I’m amazed at the different ways states do voting.
In my state you cannot get an absentee ballot unless you meet strict criteria. There is an article in today’s paper that says many EMTs and fire fighters can’t vote because they work a twelve hour shift and you can’t apply for an absentee ballot unless you are physicall going to be away from your municipality.
And absentee ballots have to be mailed or dropped at your county office BY YOU, showing ID. No dropping them at libraries etc or having a friend drop it at the county.
Most states have a law allowing workers to take 2-4 hours, sometimes paid, sometimes unpaid to vote. Federal workers can take 4 hours of admin leave (paid) to vote.
@surfcity, I don’t know where you live but the whole point of absentee voting is that you can’t be there. Military people overseas vote in their home states and obviously mail them in.
I normally vote during the early period, but was unexpectedly out of town. I woke up at 4:45 because my bio clock hasn’t changed times. Had a leisurely breakfast and hit the road 30 minutes before the polls opened (about a seven minute drive from my house). There was one man standing in line and about five of us still in our cars. At about 6:50 more people started arriving and I got in line.
I was the first person to have to wait (although I could have squatted at the accessible booth) for a booth. In and out with my sticker . By the time I left there were about 30 people in line.
Many of my students didn’t know why I had an “I voted” sticker on.
I have been very proud of my D and her friends. She is very active in the Get Out The Vote campaign. Last week she was on her Facebook reminding all her friends and volunteering to drive anyone who needs a ride to their polling place. She was very meticulous about her first absentee ballot (she voted at polling place with me in 2016.) But, the concept of stamps is still too much for her. I had to give her a sheet of stamps last visit home and then call and remind her to make sure she used 2 stamps because we have a long ballot, as always with the California propositions!
My polling place was pleasantly full at about 11am this morning. I have no idea why we aren’t on the cutting edge of voting technology here. I believe it is different in each County based on budget or something. Have to go to the lady with the computer printout of names, always the most elderly volunteer. She takes a long time fumbling through the pages. Must be a position of extreme seniority and voter security or something. Frankly, I could say any of my neighbor’s names, not sure how it is secure. No ID required.
Then to another table for the paper ballot in a sleeve, fill in the bubbles with a felt pen, back to the high school kid who spends way too long trying to push it through a skinny slot in a cardboard box.
Yes, we are the high tech state!!
Did you see the polling booths set up at Venice Beach at the lifeguard stand? What a kick, they must be short of neutral community buildings.
Perhaps the high tech state prefers paper ballots that can be human recounted, as opposed to voting machines with bugs, security vulnerabilities, and lack of ability to human recount or check in case of suspected error or shenanigans.
Also, if the polling place has natural light, power outage would not be a problem for voters marking paper ballots. Though some places have fancy ballot boxes that count ballots that are put in them; these are the only devices that require electric power.
A very successful day for me driving people to the polls in neighboring Congressional District.
I voted at 6am and left immediately to get to work. There was a line of people waiting when I got there. Heard later that hasn’t been as many people voting at my polling place since 2008.
I grabbed coffee and a donut on way way out. There is always a table full of goodies manned by the ladies of the church were I vote.
I work as an election chair and very much enjoy the work, which includes a day that runs from 5:15 AM to as late as 10 PM.
Some of the highlights yesterday were seeing two 50+ year old siblings, who recently became American citizens, proudly come to the polling place to cast their first votes, seeing a developmentally delayed young woman happily walk up and announce that she was here to vote for her first time, seeing young men and women my children went to school with coming in to vote.
Some of the lowlights were people blaming me and complaining because there were no “I voted” stickers. The Board of Elections didn’t get them because they cost money. To me, personally, I consider them a waste of money but if I had them, I would have offered them. H told me later that a restaurant was apparently offering free French fries if you had a sticker. And here I thought people wanted to show their civic engagement.
I saw on the news last night thst THE biggest complaint in the state of WA about the state’s move to all mail voting was giving up the stickers. (And no, the electronic one you can download is not considered a decent substitute). Hmm, solve that dilemma, and you might get more states to move to voting completely by mail. :). The states that have done it have high voting rates — all over 60%.
I really enjoy working at the polls on election day. I have been doing it for 5 years. I take vacation days from my regular job to do and the money I am paid is clearly not the draw for me, although some of my co-workers do rely on the couple of hundred dollars they earn. I work in a local village hall and have been hired separately by the village to work its elections as well. I would be very sad if my state went to all mail or all electronic voting. It’s not the money (literally, when you count up all the hours, including traveling to pick up the materials chairs are required to have), I earn less than minimum wage for the day. However, I love seeing the people come up to vote, finding out how everyone is doing, hearing the local news, socializing, etc. Voting by mail or on the computer at home just seems so boring.
@Mom2jl we are MD residents. I’ve never voted absentee but assume she did not have postage paid envelope - she mentioned it was 77 cents I think.
I went to vote at 1:30-no line at all. I think many voted early tho the volunteer told me they had been steadily busy all morning and seemed to be in a lull.
Last time I voted, it was computerized. This time we had paper ballots that were then scanned and put into a secure box. I commented to the volunteer and he said they changed back to paper ballots so they had physical ballots to count if necessary. I actually prefer doing it that way plus I think it was faster-way more people could vote at same time rather than waiting for a computer like last time.
My personal good news is that everyone I voted for won and all the state/county amendments I voted for passed. Happier with those results than the last time I voted!
Probably true about prepaid ballot in CA. I gave her the stamps more because she was totally flustered that she had to pay rent via mail at her new apartment. The landlord wouldnt allow Venmo! How dare she:)
Had to give her some envelopes also
Then I had to teach her how she could do Bill Pay from her bank account. A whole other topic about this generation.
I voted early—first time I ever did so. It was very convenient because I had to travel at the last minute and knew I wouldn’t be home on Nov 6. I am pleased that my state (MA) has this. Also, the Congressional candidate for whom I had a fundraiser last May won!
I voted yesterday afternoon between 2:30 and 3:00, there were a few people in there but not too bad and there was no line. From what I heard, the turnout was even better than the presidential election. Of course there was a local board of education race, a hotly contested state senate race, plus several other races and amendments. They have gotten more modern, now they have an ipad with a place where you put your driver’s license to sign in. You still feed your completed ballot into the machine, though I really liked when I was a kid and you went into the booths and pulled the lever. My facebook feed yesterday was filled with selfies of people with their I voted stickers.
I did the double header of civic duties yesterday. I had to go in to the district court for jury duty and then when I was done for the day I went to the polls to vote!
In California, when the poll first opens, a citizen, often the first voter in line, is asked to step forward and look into the ballot box and then sign a statement attesting that there were no ballots already in the box. The box is then sealed and voting begins.
