Observations: Election Day 2008 [Archive]

Scrax

11-04-2008, 05:22 AM

I'm worried about Richmond. I got to the polls at 5:30, was a dozen people waiting and I was 2nd to vote. Maybe a couple dozen more when I left at 6:10. Seems like there should be a lot more in Richmond on a college campus. Maybe I'm wrong.

It was sprinkling when I got there, but it's pouring rain now and there is no shelter where I was voting.

My friend from Hampton Roads (Yorktown) said there was an hour wait as soon as the polls opened at 6.

Midnight Son

11-04-2008, 05:31 AM

I just heard on the news that at one location in Richmond, 5 machines broke and they switched to paper ballots.

Marged

11-04-2008, 05:47 AM

West Chester, PA. I rolled out of bed late and got to the polling place at 7:30. After an hour wait, I was the 150th to vote in a precinct of 1,600. We voted on paper ballots. Most people said the wait was about half this in 2004. The weather seems to be cooperating at least. It's cool and overcast but not raining. I'm going to see if I can get some coworkers to join me and bring food to people in line during lunchtime and after work.

Athryn

11-04-2008, 06:11 AM

extarbags

11-04-2008, 06:17 AM

My polling place was checking IDs, in perfect discord with actual election laws. Anyone know how I can report this?

Also: took me about an hour and ten minutes, all told. I got a chance to observe this hilarious exchange:

Person in line: How does it work, with people showing up at eight?
Cop: It doesn't happen, if you don't show up by eight you don't vote. You get thirteen hours, that's the law.
Person in line: Is that true everywhere?
Cop: Yeah, like seven to eight. Thirteen hours, that's the law everywhere.
Person in line: What about states where they have early voting?
Cop: They still only have thirteen hours... they might vote a few days before us, but they only get thirteen hours. That's the law.

Allagash

11-04-2008, 06:22 AM

It's a beautiful day in the suburbs of Boston. Got to the polls at 7:20, and there was a line out the door. Haven't seen that before. The line moved pretty quickly, and the bake sale goods were delicious.

People seemed pretty upbeat. This is Obama country, so most folks were excited about voting. Didn't even see anyone holding a sign for McCain.

Everyone knows Massachusetts will go for Obama, but I wonder what the spread is.

We have a ballot question about eliminating the income tax, and the recent economic meltdown makes it more likely it will pass. That's going to be a squeaker either way.

Marged

11-04-2008, 06:24 AM

My polling place was checking IDs, in perfect discord with actual election laws. Anyone know how I can report this?

On Obama's website, there's a form you can fill in.

pogozorro

11-04-2008, 06:33 AM

My polling station was amazingly fast. It took less than 10 minutes to get in and out (Woodbridge, VA).

salwon

11-04-2008, 06:35 AM

My polling place was checking IDs, in perfect discord with actual election laws. Anyone know how I can report this?

They weren't just checking the rolls via ID? I know here it's faster that way - the octogenarian in charge can just swipe your driver's license instead of squinting through the rolls. What happened when someone had no ID?

arctangent

11-04-2008, 06:39 AM

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legismgt/elect/taskfc/voteridreq.htm

First-Time Voters
The federal Help America Vote Act mandates that all states require identification from first-time voters who registered to vote by mail and did not provide verification of their identification with their mail-in voter registration.

Blanket Voter ID
Twenty-four states have broader voter identification requirements than what HAVA mandates. In these states, all voters are asked to show identification prior to voting. Seven of these states specify that voters must show a photo ID; the other seventeen states accept additional forms of identification that do not necessarily include a photo (Table 1). In no state is a voter who cannot produce identification turned away from the polls—all states have some sort of recourse for voters without identification to cast a vote. However, in Georgia and Indiana, voters without ID vote a provisional ballot, and must return to election officials within a few days and show a photo ID in order for their ballots to be counted.

States That Request Photo ID
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Indiana
Louisiana
Michigan
South Dakota

States that Require ID (photo not required)
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Kentucky
Missouri
Montana
North Dakota
Ohio
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington

More details at the link.

Midnight Son

11-04-2008, 06:40 AM

Yup, got to have ID in VA.

extarbags

11-04-2008, 06:47 AM

On Obama's website, there's a form you can fill in.

Reported. This is so very exciting!

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legismg...voteridreq.htm

Interesting facts! But Pennsylvania is absent from those lists.

They weren't just checking the rolls via ID? I know here it's faster that way - the octogenarian in charge can just swipe your driver's license instead of squinting through the rolls. What happened when someone had no ID?

They weren't swiping them. Here's exactly what would happen: You get up to the table, they ask for your ID, they look you up, you sign, they hand your ID to someone else, she writes you down on another list, then they give it back to you and you go vote. I didn't see anyone who didn't have ID, but then again I only would have known if it was one of about five or six people; we were told both by the cop and the ELECTION JUDGE that we would need ID to vote.

Brian Rucker

11-04-2008, 06:55 AM

Just got to work. 2 1/2 hour wait in line at 6:30 to 9:00 or so. Cold rain. People without umbrellas. Older voters and, to my amazement, lots of young voters. I've been voting at the same precinct for ten years now and I've never seen young folks out like they were. Looked like VCU/MCV age people. Fairly decent African-American turnout but this was the first time I've ever thought to myself "What are all these white folk doing here?" Rockin' the vote man, rockin' the vote.

Maybe they watched The Daily Show last night. Stewart closes by staring into the camera. "And, you, young voters. Don't fuck this up again."

snowcrash22

11-04-2008, 06:56 AM

Arrvied at 7:15 AM and struggled through a 2 hour wait in Lexington, SC (about 10 miles outside of Columbia) with about 3/4 of that time standing in line outside in a cool damp grass parking lot.

Our car alarm went off 15 feet from the line of voters waiting outside while we giving our names. No reports of prolonged hearing damage.

Wallapuctus

11-04-2008, 06:58 AM

Voting in the Boston area, in and out in less that 5 minutes. I work in Davis Square and people seemed pretty upbeat this morning. There's a general good vibe here. I didn't get an "I Voted!" sticker, though. Maybe I was too quick to leave to catch my bus.

Skipper

11-04-2008, 06:58 AM

North Carolina is absent from those lists but I had to present ID as well. A photo ID, they would not accept just a voter registration form or printed ID.

The supposed reason this is done is because if you register to vote in NC through mail and do not provide an ID, they can't verify who you are. On voting day (again, supposedly) they check ID's simply because it's easier than checking for the name/address of each person, then seeing if they need to verify ID.

"However, voters who registered to vote by mail, or through a voter registration drive, on or after January 1, 2003, and who have not previously voted in an election that includes a ballot item for federal office are required to present: (i) a current and valid photo identification; or (ii) a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other document that shows the name and address of the voter (unless the voter provided copies of identification documents with mail-in registration forms). If the voter does not present one of these forms of identification at the polling place, that person can vote by casting a provisional ballot."

Yeah okay ... I was asked for a photo ID at the location. I'm not a first time voter, I've been registered for years and I had my voter registration card.

Athryn

11-04-2008, 07:01 AM

Prince William County, VA. Supposedly one of the places to watch for the trending of the greater state.

They asked for ID but I only needed to hand them my voter registration card, and then recite my address. I'm glad they don't ask for photo ID, as I still have a CA driver's license!

I had a little moment of panic as the machine wouldn't hold onto the card, making it so I couldn't vote. The helpful lady wiggled it and then it stayed in.

It's weird only voting for 3 things, I'm used to CA where there's 27 propositions and school board thingies.

There were about 10-15 "sample ballot" people outside the polling place, almost all notably Obama volunteers. There was one McCain guy, looking pretty lonely. The volunteer commented that we were smart for waiting to vote after the initial rush, sounds like there was a big wait before we got there, but it was only about a 10 minute wait for me, being in the longer M-Z line.

Now I have my sticker, time to wait for the results.

12 hours or so to go...... (wishful thinking)

Venture

11-04-2008, 07:07 AM

I showed up at my polling place in York County, PA (a heavily Republican area). There were maybe 30 people there, mostly what looked to be retirement age folks. My area is strangely heavy on the front part of the alphabet (or made up of people hard of hearing who didn't hear the workers directing people to proper lines), because I got to go right to the front of the K through Z line. The lady there proudly told me I was "voter 587 already!"

My paralegal had a much different experience. She went to vote at a different location, and decided to come back later because the lines were so long.

mono

11-04-2008, 07:10 AM

I just finished Ba-racking the vote. 1st time voting in NJ since we moved across the river from NYC last year.

No line, at 9am and it took 5 minutes. I'm not a fan of the voting machines though. They were electronic, but circa Texas Instruments Speak n Spell era tech. Green LED's lit up next to the textured plastic bubble you pressed to cast your vote. An LCD display at the bottom confirmed your selections. It wasn't confusing, just a bit awkwardly laid out. Also, no visible paper trail. This isn't a swing state, and I'm not too worried about shenannigans here, but these types of machines give me the willies.

EDIT: For the record, the machines in my district are Sequoia AVC Advantage (http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/avc/), which are in fact about the shittiest, completely unverifiable electronic machines you could get saddled with to cast your ballot. Pop the firmware ROM (not soldered to the mainboard) and replace it with whatever the hell you want. Easy access too. :(

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/images/VotingMachine-Sequoia-AVCAdvantage-01.jpg

malphigian

11-04-2008, 07:14 AM

I just finished Ba-racking the vote. 1st time voting in NJ since we moved across the river from NYC last year.

Me too. I miss the old awesome mechanical lever machines in NYC :(

Our electronic voting machine was broken, so I voted with a number two pencil and a piece of paper. Which was sort of unsatisfying.

SpoofyChop

11-04-2008, 07:15 AM

I planned to show up at 6:30, half hour before opening time. Instead I slept in a bit and got to the firehouse at 6:50.

Our township is heavily Republican historically although lately I've seen a number of Obama signs. The place was mobbed enough that I just drove away. The line was at least an hour long based on my previous experience...probably more like 2 hours.

I'm going back at about 1:30.

pogozorro

11-04-2008, 07:22 AM

Psst, Extar, you quoted the wrong person.

triggercut

11-04-2008, 07:32 AM

Yup, got to have ID in VA.

...unless you've already voted in a previous federal election.

Then you only need your voter ID card, or something (like a utility bill) with your name/address on it.

Midnight Son

11-04-2008, 07:34 AM

...unless you've already voted in a previous federal election.

Then you only need your voter ID card, or something (like a utility bill) with your name/address on it.

Well, I'll pass that along to the old ladies in charge of elections down heah.

They did have official VA State posters up with the various acceptable ID's.

forgeforsaken

11-04-2008, 07:47 AM

No lines, walked right in. It's always this way at my polling place though, not sure if my town is just well distributed or if everyone around me is just apathetic.

Vesper

11-04-2008, 07:52 AM

Voted in Waukesha, WI. Took me about an hour, 45 minutes of it being in the line for my Ward with some 183 year old lady looking up names.. ugh. Turnout seemed smaller than the Bush/Kerry election, which might be explained by the fact that I'm in heavy-GOP country. Saw a large amount of younger voters and new registrations.

Angie Gallant

11-04-2008, 08:04 AM

Athryn

11-04-2008, 08:12 AM

Evidently down in Culpeper, VA there is a 2-3 hour wait to vote. My boyfriend's mom is probably not going to bother voting, which is fine with me, as she's a McCain supporter. :P

extarbags

11-04-2008, 08:14 AM

1-800-OUR-VOTE (http://www.ourvotelive.org/home.php)

Use this number if you observe problems with voting machines or poll workers making what you suspect might be improper demands. Better safe than sorry.

Hey speaking of this: I thought you were working voter protection today. How are you posting?

Nathan Phoenix

11-04-2008, 08:19 AM

Took about an hour and 10 minutes to vote in lansing. I got there at 7 when the polls opened and I was #77 to get through, and was out by 8:10. I was annoyed that there were fewer ballot booths then there were last year when it wasn't a presidential race and when there was far lower turnout.

Angie Gallant

11-04-2008, 08:26 AM

Hey speaking of this: I thought you were working voter protection today. How are you posting?

My working voter protection was going to henge on them needing me to work voter protection. It turns out that there isn't much of a history of vote suppression in this area and they have a rotating schedule of people doing frequent spot checks of the polling locations instead of people stationed all day. If I can get this kink out of my neck so I can move my head, I will be going in to the Obama campaign office and placing GOTV calls instead.

BennyProfane

11-04-2008, 08:30 AM

In Ann Arbor, it is a beautiful sunny day. Predicted 70 degrees (F) by afternoon.

As an "election challenger" I visited 4 polling precincts. Lines at all 4, varying from probably 50 in the shortest to probably 300 in the longest. But all moving briskly, everyone in a good mood. The poll workers were all quite polite (except for one pseudo-grouch who was threatening to use duct tape to cover up any campaign buttons or T-shirts that he saw, as Michigan law--per a court ruling last week--prohibits any sort of campaign paraphenalia within 100 ft of the polling place).

In 5 hours of observing, I saw one use of a provisional ballot, which they later decided wasn't actually necessary.

FYI, Michigan law is weird in one respect: They request a photo ID (which has to come from an "official" source--workplace ID won't count. Which gets strange when you run into college IDs, since a student can use it as an "official" ID, but an employee of the same institution can't, since it is just their employer). However, if a person attests to the poll worker that they don't have any photo ID available, they can sign an affidavit (really just the back of the form we all fill out) and still get to vote.

The weird part comes in if a person states that they actually HAVE a picture ID on their person, but refuse to produce it. This apparently creates a legal question as to the identity of the person, and the poll workers are instructed to refuse their request to vote, and ask them to leave.

RobF

11-04-2008, 08:34 AM

I was in line for just over 2 hours this morning in Charleston, SC. The line moved slowly, but steadily. And there was not nearly enough parking.

It's funny - normally I'm a huge fan of automation wherever possible, but computer voting just makes me nervous. I was in IL for the last election and they gave us a paper ballot and black marker. That felt much more tangible than the touchscreen I just used. Hopefully my vote will count.

Athryn

11-04-2008, 08:35 AM

My parents are both working as poll workers today in CA. My mum had to "surrender" her absentee ballot, as she'd screwed it up with poking a hole on accident or something, and got to vote normally. She says things are going smoothly in Eastern Contra Costa County, and they're letting everyone vote: if there's some irregularity, they get to provisionally vote. Sounds like it's all going well, they'll let me know if there's any problems.

ReptileHouse

11-04-2008, 08:37 AM

I arrived at my polling station as the doors opened this morning. There were 6 people there already, and 5-10 more arrived while I was waiting. Got to the table and they looked me up fine. I'd filed a change of address a few days before the deadline for that, so I was a bit concerned about whether that had been processed yet or not, but everything was good to go. I cast my ballot and drove on to work.

RepoMan

11-04-2008, 08:46 AM

We put our absentee Ba-rackin' ballots in the Bellevue library annex drop-off box on Saturday. Ah, nice to not have to muck with the lines today. Since we didn't post them I hope they picked them up and counted them quickly, but since we're in Washington -- which is not only a solid blue state, but also one of the last ones to close polls -- I'm not too concerned about whether our votes get counted promptly.

J. Matthew Zoss

11-04-2008, 08:47 AM

Northeast Minneapolis, a residential area outside of downtown.

The polls opened at 7 AM, I arrived at about 7:10 to see about 500 people in line in front of me. Not too surprising, as Nordeast is one of the highest-turnout areas in the state with the highest voter turnout. Took me about two hours to get through the line and cast my vote (via paper ballot) for Obama.

No complaints, though. It's an unseasonably beautiful day in Minnesota and talked to some lovely people in line.

extarbags

11-04-2008, 08:53 AM

My working voter protection was going to henge on them needing me to work voter protection. It turns out that there isn't much of a history of vote suppression in this area and they have a rotating schedule of people doing frequent spot checks of the polling locations instead of people stationed all day. If I can get this kink out of my neck so I can move my head, I will be going in to the Obama campaign office and placing GOTV calls instead.

Well, good luck with that, then!

Bad Neighbor

11-04-2008, 09:18 AM

Hamilton County, OH, the most important swing county in the country (or so says the local news).

Showed up half an hour before the doors opened and the line was a good 25 people long. The line stretched out to the street when the doors opened. Inside, there was another much longer line that had apparently formed at a different entrance to the building. While we were filing in, some lady walked out calling the guy handing out "I Voted" stickers a dickhead. The lines reached the sign-in tables and everything screeched to a halt because there was next to no organization. Volunteers were yelling at each other and one lady almost lost her shit because an older, calmer volunteer asked people to split into two lines (last names A-M and N-Z). They didn't check my wife's ID, but I already had mine out. Signed my name, and after some confusion regarding the fact that I have an old license from another county, was handed a huge paper ballot. After filling it out I had to find the electronic ballot box myself and flag down the guy handing out stickers. I think I was there a little over an hour.

Midnight Son

11-04-2008, 09:24 AM

Ya'll Yankees ain't overly friendly, are you?

Dean

11-04-2008, 09:38 AM

Voted around 10am in Watertown, MA. Old people and moms with kids in strollers. I was in and out in about 10 minutes. I did not get a sticker, and I looked for someone giving them out.

I want my coffee and donut.

Bahimiron

11-04-2008, 10:18 AM

It's been busy where I'm manning the checkout table for precinct 14 in Brookline. I'm taking my lunch now. As of 1 we are showing 1100 of 2300 registered votes so far. Pretty damn impressive turnout. I thought that the last gubernatorial election was a zoo, but it has nothing on today.

Lloyd Heilbrunn

11-04-2008, 11:11 AM

After 2-3 hour early voting lines, I had no one ahead of me to sign in and one lady only to feed the ballot thru the machine!!!

Now I know where the old full size Rolling Stone paper is going, Palm Beach County Ballots!!

SpoofyChop

11-04-2008, 11:18 AM

update time!
Came back at 2:14 and the line is shorter.
Looks like a half hour wait.

Supertanker

11-04-2008, 11:43 AM

My wife and I went to vote this morning about 10am. It was at our usual polling place, the fire station across the street. I peeked at the count sheet, and saw we were voters 241 and 242. When we arrived all the booths were full, but nobody was in line, and when we were done there were seven people in line. I usually don't see more than a few people at once in our polling place, so this is very heavy. I vote often enough that the poll workers recognize me.

When I commented to my wife that I expected longer lines, she pointed out there was another polling location in the shopping center next door (as the crow flies, maybe 100 feet away), and that friends of ours in the subdivision to the south were being sent to a third location. Assuming all three are getting the same level of traffic, the turnout has to be several times normal.

SpoofyChop

11-04-2008, 12:00 PM

Ok, finished at 2:45 so it took about 30 minutes in the end. Heavy turnout though.

Fun!

Robert Sharp

11-04-2008, 12:04 PM

Here in small town Ohio, I just got back from voting and lunch with my wife. We went to the local village hall. There were only two voting machines. Both were in use when we arrived, but there was no line at all. We were in an out in 10-15 minutes, tops. We ran into one of my coworkers, so we even had someone to talk to while we waited.

Lunch was greasy! It was a local diner that we haven't tried. They cooked us some homemade fries in grease. I killed a napkin dabbing it and then killed my heart eating it.

Gobama!