Not WHO you will be voting for, but HOW... ?
 

How will you be casting your votes, come this November?

My wife and I plan to go stand in line together, just like we did four years ago. That way, we can hold each other's place, if one of us needs to go to the bathroom or whatever. Last time, we had to stand in line for about an hour and a half; this time, we expect it to just as bad, if not worse. (State-level government services are really underfunded and understaffed, nowadays.)

I plan to bring my iPod, loaded with music and with podcasts (albeit totally non-political ones – I've had enough of that, thank you). My wife will probably bring our daughter's Nintendo DS. Sure, we could spend the time talking to each other, but last time we found it uncomfortable having conversations while standing in a long line with switchbacks, so that we not only have people closely in front and behind us, but also to closely to our left and right.

wow it takes that long to vote that you need to worry about lines? It takes 10 minutes out here at most. Usually I can get through in under 5....

I'm going to early vote this year.

We vote by mail. My ballot will come about 14 days before the election, I will fill out a little Scantron sheet, enclose it in a secrecy envelope, sign the outer envelope, and then I will mail it back or coordinate with my SO and roommates to collect all of our ballots and go turn them in to a drop box. I don't have to leave the comfort of my own home, and I get my vote in well ahead of election day. Plus, because of the Scantron, there is a paper record of my vote, but it's also electronically processed (creating an electronic record).

Easy peasy. By the way, I've never voted at a real polling place; we've been doing vote-by-mail since the late 90s, before I was of voting age.

I've almost always voted early or absentee, and will this time. I filled out the app last Monday and faxed it to my registrar.

winner winner chicken dinner.

it takes maybe 5 mintues to vote. the precinct is in the lobby of my building. very convenient....

I like pulling the lever and the little slides... it's fun!

i think that i am to go to the tiny town fire station/police station/public bathroom space and find myself amongst the absurd sociability of a small new england town when something out of the Ordinary is happening. the fire station is not terribly far from the Large Wooden Clam Replica and the claws of the 15' plywood lobster point toward it: thattaway--->

while i am standing in line, i will be visible to those passing overhead in aircraft because of the immense hat that i shall wear.

the ballots are paper here i think.


later, i will go to the beach and lay in the sand in roughly a crucifix position so that passengers from other aircraft have a reason to look out their window and say "jesus."

Yes, it really took that long, back in 2004.

So, it isn't like this everywhere? :orly:

Time for me to raise some hell... ! :grumpy:

The few elections I've voted in the polling place, I've had to arrive in the dark just to wait an hour. In Northern Virginia, fuggedaboutit. If you aren't there before the doors open, 4 to 5 hours will be your lot.

My polling place is the church across the street. The lines are rarely long (well... it was in-and-out at the mid-terms, anyway). I'll probably have my iPod in my pocket.

But to the real question: HOW will I vote? I'm proud to say, at my precinct I will be voting on an electronic touch-screen voting station with a voter-verified paper trail. Best of all possible worlds, IMO.

I'll be voting a a precinct with a 3 year old in tow. Seriously, can we bag the "voting on Tuesday" thing and have Saturday elections?

At a neighborhood precinct, No. 2 pencil, optic ballot reader, and a reciept. Works pretty well.

I have never voted in an actual polling place... have only voted by absentee ballot, from my first election onwards. Seeing as I'm currently in Iceland, I've requested an overseas absentee ballot to be sent to me, which should arrive this week. I'll vote as soon as it arrives and stick it back in the mail... should have it all done within a week or two from now. :thumbsup:

I've never had to wait in line more than 5 minutes to vote, on those rare occasions when I didn't have an absentee ballot. This year it's absentee ballot again.

Its been relatively quick for me in recent elections.

I am just thankful that I have more rights than the citizens of Washington DC when I was born who could not vote for president.

Absentee here. I love voting my mail instead of standing in line. My ballot showed up just yesterday and I'll fill it out this week.

I'll be honest. I'm mostly opening it to vote against Prop 8. Everything else kind of makes me sad. Ah well.

My ballot showed up Fed-Ex and I dropped it off at the consulate in Merida.

Wow! Our federal election is on Tuesday and I don't think it has ever taken more than 5 minutes to vote - often we just walk straight in.

What? Canada has elections? Who knew? Next you're going to tell me the place has it own money and economy.

My county changed its polling place location so now I can go to anywhere in town. I will be waiting in line for about 20 minutes, fill out the paper form and put it in the optic reader. I voted one year by mail in ballot and I didn't feel like it counted. My SO does voting by mail. He likes it.

I love walking into the little booth on Election Day; I'd probably vote absentee or by mail if it was the only means necessary. The longest I've ever had to wait to vote was about an hour - the Democratic primaries in 2004 had a huge line but I was willing to wait.

What ratbastid said.

I may go in my Supergirl jammies.

I'm amazed that you guys don't have a standardised way to vote.

In Oz, walk into ANY polling booth anywhere in the country to vote on the day, get name ticked off role, get handed a piece of paper (or two) and get pointed to a booth with a pencil tied to it, number the candidate boxes, put paper in box on the way out.

The closest polling booth to home is in the local primary school (all of 5 minutes walk from home). There are queues, but usually all done within 15-20 minutes.

And we ALWAYS vote on Saturdays, so the go early mantra does not apply as early is usually just as busy as any other time.

You can postal vote if you aren't going to be near a polling station on the day, but I've never done it.

I'll be voting on Wednesday at the town clerk's office in city hall. I do like the social space of the polls, talking to your neighbours, etc. but i have stuff to do on Election Day.

I took my kids to the polls last time. My son got a kick out of it.

I already voted this morning with early voting. Normally I vote on election day, but this year I will be way too busy with GOTV efforts.

spindles: We have a standardized way of voting, it's just by state, not country-wide. The presidential election is the only national election we have, and it is technically 51 elections in the 50 united states, plus the District of Columbia. Election Day is always the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, but more and more states are giving the option of early voting, not to mention absentee ballots, to make it easier.

I've voted in the city of Chicago as well as in the suburbs of Chicago, and I've never had to wait in line more than maybe 15 minutes to vote. Then again, I haven't voted during the time everyone is getting off of work, so I suspect that's when a lot of people have to wait in line. This year will likely be even worse, because record turnout is expected.

We have a standard way of voting too - somehow our (albeit only 7ish) states got together and decided to do all elections the same way - whodathunkit? ;) So whether we are voting for the local council / state government or federal government, the format used is identical.

I'll be voting from the rooftops this election :thumbsup:

Nah, it's only about a 5 min line where I vote at the busiest time of day.

It's not that we can't standardize it more - while I'm against abolishing the electoral college, we could certainly amend the constitution to create certain standards for federal elections, such as requiring all states to use a voting method which complies with the condorcet criterion.

The lack of standardization just comes from the way our country was set up. Remember, it was not too long ago that we were still fighting over whether we should be a confederacy or a federal government. There is a lot of respect for the role of the state built into our federal system - despite the fact our government, and people, often ignore it.

Most importantly, it's really not a big deal. I think requiring a condorcet method in federal elections is important to ensure the most accurate vote possible, but beyond that I don't think it really matters if Oregon wants to have mail-in ballots while Illinois starts early voting 3 weeks before election day. So long as every state is being fair and accurate, how they choose their electors for president is up to them.

I'll be bringing my 6 year old son, and voting with the new optical scan machines. Emotionally, I miss the old lever pull machines, but I'm sure these are more accurate and recountable.
Before I brought my son, I always went in with headphones on. This helps prevent the people outside the polling place from trying to convince me to change my vote. Sometimes I don't plug the headphones in, I just have them on my ears for self-defense.