And I’m back. My plan to go after the morning rush and before the lunch break crowd worked perfectly. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I live in a pretty small town and only the upper half of it votes at my location. So, short line for me. But I’ve done my part. While I was waiting I moved a bit further in _The Eyre Affair_, which caulay gave me almost a year ago. In any case, I had questions popping into my head as I stood there, and thought it might be interesting to find out if anyone in my friends list was interested in answering them. Maybe it will become my first meme. If anyone has questions to add, let me know….
1. Did you vote?
2. If not, why not?
3. Where do you go to vote?
4. Any problems getting in?
5. How is voting done in your location?
6. How long did you have to wait in line?
7. Did you get anything for voting?
8. lintra adds: Did you see anyone get challenged at the polls, or were you challenged? – she did and mentions it here.
9. From javenallese: Were there any mechanical/electronic problems with the polling equipment?
1 – You betcha
2 – N/A
3 – A church (isn’t that ironic?)
4 – Not a one.
5 – On election day, with the machine with the curtain and the lever
6 – Only 10 minutes, if you can believe it!
7 – The ubiquitous sticker and satisfaction.
8 – Nope.
9 – Not that I could tell.
And, now, the waiting…..
Et in arcaedia, ego. 
1. Yup-first time!
2. n/a
3. at a conference building at a retirement community
4. Nope
5. On election day, with markers, circles to fill in, and NO CURTAIN!!
6. 5 minutes at 8:30 am. unbelievable!, but when I left, the line was out the door!
7. A sticker (without a checkmark, which made me sad) and a “republican sample ballot”
Hurray for a first-time voter! May there be many more!
(And that makes me tempted to add a question asking the age-range of the voters too, but some people (who shall not be named) hate admitting their age *laugh*).
1 – Yes.
2 – N/A
3 – Absentee Ballot
4 – Nope.
5 – Over beers while consulting The Stranger voters’ guide.
6 – Strangely, no wait.
7 – Cozy satisfaction.
Voting Questions
1. Did you vote?
Yes.
2. If not, why not?
N/A
3. Where do you go to vote?
The lobby of my apartment building.
4. Any problems getting in?
Not really.
5. How is voting done in your location?
An electronic voting machine behind a curtain.
6. How long did you have to wait in line?
All told, about 30-40 minutes, and I was the 7th person to vote.
7. Did you get anything for voting?
Satisfaction. That would be about it.
1. Oh yes. I’m in a battleground state, and I remember 2000 very well.
2. N/A
3. A church basement
4. There were two precincts voting in the same location, and I got in the wrong line, so I had a momentary heart attack when my name wasn’t on the voter rolls. I was able to go to the other station (across the room) without having to wait in line again though.
5. Fill-in-the-dot paper ballot.
6. I got there at 6:45, so fifteen minutes before the polls opened, and then about another twenty once inside.
7. The usual sticker, and a teeny sense of hope.
1. Did you vote? Yup!
2. If not, why not? NA
3. Where do you go to vote? An elementary school two minutes from my house.
4. Any problems getting in? Not really.
5. How is voting done in your location? We had two old machines, two new. You got the luck of the draw (unless you needed one or the other). I used the new machines and was very pleased.
6. How long did you have to wait in line? 15 minutes until they opened, then another half hour after that.
7. Did you get anything for voting? A sticker, and two points added onto my final grade in psych.
1 – Yep
2 – N/A
3 – My bedroom (I voted absentee, so I suppose, technically, I went to the county building to pick up my ballot, and then voted in my bedroom, and put the ballot in the mail)
4 – Er, no? (Parking was a pain at the county building, but that’s always the case. And I got into my bedroom, and out to the mailbox, no problem)
5 – I hear that there’s electronic voting in the area. But we can also do full-time absentee voting.
6 – Well, the line to pick up my absentee ballot was about 20 minutes.
7 – Nothing. No cookie, no sticker, just a sense of satisfaction.
1. Did you vote? Yes.
3. Where do you go to vote? Jr. High Gym
4. Any problems getting in? Jury Duty, but once that was done, none.
5. How is voting done in your location? We have the arrows, and you fill in between the arrows with a pencil. In little plastic blue cubical things. No curtain.
6. How long did you have to wait in line?
10 minutes
7. Did you get anything for voting?
No.
New Question: Did you see anyone get challenged at the polls, or were you challenged?
Saw someone challenged – see my LJ.
I looked on your LJ, but I didn’t see anything recent…
I’ve put my answers on my LJ, doing my part to spread arcaedia’s lovely new meme.
Sorry, duh, it’s locked down.
I crossposted to my blog:
http://www.skyseastone.net/stage/oldplays/004040.html
On election day, with the machine with the curtain and the lever
I love these! They make voting fun. I with MA had them, rather than punch-cards that remind me of working at Burger King.
Sounds very much like the game Clue!
It is! But, y’know, with the Weight of the Entire Free World on your shoulders. 😉
1. Did you vote?
Yes
2. If not, why not?
n/a
3. Where do you go to vote?
town community center, which is also the police department
4. Any problems getting in?
nope
5. How is voting done in your location?
old-fashioned pull-the-level voting booth.
6. How long did you have to wait in line?
about five minutes, but I waited until the commuters were done and slipped in just ahead of the lunch crowd.
7. Did you get anything for voting?
a cookie! (they didn’t have any stickers, drat it)
1. Yep
2. N/A
3. A Unitarian church basement
4. Nope
5. Part 1 – Seated at a table with fold out “privacy” screens that are anything but private, especially when the child of the lady voting next to you is opening and closing her screen and bumping yours – not to mention being higher than the edge of the screens as you walk up to the the stations.
Part 2 – Optical Scan
6. 5 minutes before open – then 35 minutes in line
7. None – pouts
8 (from Lintra) Nope, but I did see one get his hand slapped. He showed up around 7:30 and wanted to know how many people had voted. Then he reached in to the can that had all the numbered receipt tags in it, pulled them out and started counting. One of the poll workers came over and told him to drop them back into the can, that he was not allowed to touch ANYTHING and if he wanted to see how many people had voted he needed to speak with another worker across the room. I paid very close attention – he did replace all the slips back into the can.
New question – Were there any mechanical/electronic problems with the polling equipment?
Our optical scanner was down when we started voting, but by the time I was in a “booth” the repairman had come and had it running.
And just to be silly – I’m 37.
Community Bible Church is Unitarian?
That explains why the guy at the paper stub station had that basket between his legs. I wonder if they had more than one incident like that?
I noted that the voter numbers at the worker station (I was voter 557) didn’t match up with the count on the scanner (which read 449.) That is a significant difference. But I don’t really know what it means, and didn’t feel brave enough to cause the consternation and ask.
I would say that means that 8 people spoiled their ballots and asked for a new one.
On second glance…
I missed the hundreds digit. Maybe there were 108 people who voted before the machine was fixed? There is a special pocket in the side of the machine that the people were putting their ballots in before the machine got fixed. Perhaps they hadn’t run those through yet. I just thought they’d started to run them, but maybe they hadn’t.
1. Absolutely!
2. N/A
3. The neighborhood junior high school
4. Nope
5. Punch-cards
6. About 10 minutes. There were longer lines for other precincts voting at the same location.
7. A sticker
8. No
9. No, but I spoiled my first ballot by punching bpth yes and no for the same judge’s retention, and had to get a new one. Seemingly I was the first person to have this problem today; the election workers were temporarily baffled as to what to do about it. (I’ve been using punch cards for years: this was the first time I ever goofed up the ballot.)
1. Heck, yeah
2. N/A
3. Local elementary school
4. No; the chaos was organized*grin*
5. Old-fashioned lever machines
6. Ten minutes, including finding the correct line among the eight or ten districts in the polling place
7. No stickers (boo) but immense satisfaction
8. No, but there were translation issues being resolved around me
9. Not that I could tell
1. I voted.
2. I voted!
3. the township hall
4. Well, here’s the thing: a bunch of people running for things were lined up just outside the no-propaganda line, and you couldn’t actually walk a straight line to the door of the hall. I remember thinking: “God, if I had social anxiety or something, I’d probably turn around now rather than try to dodge this cluster of over-exuberant people.” One woman stopped right in front of me and said, “I’m running for county commissioner!” And tried to hand me a flyer. I side-stepped her and chirped, “That’s great!” I really felt like I should have said, “Look, monkeys, form an aisle. This is ridiculous.” Hm. Maybe I’ll go back tonight and do so.
5. Just like the SATs: fill in the oval. Then we put it in a cover, hold the cover just so, and feed it into a machine.
6. ~45 minutes
7. A sticker that says “I voted.”
8. no challenges
9. yes and no. The guy ahead of me over-voted, and there were ten minutes of dithering over what to do because folks didn’t know if the machine needed to be reset or something.
1. Oh yes.
2. n/a
3. The town hall gym.
4. None at all.
5. Machines with curtain and lever. (I love the thunk it makes when they record the votes.)
6. Five minutes (it’s a small town, and I was early)
7. I got a sticker, and so did my ten-year-old.
8. Nope. No one challenged.
9. None that I’ve heard so far.
1. Today? no.
2. Because I am Canadian. we had our elections in June. The election campaign lasted 36 days after the election was called by the Prime Minister. But I am handing out love and kisses to those of my US friends when they declare that they did.
3. Last Summer? I went to a community hall in my old riding – because I had only just moved and I was registered to vote there. I could have easily switched to the riding where I live, but I could choose to vote in my old riding, so i did – because the candidate I voted for there was an old friend who I met at a Science fiction convention. He was dressed like Frankenfurter. He’s THE host for our cities’ Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings. And he’s with the Green Party.
4. no problems at all.
5. Voting is set up by ridings – geographical areas mapped out by population. Voting offices are plentiful enough that I have always had a polling area in easy walking distance from my house – less than five blocks away. There’s never any line ups.
6. no time at all.
7. the right to bitch about the government for five years, and to throw my hands up and say, “It’s not my fault, I voted for Phil.”
8. I’ve never seen anyone challenged, ever. I’m not even sure they do that here. i’m not sure there’s a law for it.
9. Canada still uses paper ballots. you mark your choice with an X in the box to the left of the person you want.
1. Hell yes.
2. N/A
3. Local elementary school
4. Nope!
5. Color in the little circle. Like SATs.
6. About two seconds.
7. Pride, joy, and a little blue sticker 🙂
8. Nope.
9. Nope.
1. Yes
2. n/a
3. Local elementary school
4. Nope
5. The classic curtain and level machine
6. Only bout 20 minutes or so
7. A sticker
8. No
9. Not that I saw
I like your meme!
1. You betcha. Haven’t missed a prez election since I was old enough to vote.
2. N/A
3. Elementary school 4 miles away, but I got an early ballot so actually went to the PO. Did the actual process at the dining-room table with the issue booklets to hand and time to think about them.
4. Ordered my ballot online, got it three days later, filled it out, mailed it last week.
5. Optical scanners–ballots with ovals like the SATs.
6. No line at the PO.
7. A cool sticker that says, I VOTED EARLY IN PIMA COUNTY. Go Me.
>1. Did you vote?
Yup.
>2. If not, why not?
N/A
>3. Where do you go to vote?
The local “leisure center”, which houses some classrooms and the town skating rink. It’s been my voting place for the past several years.
>4. Any problems getting in?
Nope.
>5. How is voting done in your location?
Color in the little circles/optical scan
>6. How long did you have to wait in line?
No line–I went between the morning rush and lunchtime.
>7. Did you get anything for voting?
A sticker that reads “Proud To Vote”
>8. lintra adds: Did you see anyone get challenged at the polls, or >were you challenged? – she did and mentions it here.
No challenges seen or experienced.
>9. From javenallese: Were there any mechanical/electronic problems >with the polling equipment?
No.
1. Did you vote?
Yep
3. Where do you go to vote?
The Community Bible Church.
4. Any problems getting in?
Nope. About 20 people in line at 1:30, and a little confusion about the table layouts, but no real problems.
5. How is voting done in your location?
Fill in the dot for the scanner. Absolutely no privacy at the booth. Little folding ‘privacy screens’ that were only 18 inches high, nothing behind or above you as you sat about 30 inches from the person next to you. We had five or six stations.
6. How long did you have to wait in line?
About 45 minutes, including a tie-up while a person who wasn’t on the books got sorted out. The lady that would have kept the line moving at that point, while the other dealt with the voter in question, was out on lunch.
7. Did you get anything for voting?
Hah. Just this ongoing unhappy stomach anxiety…
The good folks at the church had anticipated a high turnout and long lines, and had a coffee water station setup which was a very hospitable touch.
But then the guy going through the halls picking up every. wet. tracked. leaf. made me feel a bit like an unwanted guest…
1. Did you vote?
Not in the election you’re talking about.
2. If not, why not?
Because I’m Irish and have no right to vote in the American presidential election.
(I do, however, vote in every election and referendum here, and following answers apply to those situations.)
3. Where do you go to vote?
The local primary (=elementary/grade) school.
4. Any problems getting in?
Never.
5. How is voting done in your location?
With pencil and paper. There have been some experiments in computerised voting, but no system has yet been sanctioned for general use.
6. How long did you have to wait in line?
I usually vote after I get home from work. There’s rarely a wait of more than a couple of minutes at 7 in the evening.
7. Did you get anything for voting?
A glow of satisfaction. I neither want nor expect to be bribed into voting.
8. Did you see anyone get challenged at the polls, or were you challenged?
Never. I think it’s very rare here.
9. Were there any mechanical/electronic problems with the polling equipment?
It’s pretty hard to have mechanical or electronic problems with pencil and paper! Which is one of the reasons I like it and do not want to see us change.
1. Yes.
2. N/A
3. At my computer desk, ’cause I voted via absentee ballot.
4. Nope, although I had a whole lot of fun back on October 4 trying to get ahold of the right people to find out if my application for an absentee ballot had been processed properly. If it hadn’t, I was going to register in MI.
5. It was mailed to me and I mailed it back.
6. N/A
7. No. 😦 I wanted a sticker.
8. I didn’t see it, but a girl in one of my classes nearly got made to go home and change because she was wearing a shirt that said “Michigan Social Change” which is, for the record, not a partisan group.
9. N/A
1. Yes!
2. N/A
3. The town hall, right across the street from my house
4. Nope — no lines, no waiting — signed my name on the dotted line on the list (as did Kev) and went on in
5. We have the old big lever machines like I grew up with. NY got a special dispensation to keep using them this year.
6. Didn’t. In the time I turned around, the second cartel freed up and I went on in (Kev was in the other one).
7. Nope
8. No challenges, but then again, the place was pretty empty
9. Nope
Kevin and I were talking afterwards. We think it was easy here because NY tends to really have a lot of polling places — they supersaturate us, so we never really have any waiting, and we usually have good turnout.
And yeah… now the waiting. The plan in our household is watching a kid’s halloween movie with the kids until their bedtime, and then we go upstairs to pack and listen to the returns come in…
1 — Yes
3 — A school in Marlborough
4 — Nope, aside from confusing/incorrect signs and election workers that kept sending us to the wrong Ward/Precinct.
5 — Optical scanners, just like it’s been for at least 8 years there.
6 — Once we were in the right line, less than 2 minutes.
7 — Aside from the satisfaction of doing our civic duty, no.
8 — No and no.
9 — No.
1. Did you vote? Yep.
2. If not, why not? N/A
3. Where do you go to vote? Local high school.
4. Any problems getting in? Nope.
5. How is voting done in your location? The old-fashioned way, with a ballot and a pen 😛
6. How long did you have to wait in line? Not very long, although I had to wait for DH to vote first so I could hand off DD to him while I did my duty.
7. Did you get anything for voting? No, the cheap bastards. 😉
8. lintra adds: Did you see anyone get challenged at the polls, or were you challenged? Nope and nope.
9. From javenallese: Were there any mechanical/electronic problems with the polling equipment? I don’t think there could be, unless a pen ran out of ink. 😉 I guess the ballot-taking-thingy was mechanical, but it worked fine while we were there. (The guy working it joked to DH that it was a shredder, though ;).