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Good gods... I just got back home... An hour total... Good thing I went right at 7am... Back to sleep...
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Polls open at 6 AM here. I was second in line, showing up at 5:55 (gotta love small towns, even a "line" isn't much of a line)
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Hoo boy! I drove by my polling place on the way to class - I was running an hour early, since traffic is so light today - and the line was out the door, down the street, and around the block. Looks like all the news people decided that it'd be a good place to report at as well.
Guess I'll go after class and hope my boss doesn't mind me being in rather late.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Polls opened in our student center at 6. I was there at 5:55 and there were already about 100 people in front of me. Took 45 minutes all together, but at least I got one of those awesome stickers.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: Guess I'll go after class and hope my boss doesn't mind me being in rather late.
They said on the news that employers are required by law to allow employees two hours to vote (without it counting against them)
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Unfortunately that only applies if your shift lasts the whole time the poll is open- so, for example, if you get off work by 5pm, you don't get time off.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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I got there right at 7am when the polls opened and the line was wrapped around the school that I vote at. Four years ago I was the 10th person to vote, and it took about 10 minutes. This year, I got there at the same time and was the 147th person to vote and it took an hour and a half.
In hindsight I should have gone after school (as I missed the first 40 minutes of lecture thanks to the stupid labyrinthian system of lines at the precinct), but I really didn't expect lines would be THAT much worse than four years ago. I think part of that is overreaction to the media carping about long lines.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I was dropping off a ballot, and U-Z was empty. I got to check the box to make sure that it hadn't been tampered with. Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Polls here open at 7, I went at 6:45 and the line was already down the hall, out the door of the school, and all the way around and out to the sidewalk. It moved along pretty quick once the polls opened though, took about an hour and I was voter #143.
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I see CNN has switched to their stripped down HTML version.
Last night at 1am they announced that Obama was already winning... by 15 votes to McCain's 8 votes. Don't recall where that official tally was from, though.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I just voted in my new home state of Washington. Coming from Chicago I was expecting at least 15 people milling around outside assaulting me with pamphlets. Instead I walked in, was politely greeted, voted, and left. It was a much quieter experience than I'm used to. Posts: 511 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: Guess I'll go after class and hope my boss doesn't mind me being in rather late.
They said on the news that employers are required by law to allow employees two hours to vote (without it counting against them)
I'm already getting major leniency from my boss by being allowed to take two classes this semester during normal work hours, so I didn't want to push it. Luckily, after class at 11:40 the lunch rush hadn't hit, and I was able to stroll right in and vote in less than 10 minutes.
The Obama supporters are out in full force here in NoVa, at least close in. They're on nearly every corner, waving signs - both for Obama and just "Go Vote" signs.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I voted first thing in the morning today, and despite reports on local radio about hour long lines in other parts of the city, my polling place had about five people in front of me. In and out in fifteen minutes.
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Nothing feels quite as cool as seeing hordes of 18-20ish year olds head off to vote after classes ended early today. I hope there are some good studies on youth turnout this year; my friends and I did our part and I'm expecting the numbers to be big Posts: 349 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I really do hope that the younger voter turnout comes through; we need a larger voice in the political process. Senior citizens are always catered to, and, while I like my grandparents just fine, most senior citizens' concerns are not close to mine. In fact, we're often at odds. It'd help us young people to not be burdened with masses of debt, but few senior citizens are willing to tighten the belt now (especially on funding things like Medicare & social security) since they won't be around to reap the rewards later.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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It seems like everyone is voting here. My college is generally pretty conservative, but I'm seeing a surprising amount of Obama stickers plastered everywhere and person after person handing them out. The childish part in me sort of half-considered voting that way just to get one, but I'm happy to say that common sense prevailed. I'm afraid, however, that many of my peers succumbed to the glamor of matching t-shirts and buttons and stickers galore, not to mention all the parties.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: I really do hope that the younger voter turnout comes through; we need a larger voice in the political process. Senior citizens are always catered to, and, while I like my grandparents just fine, most senior citizens' concerns are not close to mine. In fact, we're often at odds. It'd help us young people to not be burdened with masses of debt, but few senior citizens are willing to tighten the belt now (especially on funding things like Medicare & social security) since they won't be around to reap the rewards later.
It's unlikely that even if the youth vote comes out in unprecedented numbers (and in presidential years we actually vote in somewhat impressive numbers) that they'll all of a sudden be catered to as a special bloc. The reason other groups get attention is because of organization. Blacks and Hispanics, women and the elderly, all have interest groups that form a powerful lobbying voice in Washington to shape political thought and the formation of laws.
Unless we young people put our money where our mouths are (or generally aren't), and organize into a formidable force, we're never going to get the sort of attention that our numbers suggest we deserve. Organization is key in American politics. Frankly it's sad that old people are more organized than the generation that invented YouTube and Facebook. It's kind of pathetic.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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