I Voted... Have You?
 

I actually voted a couple of weeks ago by absentee ballot. But let us know if you've voted and how things are st your local polling place.

Where's the "Not Yet" option? :confused:

I'll be voting when I get out of work tonight. I'm hoping the line won't be too long.

Voted about 30 minutes ago.
:)


Done deal, time will only tell now.

Did the absentee thing - like always... :D (Just once I want to be able to use a voting booth...)

I voted last week...but I drove by my poll this morning on the way to work at 6 am and there was already about 60 people in line. Dave got to his poll at 620 am and was 300th in line...he said by the time the doors opened there were about 700 peeps. It took him an hour and a 1/2 from the time they opened to actually cast his vote :)

We3 voted at our local polling place today. We got there a few minutes before it opened. Rural as our township is, everything was scaled down - short line, 2 machines, just a few officials to process the voters. We use electronic touch-button screens in this county.

It felt like being a part of something larger than ourselves...

How was your Vote?
 

I Voted. The lines were long here at my Pittsburgh poleing place but there where not problems.

We use the old lever system.

I wish my township had that.

We goto our local township building, wait in line for 30 minutes or so and there are 4-5 "officials" and 2 very old voting machines.

The kind where you slide the handle over toggle some switches and pull the handle back.

We're lucky to have 2 of those things. :)

I voted for the first time about 15 minutes ago.

Congratulations, gremlinx8. :thumbsup:

I'll be hitting the polls when I get off of work.

Just got back here. Surprisingly smooth for a chicago district, I walked right up to the table. There was a long line forming after I got there though, guess I got there at the right time.

Voted at 8 am, in and out in about 5 minutes with the old-style levers. A good stream of people coming in and out, being processed at the same rate that they arrived. I'm not in a swing state, so no challengers. They couldn't find the person ahead of me in the voting rolls, so he was sent to a different table to get it sorted out.

7:30...short line since i had to register. Changing precints is kind of a pain, but i was able to find the electric bill last night... I felt a lot of relief once my ballot was in.

I'm heading out in a bit to GOTV.

I voted in florida, no waiting and no problems

Not yet, I'll be voting when I get out of class today. And I just want to urge everyone that hasn't decided whether they are going to vote or not to please vote! It's pretty much the only way you have a voice.

Voted no waiting no problems but I'm in a suburb.

Pretty nice in ohio temp wise looks like stormy weather tho. As long as it is warm and dry, conventional wisdom is that helps the Dems.

It's going to be a very interesting election. I voted bi-partisan Kerry for Pres. Voinivich (even tho he sold out by supporting a gay marriage ban).

We'll see.

NY....Rochester

No lines...but starting to form

Lever system

Easy as pie

I always feel good after voting

Upstate NY, in and out. No problems. A trickle of people at 9:00 am.

2 weeks ago I checked boxes and sent the paper in an envelope to PA.

I can't vote, I'm Canadian!! I know who i would vote for if I could tho...no hairy Bush...

:) done. :)

DONE!

I had to change my address but even with that wait I was only the 18th voter in my district. We used good old pencil and paper.

Voted Republican

absentee voted a couple of weeks ago

Mailed my absentee last week - I feel left out cause I don't get a "I voted" sticker.

when voting day goes bad
 

Mods, let me know if this belongs in the "i voted, have you?" thread. I first was going to put it there but decided it was sufficiently different to be separate as most of those were more of one or two line yes or nos.


I'm a US Citizen, didn't vote, and am not going to! Muahahahahaha.

Ok actually the evil laugh is back on me. I didn't vote because I can't. I registered to vote over a year ago right around the time of last year's city council elections. There is always a non-partisan student group on campus that does voter registration drives. They've been doing them for years, and chances are that half of the people in this county have registered that way the first time at least. So anyway, I registered there but haven't voted yet in an election because the only one i was registered for before was for city council. I know i should've voted but I was unimformed, newly registered, and they all hate us students anyway.

So flash forward to 2004. I decided against using the early voting option we have here, even though i walked by it every day on the way to class. I figured I wasn't 100% on who I was voting for, especially in state-specific stuff, so I would respect the idea that there is a campaign season that ends on November 2nd, and I wanted all that time to hear people out and decide what to do. A few times I got annoyed at people three times a day trying to hand my literature and trying to direct me to the voting booths when i wasn't ready, but it was fairly easy to brush them off. So this morning I decide to wake up at 9:30, which ended up being 10, to walk down the street and vote in my first election! Woo-boy, I was ready, had done my research, and wanted to get it done before lines got too bad. And I was happy the local district voting was literally half a block away. So I go, get the literature from the democrats standing at the edge of the "no soliciting past this line" space, glance through it, and read the last articles in the local papers about everything. I'm ready. And on top of that, I hit it with virtually no line!!! Hell yeah, I'll be in and out and have voted in my first election, and an important one on top of that. Who cares that North Carolina isn't supposed to be a swing state, I'm still going to get my vote heard.

And then, disasterstruck.

I walk up to the people at the table, tell them my name, and its nowhere to be found on their roll. Doublecheck? Still not there. I can see it for myself too, my name is nowhere to be found. Ok, i think, small setback, but they know how to deal with this sort of thing. Sure enough, they direct me over to one lady who's been working with people like this all morning. She takes me into another room, thoughtfully full of refreshments at that, and calls the main district with all the master lists to ask them to look for me. One problem, she can't get through. She tries another number, nothing, and again, either busy or no answer. This goes on for a good half hour. I decide to doublecheck my memory of where I registered and call back home to find out if I in fact registered as there as my address. Can't get through at first, but manage to get ahold of my dad who is, at that moment, in line to vote. Perfect, he says he'll be able to check when he gets up there as he's been in line for an hour and a half, but is only 15 minutes away now. He'll call back and either let me know if they were able to check for him, or at least find out a phone number for the Stokes County Board of Elections I can call to check (my attempts at using 411 ended up giving me a phone number in the wrong area code nowhere near my county). So in the meantime, the nice volunteer at the election station is still trying desperately to get through, and another has joined me with a similar problem, though he has more specifics on what happened (it seemed the person who helped him register never filled out the fields she said she would, and so they sent back the registration and it was too late by that time to register in time).

Eventually BAM, she's through and talking to the people at the central precinct for Orange County. She gives them all my information, full name, address current and past ones, birthday, the whole package. Nothing. I get on the phone and explain where I registered, but still nothing. She says that she checked by address, by name, and by birthday to triplecheck, and has no record of me anywhere. She also checked the list of those with incomplete registrations or ones with errors on them but still nothing. To the Orange County Board of Elections, I Do Not Exist.

Ok, wow, didn't see this one coming. Figured it had to be a clerical mistake, figured I'd have to drive halfway around the county but somewhere at some voting location i'd be there, a little weary, but ready to vote. But no, no way i can vote in Orange County this year. North Carolina doesn't have provisional voting either unless its just a moving error with wrong address or something else, they still need some record of prior registration.

Alright, so I start rooting against my memory now. Despite what I told everyone at the time, including my parents, I must've put down my home address. Yeah, thats it, I'll get the call from my dad, jump in the car, skip all my classes for the day to vote, and drive a couple hours home to wait in an hour line, vote, and drive back to Chapel Hill. It'll be a long day, but it'll be a story at least to tell later. So I get impatient and call my dad back and he answers after about half a ring. He already had the phone in his hand ready to call me, he's in.

And he doesn't have good news. After he checked in at the station (the only one in my hometown), he asked them to check for me. It was simple really, seeing as we have the same last name and all, but they found nothing. They even doublechecked with him looking over the shoulder to see for himself, but no registration whatsoever for me in Stokes County.

And just like that, my right to vote in this election disappears.

Now I don't want to be too over the top only blaming other people, there were things I could've done long before now but didn't seem necessary. If I had voted in that first city election last year, I would've realized then I wasn't actually registered. I could've gone anytime in the past year to the Board of Elections and confirmed it. But instead I didn't even once, even with a passing though, consider that there might be any problem. Most people on campus registers this way, and I know many people who did early voting and had no problems. But somewhere in the shuffle a form must've fallen by the wayside, and obviously never made it to the board of elections, and my dumb ass never did a damn fool thing to doublecheck it.

Now with no provisional voting to help me, there's no way for me to vote in today's election, and the only thing I can do is reregister in the future for the next elections, and hand deliver that summabitch to whomever is supposed to get them eventually. I know people who for this election were in one of the main groups doing voter registration. They had a huge tent set up on the lower quad like the do on occasion, with permits from the university, and i walked up there after spanish class one day and decided to do what I had meant to do for a while. They are a reputable group, no questions of any shady dealings have ever been openly raised about them, and they do a great service to the community by making sure students are eligible to vote, but damned if I can't trust them any more.

And by the way, if NC unexpectedly becomes a tight race tonight, I'm raising hell.

Voted this morning, had to wait for about 3 minutes after signing in to vote, all the punch machines were busy. I was number #152 at 8:30 AM, so it was busy. Looked around for Michael Moore and his ccameras, didn't see any. looked for "Voting Challengers", didn't see any, was disappointed, so i voted and left. I was wanting someone to challenge me, but since I live in a small town, no one did. In fact, the poll workers all said "Hi, Mike" as I approached them, so I knew there would be no challenge. Darn!

damn... people got a sticker????

I got ugotz....

if I had a cameraphone I would have done something like this... well not voting for Kerry but...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...353538_468.jpg

anyways... I'd use this if I had the time to go to Virgin Megastore tonight...

voted this morning

and now you know...

we've been posting lots of threads here about double checking your polling place, and that you are in fact registered properly.

If we may ask, who WERE you going to vote for?

-Mikey

For presidential I was going Kerry/Edwards. I was (supposedly) registered as an Independent, and my views most fall in line with Libertarian, so I was tempted to go with the Lib candidate just to help increase percentages for that party since this state wasn't supposed to be that close. But in the end I decided this election overall was close enough where it was more important to get a vote in for one of the main guys and save the fight for the third party for a later date.


And yeah, I agree completely that I had plenty of time to double check on making sure I was registered and didn't do squat. I was just so blinded by the fact that everyone else had worked out perfectly fine doing it the same way I did and didn't so much ignore the good advice as just didn't click in my head that it applied to me as well. As for polling place, had no problem there, i was at the right place if my paperwork had gone through, it was on the same street as me and I'm at 216 and it was 300. I can step on the sidwalk and yell back and forth to the volunteers out there if i so desired.

Edit: And thanks for moving this to the right thread, guess it fell in easily enough here after all :thumbsup:

A vote for Charles Schumer! Glad to see it. I'm a transplanted New Yorker who admires what he did following 9/11. His (at the time) 16 year old daughter attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, damaged by the attacks. When the school re-opened, many parents were hesitant to send their children back to the school for fears the building wasn't ready to re-open yet. Schumer personally escorted his daughter back to the school to show he felt it was safe. At a time when most politician's kids are in private schools, Schumer showed me something by that move. Although he's a Democrat, and I tend to vote Republican, I only wish I could have put one in for him.

Anyway, I voted by military absentee ballot, as we got underway this morning.

-Mikey

I did the absentee ballot a few weeks ago when I was home from school.

Voted this morning, in line for approx. 20 mins.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/m0us33/humhum/vote2k4.jpg">

at 7:15am hubby & i only had to wait for 3 in line ahead of us & 6 at the poll booths.
it was swift & simple.

Just got back from voting. Not much of a line when I was there.

done and done

Kickin' ass.

http://www.gargamel.ca/johnlowenberg/pics/fark11.jpg

Maddox actually wins by a landslide! I didn't vote cause I don't live in this
state and my mom was stupid enough to not send me an absentee ballot.
Although, I'm not registered back home anyway... *grumblecakes*

Done did first thing before work. Long ass line, but for the other ward, not mine. Got in, got out!

<b>Gustoferson</b>, March back there and demand a provisional ballot.

No lines at my polls. The old mechanical voting machines are still used here.

I just got back from voting. I always take election day off. If I am not so emotionally invested in the race that I can assure civility all day long, then I work the polls. Today, I am just staying home from work (& going to get the Third Season of the West Wing.To hell with Bush and Kerry: Bartlett for president.)

It's absolutely gorgeous out today in northern Virginia. I walked to the polls at the elementary school, and then stood in line for an hour to vote, this during an off peak time in a suburban precinct. Going to be an interesting race in ol' Virginny. We're expecting 80% turnout in most of NoVa, and that'll break for Kerry. Whether it'll be enough to swing the rest of the state is doubtful, but fingers crossed. (Touch screen machines.)

Voted this morning before work. Line was about a half hour. Watching some of the volunteers made me want to volunteer myself. Maybe next election.

No can do, according to those working at the voting site this morning, North Carolina does not do provisional ballots unless there is prior record of registration somewhere in the state. Since they can't find even a trace of my name on any registration related materials, I don't qualify and can't prov vote.

Again though, yeah they screwed me over royally, but I didn't help myself but not doublechecking to make sure the paperwork wasn't just thrown in the trash when I turned my back.

Edit: Though you mentioning it did just spark me in my more alert after-nap state to look up some stuff online. I just called the local county board of elections asking about that and they said I should go back to the voting place and ask if they would let me try a provisional ballot anyway. It would be up to the workers there if they wanted to let me, and then I still would have no way of knowing if my vote would be counted or not, because it would have to be individually looked at and approved through the board later on. But at least its something, assuming they let me, so i'm going to give it a shot.

Voted an hour ago. No line at all.

I voted. It took 15 minutes. About 5 minutes in line, then 10 minutes looking at my vote, cherishing my choice. I've been dreaming about that moment for four years.

Just got back from voting. This was my first time and it was surprisingly anticlimatic. Oh well. Now I get to wait and see what happens :)

I voted early in Texas, was in and out, I like being able to vote early for around 3 weeks before the big day, then I don't have to worry about it anymore.

I just came back from voting, kind of long. It took me like 20 minutes.

Now with more provisional voting goodness!

Thanks to Tophat, who in telling me to march back down there got me the idea to just call the people at the county boe myself and ask about it, rather than take the confused word of the election workers at 10 this morning.

Turns out they were expecting me back. It seems four other people through today have had what happened to me happen to them and during these messes they figured out that they were after all supposed to allow provisional balloting. So I after I walk in and briefly explain my phone conversation to the boe officials and they realize i'm the same one from earlier, they pull me aside again and tell me about the provisional ballot. First off I got one of the massive voter cards where you vote by using a thick felt pen and connecting the middle of a broken arrow to vote. I fill that out at a table and then she brings over the provisional voting envelope. At the top it is basically a repeat of a voter registration card, which I awkwardly fill out with the same thick felt tip pen (3s are a bitch to write with that thing, by the way).

Then I fill out the bottom of the envelope, which has several different things to check off and fill in. They are best described as the reasons you think you should be allowed to cast a provisional. There are some about being registered in a different district, moving recently, errors in registration, and whatnot. I fill out a couple of them that are closest to my reasons before, something along the lines of them having no record of registration though you've lived here for however long. Of course this is all in painful legal speak so the election volunteer is trying to read along with me and between the two of us figure out what they are saying. Then another place to sign and date it. Turns out the back of this is the envelope part, and the top 'voter registration-esque' part is the flap that covers and seals it. Only problem is the ballots are massive and the envelope is, well, not so massive. So I have to tri-fold this very heavy paper, damn near cardboard, myself while being witnessed, and try to fit it in the envelope. Of course it doesn't qute fit correctly, but none of them ever do, I'm told. I peel the backing off the sticky part, which won't work for most of it since it will be just stuck to the back of the ballot, and fold the registration-type part over the top and try to seal it down. It doesn't seal, but close enough they say.

I then take it over and they put it into something looking like an oversized banking money bag, and say they will hand deliver them to the board of elections central office tonight. All the prov voting will be counted by hand in the next couple of days, pending individual approval by the board that they feel it is legitimate and should be counted. They also handed me a sheet of paper saying that as of the 10th of the month, I will be able to go online to the website they have listed, and use my full name, date of birth, and a PIN printed on a sticker placed on the sheet, and find out if they counted my ballot or not, and why not if that is the case.

So now I do have my "I voted" sticker, and turned down an offer for multiple ones for the hoops i had to jump through and returning again after several hours, and I have kinda voted. In 8 days I will know for sure if I voted or not in this election via that website.

I'm still a little upset, remenants from me feelings before and the fact that its not 100% that they'll take my vote, but I've calmed down a lot considering. You learn a lot of lessons this way, most important about trusting something as important as voter registration to other students in a student organization without ever checking up on it yourself afterwards. Also writing it all out gave me something to do with the situation and in between all the time i spent today trying to figure everything out, and skipping 2 classes in the process. Also saved me the trouble of trying to type all that out umpteen times to different people.

Oh and by the way, they say that I will definately be registered for the next elections now.

Yeah, I've heard that before, think I'll doublecheck that one this time.

I voted! Was almost afraid I would not be able to, I changed my address this year, and never received my registration card. Went to the polling place across the street, and they did not have my information, called county voter registration, and they misplaced numbers in my address, so I had to drive ten blocks to vote at a different precinct.

Was easy! No line, walked in, showed ID, voted, and walked out. While there one of the volunteers said that half of the registered voters had already voted at that precinct (that was at 1:00 in the afternoon).

good work Gustoferson!!!

i voted two hours ago, first time ever! no line!

Damn, Gustoferson, sounds like you went through the ringer. Good luck with that, let us know if your vote "counted" or not.

I voted at 8:30 am, there were some long lines for the L-Z last names, but only 2 people in my line. I was in and out in 15 minutes....just like having sex, except without the sweaty, euphoric feeling.

I just voted... for some unknown reason my absentee ballot wasnt mailed until last tuesday...I was calling the election office every day trying to find where my ballot was...

so I got it today... no way i would be able to mail it to them in time... so i called em up and had to fax it to them... ended up taking a few hours of my time... and almost $9 (damn school charges a lot to send/recieve faxes) and because i was faxing it in i had to give up the annonymity(sp) of my voting decisions...

lame... but hey i still voted... better then i can say for some of my lazy bum friends...

i early voted last thursday.

I've heard there was some problem with absentee ballots overseas but not here.

Voted for the rich white guy that went to Yale

kudos to Gustoferson(and others like him) for jumping through all those hoops to get their vote!

Took about 15 minutes wait in line at 8:30 this morning. I tried to time it after the morning "before you go to work" rush and was successful. No problems, etc.

Just voted for the first time in my life! I wasn't a citizen at the time of the last Presidential election, so I couldn't vote. As far as the voting itself, very smooth. No lines, electronic voting. Yey!

Voted a few hours ago. No line at all. Walked right in, and right out.

I voted I will win!!!

voted, no line, but it is snowing in Texas!!! I am afraid hell is about to freeze over...

I just voted. Quick and easy :D

Just got home from the poll, lines we're not bad at all, noticed one younger guy in his 20's asking one of the poll volunteer who he should vote for, WTF? The volunteer's response was, vote for whoever you want. Dumb, but am still glad the guy made an effort to go to the polls.

Waited 1 1/2 hrs to vote last Friday. Worked my polling place today - no line after 11:30.

Took me about 35 minutes. I got there about 7:15 this morning and was out of there just before 8:00. Went smooth for everybody, and I live in a diverse precinct.

I voted 20 minutes before the poll closed. Funny, I heard horror stories at how long the lines were, but there wasn't one other single voter there when I walked in. It was sweet!

Nope, i didnt vote, i didn't vote because i don't want either of them in office, i think our voting system is flawed completely, that's just me though

Dan

First thing this morning. No lines. 10 minutes total.

Sure did- absentee, the lazy way.

I am ded sor e

God Bless the absentee ballots. I am not a fan of lines, and this has always turned me off to voting, but the absentee ballot has continued to save my ass.

" Voting? That's for suckers!" Oh the irony.

I voted, just got back a couple hours ago. Took 2 and a half freaking hours of waiting in line (Arizona, West Wing Club) My dad voted someplace else, in Phx, he waited in line 2 minutes! Arg my feat. Def doing absentee next time. Oh and I didn't even get to use a booth (more of a line) I had to use a table. Sigh.

i made the biggest mistake of telling my sis who i voted for. now my family hates me...well i don't think they really hate me, but they have been very cold towards me for the past few hours...:(

Voted by absentee ballot today.

I voted for the first time today, and I'm wearing my sticker with pride. :)

I am one of America's disenfranchised voters. Possibly because I am republican?

don't understand why more people aren't doing the absentee voting. So much easier, and you don't have to fight any traffic.

Awesome Gustoferson, I was hoping to get some good stories like that. Interesting that for all the talk about record interest, turnout looks to be around 54%, higher but not much higher then recent years. Suppose if it was much higher we all might have had more difficulty voting.

I respect your decision not to vote, but you do realize that there's other stuff on the ballot besides voting for the President?

3 hour wait in line! Bleargh!

Fortunately the voting center is right next to my house. When I got there, hardly anybody was in line, and within 5 minutes I was out.

And to those who didn't vote because they "don't want to choose the lesser evil", do you realize that by not voting AGAINST, you are in effect unwillingly SUPPORTING the current administration?

I didn't vote "for" Kerry. I voted "against" Bush. It just so happens Kerry == No More Bush, so thats the name on my ballot. It didn't do much good in the long run, but at least I exercised my democratic power as a US citizen, and I'm happy for that.

Voted for Badnarik and Obama. I was one of the few elite thousands to vote for that combination.