textbooks with sharia law.)
And I forgot about the excellent http://www.judge4yourself.com/ website, which could have helped considerably on my judgeships problems. No, really, if you're in Ohio, check it out.
Generally painless. I do miss being able to sign up for absentee ballots and stay signed up, rather than having to re-do it every time.
When I got to the polls at around 10 there were only 3 people in line in front of me. I spent 2-3 hours researching the various candidates and propositions on the ballot.
No line, several at the voting tables but no one ahead of me.
The voting results will probably be a done deal before they even open my ballot.
We received our ballots on 16 October. We have until today to either drop it off or have it postmarked.
Interesting captcha: forges
Received my ballot 2 days after requesting it (via mail as well). Simple to fill in with my handy-dandy #2 pencil.
Paper ballot, no wait, no hassle.
I was blocked by Black Panthers on my way into the voting station.
Worst part was researching candidates. Not because researching sucks but it's hard to find information outside of campaign sites.
Mailed in my ballot several weeks ago.
Voted about 7:30 in PA. Short wait - went as smoothly as ever.
Got there 10 minutes after they opened (6:10am) and was out before 7. Lines were long but moving quickly. Efficient process and good poll workers, who don't get nearly enough credit for what they do. Scantron-style voting machine (paper ballots ftw). The stuff I expected on the ballot (President, senate, congress, governor and associated state executive, state representative, and a ballot measure) along with a couple other ballot measures I wasn't familiar with but I read through and voted on.
Was voter #235 in my ward of ~2,500 people @ 11am. Not sure if that qualifies as high turnout but that seems pretty good considering that the polls close here at 9pm central. Wasn't asked to show an ID, just had to confirm my address and date of birth.
I had to color in lines, stuff my ballot into multiple envelops, then drive it to a ballot drop box. Thanks, WA, that is much better than walking to the polling place that used to be a block away.
@10am - The line had 26 people. I was surprised(!) there were so many so late in the morning. I was done and gone in 25 minutes.
@1:20pm - Passed by the polling place... No waiting.
North Austin - poll workers were competent and the systems were working well. My polling location had 8 E-slate machines running. I was in and out in about 30 minutes, with the line consistently about 15 people deep. Voting in-precinct: there's a lot more to vote on than just the Presidency.
Just got back from voting. It was an hour long wait, and according to the poll workers, it was the shortest it had been all day, they had never seen turnout like this before.
Electronic voting, but is not a computer terminal or touch screen. It is a large sheet of paper with candidates and referendum items on it, that allow the buttons for each choice to show through.
You push the screen to see a 'X' appear by the choices you like, push the OK button, and your done.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
> what have you found?
The usual: three elderly ladies at a table in the town hall, our 100 year old ballot box, a voting both, and an electronic voting machine (a new one: the manufacturer of the $6000 original went out of business and the machine could not be used without their support).
> Did you or will you vote electronically, or on paper?
Paper, of course. I could have voted "electronically" but I'm not that stupid.
> How long did you wait to vote?
Wait? I suppose if we had delayed until after supper we would have had ten minutes or so to chat with the neighbors.
> Did you vote weeks ago by mail?
I don't approve of that other than for extraordinary circumstances where a voter cannot possibly get to the polling place.
> How much time did you put into making your choices?
I made my decision long ago.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
My precinct (the entire state?) ditched the paper sign-in books in favor of two computers. One was being used by 5 poll workers trying to find a single voter and the other was having trouble with a voter trying to cast a provisional ballot. The poll worker said something about the computer having trouble with people on her street. It caused the line to back up to the door. I spent more time waiting to get the card for the voting machine than I did actually voting.
I overheard someone tell a poll worker the machine was indicating a vote she hadn't cast. She caught it in time to fix it.
Many of the candidates in my area are running unopposed, including our representative in Congress.
The people who inevitably gather outside polling places left me completely alone. I didn't get so much as an offer of a sample ballot or a "Vote xxx" from them.
Early voting for all who want it in this state. All you have to do is request a ballot to be mailed to you, and you either mail it back or use the dropbox at your election office. Needed the time to do research beforehand as there were candidates and issues I wasn't really familiar with. Mostly looked at newspaper endorsements for help on those, but did look in other places as well. I'd say I spent about an hour on it.
Thankfully, my lil' county still uses paper ballots & #2 pencils. I did have to show my drivers' license to prove I wasn't one of the billion brown horde flooding up from Mexico. Being Kansas, I wouldn't be surprised it they nightly toss out the early ballots deigned not RED enough.
Prelude: About 2 months ago, I went into make sure I was still registered even though I had not moved or changed anything. The lady behind the counter found me in the roles and announced "Here you are: DEMOCRAT!" out loud, with the party said even louder, akin to a scene out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. W.T.F.
Went in about 11am, showed my ID, signed my name, was given a paper ballot, marked my choices then fed it into the scanner. Took all of about 5 minutes total from entering the building to walking out with my receipt.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
San Mateo, CA: Electronic voting machines that printed out my selections on paper to inspect. The way it SHOULD done.
Having the knowledge that I could probably personally hack electronic voting machines if I studied them a while kind of freaks me out.
Today everybody presented ID (first time in my experience this was required), and nobody seemed to have a problem. Very friendly, trust-engendering atmosphere. I love living in a rural area.
The presidential race is a foregone conculsion out here, largely expected to favor the incumbent -- so the bigger battles have been over various ballot propositions, all of which can probably be best summarized thus:
Regarding California Statewide Ballot Propositions and all the out of state money attempting to sway our votes -
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Early voting ftw. There was a line at the time, but not a bad one. Afterward I went across the street and had a beer.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
There were two paths to the front entrance of my polling place: One involved going through the gauntlet of electioneers, the other right through the door. (Guess which one I chose.)
Once inside, there were all of two people in line in front of me in the voter look-up line. While most of the voting booths were taken (crazy-long ballot today... lots of judicial and minor statewide positions up for election) there was no wait for one.
Electronically scanned paper ballot; that's the format that makes the most sense to me. Electronic scanning for efficiency, paper backup for posterity.
Filled out ballot last night/ this morning. Drove down the street to the local fire station. Skipped the line and put my ballot in a pink bag (matched the envelope color so it Just Made Sense). Drove to work.
this was around 8:30 am... line was only about 10 people deep.
No one in line ahead of me. Filled out paper ballot, fed ballot into Sequoia machine. My ballot was three pages, double sided - over ten propositions to vote on in California! Spent more than a hour doing research on them last night.
Oh yeah, this is my first election! Newish American citizen - proud to exercise my right to vote :)
Went to polling station, black panthers were blockading the entrance, then the UN blue hats showed up and scared them off, that was nice but then they were watching us right near the booths...kinda makes you feel uncomfortable. On the way out I peeked through a door where I saw a guy with a laptop plugged into a disassembled voting machine, he was hammering away at a CLI and cackling maniacally.
*trollface*
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You are not the one creating the fraud. The fraud is being thrown at you.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
i used the provisional ballot at a polling place by my house, then by my kid's day care and at work during lunch
just to make sure at least one will be counted
I like a man who knows what he wants and how to get it. Nice.
North end of Atlanta metro area. 90 second wait for my card, no wait for a voting machine, at about 0915. Total of less than ten minutes from getting out of my car to getting back in it. Electronic voting. No paper trail. :(
I got in before the lunch crowd. It went quite smoothly
Why I Do Not Vote by Michael S. Rozeff
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff224.html
I'm voting for Johnson, and I live in a very close swing state, and I truly hope the balance hangs on less votes than the 3rd parties get, but I like Rozeff's article anyway.
Two choice quotes by Mr Rozeff:
"I don't believe in representative government under our Constitution. The Constitution has no legitimate authority over me. I have never signed off on it."
"I do not wish to endorse a system that has produced and continues to produce what I think are pragmatically bad results."
I particularly like the first quote. Kind of mind expanding. The D and R parties want to use the constitution as toilet paper, other than the R have been beating the drum for almost 5 years that Obama is a Kenyan, and that little clause about prez being native born is sacred, but the rest of the constitution and BoR is just used Charmin so don't worry about it. Yet in the long run, what do I care for or against the constitution, Like Rozeff writes, I never signed the damn thing anyway and if I wrote it, it would look a bit different. So as a thought experiment, say he came from Kenya, what do I care, the cleaning lady at work is an illegal el salvadorian and no one cares much and its not my rule, nor do I much care about that particular rule.
There's been a couple other good articles along these lines on zerohedge recently, but I didn't save the links. Oh well.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
polls opened at 7, it took me an hour in line before I could vote.
There were some shenanigans with an elderly black guy in front of me not being on the register.
Filled out both ballots (Florida has 11 constitutional amendments and a there were a dozen votes of confidence for local judgeship's.
There was an electronic voting machine that no one used, cast a paper ballot on election day. Its more likely to get counted that way.
Few poll workers lots of voters (many who have no idea what they are doing). Long wait to check in and get ballot to feed the machine.
VA - Filed registration 45 days ago, didn't take effect, told yesterday by three election offices to vote where I was previously registered, two hours of driving, turned away, told to file provisional ballot where I live, provisional ballot where I live must be defended.
Apparently these guys made their money and did their job: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/virginia-voter-fraud-case-expands-to-focus-on-gop-firm/2012/11/02/76285252-24eb-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html
I've read about this happening to other people but can't believe it happened to me. Understand what voter ID laws are. They are voter fraud laws - they create voter fraud. Can't believe it happened to me.
In Northern VA myself. Voted thrice in Minnesota and many times in Virginia. Have to say that Virginia requirements are ridiculous for voting and are almost designed to stop people who don't have their shit together from voting. In 2000 on the U of MN campus I was walking around campus on election day and outside they had a big thing setup for me to vote. I had my student ID and driver's license and that was all they needed to register me, take my vote and give me a voter registration ID! They asked if I had a utility bill and I told them I was living in a dorm room on campus. No further questions needed, just had to fill out a form.
... totally different story. After producing my birth certificate and about five other forms of documentation at a Virginia DMV, I get my VA license. A month later I check out what I have to do to vote. Guess what? You have to register 22 days before the election SO I was basically shit outta luck. Good thing I was able to absentee ballot for Minnesota (having recently moved).
I arrive in September of 2004 in Virginia
Seriously, I check five or six times each election year that my stuff isn't messed up on the VA voter website because if that stuff isn't accurate down to a T you aren't voting. One of my friends moved across town, showed up to his old precinct with his last residence on his voter ID card and his new residence on his driver's license. Aaaaaaand they wouldn't let him vote. The real kick in the pants was they told him that if he hadn't shown them his driver's license and he could have recited his old address, they would have let him through.
So my experience today? Showed up at 5:45 am today. Waited until 7:15 am in line to vote. Voted on paper (line was much shorter than the electronic line) and was out. I only saw one advertisement on my way to vote: a portly fellow came in through the doors and removed his jacket to reveal a Romney/Ryan shirt upon the vast real estate of his chest. As he walked by he looked large and in charge. It should be noted he was only the former.
Can someone tell me why voter registration can't happen at the polls?
My work here is dung.
Voted a week ago. Simple fill in the oval paper ballot.
My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone.
OH - Mentor - Went to the polls about an hour ago. There were 4 polling stations, each of which had a voter doing their thing...nobody waiting in line when I got there. Voted on a touchscreen that recorded a paper copy and gave a review screen to verify choices before you finished (same equipment as 2 years ago, I think). No technical or human problems that I saw. I'm confident that my vote was recorded correctly and could be audited successfully.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
Wasn't terrible. Waited 1hr due to machine not wanting to accept ballots for like 20 minutes. Was in line behind an old, vocal harpy. She was easy to ignore in line, however when it was my turn to vote she got in the booth next to me. Her cell phone rang, she took the call and started an interesting conversation about how "Yeah, we gotta vote the President out! Oh, and for the OK Supreme Justices, we gotta vote them out too, they're all bad..." This went on for a few minutes, many of us around her telling her, "Ma'am, please don't do that." or "Please be quiet ma'am!" She was apparently part of some group here wanting to vote a certain way, no issues with that, but at least show the etiquette to not take the damned phone call in the booth!
Can someone humor me, but aren't there rules against this kind of behavior as it can be seen as electioneering?
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
"state of New Jersey has taken the unprecedented step of allowing displaced voters to cast their votes by e-mail "
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/risky-business-new-jersey-to-allow-e-mail-voting-in-storms-wake/
"Aware of the problems with the official e-mail system, Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin suggested an alternative option: "Displaced voters can email a request for a ballot at cj_durkin@hotmail.com," according to a post on the Facebook "
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/e-voting-chaos-nj-voters-sent-to-officials-personal-hotmail-address/
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Well, I can't drive, doesn't mean I don't bother to get my state ID renewed.
Your own fault.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Waltzed in, admired all the terrible science on the walls (including humans with dinosaurs), laughed a bit, got my ballot, filled it out, threw it into the scanning machine and realized it's only 7:12AM (Polls opened at 6AM). So yeah. It was probably the only time I'll ever get to admire (in a sarcastic sense) the nonsense peddled about this sort of thing without being kicked out for blashphemy.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
I live in Oregon and registered voters were mailed ballots about two weeks ago, along with a nice booklet with candidate-, party-, and interested-party-provided information. I was able to read and research in depth each of the candidates and measures and make an informed decision for each of my choices. Best and easiest ballot experience of my life. I could have mailed it in, but decided to drop it off at the local library instead. No lines, no muss, no fuss, no hanging chads or mis-calibrated touch screens. No pressure to vote quickly.
Went before lunch. No line or wait. The polling place was almost full, but the polling workers were working efficiently. Had to show my drivers license. Paper ballot with electronic scanning and all the while there was a bell being rung off and on that signified first time voters I think. I had received a notice that the polling place location had changed in the mail last week, and there has been good news coverage to that affect as well - yes there is value to watching local evening news on network stations, OTA signals FTW.
I was in and out in about 20 minutes, so my experience was fairly quick. There was a Somali lady in front of me who might have had a more interesting time of it however. I made some small talk with her, and she told me it was her first time voting, as she had just married her husband, an American. I asked her if this was the "F - K" line and she nervously told me that yes it was, but kept repeating "This is the line, be careful, be careful!" as though they wouldn't let me vote if I accidentally got in the wrong line. She was both proud and afraid of the whole process. The interesting bit of this is that when her time came there was some activity, and I made out that she couldn't read the ballot, and wanted to know if her husband (who was also in line) could read it for her. I didn't hear the rest though, as it was quickly my turn at the polling station.
I haven't had a chance to look up the pertinent law regarding whether someone else is allowed to read the ballot or not, but I would imagine this same scenario has played out many times over (This isn't an argument for or against ballots in multiple languages, just an account of a polling incident).
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
Northern VA (at least) has both computerized machines and paper color-the-dots ballots. I did paper: I like having an audit trail of my vote. 150 or so people in front of me at 5:45 AM: was done and driving away at 6:15 (still AM).
I'd vote, but then I heard that a definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different outcome each time.
Be seeing you...
This video of a voter machine altering votes is making its rounds on social media.
"My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.
I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpGd74DrBM&feature=player_embedded
Waited in line for about 30 minutes for early voting on a Saturday.
In and out, no problems. But the elderly lady who was there to assist me(?) was crowding me outside of the booth - just stepped inside my personal space while she was prepping/resetting the booth. It was kind of weird.
Also the fact that they would stop and applaud random voters as they left the booth was really strange.
Apparently, jovial idiot is a poll worker job description.
I went to the courthouse over lunch a week ago wrote my drivers license number on a form and got out in about 10 minutes. It took so long because the lady at the desk had to get my form from the back room.
Jesus saves and takes half damage.
In Melbourne, FL (small city). Was in and out in 45 minutes, and everyone was friendly. Had a bunch of City Councilmen to vote on that I hadn't read into (and some I had). No other issues, really. I'm hoping I didn't misunderstand some of the statutes I had to vote on, but read into them twice over last night and this morning.
In spite of what is being reported in the media, there were no lines. However, I didn't get an ' I voted' pin :(. The election machines were rinky-dink. paper? How primitive!
Voted weeks ago.
I early voted last week. I had an option of going to any of the polling locations. Showed up, gave my name and year of birth, and was asked to verify my address and sign on a little machine to confirm. My ballot was printed on a laser printer, took it to a little booth, filled in the ovals. Once done, took the ballot to another room with four scanning machines. I put the ballot in a scanning machine myself (any orientation!), waited for the number to increment, then picked up my "I Voted Today" sticker and headed home. Five minutes total, no hassles, and there's a written record of my vote. My only complaint? The voting booths were obviously meant for standing in front of some sort of machine, so sitting in a chair and filling in the ovals was a bit awkward.
New Mexico has its issues, but we seem to have this voting thing worked out.
Voted at 9 am, no line, paper ballot, polling place was about 0.1 miles from my house.
The Texas photo ID law has been a big deal lately, but I voted just fine with just my paper voter ID card, as always.
I was asked, "Do you prefer a paper or electronic ballot?"
"Which is faster?"
"Well, you see there's a line for the two electronic voting machines, but I can give you a paper ballot right now".
I had filled out my paper ballot and was out of there before the first person in the electronic line got to a machine. The paper ballot scanner showed 156 votes, about 9 AM this morning, so you can tell this is a pretty small town.
Went around lunch time. No one in front of us in line. Talked to our neighbors who were volunteering about new babies and hunting while my wife voted. We would have been in and out in five minutes if we didn't feel like socializing.
I love voting in this district. It always just seems like a nice way to be social and get to know the community. Really too bad they don't put in enough polling stations in urban areas to get that same feeling. Feels like there ought to be a couple machines in every subdivision or big apartment building.
Spent a few hours researching local, state, and national candidates. Lines were moderate but were moving steadily. Electronic voting machines were self-explanatory.
It took me about 2 hours to get through all the lines and cast my vote in our heavily-Democratic city.
Other than a few disruptions from misbehaved children, things were mostly smooth.
I have been telling all the frustrated democrats that if the lines are too long or you forgot your ID. Vote tomorrow. The lines will be much shorter and they won't even need to see your ID.
It's hopless here, but I'm voting for Gary Johnson anyway. I just want to see a black mark on the paper, a margin that says "OBAMA WINS!!" with barely over a third of the nation behind him. Maybe one day we'll see stats that make people think: maybe these two assholes aren't our only option. Maybe one day we'll stop worshipping the constitution, burn it, and become 50 separate countries with our own currency and economic robustness, and let Europe take over the one-big-currency-one-big-problem market. Maybe we'll burn it and rewrite it with a parliament so if 10% of us vote for Libertarians or Greens or Nazis then we have to fill in 10% of the Senate and House with Libertarians or Greens or Nazis. Maybe we can get a pluralist presidency where if you don't have 50% we eliminate all until the combined votes bring the lowest to above the second place, and then try again until it's 1 on 1.
Our constitution dictates a system of government which creates a system by which we believe we only have two options (look how old the Republicans and Democrats are). The only way is to rewrite it. Then the people can chose.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
People are crazier than a bag of snakes. Guy tried to run me off the road I'm assuming because of my bumper sticker.
NJ they have lots of polling places. Sample ballots are mailed out a week or two ahead of time. The voter lists are well maintained and the machines work well.
ERROR: your state has not been recognized. Your vote will be assigned to the other candidate:)
OK, So only the part about voting three times in IL is the truth...
... I'm on disability.
I said oh well, not like voting matters anyhow due to electoral college bullshit and went home
You free loading losers have no business voting! Why you're the cause of our deficit - you and those pink Cadilack driving welfare mothers!
Thankfully, were all educated really good here in georiga! and were gonna have Romney elected!
Vote Republican and save America from that socialist Muslim!
OH suburbs - waited 45 minutes early this morning to vote on a hybrid machine (electronic UI, writes on a paper tape that I could see).
There is no 'i' in team, but there is in fiasco...
Voted during early voting (first day). Lines were long but it moved quickly. First time I ever used an electronic ballet. I'm all for technology but I prefer the old-fashion way...
Karma: Bad
Unlike FL where it's action and adventure (news is hopping with stories of long lines, impatient people). Unlike here in California it's like stopping at AM/PM to get gas and coffee. I stopped at polling place this morning to cast my ballot (voted for Jill Stein to increase third party attention since ***all*** CA delegates already allocated to Obama). I must say polling place had lots of people to help and they set up signs from main road to actual poll station to help voters find it.
mfwright@batnet.com
I'm in what I'd call an upper-middle-class suburb in Northern NJ.
Our area suffered multi-day power outages and some downed trees from Sandy, but minimal rain, no flooding, and other than gas lines things are getting back to normal.
I arrived at my polling place around 8:45am or so. There were 2 voting machines available for my precinct. One other designated for voters from a different precinct, but located in the same room.
Both machines were occupied when I arrived, and there was 1 other voter in front of me in line.
I waited about 5 minutes, during which time one other person lined up behind me. I voted, I left.
Regarding the machines - they were AVC Advantage machines - electronic, but I don't think they are digital/computerized/black-box systems (I hope not, at any rate). Found a .pdf describing them here: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/AVCAdvantage.pdf
As usual. Walk up, tell them my name and address. It gets crossed off and a paper ballot is handed to me. I fill in some dots with a marker, then stick it into a machine that reads it and I get a shiny "I voted today" sticker as they mark me off in a second set of books.
It took at most five minutes. I have no idea how other states can mess such a simple process up so badly.
Mailed in my ballot weeks ago. Who knows if it'll be counted, I certainly never will. Did get a call from some robo-caller scam claiming I needed to throw away my ballot and wait for a replacement. Gotta wonder how many people are waiting for their replacement ballot that'll never come.
Oh, and my SO got a card from Moveon.org trying to use guilt to get her to vote ("You vote less often than your neighbors!"). It had the opposite effect.
I got to the poles when they opened at 7 AM, and had to wait in line 25 minutes. I drive past 2 other polling places on the way to work. The parking lots were full and cars were parked in the fields near the buildings.
Pretty selective in your links. Next time make sure your bias isn't so obvious.
Long, complicated ballot in Michigan this year with lots of asinine state constitutional amendments. This made for about a 45 minute wait in line to even get a ballot. I figured out my choices the weekend before and put the options on my phone to read in the booth; even then, filling the real ballot out correctly still took about 5 minutes.
Get off my lawn.
Voted this morning... Lots of people, parking lot nearly full, many booths taken, but no hassles (presented my ID) or lines.
It was blissful and relaxing. Filling it out while sat on toilet probably helped as well. Sorry to hear about your mediaeval voting-on-Tuesday rituals. One of the few benefits of being an ex-pat or Oregonian. PS. Hello to Jason Isaacs.
I went to the polls at about the same time, and had to spend one hour waiting in line...
As for races that I expect will be close and that i'm going to be watching closely this evening: The Ohio Presidential race. No Republican has ever won the White House without winning the Buckeye State. The Indiana Senate race between Democrat Joe Donnelly and extremist Tea Party Republican Richard Mourdock. Why? Mourdock beat longtime moderate GOP Senator Dick Lugar in the primary. We have important negotiations coming up on Capitol Hill right after the election. If Obama wins, he'll need some Republicans to vote for a compromise on the fiscal cliff issues. There are a handful who just maybe, under the right circumstances, might do so. But if Mourdock wins -- no way. No Republican will compromise, because they will all fear being Mourdocked. Or Lugared, whichever you prefer to call it. And last but not least -- Marriage equality on the ballot if four states -- Minnesota, Maine, Washington and Maryland. How these races play out will be the canary in the coal mine for whether-or-not we're going to have a Congress that becomes more moderate or more divisive.
using Oregon's mail in ballots.
Every state should do it this way.
Research everyone I could. Even looked through church rooster to see if any people running for board comes up from a church known for shoving their stupid into the government
As someone who has studied corporate history, and economic history, the presidential vote as easy. Obama.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Went at lunch, no line, no ID requirement, all went smoothly. And tasty treats at the bake sale!
KS same here. Voted early, but not two weeks ago. Avoid the rush. Avoid the lines. My county uses paper ballots with either pencils or ink to fill in the bubbles like in grade school. Electronically counted. I had to give driver's license number and other info on application for early voting, but not actually show license.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Given the change to standard time it was easy to be at the polling place half an hour before it opened. I was seventh in line. When the poll opened there were about fifty in line. I had checked that everything was OK with my March 2012 registration change in early September so I didn't have any trouble, unlike the earlier commenters. Why the legislature thinks reciting a name and address out loud is a fraud deterrent I'll never know.
My wife and I were less than 10th in line, voted paper ballot, no issues. Polling place got moved for the 2nd time in the past 5 years, a bit of confusion for some people there.
You are not the customer.
Got to the polling place about 7:30. There was a line of about 1-2 dozen people in front of me. They had about 10 electronic voting booths set up, but three of them were having issues so had been closed.
The line moved fairly slow, took maybe 20ish minutes to get my turn? I'm not sure if the people ahead of me were actually having trouble figuring out how to work the machines or if they just hadn't thought much about the election and were reading through all the propositions and making their final decisions right then.
The voting machines themselves are pretty nice. No touch-screen, there's a dial that moves a cursor between options, and a button to press to select the option that's currently selected (plus a few more buttons for things like going forward and backwards a page, etc.) When you're done selecting everything it has a summary page showing your choices and asks you to confirm, then it prints a paper ballot behind a sheet of glass and asks you to confirm each page of that paper ballot, while showing it alongside the electronic one.
All in all it seemed a simple, efficient, and reasonably secure method for handling things. I of course had already researched the issues i cared about, and was not daunted by fancy spinney wheels and push button technology, and was in and out of the booth in a couple minutes.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
So did anybody cast a vote for Vermin Supreme? After all, if he wins you'll be guaranteed to have good teeth and a pony and you'll be safe in case zombies attack.
MY OTHER COMMENTS
Election Judge wearing an Obama cap and allegedly handing out extra ballots.
(I'm actually just outside of Orlando, off of I-4.)
My wife was driving to a meeting this morning and called as she passed the voting location to let me know that it was jammed. When she came back we went together at about 12:30 and there was no wait at all. I just walked in, they verified our IDs, and we voted.
I was undecided on my pick for president until driving to the voting location. We used paper fill-in-the-bubble ballots like are used for standardized tests, which were fed into a machine. Nothing was amiss as far as I could tell. Just far too many state constitutional amendments to read.
Showed up at 7:50, back on my way to work by 8:05. We use the opti-scan machines here (kind of like a Scantron), which I like as they're difficult to tamper with.
Was a bit confused when the lady at the polling station took my ID then asked me to recite my name and address... never had that happen before. I assume had my address not matched (I don't see the point in spending $20 on a new ID every time I move), I'd have caught some shit like I did last time*.
2008 election, the crotchety old bitch at the polling station tried to prevent me from voting because I was wearing this t-shirt. Fortunately, I had my shit together and know my rights.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Next time, post your own.
I requested forms for registration numerous times. They never arrived. Eventually got some printed and submitted months ago. Never took effect. Voted where I was previously registered (still had my old license).
In West Los Angeles. Three districts voting in same building, for some reason my line was short but the others long. They use the ink-dot paper ballot. I voted very quickly because I already marked the booklet with my votes and they line up and are easy to copy to the real ballot. If you are paranoid, check the number of one of the black dots after you remove the ballot from the machine to see if it is one of the numbers you voted for, to make sure the ballot was mounted in the machine correctly. It is then inserted into a reader that checks for correct marks (no over votes) and into the box. I have been told this machine is not doing the counting, just checking, and the ballots are machine-scanned for counting later.
Only interesting thing was that a woman in front of me was ejected for wearing an Obama t-shirt. However I think she turned it inside-out and was back in right behind me and I'm pretty certain allowed to vote.
no waiting. paper only for me due to Diebold machines. voting even though mine probably does not count under the Electoral College system. we need popular election so EVERY vote counts!
I spent more time (7 minutes) driving than voting, and I was in and out in less than 5 minutes. There was no one waiting to use the voting machines (Diebold), and only one voter was there (lunch time).
Charlotte, NC. My polling place usually runs like clockwork. Today was no exception. Poll workers are great. Even had chairs in the hallway leading to the voting machines so people could sit while they waited for the poll to open.
I arrived 25 minutes before the poll opened. I was about the 40th person in line. The poll opened exactly on time. In 15 minutes I was out.
The line had backed up while I was voting. Looked to be about an hour wait.
We have LCD touch screens and a human readable printed paper entry is logged every time you touch a button. The system seems to work pretty well.
I have been keeping up with the campaigns. I research every person I vote for. But, I always find myself holding my nose when I pull the trigger. However, a good friend of mine was running for a judge seat. That one was an easy choice.
I live in a decent-sized rather left-leaning city in a conservative state. Voting for me requires getting up "early" since I normally get up and go straight to work out of town, and don't get off until after polls close.
I almost decided to just sleep another 15 minutes and forget about voting. With the electoral college system my vote literally doesn't count for the Presidency. No matter how me or anyone else in my home tome votes our electoral college votes will be going to Romney. Since I no longer watch TV or read the newspaper I'm not current on any of the minor/local office candidates beyond their stupid cards and flyers that end up in my mailbox (which I don't read really). The actual people in office don't seem to have any real effect on my own life. They will all do an equally bad job, just in different ways.
I guess I don't see any point in playing along with this game anymore. The leadership has risen to a level of nobility politics where they can have their intrigues and it makes no difference to me, except when it comes to starting wars and setting taxes.
Voted first thing this morning as well. Went fine. Bigger turnout than I was expecting at that time.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Yeah, those sound legit~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
WA - Voted by mail a week ago. Spent two hours thoughtfully reading over the platform and considering the credentials of every candidate from Federal down to Local before making the choices that I could objectively justify.
My god, commercial breaks were so overwhelmingly political and retardedly negative. During Jeapordy the other day, every commercial except one was an actress supporting Romney (gee, wonder who they're pandering to...). The one exception was for the senate race - a race I deliberately avoided both main candidates specifically because they are both putting out so many negative campaign ads. Poor characters all around.
God I hate elections. The one bright side is the place I voted early at had no line and friendly staff!
+1 Disagree
Three precincts voting in a small 1 basketball court sized gym. Three lines, one precinct each.
The "greeter" who let the people in line outside know what was what and how the lines inside worked was amazing. Answered everyone's questions and did a fantastic job, really knew his stuff.
Lines for my precinct were crazy long, they stopped letting people in periodically, since there wasn't anywhere for the line to lengthen to.
An hour or so in line.
Except for one incident (mine of course) with the Ballot distributor table, everything was very professional.
They mis-numbered the ballot before mine as my number, so there was a 10 minute holdup while that got sorted out.
Other than that, everything went swimmingly.
Though the two white-collar-shirt layabouts in the back (one male, one female), not doing anything but chatting and sipping coffee for the entire time I was there was a bit off-putting. They could have been a big help straightening out lines and actually doing something other than watching. Maybe they were observers? I'd like to know what poll's they were at, see if mine was one of them.
Just moved to NC this year, and one of the things I love is how easy they make it to vote early, no excuse needed--including registering at the time you vote. It took me all of ten minutes to register and vote.
Also, we use a very clean optical-scan ballot, so less confusion, no touch-screen calibration issues, and a paper trail. I was really very pleased.
Same here, voted about a week and a half ago. Pros: don't have to stand in long lines, Cons: Don't get a little sticker saying I voted. I was also debating telling my boss that I got a notice that my mail in ballot got lost or something and taking the two hours given by CO state law to go "vote" (aka sitting at home for a few hours).
If someone tries to kill you, you try and kill them right back
I voted on 28 Oct before Sandy came through. It was cold and blustery and took over three hours. I think this is the first Presidential election MD has had early voting for, and massively underestimated the turnout. The line wrapped around the parking lot. Folks were generally very nice about waving incomers to available parking spaces and holding places in line for people to run in to use the facilities, pop over to the 7-11 to get coffee, or retrieve additional outerwear from their vehicles.
I was at one of five early voting stations in Anne Arundel County, and they had a total of ten voting machines available for it. Judging by the rate at which people left (about one per minute), I estimate that it took an average of ten minutes to cast a ballot. There were a lot of ballot questions and such on there, but I got the impression that many voters hadn't bothered to read them before showing up. Why stand in line to vote if you haven't made up your mind yet? Poll workers were constantly walking down the line offering sample ballots for people to read and never got any takers.
Paper of course. By the end I just wanted to know which candidate would allow me vote in a reasonable amount of time for the next election. Worst voting experience I have ever had.
Voted last week by mail. Now want to create an app that disables all television, radio, political advertising and replaces it with soothing music and pictures of puppies and kittens as soon as King County has acknowledged receiving my vote.
Tried at 11AM. Loooong line.
Going back at 4 to stay for the duration.
From (south) Gilbert, AZ. Give yourself a little time.
It was surprisingly heavy around 830AM local time. There were 2 lines out the door; 25-30 mins to get ballot in hand. Conservative district; Mostly GOP candidates at the state level on the ballot. Only president, US senate (Flake v. Cordona) and a couple of propositions (sales tax, "top two" general election vs. 2 party system) really mattered.
(This doesn't apply across the Phx metro area. A coworker said that their voting place in north Phoenix (generally a more moderate area) had only a minute or so of a wait time (no long lines).
Forgot to put it in the security sleeve, being an odd ball most likely tossed as a non-vote.
Had no issue voting. Voted at 10:00 AM CDT with no wait. Voted on scanable paper ballot.
Waited 20 mins in line at 7:20AM. Name was on roll with correct address, I had correct address on new drivers license. Comment next to my name on roll said "VNC returned - Vote provisional" so I had to cast a paper provisional ballot. I filled out voter registration change of address when I moved in early September, waited and waited for local board of elections to respond, they finally did near the beginning of October. I signed the postcard and returned it the next day so I thought I would be in there. Apparently not. Provisional ballot only had president, state senators, local government positions and two state issues. No local issues listed as I guess they can't have you voting for local issues if you they can't prove where you live. Overall bad experience, never had to cast a provisional ballot before in any election. They did have four electronic UI machines that verify by printing onto paper but I couldn't use them.
I've noticed by your recent comments that you're an unpleasant malcontent. Consider a new hobby or just cheer up. Being so negative all the time is bad for your health.
Voting went fine, but they ran out of "I voted!" stickers! How could this happen?? How else can I vent my smug satisfaction at having exercised my same-freedom-everyone-else-also-has?
Everything is better with chainsaws.
My wife went to vote at 7:30 and had a 45 minute wait. I went at 8:45 and had a 15 minute wait. Minnesota typically has high voter turnout (and paper ballots that can be recounted) and the pattern I saw today seemed about on par with the past 5 presidential elections. Vote as if your country depends on it... because it does.
You have to register 22 days before the election SO I was basically shit outta luck. Good thing I was able to absentee ballot for Minnesota (having recently moved).
In other words you were prevented from voting twice by a reasonable waiting period. Did you ever think WHY there is a waiting period?
Thank you Virginia.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Same here, voted about a week and a half ago. Pros: don't have to stand in long lines, Cons: Don't get a little sticker saying I voted. I was also debating telling my boss that I got a notice that my mail in ballot got lost or something and taking the two hours given by CO state law to go "vote" (aka sitting at home for a few hours).
Hey, how you voted isn't your boss's business, you could have slept in or gone to get that Halo game thingy, your time to reflect upon how you voted perhaps.
No sticker for me, either. I think they should put one in the envelope. Have not stood in line to vote in about 6 years after having a near altercation with a volunteer at a polling place - she left her station and the sign indicated I just run the sheet through the scanner (apparently wasn't for ME to do but for HER as she was all official and stuff) so I left her with the ballot she pulled from my hands, saying "Please yourself!" and registered for mail-in. Best way to do these and apparently we're growing in numbers. :)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
No lines. Voted on Scantron. Election judge handed me a judges sheet which was already voided. Got another sheet and had no problems.
ceci n'est pas un sig
Just got back from voting about 10 minutes ago. We still use paper ballots in the Portland, ME area and things went very smoothly. A couple of little old ladies looking up names, handing out ballots and keeping an eye on people submitting ballots into the scanner.
Votes a few days ago, well I dropped my ballot in its dual envelopes into the mailbox then.
I had 32 issues to vote on, so I don't understand how people could take the time to vote in a booth.
The weather was here, wish you were beautiful.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I dropped off a paper ballot this morning at my local polling place, pretty much no lines but a very constant stream of people coming to drop off ballots
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Actually, conservatives have been doing dirty stuff like this quite a bit, so I can't really tell if you're joking or not.
And let the rest of the ballot empty. For those who don't know, Jeff Flake vehemently opposed SOPA, and is the biggest opposition to earmarks.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
I'm an anarcho-capitalist, and I don't consent to this system. I've heard most of the arguments for it, and I don't agree. You haven't persuaded me, and I don't consent. It's fine with me if the rest of you live under whatever system you like, but I don't think you should be allowed to get your way at the expense of the rest of us.
Anyway, when the other guys wins, don't complain to me for the next four years, all right? You agreed to live under this crazy majority rule system. I did not.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Being stupid, I misplaced my mail-in ballot, so I couldn't mail it in. When I arrived at the polling place, I was carded (per state law) without issue, and told to get a provisional ballot. After the election official did some minor paperwork, I was handed my provisional ballot.
I recorded my votes, and placed it in the provisional envelope, dropped it off in the provisional box, and left.
I got home, found my mail-in ballot, and subsequently marked it such that it cannot be used as a ballot (doing so is a felony, after all).
All said, I had a harder time actually getting to the polling place than actually voting, as the location was an odd location just off the Loop 101.
A bit slow at first, until the workers streamlined their check-in process then the line zipped along. Electronic voting machines but they create a paper record that you review before casting the finalized ballot. Went at 10:30 was done by 11:30. I did have to choose which form of photo ID I wanted to use, Military ID, Passport (card), Concealed weapons permit, drivers license. All of which are in my wallet. Oh and the polling place was just a block away so I walked.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
That's all, folks!
...I just came for the free beer.
Type of voting: Paper. Voted w/black pens on large, cardstock ballot (scantron style). Electronic reader scanned the ballot. Smooth process, knowledgeable volunteers.
Research Time: President - WAY too much time. Watched all three presidential debates and a couple of the GOP primary debates...
Research Time: Other issues - Yesterday I spent an hour researching the propositions on the ballot before deciding on them. Earlier this month I skimmed the paper booklet's campaign statements on my district and chose candidates for local offices (sheriff, state legislators, other commissioners, judges, etc.).
NOTE: No Black Panthers stalking my polling place with clubs.
No drama and no line. It was a paper ballot with ovals to fill in. Voted for Romney and against a US Representative that had voted for Obamacare. I also voted for Prop 64, some sort of pro-marijuana thing. It probably won't go anywhere simply because federal drug law supercedes state law. Having ground my ax, I strolled into a nice, sunny day.
PA voter here -- I gave my name, signed, and was in-and-out. Despite the hassle over our (soon to take effect) voter ID law, I was not asked once to provide any identification.
Now that I've typed that, I think that sounds just as scary as some of the stories where people needed mountains of documentation to register.
"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." (Josef Stalin)
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
My small city at 8:15am had no line. The only way my voting could have gone faster is if the lady had the signature book open on the correct page already (5 seconds to switch), and if the lady at the door hadn't asked me my last name (another 5 seconds) to decide which empty line I should stand in.
Is this topic really necessary on /.?
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
So I'm guessing that you're objecting to the fact that apparently only Democrats are up to shenanigans today. If you can find some links that show Republicans up to shenanigans by all means post them. This is what I found. I did not ignore any links of Republicans up to funny business, I simply didn't see any. You calling me biased because you don't like me reporting what Democrats are actually doing speaks volumes of your own bias.
I'm a Michigander just moved to Indiana but jeez am I disappointed with the options on the ballot. More than half the races were a republican candidate running completely unopposed, and most of the ones where there were two parties the only choices were D & R. When I was in Michigan, I voted Libertarian for most of the minor races, but here there aren't any. How disappointing!
Can you be specific on what seems illegitimate about the stories? They seem pretty well documented. Just because you don't like that sort of thing being reported about the party you obviously support, doesn't mean it didn't happen. So please, enlighten me.
I'm an east coast liberal transplanted into the deep red state of South Dakota. So my vote doesn't matter one bit, but I cast it anyway. There was no line; it's a small town and we have nice weather today.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Wow, this democracy must have been hell back before cameras were invented, eh?
Waited in line outside an elementary school for 1.5 hours. Everybody was civil and no electioneering to be seen. We had a 7 page optical ballot (use black pen to fill in the little ovals), which is scanned as you are leaving. There were 12 amendments to the Florida constitution which were all very wordy, and which all seem to be special interest or religious in nature.
I noticed that they had put the output of the "zero'ing" on the wall for those to inspect that the optical readers had been set to zero. We had to show a picture ID to vote, which everybody had.
I was number 225 for the day who voted...the precinct captain told me that they normally only get 200-250 for the whole day....I was there at 11AM.
I used paper ballots (4: national elections, local elections, local measures, and state propositions). I went in around 10am and waited ~20 minutes to get checked in, many waited longer. Voting took me ~30 minutes, because despite having read up on many of the state propositions and local measures in advance, I still needed to finish deciding on the candidates for school board, rent board, city council, etc.
I live in a very small town in NH. I went in to the Meeting House to vote around 10:00. I waited zero time to vote. Jim at the checking-in list said "hi Steve" as I walked in, checked me off the list, and handed me a ballot. I went into the cheesy aluminum booth with vinyl curtain, made my X-es with a number 2 pencil, came out and handed my ballot to John, who, as he has every year for the past 20 years I've lived here, solemnly placed it through the slot into the old oaken box. Godz only know how long that old oaken box has been in use! On my way out, I had a fresh-baked cookie and chatted with some of my fellow citizens before leaving.
Everything isn't perfect about small town life, and it's not for everyone. But it works for me...
Voter fraud is very rare in the US; Election fraud is a different matter. If you listen to media designed to lie to wingnuts, you might have a delusion that all kinds of voter fraud is happening, when it's not.
You don't need to force people to "show their papers" to avoid the problem of voting multiple times. One man one vote is easy enough to enforce even without Gestapo tactics.
On the other hand, actual voter participation has been historically a much bigger problem.
Partisans that game the system by intimidating voters and reducing participation should be ashamed. Unfortunately it is not so.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'm curious...why is OH pretty much always a swing state?!?!
I mean, I can understand a state changing slowly over years from one side to the other with population change/growth, but it seems with most states, the population grows more homogenous over time.
why do a very few states, like OH, seem to never 'come together' one way or the other politically? What keeps them from doing what most states seem to naturally do, which is to move to predominately one side or the other?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Here in Vt one registers at the town clerk's office. Being on a boundary I was sent from the closest town to the next one; clerk's office in a house with no sign outside (locals just know about this). Upon seeing my address the clerk remarked that she was friends with my landlord. I got registered and had a paper arrive in the mail a few days later confirming it - my wife registered at the same time but did not get the confirmation paper. We also picked up ballots at this time.
I researched candidates carefully and filled out the paper ballot. It's a "blacken the oval", heavy-paper type, appears machine-countable. This (for early voting which we opted for) then goes in an inner envelope with a form on it, to be filled in with name and a statement to sign and date. There's a warning that the vote won't be counted unless this form is filled out and signed. This then goes in an outer envelope which is plain. The sealed env then goes back to the clerk and into a box - well, spouse took it there and handed it to the clerk but didn't see it go in the box.
Is any of this suspicious? Why aren't the envelopes the other way round, the identifiable form on the outside and the anonymous one inside? Then they could verify the form and put the ballots anonymously in a box. In the worst case scenario, corrupt clerks could just ditch votes from people they think are likely to vote contrary to the ideology of the clerk or whoever is really in charge. On the other hand it's incomparably better than electronic if honestly administered. Just hoping for the best here (I'm cynical about the presidential race but thought some of the state races could make a difference).
Oregon is vote-by-mail. Received ballot and pamphlet three weeks ago. Filled it out at leisure over beer at a brew pub, dropped it off at the elections office on the way home.
Went into local polling place (a local church/private school) about 1 hour after polls opened. No wait, gave name and address, signed book, given paper ballot and marker. Filled in the bubbles that are well spaced apart and dropped in ballot box which had tie straps holding it shut. My county never hopped on the electronic machine craze and I am glad, the large sheet and optical scanner works very well, at least for a sighted person. I was in and out in 10 minutes.
Why don't you take your own advice and not read shit you don't care about? Cry some more eurotard.
I don't have a "valid ID" even though I'm on disability.
Receives disability benefits but carries no valid photo ID?
No Georgia EBT card?
Required for "Food Stamps" and other services.
No Veterans Identification Card?
What IDs are acceptable?
Any valid state or federal government issued photo ID, including a FREE Voter ID Card issued by your county registrar's office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)
A Georgia Driver's License, even if expired
Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state.
Valid U.S. passport ID
Valid U.S. military photo ID
Valid tribal photo ID
Georgia Voter Identification Requirements
George Takei passed on a link to this interesting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpGd74DrBM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Korma: Good
NYC: They moved our election point so we ended up going to the wrong polling place. When we got to the correct polling place and standing in line for 20 mins, we found out our election district changed. Another 20 mins in line and we got our ballots finally for the correct election district. It sucks, but its your duty to vote.
Only two lines here; A-L and M-Z. Three people in front of me at 9:15. Voter number 355 at my precinct (the electronic reader shows the number of ballots inserted). Last election at about the same time I was number 55.
Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
I went to the polling place with my voter ID card and driver's license. Was on the list for the polls, but since they supposedly sent me an absentee ballot which I did not request, I was put on a provisional ballot. Had to wait an hour to actually cast a vote. Got a receipt from the polling guy who was handling provisionals. Took it back and read it later. Turns out it needed my signature, and the one of the poll worker. He didn't handle the provisional ballot correctly, and I am extremely pissed off. I shouldn't have had to cast a provisional ballot in the first place, and the polling worker did not handle the ballot properly. I am going to go back there and raise some hell later.
Coconut Creek.
- Park on grass near school.
- Line wrapped a quarter of the way around the building from the entrance at 9:20 AM.
- Nice shade from trees, so the umbrella I brought was not necessary.
- Noticed one Republican and one Democrat and one Teacher hand out flyers for themselves occasionally to the line, which is a NO-NO.
- Outside wait was not bad, maybe 20 minutes; chatted with folks, didn't really discuss which way I was voting.
- Saw two neighbors exit building at different times; gave one a fist bump.
- Got inside and showed Driver's License.
- Turn off phones.
- Gave License to lady to swipe; she found my record, directed me to wait in another line for my district (9).
- Had to wait 10 minutes for papers because (1) man in front of me couldn't figure out what he wanted from life (2) when I got to the desk, they had run out of privacy folders and had run to the machine in the back to retrieve more. Pollsters complained that there were not enough privacy folders. Honestly, you can't read the page from 3 feet away to see where I marked the circle, so I didn't care.
- While waiting, noticed training papers on how to fill in the circle; had George Washington vs. Abraham Lincoln as candidates.
- Saw another neighbor on LONG line with filled out papers waiting to put them into the feeder machine.
- Got papers, but had to find my own privacy booth; found one without help from pollsters on second aisle.
- Found a Democrat blue book someone left in the privacy booth; used it to answer one question, otherwise filled out the rest. Marked the wrong candidate with "Bob" nickname, so both candidates with "Bob" nicknames got my vote. Propose ban on nicknames.
- Finished up after locating all YES/NO circles for all 10 amendments.
- Got in line with filled out papers. Neighbor on line was 12 in front of me. That means this is a slow line.
- Waited in line.
- Started up chatter with others in line, made jokes about how I pretended to be a completely different person on a survey the prior day (true experience).
- Waited in line.
- Found out one person's husband is too lazy to vote today, but would have voted for the other candidate anyway, so glad he stayed home.
- Waited in line.
- Approached by child of ANOTHER neighbor who is 60% up the line; chatted for a bit, waved hi and gave the double thumbs-up.
- Waited in line and chatted with nearby people. Discussed another survey earlier in year where I was asked who I'd vote for between Rick Scott and a ham sandwich (true experience).
- Waited in line.
- Neighbor gets near front of line; I loudly call child over to me. When she arrives, I loudly ask her to see if her mom would let me cut in front of her. Entire line laughs. Nice to ease up the tense crowd.
- Waited in line.
- Waited in line.
- Get near the front; see one machine for district 9 and one for district 14. Process is, feed one paper in. Wait 10 seconds. Repeat. 5 papers per person. If you screw up, wait for 20 seconds worth of uninterruptible beeps from machine.
- Watch as 2 people screw it up with beeps, but eventually feed in.
- Fed in my papers correctly.
- Get my sticker.
- Leave.
- Run into friends in exterior line; line now stretches 1/2 way around building; I warn them about interior line.
- Get into the car and leave.
- 2 machines to process all these people. Conclude voting Rick Scott out of office as soon as possible is the next course of action.
I had to wait in line for a good 45 minutes, and voted without issue. We used electronic machines, but the input was buttons and a click wheel rather than touch.
One guy ran into trouble, since he had just moved to a different county and wasn't in their system. He still had a lease on an apartment, so he was planning on trying to edge his way into a booth by responding to "Have you moved recently" with "I have an apartment across the street".
Slashdot needs an edit feature.
Went and registered and voted in about 20 minutes. New to the area so had to bring a utility bill. Actually wasn't really concerned about the presidential elections as voting against a stupid amendment that was on the ballot. Minnesota is most likely going Obama but the votes on that amendment are too close to ignore. I have friends and family that are homosexual and I damn sure am not gonna sit on the couch while people try to take their rights away. Granted the stupid law already does that (and I voted against those jerks too) but I do not want it made that much more difficult to get it repealed by making it an amendment.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the (supposed) good of its victims may be the most oppressive
After enduring 18 months of campaign torture, I spend 18 seconds with a sharpie, get my sticker and it's over.
Durham, NC
Voted days ago by mail.
--
The Constitution only dictates the existence of the Electoral College, not how it's used or how each State's Electors are chosen. You can implement IRV below the national level, one State at a time. No Constitutional (Federal, anyway) amendments necessary.
Otherwise, I tend to agree with you.
Voting went fine, but they ran out of "I voted!" stickers! How could this happen?? How else can I vent my smug satisfaction at having exercised my same-freedom-everyone-else-also-has?
Here in NYC they don't even bother offering "I voted!" stickers. The smug satisfaction is just presumed on everyone's part.
under construction
NC - Good to know Scantron is getting subsidized
If you don't think there is voter fraud you are not paying attention..
How is it not voter fraud when you go to your polling place and someone has already voted for you?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Got in line around 9:20 and was out the door a little before 10:30. Judges were cheerful, friendly, enthusiastic and not even remotely on task. By the time I got to the front of the line the main bottleneck was the table where you gave your name and got your card, not the machines themselves; those judges had far too much downtime, imo, as voters were slowly brought over from a line halfway across the gym by a very sweet, very distractable lady. Little old lady who was trying to look up my name had some difficulty with her machine and needed help to get it working again, which left me standing at her station for a few minutes waiting for the problem to be resolved. By the time I got to the machines, the judges there had wandered off and I had to seek one out to escort me to one.
Was a bit of a fuss at one point with some lady demanding to see a 'head judge,' who of course was nowhere to be found, and a few judges talking about how there were 'a lot of problems today,' but I was still too far back in the line to get any idea what the issue was. So not my most frustrating voting experience ever, but not exactly a walk in the park, either. The judges could have used either a little more leadership or a lot more training.
I walked in about 1/2 hour after the polls opened, signed my name and got a paper ballot. I filled it in after agonizing over a couple referenda, had it scanned and was on my way in no more than ten minutes.
Bonus: Someone brought in a bowl of candy, no doubt left over from Halloween.
Once I got home I posed the question on my buddies Facebook wall "Do you know how easy it is for someone who ever lived in Indiana to return and vote?" (He favors the other presidential candidate. :D )
Dice has been rolled, waiting to see result.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
California: we had a 2 page, double sided paper ballot. Been doing research on the various props and measures. Had my choices written down on a separate piece of paper which I took with me to the polling place, (a local elementary school). Did not listen to debates - they're just the products of speech writers and Hollywood. I prefer to watch who the candidates surround themselves with.
I haven't missed a single election since Nixon signed the bill into law, granting 18 year olds the right to vote.
Good turnout at my location, but moving steadily - only waited about 10~15 minutes. Racially, very diverse. Asian, white, black, and Hispanic from what I could see. People were polite.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Short line, less than 15 minutes and only one dude holding a sign outside my polling place. Voted around 20:00, I guess.
Was able to laugh and happily ignore the last 5 days of attack ads, mailings, people begging on social media to vote one way or the other...it was nice. Very nice. I'd do it again.
7:00AM - 40 minute wait in a very rural precinct. I normally show up at the polls at 7:00AM, when they open, and I'm usually in the single digits on the list where you sign you name. I was in the 30s and had to wait 40 minutes today. Also, the computer they were using to verify voter registration nearly ran out of power because they forgot to turn on the power strip. Fortunately, I found the problem and turned it on for them so the computer wouldn't go down. They had a night light plugged into one of the voting machines to verify that they were receiving power.
To their defense, that power strip did not have a light to indicate that it was switched on, and the switch was on the edge and very hard to see. The poor little old ladies working the poll were in a panic when the computer told them that its battery was about to die and it was going to shut the computer down.
We use voting machines in most precincts in SC. I don't trust the voting machines. No funny business in the polling place, though. The ladies are very careful not to say anything that could be interpreted as pushing one candidate or party over another.
They also handed out information about the new Voter ID law, that goes into effect in January, 2013. The law has some weaknesses that could prevent it from being effective, but we can leave that discussion for after the election since the law has no impact on the current election.
why do a very few states, like OH, seem to never 'come together' one way or the other politically? What keeps them from doing what most states seem to naturally do, which is to move to predominately one side or the other?
No sure, to be honest. But if you look at the county breakdown during elections, it's often the major metropolis counties voting Democrat and the rural counties leaning Republican. In 2000 and 2004, Bush took Ohio largely because Cincinnati went that way. Obama took 2008 because Cincinnati went Dem. There were a couple other counties as well around Lake Erie, but there tends to be a pretty big divide between the the major cities and the surrounding areas.
It's freaking annoying living in a swing state though -- every commercial is political, and my mailbox has been filled with campaign shit every day for months.
You know, every time I hear this, from people on both sides of the political spectrum, the very clear subtext is "... and anybody who disagrees with me is uneducated."
In my state, we've had so much single-party dominance that a lot of elections are really determined in caucus and convention meetings, without even a primary. It's unbelievable how many people I hear saying this is a good thing because it keeps "uneducated" people from deciding elections. When confronted with poll data that shows that their choices, along with the state legislature's, often aren't at all representative of the public, they just say "well, they just don't know any better." It takes tremendous arrogance to think you should control the political system because you're one of the "educated elite" while your neighbors' voices should count for nothing.
I agree that people need to do more to become informed rather than going to the polls and hitting the "straight-party ticket" button without even knowing the names of who they've just voted for. I don't agree with Cito's view of the EC, and I think his apparent apathy about state and local issues, though common, amounts to a shirking of civic responsibility.
But that doesn't mean I think it's good that he become totally disengaged from the process of political dialogue and participation, and it doesn't mean that you or anyone is right to dismiss his views or the importance of his participation.
I made sure to get in on the first early day possible so that I'd have plenty of time to deal with issues as they came up.
I didn't think there'd be much of a turnout...but the line disagreed with me. I think half of the people there were senior citizens. There was also a group of three people going back and forth in the line just small talking with everyone. It was otherwise uneventful, and of course at any given moment there was one or two people who seemed to get lost going from one table to the next because it was so crowded...but they were pointed to the right directions without incident.
Oregon does all the voting through the mail.
It would be kinda boring to tell the tale, but okay: I sat in the living room, filled it out while Adult Swim played on TV, then I stuffed it in an envelope. Dropped it off at the post office on my way to work 2 weeks ago.
'course, this whole vote-by-mail thing does destroy a good excuse to take half the day off from work. :(
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
You don't need to force people to "show their papers" to avoid the problem of voting multiple times. One man one vote is easy enough to enforce even without Gestapo tactics.
How?
I voted by mail several weeks ago as I was warned that the polling places would be jammed deliberately. In southern Florida they could not have tried harder to keep people from voting. The right wing is doing its best to steal this election. People waited in lines for early voting yesterday for nine hours only to be turned away. God help us if Obama does not win. I think big trouble would follow.
Went in at right about 7am, normally I've been around #60-70 in my district, this time the line was out the door of the small church and I was #100. Was very sad I wasn't asked to prove who I was other than I knew a name and and address off the top of my head.
Person in front of me was talking about his past experience being a poll watcher for Walker's recall vote... They see buses of people pull up and get off, they start asking people names and addresses to verify, a second bus pulls up, someone from the first group goes out and talks to them, the second bus loads up again and goes somewhere else to vote where there aren't poll watchers... I'm not sure how other states do it, but in WI, you can't just pick a random polling place. you go to the district you live in... This is why we need Voter ID so badly...
I went to the polling place here in Virginia around 8:30 this morning. I stood in line for just under an hour. I estimate that there were over 200 people in line waiting to vote. I've been voting in the same precinct since 1974 and have never before been in a line longer than 20 people. At the end of my hour in line waiting to vote, the line was just as long as it had been when I queued up. I drove past the place a couple hours later and the line was even longer. I don't know what this says about the outcome of this election. But it certainly looks like this election has gotten the attention of a lot of people.
If you can find some links that show Republicans up to shenanigans by all means post them.
I'm too bored to do much digging, but I read this one about an hour ago. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/dont-pass-it-voting-booth-hoax-spreads-facebook-1C6884772. That said, maybe it isn't being perpetrated by R ... maybe a D is behind it in an effort to make it look like an R.
In either case, there's lots of shenanigans going on by both major parties. Don't act so surprised.
Walked in, gave the people at the desk my ID, they handed me 3 pieces of paper. Waited in line for 15 minutes, sat down at a booth and filled out my answers.
Waited in another line to scan the papers in. The first one scanned in fine. The second one I tried to scan in and it said "operator error", I waited a second, tried again and it worked. The third paper scanned in without issue, and I walked away.
Wasn't given a receipt or anything, or even an "I Voted" sticker.
I Voted for Mitt Romney.
In my state, we can vote via absentee ballot just by asking. I'd never done it before, but a friend has been voting that way for years so I tried it. We also now have a voter ID law, which I think is ridiculous so as a form of protest, from now on it's absentee for me.
I Voted last week. Oregon is Vote by Mail.
I live in Texas which is a great state filled with just too many dumbasses who will vote republican/christian even if if they came right out and said they were going to give all the money to the rich and worship satan. I think Jon Stewart got it correct when he said this midwest area should be known as Dumbfuckistan.
I can't wait until the next election when Texas will probably be a swing state!
why do a very few states, like OH, seem to never 'come together' one way or the other politically? What keeps them from doing what most states seem to naturally do, which is to move to predominately one side or the other?
It probably has to do with the amount of interstate activity between OH and the states around it; Ohio is really a mix of north, south, east and west, complete with the political ideologies predominant there. Since it has major cities but also bedroom communities specifically interstate commuting communities, you end up with fairly active and strong rep and dem contingents living side by side in the same state.
You can see this to some degree in other nearby states like WV as well -- due to the north part being significantly different from the south. PA, on the other hand, tends to be more homogeneous, due to population density distribution and the fact that most people commute IN to PA, not out.
Voted first thing. The woman in front of me in line was told she already voted by absentee ballot, she said she had never even applied for one. I didn't see how that turned out.
Now I hear that sort of thing is happening a lot.
I live in a very hard core Democrat dominated district, with a strong concentration of union labor types. Different party registrations and independents go into different lines at the polling place, I've been registered independent for my entire life. But in my district, if you are registered republican or independent, you always get the evil eye from the poll workers and bystanders as if you're some sort of interloper. Not to mention having to self identify party affiliation (or lack thereof) to the poll workers and those others that can see the lines forming. Always uncomfortable, but I still do it. Today was no exception.
Surprisingly long lines, more than 25 minutes. That being said the line moved steady, albeit slow, pace, but people were generally in good spirits.
And to provide input to the topic: Moved cities but not county a few months ago, hadn't updated DL yet. Drove to old town, no wait, fill-in-the-bubble paper ballot, attendant not allowed to touch my ballot I had to feed it into the scanner myself, received my "I Voted" sticker and off I went back to work.
In Montgomery County. It took 2 hours on Sunday afternoon. Electronic voting machines. It took me about 3 minutes to cast my vote, even though I'd prepped with a sample ballot, as there were 7 referendum items and 2 county questions, in addition to the candidates.
This page accidentally left blank
Almost everyone in Washington votes by mail
Received my ballot in the mail about a month ago. Filled it out while reading the numerous newspaper endorsements online and our State's online voter's guide with all the Pro/Con arguments.
I dropped it in our outgoing letter box the next day... realized seconds later that I had forgot to put a stamp on it and ran up to our office, grabbed a post-in note and asked if the mail man could bring it up when he came.
A couple hours later the mailman stopped by the office, I popped a stamp on it and off he went.
A week or two later I checked in to our ballot tracker http://info.kingcounty.gov/elections/ballottracker.aspx and saw that it was received and processed. No uncertainty if I'll be counted.
Washington State has its shit together. The only thing I could improve upon the system would be to have the ballot be a bulk-mailer and not require a stamp.
Indiana - land of supreme court tested voter ID act. I will stop by the polls at 4:30 and usually am out in less than 10 minutes, voting on a the same electronic machine that has been there for 15 years. Cheap and reliable and we usually have our complete county count by 7:30 on election night (polls close at 6:00). My son is there now (and texting me) and like 15 people are there but high school kids just got out of school.
Had to pay for a stamp, and didn't get a sticker.
Orlando. Line was 3 1/2 hours long by 7:45. There was confusion as they merged two precinct voting areas into the same area, a clubhouse of an apartment complex. Dumb ghetto ladies running the show compounded the problem; a turf battle of sorts played out in front of us. There was also lots of rain this morning but people were cool enough to share umbrellas and joke around and generally have a pleasant time under the circumstances. So much for that divided country nonsense that the media narrative says.
I felt like my polling station was a pretty even racial cross-section: about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 hispanic. Maybe slightly more men than women.
Used a paper ballot that was read electronically. I made my mind up prior to 2008; the last four years just reinforced my beliefs. Hopefully this time I'm on the winning side.
Best election jokes from my 3 1/2 hour wait:
1) "Damn, this iPhone line gets longer every year."
2) "Where's the bathroom, because I have to vote yes on 2, if ya know what I mean?"
3) "How is it that we can't streamline an election but I can order a pizza online and have it at my door in 30 minutes?"
4) "What's the over-under on our cellphone batteries dying before we get a chance to vote?"
5) (*after hearing an election official needing some red electrical tape to mark a queue line for the ballot feeder computer*) "There's something ironic about the government using red tape for this."
6) "Can we get Apple to create voting machines that won't crash? Put them in all-white, naturally, with a nice retina screen, and call them the iLections? How hasn't anyone thought of this yet? Oh...Steve Jobs is dead and they're too busy suing Samsung...right."
Here in PA I just walked in, told them my name, and voted. No ID required (Democrats squashed that requirement). I noticed a couple of my relatives who haven't lived around here for years are still registered to vote but didn't try returning later and claiming to be them.
I've seen reports of a video "proving" that the electronic machines are rigged so you can't pick Obama. The video is the only thing fraudulent. It shows the guy's finger touching the screen trying to pick Obama but the selection says on Romney; then he touches Stein and the selection skips across Obama and stops on Stein. What the video doesn't show is the trackball that controls your selection that the guy is obviously moving with his other hand off camera; the machines are NOT touchscreen.
I also voted by mail in CO. There was a "I voted" sticker attached to my mail-in ballot. I wonder if it comes down to which county you live in.
I got a ballot by mail a month ago, and mailed it in a couple of weeks back. I always vote by mail, any more, because 1) there are so many issues and judgeships (especially) in Ohio, and it's very helpful to have the ballot in front of me to consider, and 2) this is Ohio.
It isn't that I think voting by mail is so much more reliable than electronic machines, really. I put my ballot in the mail and beyond that I have to take it on faith that it even reaches the board of elections, let alone gets counted. (I've hand-delivered my ballot in the past, but since I voted for Jill Stein it's more of a symbolic act that anything, and I didn't feel like it was worth the trip downtown to the BoE just for that.) But I read stories about the lines, and I've been a poll worker personally; I know precisely what hopeless chaos prevails at even an ordinary polling place on election day.
From my perspective, the states handling their entire elections by mail have the right idea.
Voted today in Washington state. Well, "today" is a misleading word.
I got my ballot weeks ago, spent about 12 full hours doing research with the provided ~100pg guide and an additional ~200 google searches. Carefully considered each vote, filled in the ovals (or abstained where appropriate), sealed her up, and dropped her off at a dropbox today.
I wish more states worked this way. I shudder to think the number of folks in walk-up-and-vote states that go on a whim, punch the name of a person they've seen on a commercial, and never give it another thought.
Cherish. Live. Dream.
Got up about 5:30, took a shower, shaved, made coffee, ate breakfast. Got to the polls shortly after 7:00 AM when they opened. Voted in absolutely meaningless Presidential, Congressional and Senatorial election. Took about 40 minutes, including the wait, and the time I had to spend driving out of my way to get to the polls.
Got delayed by unusually heavy traffic, both because of the polls and because I'm usually on the roads much earlier.
Thank $deity this will be over soon and we can eradicate people's hopes of any positive change through the electoral process.
Chicago. Rummaged through the bill pile to find our new voter ID cards had different ward and precinct numbers. Same polling place - a restaurant down the block. Friendly staff. A LOT of judges on the ballot and a couple referenda (?) I hadn't heard about for teacher's pensions and limiting corporate political contributions. Voted on a paper ballot using a marking pen to fill in arrows.
Like usual there were few people here.
It seems odd for me to hear 100's of people when there are none in my station.
I, except for a seniority aspect, didn't vote R or D, I did write myself in for one position as I was better than the RorD-only people available.
I used scanned-paper but luckily not Diebold/whatever.
I still liked the lever machines.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
My voting district is small. No issues at all. They have a new system, where you fill in scan cards (up until just a few years ago, they used the wonderful 1950s-"Crank Machines").
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
-H. L. Mencken
CT-
Voted about 9 this morning.
Hoping we can send Zomney back under his rock QUICKLY today, and move on with getting this country back together.
"W" wrecked it in 8 years and it will take a lot longer to get it back to where it was.... but Obama is off to a good start.
I try not to think about how many MORE american jobs would be outsourced if Romney manages to fool enough people to win.
I lived in Massachusetts while he was running the state and can tell you he did no favors to the people who elected him to that office either.
I can't wait until the next election when Texas will probably be a swing state!
Not if you don't vote, dumbass.
Seriously.. you are right that Texas is filled with abject morons.
However, if you don't vote, don't count yourself as one of the smart people.
By the way, as a real city, Dallas has several Democratic house seats and close local elections. By not voting, you let the retards (or should I say other retards) win.
I live in Dallas and I Voted for Barack Obama, Democrats, and Greens in that order.
There is still time!!
VOTE!!!
Because Ohio is split between north and south much like the rest of the eastern US with the north more liberal and democrat and the south more conservative and republican. The division crosses economic and cultural lines. In southern Ohio you will find lots of people with southern or hillbilly accents while northern Ohio has typical mid-western accents. The southern areas are "bible belt", northern areas not so much. The southern economy is agricultural, rural and resource based (coal), the northern is old industrial (auto & steel). Here's an article on it: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/05/3901108/5-ohios-analyzed-in-swing-state.html. It's a serendipitous mirroring of the red state/ blue state division of the whole USA. That is why it doesn't come together.
That's because none of the people you talk to are poor, elderly, or minorities, and probably represent less than 1% of the population of your city or town.
Patient crowd, 40 minutes of serpentine line through the cafeteria tables. Not really a get off and get right back in line kind of thing, but it was fun, though. I might get back in line for one more ride before the park closes for the night, but only if I can find the funnel cake stand first.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I work overnights, so it was easy to vote on the way home after work. No real line to speak of. I already knew all the decisions I would make.
I stated my last name and then pointed it out to the poll worker because a lot of people just have problems with my uncommon last name. She had lost her pen, so I signed with mine and then gave her my pen. The next poll worker asked if I lived on while I signed. I said "Yes, Ma'am." She then read out my full street address as a statement (not a question), which I found just a bit odd, but not overly so. The third poll worker said there were new rules, and I was supposed to bring sandwiches for everyone. He still handed me my ballot, though.
Ballots are marked with an inkspot marker, very simple to use. Insert the ballot into the "booklet" and start turning pages. Options are always on the left side only, right-hand page stays blank. Only valid spots are exposed on the ballot, so there is very little margin for error, unless you somehow don't put the paper in all the way and slip both tabs into the alignment holes.
When done, I folded ballot in half as I was shown. Gave it to the poll worker, who tore off my "receipt" and had me unfold and slide my ballot into the reader. He looked at a display I couldn't see and said I had the "right score" and handed me my "I Voted" sticker.
No ID required. I got a slight reprimand the first time I ever voted in California years ago when I walked in with my ID already out and tried to hand it to the poll worker. She threw her hands up as if I was trying to hand her a rattlesnake. I had been in the military for all my previous votes, so showing ID was second nature. It still feels weird not showing ID, even though I know who I am.
All told, it took ~five minutes from exiting the car to driving off.
"Cries and screams are music to my ears." - Soundwave
How many times do you get to vote for yourself for president, anyway? Take your chance!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Voted weeks ago. There is a county web site where you can verify your ballot was received. No buttons. No electronics. No chads. It's a blue state, so a waste, but hopefully makes a difference for some of the local races.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Oh of course, only Democrats would do bad things. Republicans are right and good and would never dare fuck with the vote to win. Oh wait.
Republicans have been up to funny business in state legislatures across the country deliberately making it harder for people to vote under the guise of "preventing vote fraud," despite the fact that the only people caught recently were Republicans. That you think they aren't up to any funny business means you're blind to the legislative bullshit they've been pulling across the country to fuck over the citizens of their states and this country.
Given you cite a number of articles on aggressively "conservative" web sites, I suspect that you refuse to look outside your tiny world.
Why not implement a 20% federal and 10% local tax on all election spending? After all, the politicos are always trying to squeeze money out of us. Seems like the voters win 2 ways. First, more money into government coffers that didn't make a pit stop in my wallet. Second, fewer @$@!*%^ misleading ads and mailers.
As for voting, like I have for the past 15 years or so, I mailed the turkey in a couple weeks back.
Love watching the bozos with their surge in last minute spending when I, and almost everyone I know, has already mailed it in.
Actually, it sort of was.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I read that each state has its own database to keep track of who has already voted to keep people from voting more than once.
How does the system keep people from voting in multiple states?
This is especially worrying since some states have early voting. A person could easily vote all over the place.
What kind of bothered me is that I used my drivers license. They scanned it which brought my information on their screen. Then they put in a programmable card while my informations was up. Handed me the card that I'd take to the machine.
It would be simple to link my ID to the card they inserted to the machine I voted on with the results. I'm not sure they're capturning this data but voting is supposed to be secret. They way I was enterd it would have been really easy to track my voting preferences.
No wait. Greeted kindly and informed on procedure. Was given choice between paper ballot or machine. Accepted a paper one and filled in the boxes. Submitted into ballot box. Was thanked for voting and left. I sympathize for voters having problems. I am grateful to have it so nice.
You don't need to force people to "show their papers" to avoid the problem of voting multiple times. One man one vote is easy enough to enforce even without Gestapo tactics.
How?
One way that's popular in less-developed areas is to simply apply an indelible dye to the voter's hand. Since it takes a few days for the dye to wear off and the election is only for a single day, it makes it pretty hard for someone to attempt to vote more than once. Providing that the election officials are honest, anyway.
Partisans that game the system by intimidating voters and reducing participation should be ashamed. Unfortunately it is not so.
That's no way to talk about our state Governors!
Voted thrice in Minnesota and many times in Virginia.
Eldavojohn, you da' man!!! That gives a new meaning to "vote early, vote often" what with the airplane trip and TSA gropping between trips to the polls in two different states!!! As long as you're voting for my candidate, keep up the good work.
The polling place was moved across the street, from a local church to the Public Safety building (combined police and fire station).
I was directed to the correct line for my precinct (there were two), got my ballot on two large Scantron sheets, which I had to fill out both sides (lots of issues to vote on.)
It took about half an hour at 8 AM. My wife just voted, and the line was shorter in late afternoon.
Go on, citizen, stamp the vote card. R or D, your choice.
I went to the polling place with two other people. They were the only two people in front of me in line. ;)
Smooth process. Ballot was 1 long 2-sided sheet.
I asked a friend that lives in NC and was told that long lines in other states are likely due to 10+ page ballots combined with large turnouts.
Voted this morning at 8:15 after waiting one hour.
The Good:
-The whole process was orderly and organized
-My voter registration worked fine, and no one mistakenly asked for ID
-Electronic voting machine seemed to work just fine- no touch screen, let me easily select my choices, and the confirmation screen even matched my selections. So I assume my vote went through correctly.
The Bad:
-Voting was delayed by about 30 minutes due to (they claimed) a problem with the computer systems used to check the voter registrations. That had me putting my tinfoil hat on right after I got there, but things seemed to go smoothly after that.
The Ugly:
-Despite my local county and city websites not mentioning anything about them, there were 4 ballot measures on the ballot, so I walked in cold on those issues. Left them blank.
It should be noted that I just moved to the state this summer. The registration process was pretty painless. I only voted on the national positions since I don't know enough about the state and local politicians/issues to have an educated opinion on them.
Purple dye on the finger that doesn't wash off for days -- 3rd world countries solved that problem.
This was my post - I don't know why it came up as AC.
Vienna Township, MI redrew our precincts this year due to the census. They claim that the number of people in each Precinct is roughly equal.
Waited in line 2 hours (1 - 3pm) to vote in Precinct 1 ... Lines for Precincts 2-4 were ghost towns. Sad part is some of the people in line were saying it was even worse this morning, when the line was out the building and half way down the block. Workers said it had been like this all day.
Guy in front of me spent 15 minutes refusing to show his ID ... not because he didn't have one; just because he didn't like the fact they were swiping it into a computer.
Paper ballots ... Two pages long (front and back) ... only electronic voting machine in site was reserved for the handicap.
Had to wait in line another 15 minutes to put the ballot into the scanning machine before leaving.
Its never been this bad before; either the township redrew the precincts all screwy or there's a lot of people wanting a change.
Voted today in a car dealership. There were two precincts or districts or what have you in one place with only a small sign (concealed by the lines) indicating the correct line in which to stand. Luckily we got in the correct line. I was asked for an ID, even though I apparently don't have to show one.
Did my first electronic voting as IL (former residence) did paper ballots the last time I voted. I touched one senator and it selected the other one, but it was not terribly difficult to correct. (My buddy said I needed Homer's dialing wand.)
The one thing that stood out to me was the political advertisement on the windows of the dealership. In IL you couldn't have any campaigning within a certain distance from the voting booths. Here, there were signs taped to the windows of the room (again, a car dealership showroom, voted next to a CRV I think).
Overall, I'm glad to be done with it.
No waiting - choice of paper or electronic. Most people opting for paper (as I did). Process was pretty painless;
in addition to the federal election there are some choices for local stuff: state senator and representative, trustees
for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, county mayor and prosecuting attorney; some proposed state constitutional
amendments and several Hawaii County charter amendments.
Breathe continuously
I sent in a mail-in / absentee ballot, which was much like filling out a Scan-Tron form for a test in school. Choosing which circles to fill in was a bit tricky though. (Fill in #92 to vote yes on Proposition 33; fill in #97 to vote no on Proposition 34; etc.) I triple-checked everything.
An interesting bit was I got a call from a 'bot at the Los Angeles County Registrar's office Sunday. It more or less said "If you've already mailed in your ballot, disregard this message. If you haven't mailed in your ballot, it's too late. Drop it off at a polling place."
Also on the radio this morning it said that 51% of voters in CA are mail-in for this election.
That is all.
... about how the country is run unless you (1) aren't a US citizen or (2) belong to a class of US citizens that are otherwise not permitted to vote (such as you're reading Slashdot on the computer in your prison library).
If they tell you your ID is wrong/invalid/inadequate, ask for a provisional ballot.
Probably because a reasonably sized portion of the state is made up of pragmatic working class moderates. Just because a candidate is liberal or conservative doesn't mean they're equidistant from the middle.
SC - Charleston 20 minute wait
Took longer to drive to polling place from work than to wait in line.
Did not even bother going in the morning as the daily rush hour drive from polling location would have added two hours to my drive to work.
No concern on voter ID law as IDs not required until January 2013.
Don't vote D or R for offices by rote, normally review candidates on their own merits or lack thereof.
Absolutely disgusted by R shenanigans this year on having opponents excluded from races on technicality. It was either R or write-in for all local races as they had all D candidates disqualified for not submitting a paper copy of a form with the application they were told they could (and did) submit online. If you didn't have deep pockets for ads and signs, who (in the normal non-slashdot crowd) would know to vote for you?
I was disenfranchised in NJ. And not because of Hurricane Sandy.
I am in Jersey City. One of the place where power is still out from the storm. I go into the voting area, which has had power for a while. My name isn't on their thing. I told them I moved to NJ from OH in April and got my license and voter registration changed in May. They are like "yea, they aren't that fast in NJ". 6 months?!
So I did a provisional ballot. I interpret it as a "your vote won't count" ballot. The thing wouldn't even seal shut. So now my vote isn't anonymous and it can easily be tampered with.
And I need to reiterate. This has NOTHING to do with Sandy. This is normal operations.
Voting early is awesome in Texas and especially Travis county. We really want people to vote around here. You can vote in any of the locations for weeks ahead of the election.
Voted mid-morning today. Had a decent line. There were 2 lines actually. The first was for the blasted voter ID crud. (sorry, but fraud is not really an issue) It was the slowest line by far and easily backed up. The second line was for electronic voting. If you didn't mind doing a paper ballot you could skip the second line as there was no waiting to do paper.
You might ask why a Canadian cares about the US election -- well what Washington does hase a real effect on what happens in Canada. As former Prime Minister Trudeau once said ... It's like sleeping with an 800lb gorilla. When the US sneezes, Canada gets a cold. I've also got friends and relatives in the US who'll be
negatively affected if the Republicans get in and go forward with their promises to big business and the super wealthy.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
"Fill in the bubble completely" then fed into a scanner.
Double-sided legal sized paper.
GA, not allowed to vote
they're all the same
My polling place was packed when I passed by on the way to work with cars lined up in the street trying to get in around 8:20. Came back just after 3 this afternoon and it wasn't so bad - waited about 30-35 minutes in line. Two massage therapists in front of me were having an animated discussion about how the human body is not very well-adapted to walking upright on two legs.
Ballot itself was very short, much shorter than the off-cycle one earlier this year. Besides the presidential candidates, there were maybe 4-5 various local positions. I wrote in the names of my kitties for a couple where the jackasses were running uncontested.
The polling place itself was pretty calm - it's a city community center. There were no signs, ads, or propaganda outside the building. To get from work to my polling place, I actually passed a church that serves as another polling place, which was littered with campaign ads.
Overall a fairly uneventful experience, although I'd much prefer it that way. I was a little irked that Gary Johnson made the ballot but Jill Stein was just a write-in, but so it goes.
You've seriously never seen photos of people in low-tech, war-torn areas proudly holding up their inked finger to show they voted?
But all this is beside the point. In-person voter fraud is so incredibly rare it isn't worth worrying about, much less disenfranchising tens or hundreds of thousands of people.
Went at 7:30 with my son (it's his first time voting). Line was out the door; it moved slowly but consistently and we were done within 40 minutes.
While we were voting, the Mittster 3000/Willard and his wife were voting about 1/2 mile away. The Secret Service cleared the building while they voted under cameras from local TV and reopened it after they left. There were some embarrassingly awkward hugs as he said goodbye to his wife, son, and grandchildren. No warmth at all.
Saw my first "Mitt for Prez" sign in town this week; I don't get over to his side of town very often. I don't expect that he'll carry this town in the election (and he's lived here since '71). He didn't carry it in his Senatorial or Gubernatorial campaigns and, in fact, lost his own precinct (mostly $1-4M homes) when he ran against Ted Kennedy. (The town is populated by Harvard, MIT, and Boston/Cambridge high tech company employees; very affluent and very liberal.)
I just hope that the rest of the nation takes the lead from those of us who have had to deal with this twit in the past. Obama may have some weaknesses but Willard will be a disaster and we'll have to listen to him talk down to us for four years about how we don't deserve him.
I've moved a couple of times in the last 6 years and even though I'd swear Texas has a "motor-voter" registration deal and my driver's license was current as of the general election in 2010, the voter registration people still had my previous address on file, so it's fill out a statement of residency and get on with the vote. There was a long line for the electronic voting machines (probably about 20 people in front of me) and there hasn't been a paper ballot option in Austin for ages. Alas, the poor woman who moved recently and failed to bring any form of ID (I thought Texas was a no ID state was her quote - it's a no photo ID state at present) spent a long time chatting with the registration folks and the voter hotline only to eventually be told to get some ID (almost anything is acceptable in Austin including utility bills [cool I can vote in the precincts where I've got rental properties], bank statements, etc.)
We get sample ballots mailed mailed to us out here that have all of the candidates on them as well as any regional or state ballot questions (similar to the California propositions we hear so much about but way *way* less ridiculous). Most people research before hand and just bring their sample ballots in with them. Is this not the case in other areas?
+1 Disagree
WA: Received ballot in mail, filled it out on my own time, then drove out and dropped it off at a designated point (with a couple pollsters and a cop sitting around to watch for trouble). No line.
I could have dropped it off anytime in the preceding week, or I could have put a stamp on it and mailed it, too.
I got to the polls in Baltimore at about 7:15 and ended up with an hour wait. Voting itself was easy on an electronic machine (which I don't mind, but apparently some people do).
I did find it interesting that all the machines are daisy-chained together for power. The one on the end was plugged into the wall, with each successive one plugged into it's neighbor. I don't know how the machines are designed, but a single point of (power) failure seemed like a bad idea...
Out of some 10 or so electronic voting machines, 6 were not working.
So much for technology.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
Voted almost 2 weeks ago, early voting center nearby, easy in, easy out, maybe 10 minutes but I took the time to read the issue items on the ballot.
In Chicago this morning I saw an election judge chastising a volunteer (I'm assuming they're all volunteers) who was answering a voter's questions on ballot organization or maybe interpretation (r.e. the lady in your post). The judge was pretty worked up about the volunteer helping the voter in isolation (e.g. solo, with no other volunteers present); she went went on for a few minutes about needing to have both a Democrat + Republican assist at the same time if any voter needed help with their ballot.
I was amused. It made me wonder how things would work out if (when?) a 3rd party crosses that 5% mark, will they need 3 "assistants" to make sure things are neutral?
I was also amused after the judge shushed the volunteer back to sit down at the table the voter was asking the judge questions.
Seriously though, the volunteers - are trying hard; I am grateful they put in the hard work that they do. It has to get old managing a polling station after a few hours.
I'm NOT voting (Ever) until there is something worth actually voting for. None of any of your votes makes any difference at all.... none. My friend and his uncle or buddy or whatever.. were all talking last night how they were going all republican and Romney needs/should win. These are average, low income americans (no college education)... basically religiously voting for Romney(a corporate shill, imho). I was like why would you even consider him? WTF do you think he is going to do that will help you in any way?
Complete silence.... then I hear them all start trying to argue with me about how Obama is spending more money than any other president ever, and all this debt we have is all his his fault. Sadly I gave up trying to debate with them that the VAST majority of that debt falls squarely into Bush jr's lap (Repub btw). Obama was just unlucky enough to become POTUS and have all this shit dumped into his lap from his predecessor. They all seemed to have conveniently forgotten that this TRILLION+ dollar "war" we're still in (yes there are still troops over in iraq and a lot more over in afghanistan now) was Bushes doing. And the whole wallstreet shitstorm was coming a long time ago. Hell I think there were economists that predicted that this would happen like 10-20 years ago, but no one listened.
anyways my point, if there is one is that everyone in congress, the senate, ..etc ALL need to have their asses fired. They bicker and throw tantrums back and forth instead of trying to find some sort of middle ground while working with WHOEVER is president. Obama had a lot of good ideas, many were ideas from normal people that sent them in... but nooooo, nothing got passed because of all this childish behavior of whos side "wins" or can gather more power and influence.
That whole thing about having to have insurance soon or you get fined..... yeah wouldn't have happened if they had worked together instead of fighting the president... we could all have full healthcare coverage... but no. Go ahead and look at anything the president has wanted to put forward and see what happens when it goes to the floor for a vote and the end result that comes from that........ > bunch of morons geez. We could have had full coverage and paid less in taxes than we pay right now for our health insurance premiums. /facepalm
the whitehouse site used to have a page where people could enter topics and others could vote for them. the top ones were like:
legalize/decriminalize Cannabis for adults and regulate like alcohol was like 3-4 of the top 10 things people voted they wanted on the site.
Reinstate peoples rights. repeal the patriot act and all that other nonsense like warrantless wiretapping... which is completely illegal yet courts and everyone else in government said fuck you we're going to do it.
First world quality healthcare... seriously. We're what? 40th place or something in healthcare? 3rd world countries have better quality of care than we do here (unless you have millions laying around) What do all the top 10 countries on that list have that we don't? national/social/whatever healthcare. They don't have to worry about going into massive debt and bankruptcy because they had to visit the ER or see some specialist. If you are sick and need care you got it, but if you are in America.got cancer or anything else serious and no health insurance oh boy? fuck you and die.. is pretty much what america seems to think. That is just disgusting. Yet we had a president who tried to give us this great thing and got shot down.
Romney did it for his state... why can't we all have it if we want it? hmm? I can probably guarantee you if Romney were to win we would never see something like that even come to light.
The only reason I can see to vote for Romney is if you are Big Business. us wee little folk are just going to be screwed.
In the meantime we can all watch as our RIGHTS are slowly worn and stripped away..... doesn't matte
First time voting in Utah since moving here from NY.
The poll workers here are all 95 years old and very, very slow. They had 12 machines at my polling place but struggled to keep one of them peopled. Very little diversity—all white, all over 40, mostly Mormon (the discussion up and down the line was jovial, but completely about church, and they all knew each other—brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so and a couple of Mormon bishops were going up and down the line shaking hands and "ministering" to the crowd, I suppose).
To be expected, I guess.
I tried to early vote, but when I showed last week at opening time and saw a line stretching out the building and was told it was a four hour wait, I decided to try my luck on election day instead.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
And I gotta say, that is the way to do it. Give yourself time to fully understand the ballot and all of the candidates/propositions involved. Take the time to do the research and know exactly what it is you're about to vote for.
Also, you don't have to stand in line on election day and have to rack your brains trying to remember what your votes were going to be.
/* No Comment */
I forgot this part - 11am, short line. Paper ballot + scanner machine. Worked fine.
too many Judges though (e.g. why even "vote" if there's only one person seeking the position?)
I voted @ 4:30 PM. There were only 3 people in line ahead of me. I was #428 in a very small township in MI. All went well.
In Michigan, the ballot was VERY long! What made it even worse in my voting precinct was the pens we had to use. The ballot was a paper one (at least they got that right) but the poll workers provided (and insisted that we use them) fine point pens. The pens were the same ones you can get at any store. The ballot was the "fill in the oval completly" type. A felt tip pen would have done the job nicely but it took a lot of time filling in that damn oval using a fine tip pen. (Clueless poll workers!)
Moved my polling place for the third time in 25 years. I voted for issue 2 to maybe get gerrymandering under a little less partisan control. Poll workers didn't notice expired drivers license, had backup id for an adjacent precinct.
They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Got my fill in the bubble ballot. The damn lady on the left and old guy on the right wouldn't let me copy. I think I failed. I'll try again around 7pm to see if I can bring up my scores. Oromney should ace this test in Idaho at least.
No lines, just a nice walk to the mailbox. Even took the dog with me, try that at a polling station.
Demagogue much? How you got voted +3 I don't know but your sweeping generalizations are so grossly inaccurate that it makes my jaw drop. If you bothered to read the article you linked to you would see that it doesn't match your prejudices and poorly constructed generalizations.
Went in with the wife around 10am - took us probably 5 minutes to get our ballots. We use paper ballots, and all the machines were up and working. A pretty painless experience all around.
Now now, respect his opinion even if you do disagree with it. :) :)
I am dutch and I am very interested in what happens, especially since it will influence the rest of the world as well and because it might give Jon Stewart and Colbert some great jokes which I will enjoy very much
Latest poll who people in the Netherlands would vote for this week was over 90% for Obama, that was funny to read as well
This is the sig that says NI (again)
You aren't 'voting', because YOUR VOTE DOESN'T COUNT, because the whole thing is a fraud. The voting machines are even more useful for fraudsters than the ridiculous paper ballot system.
There is only ONE method that's fraud proof, and most of you are too stupid to even understand how it works, or read up about it, let alone suggest your country uses it - the Robinson Method of Voting:
http://www.paul-robinson.us/index.php/2008/10/25/the_robinson_method_a_really_simple_way_?blog=5
Still, it's only your entire future at stake, why bother? I'm sure there's something interesting on T.V. to watch instead.
Voting at 3pm went quite smoothly. Very little waiting. However, a couple of the older staff helpers seemed to be easily confused. I was handed the wrong ballot sheets and they forgot to write in the ward/precinct numbers. The gentleman after me also was given the wrong sheet. The woman at the table seemed genuinely flustered. Thankfully, by the time I had finished voting there were sharper, more competent people supervising the event.
Still voting with a pen and not a computer. I dig it.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
Got a new registration card months ago (without even asking). Pulled up a sample ballot in advance to mull over the choices. Polling place about 1 mile away.
I downloaded (from email), printed, filled-out, scanned, and emailed my ballot to my county election officials.
I'm active-duty military, located far from my legal residence and precinct.
50 miles South of Houston. Population about 27,000. Voted about 10:00AM. No line. Just walked up and voted. Plenty of stickers available.
I was surprised to find the voting process to have taken a practical turn. Paper and pens, to my delight. Would only have been made easier had they provided sharpies instead of ballpoint pens.
Even so, someone requested another ballot, having filled one not to their liking / the instructions.
To this end, I found the process favourable. A job well done.
Now if only in four years we can improve the slate of candidates, we might be onto something.
I am John Hurt.
So said our old friend Joe Stalin.
(source)
:-P
Polling place, a nearby church's reception hall, not crowded, short wait. The 6 election officials, one young kid and 5 elderly people, seemed mostly well trained. The worst were the elderly ladies checking me in. They were hard of hearing and had difficulty locating my name on alphabetized list, even with me pointing it out. The workers directing the voters to machines and showing them how to operate them were competent.
On the other hand, Diebold machines seem quirky and needlessly difficult to use. The confirmation page required scrolling to see everything, but existence of scrollbar wasn't immediately obvious. It was on the left side of the display, and used non-standard icons and "programmer art" color scheme. Saving the completed ballot to the smart card was very slow, wasn't sure I pushed the "cast vote" -- or whatever its name was -- or not. No indication of status, very subtle change in button appearance when pushed vs. not pushed. About 90 seconds later it ejected the smart card as the poll worker told me it would and gave me the "all done" screen. I guess it worked. Designers badly need to read Norman's "Design of Everyday Things".
Stopped by a polling place in Missouri, too (not to vote again, on and errand). Also in a church. Lines were long but moved along. Voters voted on paper, unless they wanted to use the one electronic machine at the place. Volunteers from the church had a table out of the way where they gave cookies and coffee to the waiting voters. Things seemed to be running smoothly.
I am not a crackpot.
I just voted in Louisville (pop 1.2 million) at 4:30pm, and did not wait at all.
The only problem is I got a 200 year old ballot, I think. I'm sure it would have been important in 1812 to add a section to the state constitution about hunting and fishing rights, but surely in 2012 no one would be so stupid to think it warranted that level of concern.
Also, I don't know who I voted for president. Since, thanks to the electoral college, my vote doesn't count at all, I picked one of the 3 non-Dem/Rep parties, but it wasn't the Green Party. It was either Independent or whatever the 5th party was, I can't remember.
Only one other voter voting. I guess everyone know Obama will win his home state so low turnout.
All I had to do is sign. They compared my signature with one on file. No ID required.
Only voted for president and against every govt. program. Most local positions had only one candidate running (WTF?) so they didn't need my vote anyways.
Yawn. Nothing to report from Ill Annoy . . .
-- Mean People Suck
20 minutes in line, where I could see about half of the voting machines screens in use. I couldn't quite tell what people were voting, but if I had better eyesight I probably could have. Maryland is still using the hackable, no paper trail Diebold Accuvote touchscreen machines.
Citation needed.
The Google news aggregator is my tiny world?
I'm in a suburban district of Fairfax County, VA. Voted at a local elementary school, where there was practically no line at all - maybe a total of 40 voters between currently selecting and waiting in line to select. Showed official gov't issued picture ID, the volunteers verified my address and full name, etc. No problem whatsoever.
I did most of my research regarding the Presidential election, so I failed to do my share of homework for local/state issues -- I considered the roughly $150 million within the bonds section and was split somewhere in the middle of that spending. I'm fairly conservative, but I also understand the need to spend money on roadways and infrastructure -- especially in a busy area like DC/MD/VA.
I also elected to use the paper AccuTron ballot, rather than the digital one. It was just a faster approach, and I felt like I could take more time to read over the options and make a less-impulsive selection.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
WTF! Does this mean Mittens has won?
So, here in AL we have to, yet again, try to repeal some lingering Jim Crow content from our ridiculously long constitution. A similar measure failed in 2004, since people here seem to feel that guaranteeing children an education is significantly worse than making sure they are segregated by race.
In Presidential Election some 40 yearst ago I noticed Ballot Box was not locked and raised some hell till lock was attached.
Same thing happened today. No lock. No excuse. No awareness of procedures. I got a thumbs up from many waiting to vote.
Hillsborough County, Florida has a setup where any registered voter in the county can request an absentee ballot, no questions asked (no requirement to be physically absent from county on election day). Ballot received by mail a few weeks before election, completed at leisure, returned by mail last week (return postage pre-paid). Easy! Brilliant! Not all areas of Florida are as backward as the media seems to portray.
There was an article on CNN about the US voting system. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/05/opinion/frum-election-chaos/index.html
Pretty sad to be honest. We take voting system for granted here (Australia), it is run pretty smoothly, and even though it is paper ballots still, the results are known within hours unless it is pretty close. I have never heard of vote disputes. Usually recounts when the result is too close but that's about it.
I did vote Ron Paul in the Primaries, too. But to quote Mit before Iowa [and after Nevada four years before], 'the leadership won't permit Ron Paul to win'. Ten states of vote fraud later, I'd say he's right. But as the media likes to point out and the government seems to concur, vote fraud in the primary isn't actionable since the primary is a private issue. Nice coup for stalin.
Anyhow as a Virginia conservative I did the best I could do: I zeroed my Republican vote.
AND I ran into the Republican state PartY chairman and told him so.
Great day voting, if there ever was one.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I'm amazed at the voting process in USA.
Here in Australia, you register to vote when (or even before) you turn 18. Postal votes are available for a couple of weeks prior to the election and most reasonable excuses will work. If you vote on election day you can turn up to any of several polling booths in your electorate. If you are in a different city or state you can submit an absentee vote. Very simple paper based process which is consistent across the entire country.
Have a read of Votes are in and our plodding way of having a say wins in a landslide which gives an Australian perspective on the US election system. In any other country in the world, I'm convinced the USA system would be roundly criticised.
Oregon: Voted 3 weeks ago by mail. Drank a beer while marking up local issues on the ballot in the man cave.
In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
I am not voting; I have enough time vested in this nightmare generating and posting reports from an offline system via sneakernet. I can't see waiting in line just to tally the remaining votes in a few hours.
Me too. Had my ballot at my desk at home with my voter booklet will all candidates, measures, statements of support and rejection by both sides and took an hour (while drinking a beer) to read and understand each measure and then vote my desired outcome. Did not blindly vote for a given party, gender, or last name type. Tried to remove incumbents who have been in too long, but kept people who were trying to make a difference but hadn't had time yet ;)
Cool! Amazing Toys.
November in Texas can be delightful, or it can feel like a hot summer day in many places norther. Today was hot -- and I waited close to an hour to vote, most of that outside on some baking concrete, waiting to get inside the polling place. 8 polling machines were set up in the nearby library, in the same room as my neighborhood association meets, in fact. (NOTE: today was merely warm, or perhaps barely warm, by Texas standards. July or August it would be dangerous to stand that long outside without shade.) Someone came around giving out water -- good idea; wish I had a nearby lemonade stand.
The elderly ladies running one part of the process (the third station below) had some technical trouble; a young guy with hip hair and clothes was helping them -- I assume he was there in official capacity ;)
Showed voter ID card (no Photo ID requirement in Texas) at one station, got a two-part sticker printed; one part of this sticker, with bar code, was taken at the next station and placed on a sheet of paper along with other voter's stickers (for a logbook of some kind for later scanning, I guess?), and signature goes next to it. At station three, the 2d part of that two-part sticker was taken (not sure it's fate -- that part had my name on it and a few codes I didn't try hard enough to figure out or remember), and in exchange, I got a small printed ticket with a code. There was a pointless verification step in here, in which one part of that ticket is compared (by the voter) with one part of the sticker for which it's being swapped ("Yep, they both say 'R-25.' Does it matter that one has the hyphen and one does not?" Answer: "No. As long as the're the same."). The verification was easy, but since I'm not sure what's being compared, sort of silly. (But Hey, it's voting! Silly makes people feel right at home!)
The final station of the cross, the machines themselves. I completely forgot to check what brand of machines were being used. They used a jogwheel for selecting choices; to start the process, the code from the small printed ticket was entered, by using the jogwheel to select each digit in turn and then hit a (hardware, not touchscreen) "enter" button. I believe that the controls on the machine were, from left to right:
Submit ballot / Previous / Next / Enter / [jogwheel]
There was no paper trail, but there was a confirmation step at the end; it was not especially user friendly, but it does exist, and it doesn't look like I voted for Buchanan. Having one machine both ask you for choices and "verify" them on screen doesn't feel especially rigorous, but Oh well. If there are shenanigans in how votes are transmitted *from that machine,* I'd have no idea. But at least as an interface, I have no real complaints about it except I am not sure how I could have entered a write-in choice for any office. (Since I did not have a write-in demand -- I just chose to leave the unopposed without my specific endorsement -- I didn't pursue it. The instructions mentioned that write-ins could be done via the jogwheel, but I am not sure how it would have been initiated for a particular office / race.)
I'm not sure how many states have "Straight Ticket" as an option; I do know that Texas has it. This is the first step, actually: You can select (R), (D), or (L) as a straight ticket (possibly (G) as well, but I don't think any others have enough offices covered with a candidate for that to make sense ... (C) might, too, for that matter.) I don't think there should be a straight-ticket option, actually, but it exists and I used it. However, it's not as bad as I used to think; you still must page through the various offices, and you can modify the straight-ticketness of your actual ballot by piecemeal changing the selected vote for any of them you want. (That is, you could select, say, straight-ticket (R) and then go through and change each and every vote to (D), (L), or whatever. But if you do select a straight ticket, your favored party's candidate is pre-selected by default
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Had to go buy stamps.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
That just gives MY vote more weight. This year... I think I'll vote to mess with Texas! Ha ha! Just try to stop me!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Six hundred posts (and counting) later, after eight years, I don't think anyone's failed as hard at FP as you just did.
What a difference less-than-one-minute makes. Condolences, sir, but thanks for the laugh.
I got to the voting spot (the local library) this morning around 7 something. It was sprinkling slightly and the line was just barely past the overhang in the rain. The line ran a bit slow because the 2 of 6 voting machines (touch screen) were broken already. The demographics surrounding me suggested Romney was going to have a fight on his hands to carry my town. Most other Republican races, not so much. Whoever setup the voting machines kept almost all the Ds off the ballot. There was a "vote republican" button that entered an R for every position and a "vote democrat" button that filled in 2-3 candidates. The poll workers did their best to not be a bottle-neck. From all the D campaign signs I've seen around here, most of those races were NOT Rs running unopposed. Next time I'll be wary enough to bring in a list, so I can write opposition candidates in. Frankly, I didn't expect this sort of nonsense in SC. I thought we voted so consistently R that it wasn't deemed necessary to cheat here. There was no intimidation. Everyone at the voting spot was professional. Whoever was behind the "funny business" was probably not there.
I'm constantly traveling on my job, so I mailed my ballot a couple of weeks ago. I've voted absentee since 1976. Nowadays you have to put a copy of some kind of ID inside when you mail it, but that's no problem.
We desperately need photo ID in all states. What's the big problem? Your state would probably give you one if you couldn't afford one.
Other than absentee voting, the only kind of voting I trust is marking your vote on paper that is then scanned by an optical scanner. Fast vote totals and a paper backup copy in case of disputes.
In and out quick, about 4 people in line in front of me for my precinct.
On the drive over some economist on the radio was estimating the lost wages of voting based on an average wait time of 1 hour.
My entire voting time, with driving there and back in the evening rush hour, was about 40 minutes.
Paper ballots, fill in the oval by felt pen.
Reddit has a wonderful array of articles citing Republican attacks on democracy.
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/
The ballot watcher modded it -1 and now the vote counter can't see it.
Easy voting. The ballot was paper. The wait was about 10-20 seconds. Our voting precinct is a very small city, so didn't expect long lines. My wife and I voted around 3pm. Only thing I noticed is what my mother-in-law (same precinct) kept telling me: all our local offices are held by republicans.
wingnutty site?
Went to vote after work at an elementary school's replica of a one room skoolhouse. Line was short although the classroom was crowded. Only 3 people out front handing out leaflets of which I do not know what they were about. Signed in, cast my votes on the paper ballot, and then fed it into the machine. I was number 1026. Easy peasy.
-- After all is said and done, more is said than done.
I changed my residency about 7 years ago. Four years ago to be an Ohio resident (I've lived here about 10, but originally it was as a student). Four years ago, I was able to vote a provisional ballet after being denied in the morning and coming back after work with the postcard to prove I had confirmation of registering to vote.
Three years ago I bought a house and moved. They claimed I never registered to vote in Ohio. Yet, I have postcards from my previous three address showing how I registered to vote at that address, and I had a fourth showing where three years ago when I bought my house I updated my information. All addresses were within Franklin county, yet they insist I have never registered to vote in OH. Thus they denied me a vote. I'm so frustrated its not even funny.
Just don't tell my four year-old son; I think he will kill me if Romney wins and he finds out I didn't vote for Obama. Every time PBS goes to commercial he starts a rant about Romney.
I so love my district! Every time I've gone to vote the past several elections, there are several people inside in the process of voting, and there are 5 - 10 open voting stations; no waiting! I voted this evening after work, paper ballot and scanner, no problems, no issues.
Voted about 7pm. I didn't vote for ANY democrats of republicans. Voted for libertarians if available. If only democrat and/or republican as choices I used the "write in" and put in things like "Bozo the clown" "Mr. Ed" etc.. No I didn't wast my vote - I'm one of the 46%!.
46 percent of Americans want a third party
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/12/poll-46-percent-of-americans-want-a-third-party/
The Truth is a Virus!!!
I voted around 5:00 PM in my town, which is about 45 minutes from Cleveland. No line whatsoever, even at what is traditionally a peak time. Friends elsewhere in Portage County and Lake County said there were no lines for them in the morning.
The Diebold touchscreen machine I used appeared to accept my choices properly, and printed correctly. However, when I reviewed my selections before finalizing and printing, it probably took me a tense 30 seconds or so to find the scroll bar on the LEFT side of the review page, and the whole thing was a dense, jumbled mess to read. The glare on the screen also made things unnecessarily difficult. In 2008 I requested and was given a paper ballot, though these were not available this time around. At least these machines print a paper record as a backup (which was VERY hard to read through a little magnifier window and didn't scroll up as far as it looked like it should have), and I hope these are not simply thrown away this time, as they were in some Ohio precincts in 2000. The Diebold machine = piece of over priced crap, but probably worked.
Gonna be a long night, I'm afraid...
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Delaware. Stopped by the polling place, a local middle school, on the way to work. No real line. Just showed them ID, went behind a curtain, punched a few buttons and was on my way.
...well, the cost of a stamp anyway. Washington is an all mail-in ballot state but it's not postage pre-paid. :( Our state does send out a full voters guide though so you can educate yourself pretty decently if you want to. They send different versions to different regions and despite forgetting a county position in my version, I think they did well covering the issues & candidates.
The conflated reports of voter fraud and the new ID requirements are just covers for organized disenfranchisement campaigns. If voter fraud truly did occur, it seems to me a mail-in ballot state would be more susceptible than in-person poll stations but I've never heard a peep from the voter fraud evangelists in that regard.
I'm curious...why is OH pretty much always a swing state?!?!
In general terms, Ohio is sort of a microcosm of the country as a whole. It has sizable urban and rural populations, people depend both on agriculture and manufacturing, it has significant ethnic and racial minorities, and it is historically a hotly-contested state. Couple that with the fact that the polls have been very close and the expectation that voting results for Ohio will come in very late, and you've naturally got a lot of eyes on the Buckeye state.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Don't be ridiculous. You're right about the variety of people who depend on a wide range of industries for their income, but you've missed something: we seem to have plenty of hillbillies in the North, too!
More seriously, it is about urban/rural more than North/South, as no one in Ohio would say Columbus is part of Northern Ohio, and there are rural counties even in Cleveland's region - Ashtabula, Trumbull, Wayne, Ashland, etc.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
We voted in Texas a week ago with plastic electronic voting machines, so we do not know if our votes were counted or intentionally mis-counted for Hussein. We would not intentionally vote against US of A, against US Constitution, for Sharia law. for elimination of citizen protections in out Bill of Rights, or any other evil measures, for larger government, but we don't know if our votes were tallied properly or tallied for evil.
We do know we fear God, we want US of A to continue as protector of all humanity. We do know Hussein will make a third world of us if elected again & the 3 children we support in Ethiopia, Tanzania & India will soon be starving in 5th world countries.
Obama is evil Muslim, a worshiper of Satan, even if you & he believe the obvious lie.
I can't be the only person who incorrectly read that.
I live in rural PA. I voted about 15 minutes before the polls closed, at 7:45 pm. There was no line, I did have to show ID, because I was a first time voter, and the ballot was on a pretty standard touch screen with smart card. The only unusal thing I noticed was a slight UI delay flipping "pages" of the ballot.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
Walked to my polling place (a small National Guard facility), as it was totally walking distance, and I knew its parking lot was nowhere near big enough to support all the cars that were going to be parking there (or trying to). Got in, tried to check in, they said they didn't have any record of it. Apparently that's because they split my polling center's region in half geographically, put half the region in one binder and half in another, put one binder on one table and the other on another table on the other side of the room, and then didn't put up any signs mentioning that, and I picked the wrong table. Go them.
Apparently they also didn't really split it quite in half, because once I checked in, there was a long line for a ballot desk on that side of the room, and several empty desks on the other one. So I just walked to the other side of the room, filled my ballot, then walked back and turned it in. Not the best organized, but still, I didn't have to wait much.
They did seem to have some kind of electronic ballot-reader this year, though, that I think was new? You still used a circle-marking pen to fill in circles on ballot paper that you slid into a physical ballot, but when you were done, you fed it into a machine, instead of just dropping it in a box.
i live in istanbul. i stayed up 24 hours switching from huffington to npr to al qaeda to nbc to ny times to wnyc to bbc to keep up with the count and the boring talking heads, and the most boring were huntington. sent in my ballot a month ago. worked for democrats abroad and americans abroad for obama.
Paper ballot, felt pen, one pager. Simple and easy.
In Texas, our electronic voting machines do not require a paper trail, so there's no way to verify who really won.
While Governor and Federal Representative have been pretty much blue up until about 30 years ago, our Federal Senators have often been red.
This time around the Democratic Senatorial contender lost to a Tea Party candidate (the incumbent Republican retired), taking around 41% of the vote.
In Travis county, seat of the Texas government and Austin, any registered voter can now go to any polling place. Instead of the usual grade school, I chose the closest polling place, city hall of a small town of 500 surrounded by Austin's south side.
Walking in, there was no line, though all six booths were occupied. By the time I finished checking in, one booth was available. The entire ballot was around a half-dozen screens.
Except for the lack of an audit trail, that's how easy voting should be everywhere in this country.
Oh, not being a member of the Electoral College, I knew my vote for President would not truly matter. So, being pretty sure the state would go red, I felt obliged to enter a write-in for my favorite candidate, "Popular Vote".
Though I'm a Veteran, military retired, disabled, Agent Orange plagued, and had to leave my very destructive Havanese (with seperation anxiety) at home, I went to the polls, parked, stood in line for 1.25 hours, voted, and came back home, to find that my little 11 pound doggy knows how to tear open a steel lined door front door...
Now, i find that nobody whom I wanted to now lead the country, state, county, and my city even got into office, and that the same old horrid scoundrels who know how to "play" the system, bribe the voters, get votes from illegals through empty promises and empty threats, are more empowered than ever!
Arrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!
No wonder the huge headache, as if I got drunk! Sleep, and then, must order another 880 rounds of ammo... I know there will be taxageddon, Zombie nation, or somesuch...
Riverside, Calif, went yesterday about 10:15 am.
got paper ballot and black pen; had to draw lines between two sides of an arrow; one thin line for each vote. The stuck the whole thing into a slot on an old fashined plastic ballot box.
Almost no one there. No one ahead of me. Only two others came in before I left. This section of Riverside is a College community (UCR); maybe students not from China were voting absentee ballots for their home, maybe high vote-by-mail turnout here, but it seemed like much less people lhere than in prior years.
easy the person checking ids has a stack of forms with sheets of stickers (these have name and address info) as each person comes in you state your name and then the person finds YOUR sticker slaps that on the form (tosses that on the stack of used/signed forms) then sends you to the table where the person handing out the ballots gives you yours. No Sticker = Not Registered = No Vote
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
What a farce, two bloodthirsty war mongering "candidates" both SElected by Goldman Sachs & J P Morgan beforehand, both completely insane psychopaths, both morons, both Bilderberg attendees with almost identical policies on economy, foreign policy, central banking and central planning, run through provenly fraudulent electronic voting system. Sheesh. America, you have sunk so low... Maybe Ron Paul was your last chance to grow some.
Only in a true democracy or with black box voting can
the destruction of humanity be put on the ballot and pass by popular vote.
Prop 37
52% voter turn-out 46.9% yes - 53.1% no
http://solari.com/blog/jeffrey-m-smith-on-genetic-roulette/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4aKOhbbK9E
Not that you would have gotten any difference between Robama and Obomney.
Which way to the handouts line? Can all those folks in Ohio speak Chinese ?
This thread is dead I know and I have only now went back to see any replies. I have a couple critics, one which thinks what I said is ridiculous and the other said it was grossly inaccurate to the point of making their jaw drop. First, I want to give them their due. Yes, hillbillies are all over the state. There is an old joke that says that Akron is the capitol of West Virginia. And, it is true that I have over-generalized. The included article was intended to give more information to those who wanted more details.
However, I would suggest that the county map election results for Ohio have vindicated quite strongly that my generalization -- even if it is a bit too general -- is fundamentally accurate. 15 of the 88 counties in Ohio went for Obama. Of the 15, only four were in central or south Ohio. Three of those are the more urban cities of Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati -- but only the core cities. The other 11 are all bunched up along the northern border of the state next to Lake Erie.
You can see the map for yourself here.
Small town South Carolina. Voted in a Catholic church. Was asked for ID. I am not bothered by needing to show ID to vote, so I did not make a fuss, and don't know what would have happened had I done so. There was no line at all. I went straight in, showed my ID, verbally verified my current address, and was taken to a voting booth. Voting was done electronically on a touch screen. The instructions were clear and easy to follow.
Straight-party options (which I don't believe should be allowed) and options for individual candidates were offered.
I was offered an "I Voted" sticker, which I declined.
Everyone was polite and friendly, but serious. There was no police or military presence at all (which probably won't surprise > 90% of American voters, but might be hard for some to believe.) I never felt even slightly annoyed, pressured, or intimidated by anyone during the process of arriving, entering, voting, or leaving.
In Reason We Trust