Election Day: Your Experience

[The JoZ]

So, the big day is here, finally. Everyone should totally talk about what they experienced when they went to the polls.

I live in a neighborhood that is populated by lots of senior citizens. When I went and voted in 2007 and in our primary, there was almost literally nobody in the polling place when I went. I was in and out in a mere minute or two.

Today, I went up there at about 10 AM and didn't leave till about 10:20 or so. There was a sizeable line, and I had to fire up the iPod to kill a little time.

There aren't a lot of young (18-35) voters in this area, but I saw quite a few of them out today. Proportionally, the seniors still had us beat, but even seeing the number of youngun's out voting made me feel not only good to see my demographic not being completely lazy, but slightly better about Obama's chances to carry Virginia.

The parking lot was full (it's small to begin with, but still) and there were plenty of people milling about. There were only 7 voting booths, but things still moved pretty swiftly.

I wish I had gotten my ass up a little earlier to see what it looked like when the polls immediately opened, but I'm lazy :cool:

[Dean]

I got up about 15 minutes after 6 am and I was going to be the first one there, but decided it would be a waste, and I waited until after the school buses went and stuff and left around 7:30 am. I got there, and there was a line of about 15 people ahead of me, including those voting. We had three touch screen machines and one for paper ballots. Anyway, it was mostly people in their 40s and 50s and some seniors as well, but I live in what is essentially becoming a retirement community anyway, so I was glad to see it wasn't dominated by seniors yet.

I got in and out in about 25-30 minutes. I forgot to get an "I voted today" sticker, though. :(

Polls in Ohio close in 7:30. I live in a very red county, but I'm hoping that Zach Space will win, at least.

It was kind of pathetic, though, that a lot of the local offices that were held by Republicans had no opposing candidates. And we had no candidates for coroner... lol.

[shortkut]

i mailed my application for an absentee ballot weeks ago. i was told it had to get to the board of elections at least 7 days prior so i can get my actual ballot. 3 weeks later (yesterday) i finally get it, fill it out, and mail it back all within 10 minutes. also, i had to pay for the postage on the application and the actual ballot. YAY :rolleyes:

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Uneventful... I live in a small town so I walked in, voted and walked out without a line. It was pretty busy but not in my precinct apparently because I live in the working class area and all those suckers were at work at 10:30!

Quite a few college aged kids or mid-twenties which is probably a good sign for us. As it is usually older people around here voting.

The only ballot that had a republican or non-democrat was the presidential race so it's pretty clear to say that republicans are an endangered species here.

[Captain Obvious]

I'll take P*ssed off for 500 Alex.

We got there at 7 AM and there was a line around the entire building.

We came back around 11 and it was much better. We waited two hours outside. When we got in the building we saw another Line. ANOTHER LINE. 20 Mins later we finally get to our room where our district was only to find guess what. ANOTHER FREAKING LINE.

Once me and my parents got our ballots, me and my mom finished pretty quickly and had no problems, my dad ballot on the other hand got rejected because he did a straight party ballot and apparently you cant do that this year.

Also They ran out of "I voted" stickers.

[Dean]

You can't do a straight party ballot? Doesn't that eliminate the whole... voting whatever way you want thing?

That sounds like some bullsh*t to me.

[Captain Obvious]

You can't do a straight party ballot? Doesn't that eliminate the whole... voting whatever way you want thing?

That sounds like some bullsh*t to me.

On our ballot we have a selection where we can just select a party and it would automatically for for all Dems/Republics/Libertarians/etc. But for some reason the machines didn't read them and we had to select each one individually. The machine would literally reject the ballot.

[Dean]

Oh, I see. But you could still select every person from the same party individually and they wouldn't make you select at least one non-party member, right?

Now that you clarified that, I'm glad they got rid of that button. I think it will force people to actually think before they vote... It's like on online poker where they have all these buttons like "check/fold any bet" and "call any bet" and stuff, and it takes away the actual thought and people rely on it too much, IMO.

[Blacklotus]

Uneventful... I live in a small town so I walked in, voted and walked out without a line.
Yeah, this is the same experience I had, and I've been hearing the same around most of MA. I guess we're either doing something right or there's not too many people voting this early.

[Noise]

Well, I got there around 1:30. Went to my district (5), they said I wasn't there, so they sent me to district 3. District 3 sent me to district 1, which sent me back to district 5. After 20 minutes of going in circles, they found out that I was in district 5, and I finally got to vote. My area has those old fashioned lever pulling thingers from like the 1400's, which are always fun. Not alot of people there when I went. My polling area only consists of about 400 voters, and most of them are at work when I went. Saw some old people, and a couple in their 20s, but yeah, mostly old people.

[Mike!]

Well, I live in what I like to call a "white trash suburb". Or in other words it's a working class neighborhood. But, when I went to vote the place was a ghost town. There was one other voter there besides me and the place had two machines so I didn't have to wait at all. I went in, voted and left. All in all, it took maybe five minutes tops. But, there seemed to be a good amount of people suddenly arriving to vote as I left.

[~Mr. Indecisive~]

No lines, not waiting, no problems here. I went after classes at about 1:45pm., so there was barely anyone there.

On a sidenote, I'm watching CNN and apparently they are using holographic technology.

[Legendaryking6]

My experience:

Voted for Nader around 2 or 3 pm after getting up at 12, then putzed around town for a bit, visited my friend who got out of the hospital yesterday after his brain surgery 3 weeks ago, went to my fire company's drill, came home, watched TV for a bit, then went to taco bell and got 2 of those new triple steak burritos, came home, scarfed them, and sat down at the computer.

Nothing special.

[smashbro14]

I'm a student at Penn State, and I have to say that this was an awesome experience even though I'm one of the few McCain supporters here. This was my first time participating in an election. I entered the building where voting was talking place at about 2:45 and there were all kinds of posters, balloons, and it was simply crazy in there. I waited in line for about an hour and a half before casting my ballot, which was on paper, surprisingly. While we were in line, the republican running for the House of Representatives, walked by and shook a bunch of kids' hands, so that was pretty cool. It was a long line, so people were walking by giving us newspapers, water, sandwiches, candy, etc. People who decided not to vote missed out on an amazing experience.

[Slick Rick]

As a student at the University of Pittsburgh, I had to stand in line for about 3 and a half hours in total. I did get to meet the owner of the Steelers though.

[The_Mess]

Well, today NZ voted, and we voted for change, albeit one which returns much the same government we had during the 90's which carried on Labours Rogernomics, to a bloody messy conclusion. Which when Labour returned under a new face, lead to re-nationalisation, majority government ownership or legislation to bring privatised companies into line with the needs of NZers...

But hey, National is more to the Left than America's Democrats, and have been forced to pick up much of Labours policies and will probably suffer huge hits in the polls if they sell KiwiBank, KiwiRail or f*ck with Kiwisaver. So perhaps this wont be a return to the problems of the 90's, when NZ's health care went to sh*t 2nd world levels, when child poverty increased and minimum wage was as bad as the USA's. Perhaps I don't need to worry, but f*ck, Key's indicated that he'll ally with ACT and Roger f*cking Douglas is back in parliament.

F*ck, here's (drunken) fingers crossed that it doesn't all go to sh*t, because then probably those who can lest afford to are going to pay the price, and I'm keenly aware I'm one of them. But also of the fact that there are so many others who will have to shoulder the same costs...

Anyhow, no line at the polling booth, with party vote Labour, and candidate vote being Jim Anderton, with nothing on the referendum palate this year. Though I anticipate bullsh*t again over the so-called anti-smacking bill which revoked the "reasonable force" defence, oft abused to beat the sh*t out of kids. Because hey, who gives a sh*t if parents beat the crap out of their kids, it's the parents "rights" after all, regardless of the impacts it has, regardless of the BDSM overtones of hitting your id with a ridding whip... /sarcasm

F*ck f*ck f*ck

(and yes, there's a half-full bottle of 700ml Southern Comfort on my desk)