Get. Out. And. Vote. Now.

DH and I were in line when the polls opened at 7:00. We voted. All went smoothly.

I was also supposed to stay and be a Poll Watcher. This was completely unnecessary at our precinct. So I'm home already. Maybe the late shift watcher will have something to watch but when I was there this is what I saw:

The polls opened right on time.
The same poll workers we always see were running things very smoothly.
The machines hadn't had any problems -- "so far" according to one of the workers.
The technical person for the precinct had checked that the machines were started up correctly and that the precinct's signs were where they were supposed to be.
I introduced myself to the precinct clerk and chatted very briefly and went home.

One of the advantages of living in a tiny town, I guess. This was a busy day for our polling station -- I had to wait about 10 minutes to vote.

The thing that ticked me off was that my local county Democratic Party office was not even open when I went by, as requested, to pick up signs and fliers to hand out. I was there at 6:30. The polls open here at 7:00. I'm wondering when they were planning on opening the office. Lawyers are supposed to be standing by for questions, for instance. Where was everybody?

At any rate, I had nothing to pass out or any signs to put up. The precinct workers were humming along smoothly. So I'm home.

And I voted! Hurray!!

Nance

We went together too, for the first time.

It's rainy and grey here in Tallahassee, FL's state capital. We went 45 minutes later than Nance, hubby on his way to work and me going along for the ride around the corner, leaving the kids asleep (night-owls now 16 and 11.)

Lots of bustling sign-waving, kid voting and red-vested watcher-workers outside but inside the gym (our precinct's polling place is a big Baptist church) it was very smooth and quiet. Not a soul in line, and a whole row of perky septuagenerians waiting to help us! We use optical scan paper ballots in this county. Black pen to bubble in choices, then the voter hand-feeds the ballot into the scanner.

I was VERY fast because I'd pored over the sample ballot's Constitutional amendments at home last week, and had the two numbers in mind for bubbling "yes" without even reading the headlines, much less all the contradictory-sounding verbiage. He was familiar with the issues but not the numbers and exact language, so he had to read through them all while voting, and afterward he said it was slow going because his eyes and brain weren't quite awake yet. (Coffee hadn't had time to kick in!)

I was out and home again quicker than Nance got to the front of her line.

Whereupon I turned on local talk radio and heard that a silk-stocking apartment complex polling place called Jackson Square was having a problem with the paper ballots not feeding into the scanner. It seems to be a jam that will be "cleared" from the machine at the end of the day. So the day's ballots at that site are being secured, to be fed in in a big batch at 7 pm. Voters are invited back at that time, if they feel the need to observe their ballots being scanned in.

That's all I've heard so far. But in the debacle of 2000, our county was perfect both the first time and on the automatic recount, so I wouldn't expect any drama here.

Voting seemed brisk for the early hour (not a brisk as 2004, but moreso than any other time) in Brooklyn. Main presence outside were WFP and Greens with one friend representing the local Dem club. The poll workers were the usual slow, somewhat confused people, but basically competent. During the primary it was the end of the day at closing time when they were tired that there were some counting problems.

There were two young, very polite and eager "Election Protecetion" people who introduced themselves to everyone and wore spiffy, new "Election Protection" T-shirts. They told everyone coming in that if there were problems, come to them.

The only problem I saw was someone handing out flyers for an independent candidate for Congress (Ollie McClean) refused to stay outside the legal perimeter, trying repeatedly to hand out flyers right at the entrance. Everyone else was at the corners of the street. I saw people telling him what the law was and he was refusing to comply. So the person handing out Dem flyers went inside to complain. I considered staying to observe, but my experiments called. I am finishing up early as I can at work and heading off to campaign for Steve Harrison in Bay Ridge.

It was actuallya bit busy this morning --whenever I go to vote at my polling place here in Stuy Town am the only shmuck accompanied by the cutests boys in the neighborhood :wink:

Last night I demanded to their dad to allow them to vote him since they whined and complained about having to do it with me for the past two elections.

So while they are voting and I am waiting in line, this couple (who look married), go the desk and say they live in my building. I have never, ever seen these people --and I pride myself in going against the New York City norm by knowing my neighbors.

Maybe they moved in recently, but they defy the demographics of recent movers into Stuy tow : They look to be about 50 something and MetLife has been bullish at NOT renting to people over a certain age.

Given New York City is notorious with double-dippers who live most of the year in Florida, I just have to wonder --have I witnessed voter fraud? Who knows.

Anyhow, I have the kids at home today. We will be walking around the neighborhood and dropping in on polling places --and reporting back during the day.

I definitely want to see if it becomes a mad house after work (around 6 or 7pm).

I voted this morning at the Adam Clayton Powell School on Amsterdam. Because I move around so often, I voted by absentee ballot bc my registration had not been updated in time and my name was not on the list. NO PROBLEM. The volunteers were a great help in explaining everything to me and making sure I knew what to do and also recommending that I update (yet again!) my address with the election board bc it may have been overlooked when I did it a few weeks ago. I noticed the volunteers helping a lot of people but without pushing them to vote one way or the other, which is good bc i'd hada say somethin' 'bout that. There was a steady stream of people but it was not overly crowded, so hopefully that was just bc of the hour. I am pleased to report that people of all ages, all colors and all sexes were out in the neighborhood urging people to vote. I did not see any conservative campaigners; just Dems and a few Independents.

In NY, has anyone voted Elliot S. in under the Independents instead of the Dems? Why or why did you not?

I am interested to see how the Tennessee race turns out. I feel that my hometown of Chattanooga will go to the Republicans, which is a great disappointment, but Coker was mayor there. Ford is practically a Republican himself when it comes to issues of sexuality; the western part of the state may go to him.

Now, let's keep the updates rollin'. And who is going to what election party?

DISCLAIMER - on Liza's political test I am a slight libertarian centrist economically, more definitely lower left quadrant on social issues. Like Nelson Mandela and the Dali Lama.
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Our 16-year-old college student woke up for her ride to campus and demanded to hear all how I wound up voting, and why. We've watched several candidate debates together, she's been collecting and critiquing all the direct mail pieces we get, etc. As a nonpartisan intellectual, I talk stuff to death from all different angles and don't issue definite answers, so she was curious to hear how it had come out in my mind.

I started describing my vote in each race and on each question and amendment, and I began to realize how varied the citizen decisions to be made on one ballot have become.

In going through each choice for her, I also realized I had voted for several Ds and not for any Rs this time, but it wasn't by design and that doesn't tell the whole story. And it wasn't all just yes-no or R-D. I couldn't have voted a "straight party ticket" even if I'd been willing to try.

There were several convoluted tax set-asides for special interests that sounded especially worthy like health care, old folks and veterans; the eminent domain issue, and local non-partisan races for judges and commissioners. (Florida already has a state minimum wage higher than the feds.)

I oppose most constitutional amendment initiatives as not rising to the threshhold of enduring principle, but for that very reason I did vote in favor of an amendment to require future amendments to garner 60% voter support rather than a mere 50% plus one vote split. (Imagine if every vote and candidate required 60% rather than a simple majority, maybe we'd have to work together or settle for nobody getting anything done! Think of that --Congress would look completely different, either an empty Capitol or else much more cooperative, responsive and productive!)

Then in the governor's race we had a third party candidate, who a judge controversially had ordered must be included (literally at the last hour) in the last televised debate hosted by Chris Matthews. Matthews handled it badly, too, he was flummoxed. All the usual inclusive forces like Dems and newspapers and PBS wanted him shut out and seemed resentful they couldn't define the participants any way they wanted, since they control the news. But they were forced to let him in and had to settle for treating him like a wayward child. I got annoyed -- no, I was INSULTED that the media fought in court to control my right not to know all my choices. Favorite Daughter watched that debate with me, and so she was amused to hear I finally wound up voting for him, reasoning he was closer to my practical policy positions than either the dodgy D who wants to tax me to death or the slick R who wants to keep my brain-dead body hooked to tubes against my will, after the D kills it.

The R - Charlie Crist - will win anyway, I told her, but I felt best voting against the media machine and both parties' machines, and FOR an outsider getting at least marginal access to coverage and the ballot. So I voted for Max Linn. (But if he gets even three percent of the total votes statewide, I will be stunned.)

Then there was one state supreme court judge I voted not to retain. I had studied the statutes and closely watched gavel-to-gavel coverage of the court's hearing on Bush v Gore in 2000, and was shocked by this one justice's very strained, legally tortured rationales. I didn't like partisan slant any better on her than on Katherine Harris and felt we were poorly served by both, from opposite directions. It won't matter because judges always are retained and Harris was dead all along, but today I got to apply my own reasoning to them both and express it without interference. That's a good day for the Thinking Voter imo.

I expect most of my votes to be on the losing side. Doesn't mean I will feel like a loser.

this time i voted 100% Democratic. i have never voted Republican and despite my strong discontent with the Dems and past votes for other parties, this time i chose all Dems for a variety of personal reasons. but i love the idea of more strong and viable parties and seriously doubt that i will ever vote a straight ticket again. once i am more familiar with the other parties's stances on current issues, i am likely to vote for their candidates if i agree with their platforms, especially if they offer different candidates that have not already been labeled as a Dem. i am registered as an Independent and i tend to look more at candidates and what they do and who they work with as opposed to voting for them based on how they label themselves. i always go for some form of progressive/liberal, though.

funny... when i looked at Hillary Clinton's name on the ballot, i could not imagine myself voting for her as President under any party, though i did vote for her for Senator. many of my choices today were made bc it was better than the alternative and i think that would be the only way i would vote for her as President: a seriously close race in which we were going to wind up with another mental peasant like Bush and his undignified cronies.