Share Your Voting Experience Here - Long Lines, Young People, etc...

[elizabethann]

I haven't voted yet. I'll go tonight after work, and hopefully things will be a little slower then. I'm hearing a ton of folks are waiting in never before long lines and that they are seeing many many young folks in those lines, which is awesome. Funny, some "older" person said "all those young folks had baseball caps on and they were all backwards". I thought that was cute.

So I'm just curious. What was your experience today at the voting booths? Did you have a long wait? Were there a lot of young folks? Etc.

Thank you!

[MoonandBean]

I went at 8am. There were about 10 people in front of me and 10 behind me. I think everyone looked "middle aged". The people registering the voters; they were old We had paper ballots and could vote as straight democrat or republican or vote for each candidate separately. We had one issue to vote on which was whether to spend 4 billion dollars fixing all the water lines in the state.

[lvpets2002]

Well this time I did have a experience when I went to Early Vote.. I had this T-Shirt on with Cartoon Cats on it and I had my button on of Why Be Normal.. Well the Electorial Judge was sitting across the room from me & could not see the button or the shirt real good.. She stood up & demanded me to show her the button & shirt.. She thought it was something to do Political.. She made some rude remarks && after I showed her my shirt & the button then she was ok.. Well today they non-stop on the news announced for no-one to even think of wearing political on any clothing.. They said if you do then you will be refused at the voting polls.. Well there is my experience..

[kuhio98]

Well this time I did have a experience when I went to Early Vote.. I had this T-Shirt on with Cartoon Cats on it and I had my button on of Why Be Normal.. Well the Electorial Judge was sitting across the room from me & could not see the button or the shirt real good.. She stood up & demanded me to show her the button & shirt.. She thought it was something to do Political.. She made some rude remarks && after I showed her my shirt & the button then she was ok.. Well today they non-stop on the news announced for no-one to even think of wearing political on any clothing.. They said if you do then you will be refused at the voting polls.. Well there is my experience..

Well, that's just crazy. You have the right to wear whatever you want. Even if someone wears a political message, so what? They can't refuse you your right to free speech or your right to vote.

Our experience ~ No line at all. Senior citizen volunteers working the polling place. No young people voting while we were there. But, we went in the morning. I imagine it is going to be a ZOO after work today.

Hopefully, people will vote up until closing time. Unfortunately, with the time difference, election results sometimes get announced while we're still voting. Very disheartening. I think it's going to be so close this election that there won't be a clear winner while our polls are still open.

[Cincy'sMom]

I have not voted yet. Four years ago I tried to go before work, waited 45 minutes, found out I was in the wrong line and decided I better get to work. When I went back after work, there was no wait. This year I decided to wait until after work. I hope I don't regret it....

[catlover4ever]

I got to my polling location at 7:15 am, walked in and was behind about 7 people. That took only around 7 minutes. Got my ballot, went to my booth, filled in the blanks and deposited my ballot into the counting machine. That took me all of 11 - 12 minutes. Hubby will go tonight and I told him to just be patient as in our town most people vote between 4 - 7pm.

P.S. as for being refused at a polling station because you are wearing something policital....yes they can refuse to let you vote. You actually can not get within 75 feet of a polling location with anything political. I'm not sure of the reason why, I just know that you can not, as I have wore many t-shirts and held many a political sign in my life...as a matter of fact my mom is out there today, holding signs for local races here in CT, and she will later take the numbers from the polling location that she is at today and report them to the appropriate committees with the results.

[Karen]

We just went, voted, no line, no waiting. As we have Question 3, banning commercial dog racing, I said to Paul "What, not even one greyhound?"

But as we were leaving, up walked greyhound and owner. Brisby is 11 years old, and they had been there since 9 am, so had gone home for a break. He's an old man, after all. But we chatted for a bit, and I did take his picture, which I'll post later!

[Lady's Human]

The ban on politically oriented clothing is a matter of law.

In New York no electioneering is allowed within 100 feet of a polling place, and that includes political slogans/candidate messages on clothing. I believe in Massachusetts it's either 100 or 200 feet from a polling place.

[ramanth]

I voted! I went at 10:30 and only had about 5 people ahead of me. All age ranges... I even had a teen in front of me voting for the first time.

I was home by 11.

[shais_mom]

I went about 1130am and took Keegan with me to wait in the car with the window open smelling the fresh air.
I'd never been in that church before but had no problem finding the fellowship room with the signs and following the 2 older ladies ahead of me.
Ran into a friend (co-worker's sister) she's 19 and her boyfriend who was voting is 31 so there was that age span. I saw several younger people. Several older people too. The older guy beside me was having problems with the computer and was getting rather frazzled.
I went to leave and couldn't remember which door I was to go out b/c the sign said "fire exit" and under it "MEN" I didn't want to go to the men's room so I just stood there a second and someone said "yup that's the exit! and women can go thru it too!" lmao - when I opened the door the men's room was across the hall!

[caseysmom]

The ban on politically oriented clothing is a matter of law.

In New York no electioneering is allowed within 100 feet of a polling place, and that includes political slogans/candidate messages on clothing. I believe in Massachusetts it's either 100 or 200 feet from a polling place.

This is true and our local news folks have been reminding everyone, some polling places even have hospital gowns on hand just in case.

[AdoreMyDogs]

I early voted a couple weeks ago. There was about 10 in line ahead of me, and 10 or so behind me. It was quick, easy, and Quinn couldn't get "Elmo" out of her head, so I said to the clerk that my daughter is also going to vote, and she's voting for Elmo. We all had a good laugh. Then Quinn showed the clerk her belly button and said "a butt" (she shortens button with "butt" sometimes) which was funny.

There was a 96 year old man in front of us that was voting. The surprising thing is that I wouldn't have guessed him to be over 80. He looked great for 96, walking well and upright, good posture, good skin, healthy body. It was really neat seing someone so old doing so very well.

[RICHARD]

I saw a news report where some local precincts were given pieces of string measuring 100 feet so they could just whip it out and measure.. THat way there would be no question as to the distance.

----------

Here's some Cooler Knowledge, The overnight sports guy gives some sports-related tidbits that 'make you look smarter' you meet up with someone at the water cooler....

This one was politics and football related..

Joe Paterno, head of the Penn State football program, has been the coach there for 11 presidential elections.

Don't ya feel really smart now?

[smokey the elder]

There are signs near polling places that say "This is 100 feet to a polling place". I remember them being more common in Massachusetts when I was growing up.

[Daisy and Delilah]

I went at 10:00 a.m. My precinct is normally 75% elderly people. Today, it was all ages. I saw many more younger people than in the past. It always amazes me and makes me happy to see some of the people that come out that normally don't get out much. i.e. people on oxygen, in wheelchairs, very old, and other reasons. They make it out to vote, no matter what.

I was there a total of 10 minutes. The most memorable thing was the girl that signed me up and gave me a ballot. The moment I reached the table, she excused herself and started coughing violently, blowing her nose violently, etc. The poor thing sounded like she needed to go home and go to bed. I was a little disturbed that I had no hand sanitizer with me. Her fellow workers were worn out from obviously hearing this all morning. I hope she's okay and eventually went home.
On that note: she was fairly young. I've never seen a worker at my precinct that's under 55.
Overall, it was a good experience. At least until I hit the center of town and noticed hoards of people holding up "the other candidate's" signs. Oh well.