I vote in a low-density precinct that has maybe one very shy Republican in it, so I parked my bike, voted and left within fifteen minutes. It won’t be that way for everybody. For those of you who have to deal with heinous weather, long lines, malfunctioning machines and novice poll workers, stay strong.
How was it in your neighborhood?
Funkhauser
Two hour wait to vote early on Sunday at the place where the controversy began, City Hall, San Francisco.
Can we someday get rid of the SoliedPantsMedia logo and bar? I like to spend my day without looking at those clowns.
Sojourner
Very disappointing. I put on my long-wait uniform, brought a book and soda, and was ready to celebrate the moment. Instead, I walked in the door and was immediately escorted to a machine. I live in a very Dem precinct and most of my neighbors already voted.
It would have been nice to share the moment with others but my boss was happy when I showed up to work almost on time.
David Hunt
I voted over a week ago. It was painless and efficient as has usually been the case for me.
Oops. I should note that I don’t usually indulge in early voting. I have simply had the good luck to live in a precinct that things tend to go well in. Lines of 10-15 minutes, no problems with snafus at the polls (in my sight at least), etc. I just decided that I didn’t want to try to sneak in the time at work to get to the polls when I was expecting a big turnout.
dwetzel
Much busier than usual. I’m in a rural-ish part of central PA.
I have the day off so I thought I’d let it calm down a bit and go at 9:30. I couldn’t believe it; there was a line. Still, it only took me about an hour.
Joe
I’m in a large precinct in Chester County, PA (762 West Whiteland 4, according to my vote stub). There was 75 people on line by 6:30am. I voted without a problem within 20 minutes of the polls opening, and was amazed to see a line far longer than I remember for the primaries (also hotly contested, at least for democrats in PA). A good mix of all sorts of ethnicities from a district thats primarily white suburban, which was also nice to see. Hoping its still going that smoothly for the rest of the day.
Gus
A relatively long line, extending for about half a block. Thank god that it was an unseasonably beautiful early November day (which I took as a good omen). There was snow on the ground the last time I voted for pres. Took about an hour to get to the front of the line. Voted for the black guy. I also got to cast another ballot for the Muslim congressman. Yay!
Butch
We took advantage of early voting a week ago, partly because Colorado’s ballot this time is the length of a book. Even here in this Red and sometimes apathetic area of rural Colorado and even voting early, we had to stand in line. It was good to see.
Keith
I showed up at my precinct (mean age is probably 55…heavily McCain). There were two other people showing their IDs, but the line was broken up into A-D…O-R…W-Z, so there really wasn’t a line to speak of. Walked up, showed my ID, was handed a slip. Took 1 minute. Walked to machines, got a receipt, started voting. Took another 30 seconds. Voting was 2 minutes (party line except for one race where no Dem was running), and I was out.
So basically, I was out of my vehicle for under 5 minutes.
Comrade Stuck
The walk to my mailbox was delightful. The only way to vote, I say.
mgordon
My polling place in NW Missouri. is usually full of elderly voters. I voted there in 2004, 2006, and in the primaries this year. Not once did I see a black person.
I saw around10 there today in the few minutes it took me to vote. Also, plenty of Obama volunteers while the only presence of McCain/Wingnut was an obnoxious amount of yard signs.
It does worry me that I didn’t see many people under 25.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Sojourner:
I prepared for a long line, too. Brought a book and the morning paper but there was virtually no wait for my precinct. The other precinct at my location, though, had a line the length of the hallway. We had nice paper ballots and a machine to stick them in.
Weatherwise, it’s a beautiful day here in mid-Michigan. Not cold or hot, slight breeze, sunny.
Andrew
I’m in Arlington, VA and since they have a large number of polling stations, I’ve never had too long a line. Girlfriend and I got to ours (across the street…) at open and had ~50 people in front of us for a 45 minute wait. 4 working machines and the option to use a paper ballot (which I did). When I left for work, no line at all to see.
I’m originally from South Hills outside of Pittsburgh (Peter’s Twp) and my Dad said there was no line at all ("I was the line"). That’s a good thing, since Peter’s is predominantly republican…
My boss did early voting in Arlington, and was in line for 4 hours, so maybe that alleviated some congestion from today. We’ll see how the line looks when I get home.
Va Highlander
I voted about 9:30am in a rural part of Virginia. There was one person ahead of me in line and one at each of the three voting machines when I arrived. The polls opened here at 6:00am and I was told I was the 240th registered voter out of 1188 for this precinct. Early turnout was apparently quite heavy.
No problems, no hassles. Feeling pretty good, right now.
g-rant
Downtown Santa Cruz, CA – waited maybe 5min. Much better than my experience in Columbus OH in 2004 – 2.5 hrs
Evolved Deep Southerner
Looooooooong time lurker, first time poster. Had promised myself I would not until election day.
Georgia, here, northeast corner of the state. Incredible response to early voting, some 30% of the total local electorate. And we ain’t "early adopters" of anything here, believe me.
The election supervisor (who is always pretty spot-on in her predictions) says it should surpass 80% overall turnout here. Wow.
Of course, my county will see McCain take Obama three to one. But we’re a small county. In the metro areas of Georgia, such as they are? Pony country. I predict a Reverse Bradley Effect of significant proportions.
I’m not saying Georgia will turn blue tonight, but if it takes a long time to call it, McCain will have a long night.
Eric S
Little to report from the shadows of Wrigley Field was a line. I arrived 20 minutes after the polls opened and the line was about a block long. There are 4 precincts voting at the one park district office. 40 minutes after arriving we I was inside and the line was split into 4 for each precinct. Over all it took a about 1 hour 15 minutes. When I left the line was a little shorter. I get the impression there was a big line when the polls opened and they were slowly getting caught up.
It was my first time voting at this precinct so I don’t know how it compares to other years. I’m sure like everywhere else it is a higher than normal turn out.
Where we voted there are paper ballots marked with a felt tip pen and then scanned. The only problem I could see developing was that voters were pretty much passing pens to each other. As one finished the pen was handed to the next in line. In the past those pens have run dry. If they don’t get resupplied I can foresee problems later in the day.
Tom
I’m in Chicago. 4 years ago I showed up at 6am and there were maybe 10 other people there. This year, I showed up at 5:30am and the line was already around the block.
Hopefully this pattern is repeated around the country.
Mike
There were 10 people in front of me when I arrived at about 6:30 this morning. 15 behind me when I finished voting about 6:45. My district is in suburban Rochester NY.
When my wife voted at 10:30, she was #235. The ED only has about 400 registered voters. It will be a VERY heavy turnout here. 80-90% I’d say.
Graeme
You know, I was just blogging about the fact it’s so funny to read Right-wing blogs that wax rhapsodic about the purple fingers on the Iraqis, all while trying to undermine confidence in this election by repeating every scurrilous vote fraud rumor they can.
Patriots, my ass!
Comrade Kevin
My precinct in California was all vote-by-mail, so I dropped mine into a mailbox last week.
Perry Como
15 minutes for me. I’ve never seen so many baggy pants and doo rags in a polling place before.
Ian
On a normal year (here in Brooklyn) I wait ten to fifteen minutes. This year the line went down the block, turned and went down the avenue. Two and a half hour wait, but everyone was happy and cool. And there were no problems with the voting – the turnout was just enormous.
South of I-10
I just voted and it felt really, really good. Beautiful day here South of I-10. The poll workers said the turn out is extremely heavy, and my precinct normally turns out. One lady who has been a poll worker for years said she hasn’t seen the turnout this heavy since 1991 governor’s race: Edwin Edwards v. David Duke.
My husband, who is normally pretty apolitical, called to tell me he had never felt more empowered voting than he did today. I am proud of him.
Jeff
Waited about 40 minutes in San Diego suburbs starting 15 minutes after the polls opened. A little longer than usual. I also saw about half-a-dozen high school/college age kids waiting in line which is 6 more than I usually see.
j.e.b.
A lot like yours…except that we walked the block-and-a-half to the polls. (There are things I love about small towns.)
7:10 am, no line, my wife and I were voters #7 and #8 for the day.
Gus
They’re expecting (or hoping for) an 80% turnout in MN. Since the turnout in 2004 was 77%+, I think that’s a realistic goal.
Cyrus
@Andrew:
I was probably in the same line as your boss. Yeah, 3.5 hours or more. Oh well.
ccham44
No complaints here.
Arrived at the polls (on the West Side of Manhattan) at 6:05 this morning, and waited about 45 minutes. When I left the line had doubled.
Planning to go back after work to see how things look.
Justin
I actually got to vote in my apartment building in Chicago. Got in line at about 6:45am, and it took about an hour to vote. But that was partially because the poll workers were moving kinda slow. Anyway, good experience all around, and I got to flirt with some of the cuties in my building.
I voted Obama, and then Libertarian and Republican for House and Senate. I promised those guys if they passed the bailout bill I was voting for someone else, and I kept my promise.
Roger Moore
I got to my polling place in Pasadena (CA) just at opening time, and the wait was about 45 minutes. When I got out, the line was just as long as it had been when I got there.
Non-absentee early voting here is a complete joke. There’s exactly one early voting location in Los Angeles County. That’s one location for a population of over 10 million. Why even bother?
Kevin
Loooong lines at my polling place in South Carolina. Wait was like 3 hours this morning, now it’s at about 2 hours. I had my kids with me, which allowed me to cut to the front of the line (parents w young children, the elderly and the injured were allowed to cut). I’m trying to decide how guilty I should feel about it.
BTW- I’m hoping with the strong turnout that maybe South Carolina won’t be as ridiculously red as it usually is.
Charity
Central NJ. Showed up at 5:45 a.m., and there were already 25-30 people in line ahead of us. While we waited, a good 50 more joined the line behind us! That’s more people than I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been voting at this polling place TOTAL.
John T
I live in Oregon where it’s vote-by-mail, but I’m a procrastinator so I didn’t mark up my ballot until last night. This morning on my drive to work I swung by the neighborhood Obama campaign HQ down the street from my house. I handed off my ballot to an earnest looking white-haired lady and said "thanks so much!" I didn’t even have to park or use a postage stamp.
About 10 seconds after I pulled away from the curb I was blindsided by emotion and I must admit I got a little verklempt right there in the car, I almost had to stop driving. Wasn’t expecting that.
TCG
FoxNews is reporting that Black Panthers are prowling the philly suburbs and scaring people away from the polls.
LarryB
My wife and I voted at a branch library Berkeley, CA. There were about 30 people waiting for the poll to open when we got there. This is a large crowd for my precinct. In addition to the usual suspects (a mix of white, asian, and "other" folks in the faux scruffy Berkeley mold) there were quite a few new (black) faces: Young people and mothers with children in tow.
The county registrar is clearly expecting a large turnout: There were six (six!) people working the poll. This is twice the legal minimum and more than I’ve ever seen at my polling place.
Another factoid. Most elections, I’m the only one nerdy enough to wear my "I voted" sticker (b.t.w., does everyone get these or just California/Alameda County?). Today I saw more of them walking up to my office in S.F. than I’ve ever seen before. Enthusiasm is clearly high.
PaulW
The polling precinct right outside my house had a long line at 7:30 am. I’d say 25-30 people. I drove by a church on the way to work: 80-90 people, and the line was growing.
And we had early voting the last two weeks where roughly 30 percent of the county had voted.
Egilsson
25 minutes in and out in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. This surprised the heck out of me, because it was a long line. But they were really set up and ready to go. Elections here have always been handled terrific.
I don’t understand why paper ballots with optical scanners aren’t used everywhere. Seems to be a great option here.
People were serious. I didn’t see a lot of banter and chirping in line. There was even an intensity.
There’s no dispute about this area, which will go for Obama by a big margin.
People have been seeing republicans demonize them, and characterize them as unamerican elite, and it ticks them off. Republicans have lost a lot of people for a generation; until recently, this was a republican stronghold.
DUDACKATTACK!!!
A solid two and a half hour wait in my Baltimore district.
Annette
The early voting locations here in north Florida had waits up to five hours at times last week. Today, in a rural area just west of Jacksonville: got to the precinct just after 7 AM, found about 50 people or so in line. Total time in line to voting to scanning my ballot to out the door: 45 minutes. My sister reported from a precinct in west Jacksonville proper that she was in line with about 30 people at 7 AM, and only waited a short time before voting and heading off to school. Overall, not bad at all. Paper ballots only here – no touch screens.
Stimpy
I arrived at my polling place 15 minutes before it opened this morning. There were already well over 300 people in line. Normally I would expect to see 15-20.
My area of St. Louis is a evenly divided mix of middle class and "too-damn-rich-for-their-own-good" voters. Naturally the Obama yard signs dominate the middle class areas and McCain the others.
In 2006 St. Louis and Kansas City pulled out a squeaker for McCaskill, maybe we can do it again for Obama.
I was out in an and a half. My wife voted at 8:00 PM and it only took her 20 minutes or so.
diakron
Lancaster, PA. We have lots and lots of precincts in this city of 55,000 — at least three within three blocks of my house. Naturally, I am not assigned to vote at the one that is by far the closest to my house.
I arrived at about 7:50am and there was no line at all. I was the 81st voter at my location. We normally choose between a scanned paper ballot ("eScan") and a fully electronic machine ("eSlate"), but I was not offered the choice today. Fortunately I was handed a paper ballot, which is the only system I’m willing to use. I was in and out in about five minutes.
The county’s ballot document was printed in both English and Spanish… not a surprise in a city with a large Puerto Rican minority. Two Spanish-speaking voters asked for assistance while I was there, but no poll worker could understand or help them. I think this is inexcusable — if the ballot is printed in two languages, each language should have an equal opportunity to solicit help. (Whether or not it’s appropriate to have bilingual ballots is not the issue.) The situation was being resolved (I hope) as I walked out, with one bilingual woman being deputized to translate after signing a little consent slip. I hope she wasn’t too late for work.
Sinister eyebrow
Voted early in Wake Co., NC, and was #5,000. I had no wait. My friends who voted on Saturday waited about 20 minutes, and there was a line around the block by time they left. Almost half of Wake Co. registered voters had voted before today. Good thing, because the weather sucks. Things are pretty organized here and I’m not hearing about any long waits or problems in my area.
Ash Can
Voted just a little while ago. Bottle Rocket was too sniffly to go to school this morning but happily not too sick to accompany me to the polling place. Even though he seemed thoroughly unimpressed (there were no cartoons on the ballot, so big deal), I made him watch as I filled in the space for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, emphasizing to him that he was watching me help make history. However, as I went through the endless lists of judge retentions, I let him sit on the floor next to my booth and play with his Legos. The election judges let him take a blank demonstration ballot home with him, which is great. The Chicago demonstration ballot has names of prominent figures from Chicago, Illinois, and national history in place of actual candidates’ names, and we’ve been having fun here at home looking up the names we don’t already know and learning more about these people.
Our polling place isn’t usually crowded, at least not during the day when I vote. This morning while I was there, there was a short line and a steady trickle of people coming in — not a crowd, but still busier than for other election days. All the booths were kept occupied, but the wait for them was very short if there was any wait at all.
Morning and evening rush hour are a different story, however. Although there isn’t usually much of a wait in the very early morning when husband M-80 votes (he goes to work earlier than most people), I’ve heard that things tend to get backed up for the later morning rush period. And after work can be a zoo.
cleek
two weeks ago: 15 minutes, in and out. constant line of about 50 people.
we use ’em in NC.
Mayken
My usually extremely quiet polling place (I usually walk right in, vote and back out in under 5 minutes) was (relatively) packed this morning at 8:00. Admittedly I still walked out of there at 8:35 but for my area that’s really something. I warned my husband not to wait till tonight to vote.
Interestingly this is a fairly conservative part of California so I am not quite sure what that portends.
MarkusB
I decided to vote on actual election day, because it’s my first time voting in my new(ish) precinct. I walked down to the church (no more than a mile away). There were only two people just ahead of me, and the only fellow in my line had already been on his way when I stepped on the sidewalk. There were a few people already voting.
As I was filling in teh bubblez, I turned my head, and a long queue of people had formed right behind me.
The weather was good; a little muggy and overcast, but no rain.
My ballot had to go in the "emergency bin", because the machine was jammed. Oddly(?), the ballot-taking machine was also acting up four years ago, when I voted four years ago in the next county over.
It gave me pause, but as Atrios said (and Tim F. has amplified), there’s no point in wearing out the panic button.
chopper
brooklyn was fun. got up at 5.30 to get to the polls as they opened at 6. line down the block and it was a zoo inside.
all in all, took about an hour. then back to bed.
MA Andrew
About an hour wait in Somerville MA. The line wrapped around the parking lot. This is my first presidential election in this precinct, but the poll worker said it had never been so busy. Seemed like a young-ish crowd. All paper ballots where you connect an arrow, then feed the ballot into a scanner.
jake 4 that 1
College Park, MD. They started a little late but from getting in line to out the door took less than an hour.
Edit: Early voting was on the ballot. I hope it passes.
Comrade Tax Analyst
In California, Los Angeles County area…I voted by absentee ballot/mail-in, around Wednesday last week. So it was "zero" hassle. I’ve been doing the "absentee ballot" thing for the last two or three General Elections. I recommend it to anyone who can.
South of I-10
@LarryB: I am wearing my "I Voted" sticker right now!!
Mayken
@Ash Can
My father used to take my brother and I with him to vote when we were old enough to be a bit in awe of the whole process. I still feel that awe when I go into the booth today. Thanks for sharing the vote with your little one!
geg6
Small town precinct in Beaver County, PA. Never a wait to vote since I voted in my first election in 1976. Was once #76 when voting after work, about 6pm. This morning at 7am there were 54 people ahead of me. Took about 45 minutes. I’m freaked it was that packed that early.
mrmobi
I voted last Saturday in west suburban Chicago. My daughter and I showed up at 9 am (opening time) and were out within 20 minutes. First time I voted using the touch-screen system. This one had a hard copy, which was reviewable after you made your selections, then you confirmed them, and you are done. Seemed to work flawlessly, and there is the paper trail. It is a 7 page ballot here in Illinois, so the touch-screen definitely made it quicker. I remain a fan of paper ballots, however.
This area went for Bush in 2000 and very narrowly for Bush in 2004. No idea what will happen this year, but here’s something very anecdotal. The last two election cycles there were lots of Bush signs, and very few signs for Gore or Kerry. I do a lot of running in the area, and, to date, I’ve seen exactly one McCain-Palin sign and no Obama signs.
The lack of Obama signs is certainly understandable, since folks in other parts of Illinois have received death threats in their mailboxes for having them.
Pennypacker
I’m on the suburban/rural coast, south of San Francisco. There were people voting at 8:30am, but no line. Walked right in, walked right out…
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I live in Bumfuck Misery, an all-white (no shit) county of 13K people in the central part of the state that went 75-25 for the Worst. President. Ever. in 04.
My polling place is typically dead, and that includes the 4 poll workers (all elderly women–how they find 2 Dems to sit in there when there are only 14.65 of us in the entire county is beyond me).
This morning, it was "mobbed" in that there were 8 people there to vote at one time.
Now, I’m still guessing that 6 of the 8 were there to vote for McPOW and Governor Gidget.
However, in the next county over, Cole County, things are different. It’s every bit as red as my county but according to a co-worker, this morning, she had to wait to vote. That was the first time in 25 years that happened. She was amazed at the turnout. And our guess is that those folks weren’t there to vote for Repups since there’s been very little enthusiasm for the ticket this time around (particularly when compared to both Bush years, ugh).
Obama’s ground game is clearly making a difference in places that have a semblance of population density. Out where I am, probably not but again, there ain’t a lot of enthusiasm for the Repups this time around so who knows, they might stay home.
JillS
Took my 3 year old son and strolled over to the main club house of our 900 home complex to find two precincts voting there. We waited for one person before us to sign in and about 3 minutes for a booth and then we were done. There were probably 10 or so booths set up. And it was moving quite smoothly.
milo
Double the poll workers compared to a "normal" election.
Double the machines compared to a "normal" election.
No line (Louisiana).
cain
I voted last week, swung by the main library and dropped it into a ballot box and that was that.
It’s been raining continuously for the past 3 days or so. Today, the sun was out, blue skies. A great omen I think. Like the dark days are behind us.
I’ve decided to have a little fun. I decided to make election day ‘Superman’ themed. Which means Obama is now General Zod. Every state that flips for Obama I will say "State kneels before Zod.
It terribly stupid and silly, but I don’t care. I’m doin it.
Word!
cain
Comrade J-ski
@g-rant:
Sadly, things haven’t changed much in four years – 2 1/2 hour wait in the north Columbus suburbs today (OH-12).
Gunga Dean
Here in Rogers Park in Chicago, got in line at 6:30AM and reached booth @ 7:50. Not bad. Lot’s of excitement in the air.
John from Concord
I work from home, so I always aim to vote midmorning — 10:30ish — as experience has shown that that’s the least busy time here (west of Boston). It was busier today than I’ve ever seen it, much more so than in 2004 — but I was still done in 15 minutes. No hassles, no problems, cheerful people all around, optical scanners humming right along as always, local school had a huge bake sale going just outside the polling area, two friendly cops stood by directing people… all was exactly as it should have been.
FNWA
I voted at about 9:30 in Yonkers, NY. I was pleased that an election worker had a PDA that she entered my name into so she could tell me what ward I am in. (Our polling place is for four wards, each ward having its own machine.) There was no line, but my wife managed to create one as she was unaware of the three ballot initiatives and had to read them all before casting her vote.
Mornington Crescent
I just finished voting at my precinct on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. It’s a pretty small precinct, and the longest wait I’ve ever had was when there were 4 people ahead of me.
I voted after the rush, after 9am. There were 35 people in line ahead of me.
Brian
I walked out of my apartment this morning, and it might as well have been the set to a modern day Rogers & Hammerstein musical: the entire neighborhood (predominantly Mexican and Puerto Rican families) was out, smiling and waving to each other, buying café y donas at the panaderia, reading the paper on the bus stop. Of course, this is not a typical scene in my neighborhood, where my street is actually the dividing line between two gangs’ turfs. However, despite the common stress and unease of the neighborhood, the line into our polling place was energized. People chatting in many different languages, all with smiles on their faces, seemed anxious to cast their vote for the future. It was slightly bizarre, but then again… it’s flipping 70degrees here in Chicago!
Comrade eyepaddle
I had to register this morning (I keep moving about every two years) but Minnesota allows for this and is pretty well prepared for it. So, at any rate, I registered, got my ballot just as a booth opened up, and then voted. It was all over in about ten minutes.
For that brief window, I can say that there was no line to speak of, but every polling booth was occupied, so turnout looks to be about usual–which is very high.
Good times.
HRA
My husband I were #142 and #143 in suburban WNY outside of Buffalo, NY in what once was and may still be heavily Republican. There are 3 precincts in our voting place located across a major highway from our street in a small church school gymnasium. There were 3 people in line in front of us and 8 behind us. It took us 20 minutes. What I did notice as we left was the extraordinary amount of cars pulling up in the parking lot and parking. At 10 am that is unusual. There were no campaign signs at all and there are none in our neighborhood either.
I did buy a homemade apple pie and a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie from the ladies of the Rosary Society on the way out. Yummm!
I felt that good feeling and came close to tearing, too.
Ash Can
@Mayken: Bottle Rocket did admit afterward that he thought accompanying me was a good experience overall. He thought it was even cooler afterward when I showed him a little video posted at Daily Kos of Barack and Michelle Obama voting this morning (accompanied by ther daughters), because they were using big paper ballots and voting stands just like the ones he’d seen me use just a short time prior. Of course, what he thinks is coolest of all is that there’s an excellent chance that Chicago grade-school kids just like him will be living in the White House next year. :D
OriGuy
No line at 8:20 in a precinct in east San Jose, CA. California polls open at 7am, so the rush had passed. They said they’d get another at 5:00, until they close at 8.
It’s a very diverse precinct, mostly Hispanic and Asian. Election signs were in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Filipino.
No machines; four long optical scan sheets. Twelve state propositions and five local ones.
louisms
Voted 11am today at my polling place in the heavily Repub west side of Cincinnati Ohio. No line, no waiting-in and out in 2 minutes. Paper ballots, optical scanners. Most of my friends waited in line for hours to cast early ballots last week. Glad I waited.
Predict Obama win in Southeast Ohio, owing to incredible number of new young and African American voters. It’ll be the first time since LBJ a Dem carried the area.
John S.
My wife went at 6:45 and did not get home until 9:00 (we live within walking distance to our polling location). I went at 9:15 and did not leave until 12:15. The line was absolutely ridiculous and it took forever to move people through. I’m not really sure who the fuck planned this thing, but it was a clusterfuck for the following reasons:
1) We switched to these optical scan ballots, which means people had to color in the little bubble on 8 pages of ballot. Not very conducive to timeliness.
2) We only had 10 booths for our precinct. With an average of 150 people on line and an estimated 5-10 minutes per person, and the poll workers only letting in 10 people at a time, things were SLOW.
Anyway, it was still worth the effort. GO OBAMA!
Edit: We voted in Broward County, Florida.
ppcli
This is my first time voting – I just became a citizen last year. People here (Ann Arbor) say that this is by orders of magnitude the longest line they can remember at this polling place. But then, what would you expect from the DFH – ridden University that gave the world Bill Ayers. (And the Unabomber: Our motto should be: University of Michigan: we were palling around with terrorists before it became fashionable!) After Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, it seems as if nobody wants to take any chances.
.
The local drainage commissioner was running unopposed. The thought crossed my mind of writing in "George Bush" but then I thought "Don’t be a smartass".
Eural Joiner
Urban South Carolina:
Usual wait: 5 minutes
Today: we showed up at 6:50 AM and there were already around 1000 people in line ahead of us (we stopped counting at 600!).
3 hour wait but well worth it! IF this holds up across the state (and that’s a big if) then McCain might still get the state but not by any large margin.
South of I-10
I am sad to report I just received word of the election results from little girl’s Pre-K class. 9 for McCain and 7 for Obama. Considering this is a Catholic school in Louisiana, I think Obama had remarkable support. Of course, little girl was totally in the tank for Obama.
Chuck Butcher
My Vote By Mail ballot went into the collection box over a week ago. This cut down a bunch on annoying GOTV calls since the SoS marked me off the list nearly a week ago. I have no idea why the rest of the nation resists OR’s VBM. It is hugely easier on voters and the county election clerks.
Fred
Voted by mail last week so today I’m sitting on my ass, channel and blog surfing and playing video games. Nice.
Limniade
Voted at 1:45pm in Vadnais Heights, a small suburb just north of St. Paul. The ballot boxes were about 3/4 full, but there was no waiting. I was in and out in about 5 minutes. Go Bama!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Sounds like those 7 kids don’t live in the real part of Louisianna. Actually, the entire state is pretty unreal.
Throwin' Stones
Waited ~ 5 minutes to vote at 11:15. The other 2 precincts in the same church had longer lines. I let Mrs. Stones vote first, then I while I voted, the 4 month old I was holding started screaming while my wife was in line to return her card. Needless to say almost everyone was looking at us. I received many smiles.
At least 2 more Obama votes in this usually heavy red SW Ohio county.
gravie
I vote at an elementary school in a heavily Democratic neighborhood in heavily Democratic Montgomery County, Maryland– it was a one hour wait to vote, even though the election officials were moving us through quite efficiently. My daughter, who had arrived about an hour and a half before me, waited two hours. Never, ever have I seen lines this long at our polling place, and I’ve been voting there for 20 years.
Despite the wait, it was a great experience– We had old people and young people; people in wheelchairs and walkers and people in running gear; black, white, Asian; and just about everyone was laughing it up and having a great time in line. Some people had brought children, and they were all spilling around joyously on the front lawn. People were taking photos outside the building, documenting the lines. It was truly a community experience.
Eric S
@LarryB
I WANT A STICKER!
In the city of Chicago they give us a slip of paper that is a ballot receipt from the Board of Elections. I used to live next to the head of the board and never thought to ask him why they don’t give out stickers. You see some people with them around the city but I think they are all suburban people.
South of I-10
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: It will be interesting to see what happens here. McCain has polled ahead pretty much the entire time, but there have been a couple of polls that were a statistical dead heat. For what it is worth, my family and friends like to think we represent the real Louisiana, and it ain’t red.
AkaDad
In the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, it took me about 15 minutes to vote, which is typical.
A la lanterne les aristos!
@LarryBT
The ‘I Voted Sticker’ is worth it’s wait in gold in the FiDi on election day. You get to walk past all folks with signs and pamphlets and they don’t bug you.
My polling place was about twice as busy as usual, which means there was one person ahead of me instead of none. Apparently a lot of my neighbors are vote-by-mail.
Soylent Green
Turnout was low at my nearest Oregon drop box two weeks ago.
It’s great to hear that the usually suppressed or disenchanted minorities are neither this time.
I expect that in places with long waits, many young people will blow it off although we’ve been counting on them to do their part. Have any of you been seeing not many millennials at your polling place?
A la lanterne les aristos!
"worth it’s wait"???
Did I really write that? Fuck.
djork
Atlanta, Georgia.
I got in line at 8:00 AM and left the polling place at 10:30. I noticed a more younger people voting than I’ve noticed in the past, which is great news for Bob Barr.
Shaggy
@HRA: You were able to buy pie? I’m so jealous!
I voted early two weeks ago, in a small (but rapidly-growing) town just east of the Atlanta suburbs. Touch-screen, unfortunately. It took my husband and me about 45 minutes total. Afer filling out our form, we sat in a room that had seating for about 50, and almost every seat was taken. Probably 6-8 African-Americans; mostly people there were white and over 40. I have nothing to compare this to, as this is my first time voting early here.
Although I’ve seen about a dozen McPain signs, I suspect it is mostly for support of Palin – we have at least two Pentecostal churches in our county. No Obama signs (except our Jim Martin/Obama sign, which was stolen on the day we voted, interestingly enough).
Cris v.3.1
The Expo Building at the Flathead County fairgrounds in Kalispell, Montana was well-attended but not crowded when I got there at 9 this morning. Most booths were in use, but I didn’t have to wait. Only one of the eight precincts that vote in that location had a line at all.
A friend told me that an hour later, the line was out the door.
Big E
I live 20 mins outside of Philly in a small
township in Delaware County PA.
In 2004 it took me 30 mins to vote in line…..
…Today, I was in and out (around 2:30 in the afternoon)
in under 10 mins…. no fuss ……
…and I didn’t have to run the usual large gauntlet of Party
leaflet ‘hander-outers’ to get to the voring area.
Blue Raven
I voted via mail-in ballot last week. One co-worker reported a one-hour wait in her district in San Francisco. Of course, SF has something like twenty city propositions, but that’s still longer than it’s been in other elections.
Capri
I voted last week. However, I drive by a library that is a polling place and the parking lot was full at 7:30 am.
A newspaper article about early turnout in my county (Tippecanoe, Indiana) reported that 61% of the early voters were democrats. More independents than republicans.
cmorenc
I live in a high-density precinct that has many obstreporous Republicans in it. And they are very, very dense indeed.
Xenos
Voted in downtown Amherst, MA, a few minutes ago. Mostly students at this hour – there was a line of Grannies at 9:00 am, so I waited until my daughter got back from school so she could watch the toddler in case there would be a long wait.
Very quick, no troubles, no riots, nothing. They put the town elections on a separate ballot, and the students did not care to pick them up and vote, so I suppose everybody was happy.
Sean
Like Larry B, I was in Alameda County (city of Alameda). 10 minutes and I was done.
No on 8. No on 4.
t jasper parnell
I voted at 6 am; I am new to the area but those around me said the turn out was much larger than usual. No problems; paper ballot. 1/2 hr start to finish.
Cris v.3.1
Here’s my brother’s report on his experience in Damascus, Maryland this morning.
Bill Arnold
Northern suburb of NY. The longest part of the process was walking from parking to the polling room, an elementary school gym. Second longest part was figuring out which voting district I’m in (still don’t remember) which they looked up in a hardcopy book, and took about 45 seconds because another person was using it. Then one signs a book. NY has massive lever machines. Enter booth. Pull big lever to one side to close the curtain. Flip metal selection levers for candidates. Interlocks prevent double voting. Pull big lever in other direction to register votes and open curtain. Very civilized early/mid 20th century tech. I’ll miss these machines, which haven’t been in production for a long time.
David Moisan
@AkaDad:
Another Masshole here from Salem: My polling place that I have to reach by bus across town, is normally a sleepy little room. Not today. Packed.
I use the Votemark, a touch-screen machine for people with disabilities (my vision not so great.) I’ve had it to myself usually. Not today! And I think that’s a great thing. Too many times people with disabilites don’t get accommodated; like the old phrase goes, "Why do we do all this rigaramole for ONE PERSON!?"
And I got to sneak my camera in to do an interview! WIN!