View Full Version : Voting insanity
cameraman
10-30-08, 10:09 PM
Wow. The voting system is here is just maxed out. Everything is running very smoothly but the early polling locations have lines that are hundreds of people long from opening to closing. I was in line for more than an hour, they had about 20 machines, and it was just a constant flow of people. They have never had anywhere close to this number of people vote in an election before.
Tuesday is going to be just nuts.
Vote early if you can but whenever you do it give yourself a few hours to get it done:eek::eek::eek:
Methanolandbrats
10-30-08, 10:29 PM
Wow. The voting system is here is just maxed out. Everything is running very smoothly but the early polling locations have lines that are hundreds of people long from opening to closing. I was in line for more than an hour, they had about 20 machines, and it was just a constant flow of people. They have never had anywhere close to this number of people vote in an election before.
Tuesday is going to be just nuts.
Vote early if you can but whenever you do it give yourself a few hours to get it done:eek::eek::eek: ****, is it too late to vote absentee even if you're not going anywhere :D
I expect voter turnout to be pretty high, but my guess is that EVERYONE is trying to vote early.
I expect voter turnout to be pretty high, but my guess is that EVERYONE is trying to vote early.
I agree. It will be interesting to see the % before and after for voting. Our early voting has been pretty heavy from I've heard/read. Absentee ballots are your friend.
-Kevin
Mailed my ballot today. :thumbup: Conspiracy theorist friend says, "You know they don't count those, right?" I say, "I sent five, they're bound to count at least one."
:gomer:
Mailed my ballot today. :thumbup: Conspiracy theorist friend says, "You know they don't count those, right?" I say, "I sent five, they're bound to count at least one."
:gomer:
Was that your place I saw on the local news w/13 peeps registered that looked like it couldn't house 3? :saywhat: ;)
-Kevin
Was that your place I saw on the local news w/13 peeps registered that looked like it couldn't house 3? :saywhat: ;)
-KevinDid you see where there are more registered voters in some Mississippi counties than there are people?
cameraman
10-31-08, 01:56 AM
Did you see where there are more registered voters in some Mississippi counties than there are people?
Yeah well nobody ever dies in Mississippi, hell is forever.
Voted last Saturday. No waiting at all. One advantage of living in the boonies.
I suspect turnout this election won't be that much different then any other recent election. RECORD TURNOUTS are always predicted based on the registration numbers but most of those folks don't bother.
Mailed my ballot today. :thumbup: Conspiracy theorist friend says, "You know they don't count those, right?" I say, "I sent five, they're bound to count at least one."
:gomer:
those are the same morons that say gas prices have fallen because of the election.
Insomniac
10-31-08, 09:38 AM
Advance voted yesterday. No line, but there was a constant stream of people. Only pet peeve is the paper ballot. They had ball point pens to color in circles. It would be way quicker if they had markers.
Advance voted yesterday. No line, but there was a constant stream of people. Only pet peeve is the paper ballot. They had ball point pens to color in circles. It would be way quicker if they had markers.
It's Kansas, yo. ;)
-Kevin
Insomniac
10-31-08, 12:11 PM
It's Kansas, yo. ;)
-Kevin
I feel left out not being a swing state. They should go by popular vote!
I feel left out not being a swing state. They should go by popular vote!
I'm sick of being in a swing state. The media carpet bombing is insane. :saywhat:
-Kevin
extramundane
10-31-08, 12:55 PM
The media carpet bombing is insane. :saywhat:
Being in a state that's a swing state for the first time in 44 years has been rough too. I ended up taking the landline phone off the hook for about a week because of pollsters, robo-calls and all of that stuff and I called both the GOP & Dem HQ and asked them to take me off of their mail & call lists. Very few days have gone by that a canvasser from some organization hasn't banged on the door, and I noticed on the couple days I took off from work to recoup from a foot injury that the same canvassers came back multiple times when I didn't answer the door.
Even if the election doesn't go the way I want, I'll be happy for a little peace and quiet.
TKGAngel
10-31-08, 01:00 PM
I feel left out not being a swing state.
Same here. Though I am getting the robo-calls for the local elections.
RaceGrrl
10-31-08, 01:16 PM
http://www.marriedtothesea.com/061006/i-hate-voting.gif
Michaelhatesfans
10-31-08, 01:30 PM
They should go by popular vote!
I'd be on for that. I'm tired of politicians basing their strategies around what people 3,000 miles away from me think (or in some cases accounting for the fact that many of those people don't think).:shakehead
Methanolandbrats
10-31-08, 02:43 PM
Lewis Black had the best solution. Put a parachute on a monkey. Take the monkey on a flight around the country. At some point throw the monkey out. After the monkey lands, the first person the monkey holds hands with is the new president!
extramundane
10-31-08, 02:47 PM
Lewis Black had the best solution. Put a parachute on a monkey. Take the monkey on a flight around the country. At some point throw the monkey out. After the monkey lands, the first person the monkey holds hands with is the new president!
:thumbup:
oddlycalm
10-31-08, 03:28 PM
Vote by mail west smoothly as always. No lines, no weather, and the bonus is that as soon as your vote is in all the calls stop. :thumbup:
oc
Damn.... and I had picked some really good names off the grave stones this year. With lines as long as they're predicting I won't get to use more than 2 or 3 of them. :gomer:
I'll vote right at opening on Tuesday.
Usually I'm one of the first 10 at my polling location.
Was hoping to be on the ballot......
Wow. The voting system is here is just maxed out. Everything is running very smoothly but the early polling locations have lines that are hundreds of people long from opening to closing. I was in line for more than an hour, they had about 20 machines, and it was just a constant flow of people. They have never had anywhere close to this number of people vote in an election before.
Tuesday is going to be just nuts.
Vote early if you can but whenever you do it give yourself a few hours to get it done:eek::eek::eek:
You forgot to say vote often.
devilmaster
11-01-08, 08:28 PM
did snowball vote for bob too? :cry:
coolhand
11-01-08, 09:00 PM
The system of voting is bogus. It is harder to get a drivers license than vote. (I don't mean passing the driving test, but rather being eligible)
Insomniac
11-01-08, 10:40 PM
The system of voting is bogus. It is harder to get a drivers license than vote. (I don't mean passing the driving test, but rather being eligible)
All I hear about is ACORN, ACORN and more ACORN.
Being in a state that's a swing state for the first time in 44 years has been rough too. I ended up taking the landline phone off the hook for about a week because of pollsters, robo-calls and all of that stuff and I called both the GOP & Dem HQ and asked them to take me off of their mail & call lists. Very few days have gone by that a canvasser from some organization hasn't banged on the door, and I noticed on the couple days I took off from work to recoup from a foot injury that the same canvassers came back multiple times when I didn't answer the door.
Even if the election doesn't go the way I want, I'll be happy for a little peace and quiet.
this.
Local news reports peeps waiting in line for 3+ hours for early voting the past couple of days and today. Insane. Plus, only ~50K have voted early thus far. :saywhat:
-Kevin
Insomniac
11-03-08, 01:37 PM
It's going to be bad tomorrow.
cameraman
11-03-08, 01:54 PM
Over 334,000 people have already voted in Utah. When you consider that there are 1,515,856 registered voters in the state, that is pretty good. Over 22% voting early will take quite a bit of the load off the system tomorrow.
Over 334,000 people have already voted in Utah. When you consider that there are 1,515,856 registered voters in the state, that is pretty good. Over 22% voting early will take quite a bit of the load off the system tomorrow.
Note that the figure I parroted was for the early voting location in Franklin County oHIo. There are 88 counties in oHIo, so figuring that ~22 or so are large counties, we'll likely be over a million early votes come tomorrow. The line they showed on TeeVee @ noon was just incredible. Looked like it would stretch from the back of the Magic Kingdom to the front. :eek:
-Kevin
extramundane
11-03-08, 02:43 PM
I'm dreading the scene tomorrow. Record voter registrations, the first competitive Prez race in 44 years, a concern over lack of voting machines and no early-voting or by-mail mechanism suggests it's not gonna be pretty.
Hopefully, my being at the poll at 5:45am will get me in and out fairly quickly.
cameraman
11-03-08, 02:54 PM
I've been reading some of the complaints about the touch screen voting machines and I have to say that if someone is so stupid as to be unable to wrap their brains around the operation of the machines used in Utah, well perhaps that individual should not be involved in choosing our leadership.
btw our machines print a hard copy of your ballot and you can read it as it gets printed out. Given all of the Judge retention choices you have to go through three screen printings to get through the entire ballot.
I've got to say that Salt Lake County's voting system is a model of efficiency. Those folks have it down to a science.
TKGAngel
11-03-08, 02:59 PM
I'll be at the polls by 6:30 tomorrow, ID firmly in hand. I was checked last time because I'm a member of the minority party in our district.
USA Today is reporting that Starbucks is giving away free small coffees, Ben & Jerry's free ice cream and Krispy Kreme free donuts if you show proof of voting.
Insomniac
11-03-08, 03:03 PM
I've been reading some of the complaints about the touch screen voting machines and I have to say that if someone is so stupid as to be unable to wrap their brains around the operation of the machines used in Utah, well perhaps that individual should not be involved in choosing our leadership.
btw our machines print a hard copy of your ballot and you can read it as it gets printed out. Given all of the Judge retention choices you have to go through three screen printings to get through the entire ballot.
I've got to say that Salt Lake County's voting system is a model of efficiency. Those folks have it down to a science.
If anyone is voting electronically, be sure to review your ballot before you cast it.
Don't the machines print it after you cast your ballot?
Don't the machines print it after you cast your ballot?
Ours do not (or @ least they didn't the last time I voted in person in '00). I don't believe the machines in Franklin County have changed since then, tho. Just the paper ballots that were used in the rural counties.
Camerman, spend a day in a call center tech queue to better understand Joe Lowest Common Denominator out there. :irked: :saywhat:
-Kevin
cameraman
11-03-08, 04:18 PM
Camerman, spend a day in a call center tech queue to better understand Joe Lowest Common Denominator out there. :irked: :saywhat:
-Kevin
I don't have the patience for dealing with the public.
I'd be this way after an hour...
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/image021.jpg
I don't have the patience for dealing with the public.
I'd be this way after an hour...
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/image021.jpg
I worked in customer service for an ISP (well, pre-ISP if truth be told) when Falling Down came out. There was a guy on my team that fit that description to a T. Had my manager @ the time :eek:. Of course we also had a guy in the dept who wore a USPS hat daily and had an ammo box displayed on the desk in his cube. :eek: :saywhat: Oh, and when Doom was released, someone of course created a WAD of the call center floors. :irked: By that time I had graduated to QA geek. :)
-Kevin
oddlycalm
11-03-08, 06:09 PM
I don't have the patience for dealing with the public.
I'd be this way after an hour...
What's the matter, no appreciation for the wit and wisdom of your fellow citizens....? :laugh: See, there's a reason I like the vote by mail thing...:D
stroker
11-03-08, 09:02 PM
Dealing with the public is easy once you understand they want it free, they wanted it yesterday, if it ever breaks they want another free one regardless of how long they've owned it, they want the current sale price regardless of when they bought it and finally it's impossible for anything they do to it that would imply any sort of responsibility.
Methanolandbrats
11-03-08, 10:27 PM
Quote from Bud, "Look at 'em, ordinary ****ing people, I hate 'em". :thumbup:
As someone who used to run a polling place, all I can say is, I no longer run a polling place.
TKGAngel
11-04-08, 09:03 AM
At 6:20 this morning, I was #7 to vote at my polling place. I didn't get my "I Voted" sticker, though. :\
Insomniac
11-04-08, 09:12 AM
At 6:20 this morning, I was #7 to vote at my polling place. I didn't get my "I Voted" sticker, though. :\
No free donut for you! ;)
TKGAngel
11-04-08, 09:38 AM
No free donut for you! ;)
There's no more Krispy Kremes around here anyways.
I did get my free coffee at Starbucks though.
extramundane
11-04-08, 10:00 AM
I stood in the pissing rain for over an hour in a line that held steady at about 2/3 mile long and my precinct wasn't one of the busiest. Definitely a larger turnout than I've ever seen here.
Reports pouring in of machines not working too. Oughta be an interesting day.
Andrew Longman
11-04-08, 10:55 AM
I was #241 at 9am in a town with at best 900 registered voters. I had to wait 20 minutes. I've never before had more than one person in front of me.
What also amazed me is I didn't recognize more than a few people on line with me and this town is small enough where pretty much you might not know everyone's name, but you know faces from the market, post office, etc.
TravelGal
11-04-08, 11:02 AM
At 6:20 this morning, I was #7 to vote at my polling place. I didn't get my "I Voted" sticker, though. :\
No free donut for you! ;)
There's no more Krispy Kremes around here anyways.
I did get my free coffee at Starbucks though.
I was told last night that, at least here in the land of the fruits and the nuts, it has been declared illegal to give an "incentive or bribe" for voting. That means I may or may not be getting my free Ben Jerry's ice cream. I don't know if they are going to give it to everyone or just forget it completely. Public relations nightmare for them, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and others.
Polls opening here as I type. Will report back after I've braved the lines. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing democracy instead of amped apathy.
My voting experience was pretty much like the last few. There was no line, I walked right up to the check in table at 7:15am and the geriatric took about 3 minutes to find my sheet in the stack, so about three other people got ahead of me to the actual voting booth.
They also did not offer me electronic voting even though nobody was currently using the terminal (I did vote electronically in the primary). Just handed me my ballot and a marker.
The whole process took about 10 min. It would have been five if the average age of the judges was less than 79. :rolleyes:
In, vote, out.
Mrs. G. and I were the holdup in line, since we saw some neighbors and were chatting.
Never have I seen so many workers/judges at the polling place. I'm used to 3 judges, a grunt or two, and a visiting official strolling around looking important. There were about 16 at the tables (2 districts, 8 each), 2 at the door, and a few strolling about.
tllips, next election voluteer to judge from 5:30 AM until 8:30 PM.
Then maybe the average age might go down to 78. ;)
(quite a few young-uns working my polling place; surprising.)
chop456
11-04-08, 01:22 PM
40 minutes.
In, vote, out.
tllips, next election voluteer to judge from 5:30 AM until 8:30 PM.
Then maybe the average age might go down to 78. ;)
(quite a few young-uns working my polling place; surprising.)
Do they get nap time in those 15hrs?
Granted it is a loooong day and I wouldn't mind trying it once in the future, but I think I get paid more in my day job than they do for being an election judge.
I also think it is compounded in my precinct due to the fact that our polling place is an assisted living retirement community. So, the judges probably mostly live upstairs from the polling place and do not have to go outside to get to "work."
Do they get nap time in those 15hrs?
Sure they do, they just can't stop working when they nap though.
(not to get all civic-minded and serious for a bit, but people don't work the elections to make money. It's the same type of people that DON'T try to get out of Jury Duty.:))
IlliniRacer
11-04-08, 02:23 PM
The whole process took about 10 min. It would have been five if the average age of the judges was less than 79. :rolleyes:
My voting place was changed to the Community Building of a local Retirement Village. I figured it was due to the fact that that is where all the election judges lived.
At the polls at 5:55, Out the door at 6:15
Methanolandbrats
11-04-08, 02:36 PM
Sure they do, they just can't stop working when they nap though.
(not to get all civic-minded and serious for a bit, but people don't work the elections to make money. It's the same type of people that DON'T try to get out of Jury Duty.:))
My polling place is worked by old-timers who do it for the bottomless pot of free decaf coffee :gomer: The aroma of decaf is like crack once you are close to 70 years old.
Wheel-Nut
11-04-08, 02:56 PM
5 minutes - would've been quicker if I would have just pulled a straight ticket.
Was at the American Legion post at 7:30 this morning, and there was a line snaking through the parking lot. By the time I got out at 8:15, there was no line at all.
Interestingly, the bar at this Legion post is where Diablo Cody wrote much of the movie Juno (a lot was written in the Starbucks at our local target.)
In retrospect, I should have voted after work. They have bar bingo at 7:00 every Tuesday.
Ed_Severson
11-04-08, 05:35 PM
In at 1:15, out at 1:19 ... #351 in my precinct in Indianapolis. Plus, since I vote at an old folks home, I got free Jell-o afterwards. :tony:
Wheel-Nut
11-04-08, 06:47 PM
In at 1:15, out at 1:19 ... #351 in my precinct in Indianapolis. Plus, since I vote at an old folks home, I got free Jell-o afterwards. :tony:
But can you get that smell out of your clothes?
TravelGal
11-05-08, 02:08 AM
Add me to the people who took about 4 minutes to vote at 10 AM, although apparently it was packed at the beginning of the day.
Insomniac
11-05-08, 09:59 AM
Looks like it was a really smooth election. I wonder if it was because it really was or the win was decisive. I hope it's the former. :thumbup:, if so.
Michaelhatesfans
11-05-08, 03:53 PM
I see someone pooped in the Straw Poll thread. Shocker.
:laugh:
datachicane
11-05-08, 03:57 PM
14!
:laugh:
I blame Kent Brockman. ;)
dkQTFOEd788
Insomniac
11-05-08, 05:52 PM
I see someone pooped in the Straw Poll thread. Shocker.
:laugh:
It was a successful voter suppression tactic. :D (I'm not disenfranchised though.)
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