Our family unit hoped to open the polling place this morning, but somehow 32 people snuck in ahead of us. When a booth opened up I took our daughter while Dr. Mrs. Dr. F. voted on her own. DMDF Jr. selected Hillary on the screen and then pushed the blinking red button for me, so now history can record that my wife and our three year old girl both voted (helped vote) for America’s first Madam President.
A memorable tweet from the primary…
People put their “I Voted” stickers on Susan B. Anthony’s grave today.
What an image: https://t.co/PXrLA0BxCi pic.twitter.com/U693Q5338E
— Steph Haberman (@StephLauren) April 20, 2016
Sean McCabe
Voter fraud!
;)
Immanentize
I like that the name of the cemetery where Susan B. is buried is “Mount Hope.”
Ben Cisco
For my paternal grandmother, who was excited by the prospect back in the spring but was incapacitated by dementia’s progression and didn’t get to cast a vote.
For Mrs. C, who would have enjoyed the double-double of having PBO followed up by Hillary.
PatrickG
Bah. Humbug. Off to spend 12+ hours protecting people’s right to vote. I’ll warm to the idea once the caffeine IV starts its drip.
(But really, woo voting! Rooting for a really boring day of routing people to the right station and nothing more.)
ETA: Nevada, if you’re curious, and yes, they’re expecting lines at the end.
DanF
My wife took our two daughters to vote for Hillary. Have no doubt – it’s a BFD.
Face
VOTAR FRAWD! VOTAR FRAWD! VOATR FraWd!!elven!
debit
This was first time at my new polling place. We rolled up right when the polls opened and there was already a line down the block. I was also challenged for the first time ever and must have had my bitch face on when it happened, as the poll workers leaned back away from me. I slapped down my DL and change of address form AND my mailed registration card and was then meekly ushered into line for my ballot.
(Seriously, I saw the word “challenged” on my signature line and went KABOOM. I whipped out my papers and loomed over the poor poll workers with my fists clenched at my side, obviously ready to throw down right there in the church.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
My god, Trump’s campaign has an advert pushing his daughter, Duke dynasty dude, Sheriff Clake and the president of the UFC as supporters. ROFL
If Trump wins, it’s going to be a golden age of comedy until the Trump hits the nuclear launch button during some rant.
WereBear
It is kind of extraordinary to have two path-breaking Presidents in a row. I hope it’s a sign of better days ahead.
Albert Z.
Pretty subdued voting on my way to work – but I’m in Upstate New York. No selfie but I texted a pic to my daughters of filling in my ballot for Hillary/Kaine. Oldest is especially excited – only 16 so she’ll have to wait to vote for her 2nd term.
skyweaver
I’m voting today in honor of my great-grandmother, who left Switzerland as a young woman because she was so offended nobody would let her attend medical school. She never realized that dream though she did move to the US and start a family. Go Hillary.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@WereBear: That’s a great hope, and I’m going to adopt it.
LAO
Holy crap. I’m on line to vote in Gramercy Park and the line outside the polling station is one avenue long. I have never, in 16 years, seen a line like this.
WereBear
@Albert Z.: Upstate NY was a hotbed of suffragette sentiment:
1917 Right to Vote petitions in NYS museum
Aleta
@Ben Cisco: My thoughts are with you.
Elmo
@Face: Stole my joke, and I was even going to spell it the same way. Ha!
GrandJury
I plan to drink my fill of wingnut tears tonight. One of the few times I can stand to watch Faux News.
Albert Z.
@WereBear: I’m aware. I was thinking of taking my daughters to Seneca Falls this weekend. Although there’s a 1% chance that would be too depressing.
Phylllis
I was #106 at my polling site. Usually about 10 or 11. Steady stream headed in as I left. Reminded me of 2008 when my county went solidly for Obama.
FlipYrWhig
@WereBear: Inspired by Seneca Falls?
WereBear
@Albert Z.: That’s a pilgrimage I’ve been wanting to make.
I think the long lines are a great and good omen. When the country bothers to vote, we win.
Ben Cisco
@WereBear: As do I. I wish she were here to see it.
NCSteve
That photo has been choking me up for months now.
NotMax
(Repeating from below.)
Music for the day.
Gin & Tonic
Without going into a lot of detail, my grandmother and her five sisters were women who blazed their own trail and took no shit from nobody, in a time and place where that was *really* not the norm. She raised her only daughter, my own mother, to do exactly what she wanted to do, including getting a master’s degree in journalism (back in the late 1930’s) when that was also far from usual. They are both long gone, but I think they’d have looked at what will happen today and said “it’s about fucking time.”
Ben Cisco
@Aleta: Many thanks.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
Don’t forget Victoria Woodhull.
Brachiator
A little info
GOTV!
Betty Cracker
When I voted for Hillary, my heart was full for my mom, who loved the Clintons, supported Hillary in the 2008 primary, argued with me about my support for Obama and went on to vote for him twice herself. She died way too young a couple of years back, and it still feels like an injustice that she didn’t see this day. But her granddaughter — my 18-year-old — cast her first vote for Hillary this morning, so the line continues.
Waldo
Well, there’s your proof that not only are dead people voting, they’re voting multiple times.
Punchy
From the website I monitor, someone(s) is pouring a shit-ton of $$ into betting DT is going to win. Maybe rich Repubs do this in every election and I’ve never noticed, but in the past 12 hours it has been fascinating (and a bit scary) to watch.
maurinsky
We arrived at our polling place at 6:10 a.m., about the time we usually get there to vote. Our polling place is in the school gymnasium, and we’ve never had to wait in a line outside the gym before, but we did today. We were done by 6:30, the hubs and I both voted a straight Democratic ticket.
Tim F.
@Punchy: Sounds like something Russia would do.
Redshift
@Punchy: I remember it happening before. It’s the one “indicator” that people can actually affect. If they want to throw their money away, they can be my guest.
JMG
@Punchy: It’s strictly a money play. If the odds favoring Clinton get over 80 percent, and that’s pretty much where they are, then a big Trump bet is a bet on an overlay. Plus, it’s a market, not a straight bet on the outcome. Somebody spreads a rumor on Twitter, some exit poll gets leaked, and all of a sudden the Trump you bought at 20 goes to 25 or higher. Then you can cash out with a nice profit. Betting markets are 1. very unstable because they are composed of the same idiots who gave us the financial crisis. 2. The conventional wisdom writ large. So there’s going to be some plungers who make the contrarian bet.
Immanentize
@WereBear: And my Grandmother (a life-long teacher) and my Great-Great Aunt (teacher and school principal — and whom my mother is named) were serious suffragettes in Binghamton, New York. I am voting for them, today — women with Victorian names but modern ideas. They were both formidable women, but my Great Aunt was a friggin’ scary super hero. Who loved cats.
Brachiator
Cokie tries to walk back her remarks…
She messed around with a bloke named Smokey
She loved him though he was cokey
He took her down to Chinatown
And he showed her how to kick the gong around
Poopyman
@Immanentize:
Down here, Mt. Hope is the name of the UM Church and nearby community center. The community center is a former school where Harriet Elizabeth Brown taught for decades.
And somehow that seems an appropriate citation for today as well.
Kay
@Brachiator:
She’s bad at her job aside from this remark. I was hoping it would give them an excuse to fire her. She adds no value.
Term limits for pundits. She’s timed-out.
Punchy
@JMG: What I’m talking about is a straight up Y/N wager for HRC to win. Yes, she’s still a huge favorite, but the extent of her “favorite-ness” has decreased significantly in the past 12 hours. Maybe it’s the goofy polls from PA and MI that’s encouraged peeps to take a try at Trumps ~3.5:1 odds. I really thought the number would skyrocket up the day of the election as the extent of the voting lines and participation became obvious (more voters = better Dem chances), but it’s done the opposite. We’ll know in about 12 hours.
Kay
Is Roger Stone Jr the same as Roger Stone? I’m hoping they’re starting to blame one another.
WereBear
@FlipYrWhig: It helped that NYC was the headquarters, too. But I see it as a wonderful part of being a New Yorker.
greennotGreen
I tried to get my 93yo Republican mother who hates Trump to vote for Hillary in memory of my feminist aunt who didn’t live long enough to vote for a woman (candidate from a major political part) for President, but she wouldn’t go for it. My mother did vote, though, but probably only in down ticket races, primarily against the execrable Scott Desjarlais.
Immanentize
@WereBear: 1894 New York State Constitutional Convention — my home county in Upstate New York:
JMG
@Punchy: There are contrarian bettors, too. Guys (let’s face it, it’s all guys) who can’t resist what they think is an overlay. If gamblers knew anything, Las Vegas wouldn’t be such a big city.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
A couple of voters have commented that they’ve never seen this polling place so busy. The announced 9:30 count was 147 people had voted, which it’s almost 50 an hour, and it continues to be steady. There was just a first time voter – as announced by his father- and all the poll workers congratulated him. They’re all very nice, and the location manager comes over to ask if I have any questions about any events.
There was some minor excitement when the scanner had an issue, but how it was handled before the repair was pretty clear. I was impressed that she wanted to know if I had enough information. Not every location manager is friendly/helpful to observers. So I got a good assignment.
peach flavored shampoo
@Kay: I dont understand this either. Why would a Trump operative start crushing Trump before election day really gets going? Is this another “DenaldTrump”-esque spoof account?
Amir Khalid
I’m expecting to see election results start coming in late Wednesday (tomorrow) morning my time. By noon, I hope to share vicariously in the celebration of Hillary’s victory.
Mnemosyne
I own no pantsuits and was going to wear my #votevote shirt, but now all y’all are making me wonder if I should put on a white shirt instead.
Culture of Truth
Today’s the big day! So excited!!
The Moar You Know
For me, just another election.
For my wife, it’s a big fucking deal. I think a lot of women are feeling that today.
May Hillary be a far better president than what we deserve. I vote for her as eagerly as I did Obama, knowing that I’m voting for a sane adult who knows the meaning of “the common good” and generally tends to support that.
Carnacki
A friend there posted a picture of the long line to put on stickers.
Calming Influence
@Brachiator: In general, I’ve realized that I’ve said something “inartful” almost as soon as it has left my mouth. I’ve also found that that is the best time to correct it. Delay implies that you needed someone else to point out that you were babbling like an idiot.
Carnacki
@Betty Cracker: Last night, my girlfriend and I watched the last biographical video put out by the campaign. I had my hand on her thigh and I felt when goosebumps covered her. She began crying. Afterwards she talked about how much it means to her that a woman will be president and she didn’t really think it would affect her so much emotionally, but it did. She stopped on her way back to PA this morning at Antietam National Battlefield and took a beautiful photo of the sunrise there. She wrote me: Thank you for talking politics last night and finding those videos. I felt very emotional/anxious about it all, but having you by my side helped. I was one of the first in line at my poll this morning. When I stopped to take that pic of the battlefield, all of my anxiety fell away. I felt overcome with gratitude and pride and love for my country and for those who have fought for it.
Betty Cracker
New pic of SBA’s gravestone on Twitter…covered with stickers already!
Carnacki
Live feed on Facebook facebook.com/News8WROC/videos/10155359367104386/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
Kay
@peach flavored shampoo:
That part actually wouldn’t surprise me at all. That’s the problem with “insurgent movements”, right? They’re made up of insurgents. They splinter because they’ are a group of people who splintered. They attract a certain kind of person. Labor organizers call it “slice and dice”. They are people who came about due to a division. They’re divisive, by definition.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@jake the antisoshul soshulist: I certainly will never forget Woodhull. I first learned about her from Laura Resnick’s contribution to the Alternate Presidents anthology. The story is excerpts from letters sent from Queen Victoria to the newly-minted President Woodhull. Her Majesty is, understandably, increasingly disturbed by the President’s return letters.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Crap. And of course I can’t edit. I’m gonna try to close the em tags now.
GrandJury
@peach flavored shampoo: There are hundreds if not thousands of political bots that try steer the conversation. You will almost never read much about it because they want to remain in the shadows as much as possible.
Not saying this is one of them but it’s one of the reasons I don’t follow social media. It’s only going to get worse year after year to the point it will eventually be almost all noise.
There are also hybrids. Companies with systems designed to make it easy for 1 person to control hundreds of sockpuppet accounts. Make them take turns having one express an opinion and the other 99 agreeing in some way or countering negative responses. There are lots of different ways they can do it.
Aleta
@Carnacki: OK now actually crying!
I love the title of this post, and Tim’s post. nd Notmax’s Pointer Sisters song. And all the comments here.
My mom would be so happy, my aunt, my grandmother too. (My sisters not, damn.)
This live video of Susan A’s stone is amazing. A girl and mother just put their puppy on, too.
planetjanet
I have been working at my poll handing out sample ballots since 5 am. My county, Prince William, is a bellwether for Virginia. CNN named it one of 11 counties to watch. The feeling I am getting from voters is stunning. Landslide territory. I have never seen anything like this in the twelve years I have been doing this. People seek me out, happy to be there. I used to feel like a lone pariah years ago.
She’s got this.
The pictures of I Voted stickers on Susan b Anthony’s grave are bringing tears to my eyes.
Ruckus
Voted a week ago. Add my old, white, male name to those who are very happy to vote for the first woman president. My mom and sister would have been overjoyed and overwhelmed if they had gotten to do that. 93 yrs of living and cancer saw to it that they didn’t get to. I voted for them and for all of us still around, women, men, girls and boys, all the shades of skin, all of us. I voted for the candidate, the people, the idea of inclusion, not of exclusion.
Fair Economist
@planetjanet: I’m at home, but I feel different too. I’ve been really stressed out for the last two weeks but this morning I woke up feeling confident. Inspired. Hopeful.
She’s got this.
We’ve got this.
StringOnAStick
I convinced a co-worker to vote for Hillary yesterday instead of Stein, bu telling her Bernie has endorsed Hillary and campaigned for her, and that if we win the Senate, Bernie gets the chair of the finance committee, which is a big deal. She thanked me for the info; she’s a modern day hippie who pays no attention to politics and hangs with the heavily Bernie crowd. Then she sealed her envelope without the ballot in it, and almost got too frustrated to vote at all. We all let her know she can go to a polling station and ask for a new envelope or maybe even drop off her completed ballot there. Fortunately that was on the way to picking up her dog from doggie daycare, so she probably voted. How do you get to nearly 40 and have no clue about any of this voting stuff, while going on and on about the DAPL protests in N.Dakota?
WereBear
@Ruckus: Thanks!
Lizzy L
@Betty Cracker: Yes. I’m re-posting this from an earlier thread.
I’ve been thinking about my mother, who would have been 100 this year. She was born when it was not legal for women to vote. Her father could vote, her brother, had she had one, could vote, but neither she, her sister, nor her mother could vote.
And today, everywhere around the country, grandmothers and mothers and sisters and daughters and sons are voting for a woman, a mother, to run the country, and I think she’s going to win.
My mother loved Bill Clinton. She would totally have supported Hillary Clinton. Mom, wherever you are — I’m with her.
catclub
@Punchy: what betting website?
Mnemosyne
@planetjanet:
The recent Facebook post from my Republican cousin in Illinois leads me to believe that he manned up and voted for Hillary after all when he’s never voted for a Democrat in his life.
If she’s even getting the white evangelical retired cops in IL, she’s got this.
J R in WV
Well, all pretty emotional, but the live feed of a continuous stream of people, women, some with children, young and old, with men, kneeling to put an I Voted sticker on Susan B Anthony’s gravestone was over the top wonderful.
As one person on the FB commentary said, it isn’t disrespectful at all, quite the opposite really. People are thanking Susan B and all the suffragettes for the very hard work they did to achieve their ballot rights. Women were beaten and jailed to win the right to vote and have it count.
Crza
Got my vote in! Hillary ain’t winning Indiana, but fuck it, *she doesn’t have to*. Me picking her felt a bit ceremonial more than anything, but I think I can still appreciate how momentous her winning will be.
And godDAMN, as a state employee, I really wouldn’t mind working under a Dem governor again. I actually like a few of my Rep bosses here, but not many, so I am hopeful that I’ll see a newly-minted Gov. John Gregg switch things up for us nicely after today.
Lurker Extraordinaire
Voted Friday with 4 y.o. daughter for Hillz. For all women, but especially my Puerto Rican grandmother, who moved back and forth between the island and the mainland for work, and who probably would have been yelled at by some asshole to “speak American.”
Trump and company are about to learn Tip #1 when coming for Latinos:
FUCKING DON’T.
Larkspur
Voted this morning, arrived at 7:10 am and was voter number 75. The place was hopping. Everyone was cheerful; everyone was thanking the precinct workers for what’s going to be a long busy day. I had to wait in line for about ten minutes. There was a young woman and her mom behind me, and the young woman – it had to have been her first election vote – was a little worried about time, so I let them go ahead of me and they were both so pleased.
My grandmothers died a long time ago, and yes, they were born into a world where they weren’t allowed to vote. I have no idea how they would have voted. They were rock-solid Republicans, but a lot has happened to the party since they passed. They would have voted. They’re the reason I always, always vote. But this election I’m voting especially in honor of my dear friend Ted, who died last February at the age of 92. He was a old white guy with money who loved Obama and was donating to the Hillary campaign right up to the end.
PS: Somebody in line told me that restaurants and bars in San Francisco will be giving special discounts to anyone with a “I Voted” sticker. Whee!
Larkspur
@Mnemosyne: Now that’s cool. That’s a BFD.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: It’s pretty courageous, could say patriotic, of a previously very opposed person to make that decision and act.
LAC
@Brachiator: I am more offended that NPR uses her and Fucker Carlson as political commentary on Morning Edition. She is Conventional Cokie Roberts (“some say…” will be on her tombstone) and he is so dense that light bends around him.
Quinerly
@Larkspur:
Ted’s chair! ❤ I remember your story!??
Sandia Blanca
@PatrickG: I am doing the same thing, in Cincinnati. Pleasantly boring. People come in, they vote, they leave. How it should be everywhere.
Larkspur
@Quinerly: Here’s to Linda, too!
NoraLenderbee
For my grandmothers, Mae and Sylvia, both born before women had the vote.
And especially for my mother, Sally. I wish you could be here to see it, Mom.
Walken23
Someone should post the Facebook live page of the gravesite: facebook.com/News8WROC/videos/vb.34497459385/10155360574159386/?type=2&theater