I’m off to teach Rousseau. I’ll be back to blogging around noon. I’m waiting until 3:00, when both boys are home, to go vote.
Have you voted yet? Tell us about turnout, procedures, and the average age of the people manning the voting booths.
35 thoughts on “Open Thread – Voting Experiences”
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Apt. 11d 
I voted at 8:00 this morning. Not a single Democrat passing out sample ballots on the way in, which is really strange, especially seeing as there are roughly four Obama volunteers per block in my area.
We have two precincts in our location. I was the only one voting in my precinct and they said that I was voter #68. There was a line of over 68 people voting in the other precinct. I don’t know if that means there is higher than usual turnout in the other precinct or if they screwed-up some of the machines or what. Anyway, I’ve never seen a line like that. People didn’t look that happy to see me walk right by them to my precinct.
The average poll worker was probably 68, because they have a new, young (50) guy now. The brownies and coffee ($1.50, proceeds go to the fifth grade class) were very good. And, thanks to the Green party, I got to cast protest votes for Congress and the state legislature.
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I just walked over the Elementary School, stood in line for a few minutes while people tried to figure out if they are in District 11 or District 14, and then voted. There was a festive feeling, spoiled only slightly by the woman with the hand-lettered Team Palin sweatshirt.
My state is so blue that Obama may have won over the weekend.
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In my unbelievably blue precinct in an east coast state, there were 66 people in line at 6.15 am when my husband got there and he had to wait a half hour. I got there at 7.40 or so and had to wait an hour. I was number 407…I think the last election 1000 people voted in my precinct total, so its going to be a busy day. The high school PTO is cleaning up. I love election day!
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No line at my home polling place in South Jersey.
Going to work in Bucks County, PA, I counted a line over 40 adults long out the door of the polling place across the street from my office at 9:30. That’s just outside — I don’t know how far in the front door the voting booths are. Luckily, weather is nice, and some people are giving out free beverages to waiters.
I actually don’t know the contours of PA demographics enough to know if Buck County is part of the “T”, so if the high turnout here helps Obama or McCain.
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I early voted last week. All the buzz at work this morning, however, is about long lines but also lines that move quickly, and generally positive experiences.
People in Chicago are also talking a lot about the giant Obama rally in the park tonight, hoping it comes off well, and in general wondering exactly how bad the traffic’s going to be.
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We had a big line. As a Vet, I always vote and I cannot remember seeing this many people up and out to vote. It was great. We had about 100 people in line at 630 with people who had shown up before teh polls opened.
The scan tron machine(we have to fill in the ovals on a paper ballot with a black pen) was down for a bit and people were freaking out because the voting volunteers were putting them into a folder to be counted later in the day. Luckily the machine was back online about 20 mins later
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My polling place was fairly busy at 8:00, but they divide us here into several mini-districts. One had a massive line, but mine only had a couple of people in front of me. It only took me five minutes, and it would have been less if a couple of inspectors weren’t bickering over a shift change.
And I fully expect Obama to roll up North-Korea-sized margins in my corner of NYC, regardless of polling lines.
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No line in Princeton at 6:50 AM. We voted right away, with no glitches and big smiles, as did the few others we saw. We’re kind of hoping for a shutout in our electoral district.
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I think I’ll go get a flu shot. Something about today just screams “Stand in line do what we’ve been hectoring you to do.”
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Austin, TX: No line at my local elementary school at 9:05 this morning. Coffee, donuts, and kolaches had been provided by the PTA. Earlier voters had eaten all the kolaches before I got there, darn them!
The one campaigner outside when I arrived tried to present me a paper opposing Austin’s Proposition 2, and seemed more relieved than pleased when I told her I was already voting against it. As I left a man was setting up a lot of signs encouraging people to report voting irregularities to him.
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We live across the street from our polling place (the school). I left for work at 6:45 and there were tons of cars in the parking lot. My husband voted before work, and he said it was busy but he didn’t wait long. I vote later, once I clean off my desk and make sure I’m ready for tomorrow’s classes (’cause I won’t be getting any work done tonight).
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I voted a week ago, with my kids sitting next to me at the dining room table. There was no line, though we did share a pen. We got to discuss the right to die amendment, and why we were just doing what the democrats told us to do for the many counter charter amendments.
(next year, our state goes to all mail in voting. we’ve been hearing nostalgic reports from the 5% of the state that likes to vote at their neighborhood polling location).
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I voted about 6:13 am in a rural upstate village in NY (pop 2500)- probably more blue than red area. Approximately 18 folks had already voted and there were 5-7 coming right behind me- very busy for this place this early. Everybody looked like they were on their way to work- and the dress varied from construction worker to artsy business look- so it was a real crossection of voters.
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I was expecting to lose my entire day to voting, but as it turned out, it was faster to vote than to get a drink at Starbucks afterwards. There were about five people ahead of me in line at our polling place, which was on campus. Our precinct is campus, the student neighborhoods, and a chunk of downtown, which I believe consists of student apartments and homeless shelters and has very few other residents. I voted just after 10 AM, which should be prime time for your average liberal arts major.
The people in charge were around 45/50 and the guy explaining the non-touch screen electronic voting machines was wearing an assortment of what were probably military pins. He also had a box of donuts on his desk, not for public consumption. I didn’t have to present ID, just my voter registration card.
I didn’t know half the people on the ballot, or what the burning issues are surrounding the railroad commissioner race. Previously, we were on the move every few years and it didn’t seem worthwhile to figure out local issues, but I’m definitely going to be paying attention from here on out. Based on my between-the-lines reading of the Pravda-like local paper ($400 million in public works spending! Yippee! Overpriced downtown loft condominiums! Yippee!), I think the guys downtown bear watching.
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Here in Santa Barbara, just a few people ahead of me at the Natural History Museum. Polite, friendly poll workers – so different from NYC! No suspense here in CA except Prop 8 (NO!), attempting to ban gay marriage.
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One more thing–my code number for the voting machine was 67. That might mean that by 10:24 AM, there had only been 67 votes cast in a densely populated university precinct.
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Amy, the Texas Railroad Commission used have as much control over oil prices as anybody. I don’t think they matter so much anymore.
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Report from my precinct is that almost 300 people had voted by 8:30 am. Wow. Our town has a total population of 13,000. Subtract the children and felons š and then divide by 4. Those are decent numbers.
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Oregon is kind of all absentee–we received our ballots 3 weeks ago in the mail. I had the pleasure a week ago of sitting down with my younger son, who just turned 18 last spring, to discuss his first ballot. We could jump up to check google for information when we wanted; we could talk about our values and our hopes for the future; we could debate the unintended consequences of the many initiative measures on the ballot this year. It was terrific! Then he dropped his ballot off at the election box at school (the elections division has drop boxes scattered all over town) and I mailed mine in.
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Seconding the importance of the Railroad Commission. Some things may have been phased out, but you can bet there’s a lot of residual power.
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In a very blue small town, in perhaps the bluest county of blue Massachusetts, our town clerk guessed that turnout would reach 92%. Indeed, by 8:30 this morning, when I voted, we were already up to about 25%.
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There were lines at my polling place in the early morning, from 6 to about 7.15. Since there were plenty of people greeting voters near the entrance (3-4 Obama, 1 McCain), I assigned myself to the parking lot and directed people to empty spots and stopped them from going down the narrow path to the last spots when they were all full.
By 8 am, there were no lines, and it took me about 5 minutes to vote (with a paper ballot). I was at the bake sale until a bit past 12, and I don’t think there was ever more than a 10 minute wait between 8 and 12.
Having some lunch now and then going out to see what I can do to help.
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Line of one person ahead of me at 9am this morning. I voted just down the street at our local senior center (at least 2 voters had people reading the ballot to them). There was one guy there around my age, 20s (voting), and about 2 my age working. The rest were probably over 65. I live just south of Beverly Hills in a very family-packed Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. I think maybe 9am just missed the early birds. At least I didn’t have to wait in line in a university-area precinct.
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In my small town just outside Ann Arbor, my husband had to wait about a half hour at 8am. I waltzed in at 9am and was out in ten minutes.
The guy I bought lunch from a while ago told me he had to wait an hour and a half to vote, though (in a predominately Black neighborhood n. of blue collar Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor’s neighbor to the east).
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kai — my daughter was worried about the ballots getting lost in the mail, too. She’s seven, though, so she didn’t get to vote. But we got to have the philosophical decisions, too.
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Two and a half hours starting at 11:30 in suburban Philadelphia.
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About twenty-five minutes at 8 am in Richmond, VA. In the rain. We were split up into four lines so they moved reasonably quickly; no one was outside, though they told us that at 6 am the lines went out the doors. Average age of pollworkers might be down a tad from 70 as I saw some younger (30+) folks helping out, but mostly it’s the elderly here.
Much, much longer line at the Obama office to drive/canvass. We chose to canvass, did an hour in light rain, and are now home for the duration, I think.
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I voted at 2 PM, after any lunch-hour rush would be over, though I doubt that happened anyway in my area of Washington Heights (NYC), which is part Orthodox Jewish, part Dominican, and part 30s-40s-ish white artist-writer-musician-young family types. Of the six election districts that vote at my polling place, only mine had a line, which is typical, but I was still in and out in less than ten minutes. It would have been less but the young guy in front of me had “ID req.” beside his name and he produced a Texas driver’s license, which meant a brief consultation between workers about how to handle it. As I was leaving, I saw that he was filling out an Exit Poll form. I was jealous.
As for the poll workers at my voting site, there was a noticeable gap between the Republican supervisors/clerks/etc. (affiliation on their name tags), who were largely white and 60s-70s, and the Democratic workers, who were largely African-American or Latino and in their 40s to 50s.
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bj–I like the website where you can check whether your vote has been counted:
Has your vote been counted?
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Got there just before 8 am. Volunteers on average younger than me. One noted that she’d been busy from 6 am until about 7.30. It was in and out for me, with time to purchase some cookies from the youth group of the church hosting the voting. Although Illinois is likely to go for Senator Obama, there are some contested local elections.
Big crowds at Starbucks at lunchtime claiming those “free” coffees.
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Well, I just got back. The wind is picking up, and some clouds are moving in, but it’s still a very pleasant mid-autumn day here in Wichita. No waits at the polling station; I signed in, and was given a choice of the touch-screen contraption or a paper ballot. I chose paper, of course, neo-Luddite that I am. Voted for the bond issue to support our public schools, followed the advice of a judge in our congregation in regards to voting for various candidates running for court offices, then voted pretty much a straight Democratic ticket on the big issues. So that’s it; one more vote for Obama. I’m conflicted about my motivations for doing so, but fundamentally, I’m happy about my choice. It was a good day to vote.
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No lines, no glitches — 1:32 to 1:35pm in Minnesota. I suspect that there was noone under 50 in the building. Very quiet. Maybe I’ll drive by this evening to see if it’s still so quiet.
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Just got back. When Ian got off the bus, we walked to the local middle school to vote. Everybody, the workers and the people turning out to vote at that time, was over 70. I quizzed the people about turnout. 700 people had voted in my district. Four districts in the room. No lines though. They predicted lines after 5:00 today. I had the boys take turns pushing the buttons on the Democratic column. Then we walked to Starbucks for the free coffee.
It was a great afternoon. Now the crunch to finish homework before soccer practice and the party. I will probably have to start preparing for tomorrow’s lecture at 11:00 tonight. It’s going to be an all nighter.
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Polls opened at 7am here in Minnesota. Walked in at 7:10 (rural area). I was #29. In and out in about 5 minutes. Loved having my kids with me. Everyone working was 65+. Mood was festive and voters diverse (as diverse as one can get in rural Minnesota).
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Walked in at 3:45, 2 of my 4 children in tow, and voted. Got a chance to show them the ballot explain how it works and give a little nod to my 5th grader who is studying the Little Rock 9 this week. We both had tears in our eyes as she said “wow, it’s way different now.”
Heard there were tons of lines this morning when polls opened, and expect there will be now as everyone gets off work.
Heard that over 50% of registered voters in our county voted early.
Expecting record turn-outs locally.
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