<p>Early voting started this morning in Florida at polling stations. Limited numbers of early voting stations are open at government offices for early voting–way more voting stations will be open election day for voters. Lines today are long with waits of two hours or more common at polling stations throughout Florida. The ballot is about 5 pages long with 10 or more amendments tagged on 4 pages at the end of voting ballots which contributes to slow moving lines because some people get slowed down trying to read confusing, lengthy amendments at last minute.</p>
<p>Additionally, over 1.1 million Floridians have already voted with absentee ballots.
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<p>H&I voted last Tuesday. In our smallish town, you can early vote on even numbered days at city hall and on odd numbered days on our local university campus. Since H & I both work there, we went at lunch time. There were 4 machines and two other voters. We saw people there every time we walked by but never a line. This was an electronic voting machine with a printout register (like a cash register tape behind a window) that you could check before you committed to the vote.</p>
<p>My secretary would have liked to vote, but she lives in a different county so couldn’t.</p>
<p>Had to show ID to early vote. In 2008, we voted at our local precinct, a nearby church. There, they have a register with you info and signature from voter registration. You had to sign next to your signature, no ID required. That was punch cards though.</p>
<p>Early voting opened yesterday in south Florida. H and I went yesterday but the lines were so long that we turned around and went home. This morning we tried again — got there at 0745 and stood in line outside for 2 1/2 hours. It was nuts. There are only around 10 early voting locations in a very large county so lines everywhere are long. I think the wait time would be much shorter on election day at our regular precinct since the pool of voters is much smaller in the precinct.</p>
<p>One nice thing happened while we were in line, though. The woman who was checking IDs against the voter roll called out “First time voter here!” when a young man came up to her station. Everyone in the room cheered and applauded for him. He was a little embarrassed, but proud, too. :)</p>
<p>My D voted by mail. Maybe that’s because she is at school out of state at school, though.
She told me yesterday that she had checked online and her ballot has been received.</p>
<p>I voted last week. One of the best things about the increase in early voting is that it should render exit polls moot. I’m not sure how the pre-election polling is handling/addressing people who have already voted. Should a vote that has already been cast be weighted more heavily? People who have already voted are also obviously not subject to political winds, increasingly nasty ads, etc., so are exempt from current “trends.”</p>
<p>Just voted early in my Frankenstorm-free swing state. The clerk’s office opened at noon and there was a pretty long line by the time I left. Lots of elderly people wisely choosing to avoid downtown during the work week. </p>
<p>I will be very glad when the election is over and it is safe to answer the phone again.</p>
<p>Done. Took about 5 minutes. Two of them figuring out why the machine wasn’t letting me vote for the final race on the ballot. Just as I was going to ask for help I realized that, since there was only one candidate, it didn’t really matter.
Pressed “Submit ballot”, got my “I voted” sticker (which I will save for school tomorrow) and left.<br>
There was a group of Cub Scouts there learning about the election process…they were disappointed that they weren’t 18 and couldn’t really press any of the buttons.</p>
<p>Can I ask a dumb voting question, for those that might know? Let’s say this Frankenstorm was happening NEXT weekend. And let’s say it really pans out as predicted and severely disrupted the election process. What would happen?</p>
<p>Thats not a dumb question at all. In fact, it will affect those trying to do early voting. But they theoretically will have a week to get their power back, etc, and get to the polls. Then again, there have to be enough of the poll workers able to get there to man the polls too…</p>
<p>I voted for the first time in the primaries also. Strangely I had an absentee ballot (despite not having requested one) but was able to turn it in at the voting booth. Not so sure I trust those poll workers myself :P</p>
<p>We still have to read all the Prop 30-somethings and Measures A - D. Major cases of clothespin voting for Prop 32 and 37 in particular…“Would I rather vote against the Koch brothers or this organic food company from Illinois?” ;)</p>