This was my first year voting by absentee mail in ballot. My H and kids have done it for years and never understood why I would want to go to the actual polling place. When I renewed my Ca drivers license I opted into mail in voting. I was a bit sad yesterday to not go to my kids old elementary school and vote. In Ca the absentee ballot included a sticker. In the past my experience was like @coralbrook. The older person fumbling through the computer printout to find my name. When my kids were young I always took them with me. I’m proud that all three of mine voted.
What surprised me last night watching the news was how long the lines were in several states. At least in my part of Ca we have numerous polling places and at most a line of 10 people.
I know at least 2 people who voted for the first time yesterday (and were eligible in earlier elections). One is an African American guy in his mid-late 20’s. The other is a white guy in his mid-40’s.
Turnout in my state was close to 50 percent. In our last governor’s race it was under 40.
We had a lot of people at our polling place too. A college aged person made a stray mark on her sheet (I think she said it was her first time voting) and everyone was super nice. They got a new ballot for her and the people in line waiting for a booth encouraged her to go ahead. After she filled it out the people in line waiting to put their ballot in the machine also encouraged her to go ahead of them. They all did what they could so she wasn’t embarrassed.
And on my way to work today I saw someone taking the campaign signs away. I was pretty happy to see that.
My county in California has a new system, under the California Voter’s Choice Act. All registered voters in the county receive a mailed ballot. That ballot can be mailed or dropped off at designated drop box locations or vote centers. Alternatively, voters can vote in-person at any vote center, and also can register to vote at any vote center up to the day of the election. The vote centers are all over the county, and we can vote at any vote center — we don’t have to worry about assigned precincts. I was out of town the last two weeks of October, and hadn’t received my ballot before I left – so I spent all day Saturday going over the ballot to figure out how I was going to vote on the long list of propositions. Marked my ballot, and when I finished I checked the time and noted that the vote center a 5-minute drive away was still open for another 10 minutes or so – so I hopped in my car, drove the few blocks, and dropped off my ballot in the box at the center.
No shortage of “I voted” stickers. There were also people voting in-person in the booths at the voting center.
Maybe hand stamps for when stickers run out. ?
Our polling place is an assisted living facility. One of their new residents wasn’t on the rolls because he had just moved from a different county. I know this because one of the election workers had a long phone conversation with our county board of elections, trying to figure out how to allow this 80-something, wheelchair-bound man to vote. It’s a small place - everyone heard his end of the conversation.
His options were to vote in his recent county of residence at his prior polling place, or go to our county courthouse for a court order. Neither of these was easy, but it sounded as if the facility staff was arranging transportation as I left. The good part of the story was how much the election worker cared, and how much time he spent trying to work out the problem. I hope that man got to cast his vote!
My 16 yr old worked one of the local voting precincts and earned some $$$ while learning a lot about the process $-) . The precinct where I vote never has a line, which is great. The only hold up was people not able to get the ballots to feed into the machine. And then the workers try so hard to help without actually touching the ballots, it was a little comical.
@frazzled1 - that’s a great story – but also an example of why I am so pleased about the new system in my county of mailed ballots to all voters, voting centers where all county residents can turn in their mailed ballots or cast in-person ballots, and same-day registration at all voting centers. (The same day resident allows casting of a “conditional” ballot subject to later verification). I’m lucky because only about half a dozen California Counties have adopted this new system, which is being gradually phased in.
But when I worked the Election Protection hotline in past elections, I heard so many stories similar to what you saw – often without an easy solution or a diligent election worker. In the example you gave - the man had moved from another county – same-day registration in his new county would have solved the problem. There was no question as to that man’s identity and there is no reason that his recent move should have precluded him from voting. Just a set of outmoded rules about registration deadlines.