Terminalcoffee discussion
Helping You To Know The News
>
What was your voting experience like?
date
newest »
newest »
I know Colorado does mail voting. I will walk to the library across from my work location in downtown Omaha. My guess is the lines will be short at 8 am. The Congressional race is the big vote here. I'm voting for the ... guess which one.
The Green Party? Writing in the coach of the Cornhuskers?
I'm in Washington state, and yes, you get your ballot in the mail. You can return it by mail, by sticking a stamp on it and sending it through the normal post, or you can take it to a ballot box at a city hall or fire station, and save yourself a stamp.I walk right past a ballot box on my way to work, so I'll be dropping my ballot in there tomorrow morning.
We just got new voting machines in New York, the type where you fill out the ballot and then run it through a scanner. This year's primary was our first time using them; the transition was not terribly smooth. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I actually liked our old voting machines, most of which dated back to the 1920s and '30s They were great hulking things with levers and knobs--probably very easy to tamper with back when Tammany Hall ruled the city, but they did have style.
Oregon votes by mail. I believe they have special drop-boxes for the completed ballots, which are emptied by trusted personnel several times throughout the day. In McMinnville, my stepfather is one of the ballot collectors.Here in Utah I drive to a local elementary school & then stand in line for 20 minutes or so. Once inside, I'm asked for ID which is checked against their notebook. They then look puzzled and call out, "Democrat," making all heads turn.
At this point, a person hands me a little card to put in the voting machine. Instructions are clear and it only takes a couple of minutes.
I should say, by the way, that I absolutely abhor electronic voting machines. If my experience in the high tech world taught me anything, it was that it's MUCH too easy to make things come out the way the programmer wanted, rather than what the voters intended. There is NO WAY WHATSOEVER to verify the results as reported by the machines.
Mod
[image error]
Before that, we had the ballot where you had to poke a hole with the little ice pick. That was more fun. You really had to make sure your ballot was pinned properly to the ballot holder or else you'd be poking the wrong candidate.
Mod
I choose to vote by mail here in Colorado, but there was early voting in actual polling places for two weeks before the election and there will be traditional voting on Tuesday. I listened to an interview with our Sec of St who said just over 1 million mail ballots had been returned by last Friday with an expected turnout of 1.6 - 1.8 for a midterm election.
That seems like a good system Petra, maybe a little expensive in that the state has to operate polling places for a longer period, but it accommodates the schedules of working people much better than the one-day-only voting that we have here (although I guess it is possible to get an absentee ballot if you want to vote by mail).
Now if you had the Australian system you would all be voting, it's compulsory -- at the local public school, fighting your way past the people handing out 'how to vote' cards. After you've voted, sausage sizzle for lunch, run by the local boy scouts. What could be better?
Mod
Sausage sizzle, run by the local boy scouts???
Mod
I think they are usually selling donuts or something at my polling place, but they're not sizzling. :(
There is quite a hefty fine if you fail to vote. If we didn't have conpulsory voting only the loud minority voters would have their say. The rest of us are too lazy to get off our fat tushes, we need a cattle prod to get us going. :)
Mod
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulso...
Wow. I didn't realise how few countries did have compulsory voting. I knew the US didn't, but you guys tend to be a bit odd.
Mod
I've lived in unnamed places (Texas) where the usual voting turnout was about 5%.
Yeah not so funny. Apathetic citizens are such a bore.
Turnout levels here vary considerably, Gail. They are much higher in Lobstergirl's hometown, Chicago, where the deceased constitute a reliable voting bloc.
Mod
I must be on a few minute time delay. I was laughing at LG. Sorry Larry, you always manage to sneak in underneath me.
Ok, I voted this morning already. I thought the polls opened at six but luckily I checked the paper and discovered they didn't open until seven or else I would have been way early. As it was I arrived at 6:45 and I was second in line. I was surprised...two years back I think I was even earlier and I was about tenth in line. Anyway, this very ceremonious lady made us wait until exactly seven then said "the polls are open!". I always forget in which ward I live so I checked really quickly and voted first in my ward. Two women were manning the desk. They were just getting in a groove so they were a bit slow, but they gave me my ballot. This year we had the "full out the ballot with a marker and slip it in a machine" ballot. So I filled out the ballot (the crowds were already getting big by now) and, alas, didn't get an "I voted" sticker.
how we do it:
punching candidates with an ice pick sounds interesting, but i'm afraid i'd accidentally vote for someone i didn't like that way.
instantly had shuddering chad flashbacks
We had to get in line outside the building 7:10 this morning, seemed like a decent start, and plenty more were coming when we left.
I went around 8:30 am. I had to wait for a booth, which hasn't happened in the last couple of elections. I was the 42nd person in my polling place, which is pretty reasonable turnout for that area. They were expecting a big lunch crowd. There was nobody canvassing which was unusual, but it was pretty darn cold.For once they had stickers.
@RA, the sticker is the only reason to actually go to the polls over a mail in version! you were robbed!
I did my civic duty. Now I will watch TV tonight to see if I made a difference.
On my ballot there were eight people running unopposed. Several were for four-year terms on the school board.I'd like to see a "none of the above" selection here, because that would have been my choice.
Was the shwarma restaurant a polling place, or just adjacent to it?
Very nice put it in the mail weeks ago.
I got to my polling place just before 10 a.m., but just after the retirement community bus. So I waited in line for about 20 minutes as some of the older people took a while to fill in their ballots. There was a LOT to read--judges, a proposal for/against a constitutional convention and a wildlife/trails fund based on a future sales tax increase.The big issue I am watching here is whether the campaign to vote out the three Iowa Supreme court justices who passed Iowa's same-sex marriage bill will fly. I hope not, but it's very close in the polls.
No line for me, just a walk to the Tumwater City Hall parking lot, where they have a ballot box:[image error]
Mod
Our polling place is at a park district building. I arrived at about 6:50, and was on my way to work by 7:00. I was voter #47.Easy Peasy.
This will be a little weird for the Washington people, too, as they vote by mail. How does that work, anyway? Does the state send you a ballot? Do other states vote by mail? I wish I could vote by mail. I'm voting mid-afternoon to beat the crowds.