Posted on 11/07/2006 9:55:15 AM PST by TBP
What are the conditions at your polling place? How is turnout? The weather? The voting equipment? Was checking in easy? Were there people outside electioneering? if so, who was there, Republicans or Democrats or others?
At my polling place, thigns were slow when my wife and I went to vote about 8-ish. One of the few guys passing out literature (for the newly-Republican State Senator inmy district) was saying that the turnout had been very low. (I'm going to go over there later and see how it's going.) The only people electioneering were two guys handing out literature for the Republican and Democrat candidates for the State Senate in my district and one guy working for a candidate for county office in my district. Nobody from either side of the gubernatorial or Senate races.
The weather is good. It's in the 50s and clear. No precip expected.
We have new Diebold touch-screen machines this year. They're easy to use. But where is the paper trail? How do you recount if you need to? They felt the need to put up a big sign announcing that the electronic voting is secure and it's illegal to tamper with it. We have electronic check-in too. I'm not sure I entirely trust it; it's a blue state, after all.
I grew up on lever machines and know how they can be compromised, but I miss them. At least I had a curtain so nobody could walk by and look at how I am voting.
Let's track this all day and see how it's trending.
They moved us to a new polling place, a gymnasium. The lighting in there is really strange--that funny yellowish stuff. Very bright, but like it is missing the color blue altogether. Well, we shall see.
There was a 'political incident' at my polling place. Some jerk showed up in a F**k Bush t-shirt and they told him he either had to go home and change it and come back or wear this paper examination gown like they give you in a doctor's office.
He wanted to just take the shirt off and vote topless, but they said no, only the two options above. He also argued that since Bush isn't on the ballot, the t-shirt didn't constitute a political message (banned, I think 500 feet from polling places on election day). He had a point there I thought ... but still ... what a jerk.
Eventually he donned the paper gown and did his voting. The elderly election ladies were all in a tizzy over it. At least it provided some excitement to an otherwise boring morning for them I'm sure ... not to mention entertainment for people like me standing in line.
Of course, our precinct ran smoothly with no line as has been the case in every previous five elections in which I have lived in this precinct.
Slow but steady in my small town in north Florida. I heard I was number 60 at around 9 a.m. It was constant traffic but no one had to wait.
Can we all come to your swearing-in?
I vote at the Peoples Church in Williamson County in Tennessee. Very heavy GOP county.
I've NEVER seen it with lines that long in 10 years. And I got there this morning just after they opened. I didn't move for an hour very far and calculated I'd be there 2 hours or more so I had to leave. And IT WAS RAINING but not too bad.
I think everyone had the same idea I did: get there early before work.
I'll be heading back today around 3 pm.
I'm in NM and the weather is a beautiful 60 degrees w/o a hint of wind. I was voter #91 at 9:00 AM and lest you think that is a bad turnout, there are probably no more than 500 registered to vote in my precint so there was already around 20% voter turnout.
South of Madison, Wisconsin suburb. My precinct went about 52% Bush last election. Confounding factor is rapid growth.
My wife votes real early -- she was 211 in 2004, 125 this time, often down around 50 in a midterm so turnout is heavy.
When I voted much later, parking lot was full, I have never seen it full except in Presidential elections. We have two amendments (gay marriage and advisory on death penalty) and a moderately hot gurbernatorial election.
Heavy support for "John Deere" and "Case" judging by the clothing.
Worst of all..sob..they have discontinued the chocolate chip cookies and juice....I have been voting here for 30+ years and we always have cookies and juice. These cheap local "new" politicians have made a big mistake....it will take some real groveling to win back the voters' hearts.
No problems,but I was approached by exit pollers.I was tempted to tell them I voted for all 'Rats but I just brushed them off.
Why bother to go vote when you can just sit home and collect your welfare check?
Yes,of course.Just FYI,my first act as a Congressman will be to introduce a motion to impeach Justices Ginzburg and Breyer...and my second piece of legislation will require the consumption of one pound of lima beans by every US resident every day.
I used to go with my mother too, even inside teh booth. But then, I was out handing out campaign literature when I was 8.
One reason I love voting at the poll with the neighborhood, is the little "I VOTED" sticker they give you.
Well, this time when he handed me one, I was stunned and couldn't help blurting out, "May I please have one in ENGLISH?!!"
"Huh?" he said. "Oh, uh, sure." He had to rifle through several sheets to find one NOT in Spanish.
Maybe absentee voting isn't so bad after all.
Greensboro, NC
Precinct G11, ie St Benedicts Parish
9:15 AM EST
Chilly, Light Drizzle
4 touchscreen machines, all functional
4 people ahead of me in line when I arrived
8 people behind me when I left
Approximate 7 minute wait between the time I walked in the door and the time that I was given a machine
No picture ID requested
It was a light turnout but its a Dem area, so its not a bad thing!
My wife would be upset. I love lima beans, but she can't stand them.
I know those lights, they're awful.
Voted straight R with minor one exception.
Everybody looks like zombies. Maybe worse than zombies. Those who use makeup and hair color (women for the most part) have no idea how that will turn out, but there is nothing to compare it to as everything is equally alien-looking. I doubt that life would arise on a planet with a sun of that color.
My mother used to force us to eat lima beans when I was a kid.Today...40+ years later....I've only just begun to forgive her! ;-)
I voted last week, but my mom just got back and said there were long lines (very heavy Republican district). She was gone about 2-1/2 hours. There was a lady in front of her that got turned away - they told her she had already voted. My mom said she seemed surprised, but she left without any trouble.
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