I’ve been assigned an article tomorrow. I’m going to be writing on my voting experience (as well as that of my daughter, who is a first time voter). I’d like to include quotes from other people on their experience – anything from the atmosphere at the polls, to turnout at your voting place, any interesting stories you may have to share. I’m also looking to get quotes from first time voters, if you know any.
Please leave a comment or email if you think you would be interested. Thanks!
I voted almost three weeks ago. Eary voting is the best thing in the world. It was like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Usually, I look forward to it — doing my civic duty and all that — but this election, more than any other in which I have voted, has just been draining. I’m not sure what exactly that’s a function of, but I’m glad it’s over for me.
The one consolation I keep in mind it that four years of any administration won’t really be able to change much.
My son (in 1st grade) really wants to come to the polls with me. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Probably not what you are looking for, but I posted a last minute post on what keeps me going to the polls no matter what:
http://leftcoastcowboys.com/2008/11/03/voting-lessons-from-black-church-ladies/
I don’t know what your deadline is, but here in Florida there have been reports of thousands of people waiting in line.
I did not vote early, therefore am worried about the lines tomorrow, as I will be standing in them for as long as it takes to cast my vote.
What kind of deadline are you talking about having to have your article written? Because, for example, people who wait until after work to cast their vote could be returning from the polling places really late. And in Georgia, some people waited in line for more than 10 hours in early voting.
I don’t think anyone knows what to expect until after their experience tomorrow, with the exception being those who voted early.
One thing I have found myself extremely concerned about is that there may be many first-time voters who have bought — for the sake of argument we’ll use Obama — campaign merchandise from his website. And they may think, it’s Election Day, and I’m wearing my new Obama T-shirt to the polls! In which case they will likely be denied access to vote. http://tr.im/qv5
I called the NBC hotline about this issue, and that link is the pdf file they gave me on the matter.
I will have something for you.
I’ll have pictures of the polling place (not inside), and the billboard in a nearby town that has a hammer/sickle as the center of the “o” in Obama.
I left the house at 6:30 a.m. to go to my traditional nearby polling place, which opened at 7 a.m.
There was a short line when I arrived, maybe 20 to 30 people in front of me. By 7 a.m., the line had wrapped around the building and there was no place to park. People were entering the parking lot, backing up, and parking on the grassy right-of-way, any place they could find along the highway.
When I got inside, I was shocked to see only 12 voting booths. I thought there was a longer-than-necessary wait in line once I was inside. Poll workers were not being as efficient as they could have been.
They handed me two pieces of paper and a folder marked “Private.” When I got in the voting booth, I was shocked to see … no voting machine whatsoever!
All we had was paper. Luckily, I had a Bic black pen with me with permanent ink, as the only thing supplied to me at the polls was a pen with ink that would smear if my ballot got wet. (!)
The printed instructions said to fill in the oval completely with a number 2 pencil or a black or blue ink pen. I don’t have the greatest eyesight anymore, so getting the oval filled in completely and making sure I was staying within the lines took much longer than traditional machine voting.
I wondered about the elderly woman who had been standing in front of me in line. Would it be difficult for her to completely fill in the ovals? I thought it might. Would her vote count? How forgiving are the machines, when it comes to “filling in the oval completely?”
I must have been in the voting booth for 20 minutes. There were amendments to vote for, state offices, etc. The ballot was two pages front and back. That was a lot of ovals to fill in to perfection.
I then went to another line, where I had to feed my paper ballot into a machine … that did what? exactly? with it? Was my vote being counted then? Was it going to be counted later?
I received no receipt, of course. No “You voted for this official, and this official, and here is your proof.” I never receive that, though I keep hoping someday I will.
I left, and noticed the line was wrapping around the building. I calculated that the people at the end had a pretty long wait, as the voting process this year in Florida is *definitely more time-consuming.*
If it took me about 25 minutes inside, these people could take 4 or 5 hours to vote, and the day was just getting started.
So, we have the most important election of our lives, with record voter turn-out, and they have chosen a method of voting that is TIME CONSUMING. Plus, I don’t trust how the votes are counted, and how people fill out their ovals could make a difference as to whether it will be counted or not.
I am concerned that the election process may not go smoothly in Florida. I hope it does, and that I am wrong. But, come on. Filling in ovals, and giving me a nonpermanent pen to do the job is asking for a disaster.
I did not trust early voting, given everything that has happened in Florida. I was afraid there would be a snafu with the early ballots, so I wanted to vote today. I was surprised at the process and concerned there may not be enough hours in the day (polls close at 7 p.m.) to allow everyone to vote.
I did not see any campaign volunteers from Obama or McCain at the polls while I was there.
Here’s hoping it goes smoothly. I know Florida was trying to avoid the disaster of hanging chads, but let’s hope they don’t have a disaster involving questionable or incompletely filled-in ovals! The possibility for problems alarms me.
One site said it best: “When we mark a special paper ballot read by a computerized optical scan reader, we have no idea how the readers operate or if they’re operated properly.”
Like many types of voting, we have no idea if our vote really counted. But now, on top of that, we’re required to be perfectionists and hope we filled in those little ovals correctly. No one examined my ballot to see if I had filled them in correctly. There was no example to show someone, “Here is how it is filled in correctly. Here is what it will look like if it is filled in incorrectly.”
If anyone is in a rush, that will affect how they fill in their ovals. Age will affect it. Running out of pens and pencils will affect it. I heard one man asking for a pen. Of course, it was one the polling place had provided, so it has ink that runs.
Hopefully these are just Election Day jitters and will turn out to be nothing. But Florida has a colorful history with voting problems. Let’s not make today another one of those days.
Just voted in Missouri. Arrived before the polls opened. There were already a couple hundred people ahead of me. It took just over an hour. When I left there were more coming in than getting finished.
I made sure to get an I Voted sticker so I can go get a free donut for my son later.
Everything was orderly and quiet. It will be a long wait for people just arriving now.
-rammer
Already voted this morning here in Minnesota. There was a line, not too long. I got to the polls shortly after it opened (about 7:05), and was the 33rd person to have my vote counted.
Turnout was apparently higher than expected at that point. There were ten booths (actually crappy plastic things) which were full, and there were at least a dozen more people who opted to just sit at a table and fill out the ballot.
One side note: The main entrance doors to the polling area were locked from the inside with a bike chain and padlock, and no one knew where the key was (our polling place was a church), so everyone had to enter through a single door near the main entrance, which slowed things down some.