I voted

[j44ke]

On the New York ballot, I look for opportunities to write my wife in where the only candidate is running unopposed. Lately it has been for DA.

[Mabouya]

Lately it has been for DA.

Wow, your wife is hot!

[j44ke]

I sure think my wife is hot, but that's Jason Sehorn's wife. I once held a taxi door for her, but it did not result in marriage.

[Corso]

Everyone please vote tomorrow!

Even if it's for Jorns better half!

[Saab2000]

I’m voting tomorrow in favor of a ballot initiative to legalize pot. Mostly because I’m against pot smokers being criminalized, not because I plan to smoke it, which I don’t

More importantly, I’m voting in favor of a bipartisan panel of citizens deciding districts instead of the majority party gerrymandering the district lines in their favor. This has been a real problem in Michigan and has skewed the representative chambers against the will of the majority of the voters.

Polls open at 7 AM and I hope to be there when they open.

[guido]

I arrived at my polling place at 7:05 and already the lot was full and I had to park in the satellite lot. Long lines to cast ballots since we were having a town election as well so two paper ballots needed to be fed into the machine. Most folks seemed cheerful and engaged. Only one idiot in a red hat. I held my tongue, the poll is sacred ground...

[sine]

edit

Only one idiot in a red hat. I held my tongue, the poll is sacred ground...

.

[lumpy]

I voted. My town is on track for well more voters than in 2016, and we had turnout over 50% in that election.

[j44ke]

My area votes in a school a block from our apartment. Usually they use the entire gymnasium, but perhaps because this is the midterms, they only set up in half the gymnasium, cramming together all the voting cubicles and the scanner machines and leaving the other half completely empty. However, the crowds at 8AM appeared to be at about 80% of a Presidential election year, and there were lines for each of the districts to get ballots, lines for the voting cubicles, and a line for the vote scanners. There were people filling out ballots while standing behind other people filling out ballots in the cubicles, and the line for the scanning machines went out of the room, down the hall and around a corner. Vote is supposed to be private - that's why those voting cubicles are backed up against a wall usually - and the ballots are not supposed to leave the voting room - not a secure vote. Also the staff wasn't managing handicapped and elderly voters well. There weren't enough chairs, and there didn't seem to be staff in charge of bringing people who announced a disability to the front of each line in the process. Basically I think that the electoral board viewed this election as just another midterm election with a typical 30% turnout or whatever, but obviously it isn't so now they are caught short. All in all, the experience was bothersome because it seemed unnecessarily confused, given all the predictions for turnout. And my voting time was about 30 minutes, which is about what it is in most Presidential election years, except for the first Obama election which took over an hour and I stood in a line that went around the block just to get inside.

[Shoogs]

there was a line at 6A... for the first time I didn't bring my kids.

[murphy]

Got in line at around 5:45 AM and was about 20-30 people back. Not as far back as the last presidential election, but still looking like a solid turnout.

[Saab2000]

It was very busy at my polling place and also well organized. Probably waited 30 minutes but it wouldn’t have been realistic to do it quicker.

[j44ke]

I should add that voters in line were moving the elderly and disabled to the front of the line voluntarily. Community spirit then seemed good.

Unfortunately my wife won't be getting any votes this year. I voted for the unopposed because I didn't want to risk anything.

[deano]

Voting heresy here: despite being on the verge of the Catholic Church, and thus fine with central organization to society, the Mennonite/anti-state-don't-participate-in-an-unjust-system part of me has for several years won on election day. (That is a weird statement above and outs me as a product of certain theological and philosophical thought that was prominent at Duke when I was in grad school.... You can PM me about it if you are actually I nterested in some inane banter but i don't mean get this good thread off topic)

BUT. All that to say, and while I have certainly been political in other ways despite not voting in the past, I voted this election for once.

Hoping for what amounts to a referendum on this cheezball.

OH, YEAH, most important political action of all was biking to the polling place with my 1year old son in baby trailer. BIKEZ FOR AMERICA!

[Scott G.]

Compared to the 4 people who usually vote in the local midterms, there was a big (20+)
people at the polls early.

Ballot had 1 convoluted double reverse negative phrased constitutional amendment on it.

[ZenNMotion]

Voting systems security standards in the US are abominable, and in many districts purposefully abominable. It's not a technology problem- when was the last time your bank sent you a note that "oops- somehow we under/over counted the funds in your account"? And the issue only adds to the divided dumpster fire that this election is/will be- there will always be a not-totally-crazy argument that an election was somehow hacked/fraudulent no matter who won because of a lack of a auditable paper trail in many districts. And sadly the decision to fix/not fix it is part of political maneuvering where we can't even agree on full participation in the Democracy as a national value.
Somewhat related to this, I saw a gentleman in the parking lot at my local school/polling station using a walker in the pouring rain to try to find an entrance without steps- there were none that were unlocked. I had to go into the polling place, alert an official, and then stand outside holding my umbrella with the citizen for nearly 20 minutes while they discussed (inside, out of hearing) how to resolve the situation. Someone finally came out, with a ballot form in a manila folder, had him fill it out then they walked back inside to insert it into their machine. 100 ways to alter or "lose" that ballot. Somehow they couldn't just unlock a fucking door to let him in like everybody else.

[rwsaunders]

I waited in line behind 28 people this morning, which has never happened in the 20 years that I have lived in this borough...good stuff.

[j44ke]

Voting systems security standards in the US are abominable, and in many districts purposefully abominable. It's not a technology problem- when was the last time your bank sent you a note that "oops- somehow we under/over counted the funds in your account"? And the issue only adds to the divided dumpster fire that this election is/will be- there will always be a not-totally-crazy argument that an election was somehow hacked/fraudulent no matter who won because of a lack of a auditable paper trail in many districts. And sadly the decision to fix/not fix it is part of political maneuvering where we can't even agree on full participation in the Democracy as a national value.
Somewhat related to this, I saw a gentleman in the parking lot at my local school/polling station using a walker in the pouring rain to try to find an entrance without steps- there were none that were unlocked. I had to go into the polling place, alert an official, and then stand outside holding my umbrella with the citizen for nearly 20 minutes while they discussed (inside, out of hearing) how to resolve the situation. Someone finally came out, with a ballot form in a manila folder, had him fill it out then they walked back inside to insert it into their machine. 100 ways to alter or "lose" that ballot. Somehow they couldn't just unlock a fucking door to let him in like everybody else.

The polling place for our majority Democrat district in Phoenix AZ was the rec room in a half-way house for recovering addicts convicted of a violent crime. No kidding. Republicans ran the electoral commission even though it was a non-partisan commission.

New York City has its organizational issues, but the polling place locations are pretty good, at least in my experience.

[ericpmoss]

I voted by mail. The posh neighborhood here doesn't have problems (other than stupid voting machines slowing down everything), but why slow it down any more...

I'm lucky -- Dodge City KS moved its ONE polling location out of town in order to disenfranchise the dominant Latino population. This is courtesy of Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State running elections, including the governor's race he's in. The corruption is astounding.

[Tom]

Karen was there at 6am when the polls opened. She was number 4, I got there at 6:20 and was number 36. People seem to be motivated.