Your Voting Experience 2010

Went in. Voted. Declined a sticker. Picked up a slice of pizza on the way home.

There was...No, line. It was...6 AM though, so that could have affected turnout. I voted, and It is a good feeling to be part of the process of...Taking Away some of the power of the Democratic Party Super Majority. I hope that...Republicans, and more importantly, Conservatives, take over the, House today, and the Senate, and...The Presidancy in,2012! I got a, Sticker too, with the...American Flag, making up the bulk of the sticker, which is of course...Awesome!

My address change didn't go through yet, which I expected/feared, but they just gave me a voter affidavit to fill out with the ballot, which was way less of a hassle than I expected. So that was nice. Well, assuming my vote gets counted, anyway.

Call me cynical, but I have very little faith in a sticker's ability to motivate people to participate in voting. It comes across more as self-congratulatory to me, and I don't think I deserve congratulations for doing what I'm supposed to do. Just my opinion, of course.

I see the sticker not as "Hey, go vote," but more as, "I voted, you going to?" More guilt than motivation.

I did early voting on Friday and it was crazy busy. Almost as busy as the early voting for the 2008 election. The only snag we hit was while there were plenty of people registering voters and handing out ballots, and plenty of booths in which to vote, there were only two scanners to feed ballots into, which led to a long winding line of people who were done voting snaking through the line of people waiting to vote. They were unloading two more scanners as we were leaving though.

Pulled in, got checked in and voted and left all within about ten minutes. Pain free and efficient. The little old ladies handling things didn't take any shit. They told you what line to be in, what spot to sign, what spot to initial, don't fold th ballot, etc.

Then they gave you a sticker and a little pack of twizzlers. THAT's how you do an election.

Went in, stood in line for about 20 minutes or so. They never asked for my ID...just my name. Didnt have any problems at all. I was the 324th person to vote in my polling place.

I have not yet voted today. I'll vote when I get off work (30 mins). Usually I vote before work. That has been my voting habit since I first registered to vote in the 2004 election. The LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS hands out stickers that read "I voted today!" and I wear mine like a badge of honor

Today I just couldn't bring myself to get up early though

I don't think it should cause any problems. There are rarely lines for voting, I just walk in, give my name to some elderly volunteers, fill out my sheet, and insert it into a machine that sucks it up (and presumably counts it as well)

Got there 20 minutes after they opened up at 7 am local time. Took about 15 minutes to get through the ballot (god I hate the "connect the arrows ballot) and then I headed to work. It was clear I was one of the first one's to vote. But ht eparking lot was starting to fill up as I was leaving.

So...you're saying I shouldnt have clicked the "I Voted" button on my Facebook page?

Anyhoo, just voted an hour ago. A bit disorganized, but hey, it's Chicago.

No sticker for me either as I would have forgotten it was in my pocket when I dropped my shit off at the dry cleaner, causing the nice woman to yell at me again for not emptying my pockets. And for using my debit card instead of bringing cash.

Does anyone feel that it's ridiculous that the state of MA does not require you to show an ID when you go vote?

Good luck getting traction on that idea on this board.

No. It's designed to protect the rights of poor and minorities. They check you off a list. If I voted and another "me" showed up, they would not get a sheet. Poor people and minorities often don't have photo ID. You ID yourself with your street address. If there was fraud with that system, it would be clear and obvious and could be corrected

ID requirements are not pushed for to stop multiple voting. And exactly how hard is it to get an identification card once every four, six or ten years compared to voting every two?

Listen to Tzu. Last time I posted about the merits of Canada's voting identification process I was immediately called a racist.

Just voted out some eeeevil DEMONcrats to send a message to that socialest baCRACK OBONGO that this is ARE CUNNTRY.

If you can show me how many actual voter fraud convictions there are in this country (as opposed to voter intimidation / vote caging), I might agree with you. As it is, I think it's a way to intimidate poor or minority voters (i.e. Democrats).

My voting experience was as it always is. I vote at a rural community center. I went at 7:45am and it took me about five minutes. We've never had to show ID here. I know a lot of people in my community and they know me and my neighbors.

You know you people only vote once, right? So you assume that a whole shitload of people are going to look up people who are known to be registered for the opposite party as themselves, somehow find their address so they can also find their correct voting area (every couple of blocks has a different one, by the way), verify that address and then vote for the opposite candidate? That's one fucking insane conspiracy theory.

Voted at 2:30. Was the 303rd person to vote, though to be fair my scantron machine line was so long that people in my district went to other district's machines. Which I don't think matters because the ballots say what district you are in and the machines should record that.

NYC switched to scantrom machines this year and it is a miserable experience. I hated it in the primaries, and I hate it now. The paper ballots are unbelievably confusing, even for a college educated person, and the type is ridiculously small. Had I not known about the two referenda questions, I would not have seen them on the ballot because you have to flip it over (something the poll workers did not alert me to do). Then, after feeding the paper into the scantron machine, you just have to hope that it recorded. The visceral experience of actually going into a booth, pulling levers, and hearing the sound of your vote being cast is severely lacking.

No, in fact I think it is outrageous that any state does. Your signature is your ID. That's it. We don't need anymore rules that bar people from exercising one of their most basic human rights.

I beat the after-work crowd, and was in and out pretty quickly.

Normally I like to think that I'm a pretty well informed cat, but somehow I've managed to operate all this time under the mistaken belief that the Senate vote is broken up across the state like the seats in the House of Representatives. I voted the last time Lieberman ran for reelection, so I assumed that the McMahon vs Blumenthal race for Dodd's seat was for the other half of the state. I feel like a doofus for assuming that now.

It's what I get for half a lifetime of writing in votes for third party candidates from out of state, I reckon.

No line, no hassles.

Only funny thing was the one election volunteer worker yelling "WHOSE DOG IS THIS?!?!?" When a dog walked in (maybe to vote?).

This was at the local library, very comfortable.

I don't mind showing ID, but my wife went and she had to turn back and try again because she didn't have her license (what happens when your kids mess around with your wallet). So that was a bit annoying.

I also miss the electronic machines ... :-(

I voted. It went well. I am wearing the sticker I got.

Though I was seriously considering sitting this one out, I went in around noon and voted. Judging from the dearth of people in my polling place (which I imagine is in a largely left-leaning district), the Democrats are indeed going to get trounced and these teabag fuckwits are never going to go away.

Princess Kate, Everyone should be, Required to show, ID, as only...Legal Citizens of the US, should be allowed to vote. Otherwise there would be alot of fraud. An ID, can be a driver's license, and alot of people have those. A birth certificate, is also good, and that...Everyone should have.

Bradito, Teabag F_ _ _ wits? That is, Low Class. We are...Tea Partiers, and are from all races, and creeds. I do commend you on being right that we will never go away.

I live in Oregon so I vote by mail. However I like going to one of the handy drop boxes around town and putting my ballot in there. Alas, no sticker.

1 black person for every 1,000 crazy white people does not entitle you to say "all races and creeds."

Paul755, Sorry, I can say that, and in fact I just did. You are entitled to your own...opinion, just as I am entitled to mine.

Well I had to drive to my old district to vote, but once there everything went smoothly and I filled out a change of address card for THE THIRD GODDAMN TIME. I guess the state of Georgia has something against me because my wife has only filled out one once and, according to Georgia's website, she's registered in our current district and I'm registered in the one I moved out of two years ago.

My poll workers were old as shit and delightful as hell and I gave them my information so they could contact me to help them out next election.

The polling place was pretty empty (no line) at about 3:30 p.m. Comparably, when I voted early in 2008 I waited in line for half and hour and saw about two dozen people being turned away for not being officially registered according to the paperwork. (I don't know whether they were registered or not, but they gave me the same line and I had to go to my old precinct to vote).

There were referendums on the ballot? Awesome, guess I didn't chime in on those. :/

Walked to my polling place in a rental storage facility and was out in less than ten minutes. Smells like . . . DEMOCRACY!

All "races and creeds" in the Tea Party? Show me one Muslim in the Tea Party.

Pop Zeus, The Tea Party is open to...Everyone. Not one person of race or creed is excluded. People that are against the...Progressive European Socialist agenda, should join and support others that feel the, US Constitution is, anathema to the current President and his administration. I join anyone, who agrees the best thing for the US, is for, President Obama to be, a...One Term President.

That doesn't answer my question but who cares!

Every time I voted today, it went fine! Thank you ACORN and the New Black Panther Party!

(Note to the Feds and paranoid Right-wingers: that is a joke.)

Yes, seriously. There were three lines for different street addresses. I looked around, saw the one that was staffed by my moms neighbor, walked up said hello and got my sheet

The only people who think some kind of ID check should be made are those who don't realize poor people and minorities often don't have ID or are nervous about showing it to government officials. --- well, those who don't understand that, and those who desire to supress the vote

Very smooth at the Cambridge City Hall. No sticker, though. Kinda bummed about that.

Mr Fleed.. With all due respect, what sort of self respecting person of color would want to join a group that desires to overturn every last bit of social progress not explicitly mentioned by name in the constitution? What sort of black person dresses up in a tri-corner cap at a rally to organize the country around the original intent of the constitution... which of course included keeping black people in slavery and counting them as three fifths a person?

Homeless people don't have those, but if they are citizens they are eligible to vote. And I've spent years making sure they are allowed to in NYC.

Yeah, one for limiting term limits (which ironically Bloomberg is for) and the other was a hodgepodge of administrative initiatives (some good, some bad) that cause you to struggle whether to vote Yes and get the good parts passed or vote No and lose out on much needed transparency in NYC politics.

An ID card means info on an ID card, which means a smorgasbord of ways to say, "This ID is invalid, you can't vote." Whether anything is actually invalid or not.

For example, for some reason, my apartment number was left off my driver's license. Had I needed to show that to vote, they could have said, "Sorry, addresses don't match."

Once again, voted underneath a huge, looming crucifix. A healthy queue, but I'm sure my roommate and myself were the only ones voting Democrat. Sticker is on my monitor as we speak.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why it's such a big deal for people to have ID's. You have to verify your name and address. How exactly would someone or a group of people commit extreme voter fraud without an ID? The only thing I could think of is if I know someone (like a friend or a family) personally who is registered and know exactly where they live and manage to beat them out early enough to take their vote instead. In that instance, yes, it's possible, and yes, it is voter fraud. But it's a single vote...and it's also an extreme dick move. I don't think anyone is doing it to their friends and family. So what, are people going around random neighborhoods looking for political lawn signs they don't like, write down the address, looking up the poling station and then beating the lines to steal people votes in mass? Again, insane. Insane.

At that point it's easier to just get a fucking Fake ID.

So who wants to take bets that fleed doesn't know what's in the Constitution or doesn't know the meaning of the word "anathema"? Or both?

Hehe. It's actually a very nice place, a community center that doubles as a church on weekends. It's full of nothing but white conservative southern Christians, but it's staffed by some really really nice people, and they do some terrific work in Hall county. I have to tip my hat to the teabagging bastards.

HAAAAAhahahahahahaha! Hehehe. Hoo.

Yeah. Right.

A Muslim showing up at a Tea Party rally and actually identifying himself as such would be about akin to a black man walking into the midst of a KKK rally, leaning on the cross they're about to burn, lighting up a cigarette and saying, "Hey guys, what's up?"

Unless of course he was willing to convert to Evangelical Christianity on the spot, and spend the rest of his life speaking against his former religion at every possible opportunity.

Do not. Fucking. Engage. Fleed.

So did I (and it always irritates me). I imagine a sad Jesus looking over my shoulder as I vote, shaking his head. Then I smile.