What little thing happened while voting bugs you?

[cosine]

For me: I pick up my ballot initialed by two voting officials in red ink. The second instruction at the top of the ballot in big bold letters says "Do not use red ink on this ballot!

I simply don't get it. Every election I've voted in they've used red ink to initial the ballot, and every ballot has contained the same instruction to not use red ink. The ballots themselves are pinkish-red, so I'd think it would be common sense not to use red ink, regardless of instructions.

I simply don't get it...

[lee n. field]

No paper trail.  We here have a paper ballot, blacken in the little circles, just like back in high school.  The ballot gets fed through a reader into a locked box, and the voter count gets incremented.  Congratulations! at 7AM I was the 58th voter.

But they have no way, at all, to know if the machine registered my votes correctly.  No paper trail.  No bit of printout they can give.  And they have  no clue why this is a problem.

[K Frame]

They're optical scan ballots, right?

The "Don't use red ink on this ballot" applies only to voting marks. If the elections officials used blue or black ink, the machines might kick the ballot as being mismarked.

[BrokenPaw]

My district switched from the old mechanical voting machines to electronic touch-screen ones for this election.

I know enough code pigs (and I am one myself) to fear computer-based voting.

-BP

[K Frame]

I voted an hour ago. Fairfax County offered the option of voting on the touch screens OR voting on an optical scan paper ballot. I chose paper over electrons.

[Bob F.]

Last 2 elections, I've voted early at the Courthouse. Good experience. Prior to that, local precinct: Bunch of incompetent old farts, and I'm no spring chicken!

Bob

[mtnbkr]

Other than the electronic voting, which I can't control for this election, the only thing that bugged me was the extremely slippery gym floor.  I was wearing my road biking shoes and it couldn't have been slicker if I were on ice.

Chris

[AZRedhawk44]

I'm glad we still have paper ballots here in AZ.  I fear and loathe electronic ballots, being a codegeek much like BrokenPaw.

Aside from that, it hurt to see people walk away from the line to vote after standing for an hour.  Don't give up, folks!  See it through to the end!

[Jamisjockey]

1) At the door, sample ballots being given out by the DNC.  So of course all the (D)'s are selected.  A little underhanded if you ask me.  Not sure how they can get away with it, either.
2) No paper trail.

Otherwise it was neat and orderly.  Just over an hour waiting indoors.

[mtnbkr]

1) At the door, sample ballots being given out by the DNC.  So of course all the (D)'s are selected.  A little underhanded if you ask me.  Not sure how they can get away with it, either.

I think they Republicans do that as well.  They were giving out sample ballots, but I wasn't offered one.  Something about a wool wearing fixed gear cyclist probably doesn't scream Republican.

Chris

[K Frame]

1) At the door, sample ballots being given out by the DNC.  So of course all the (D)'s are selected.  A little underhanded if you ask me.  Not sure how they can get away with it, either.

That's ALWAYS done.

I voted in my first national election in 1984 and it was done then.



"Something about a wool wearing fixed gear cyclist probably doesn't scream Republican."

It screams something, alright, but probably not what you think... :D

[ctdonath]

Here in GA, you show your ID, then you are given a yellow electronic "smart" card to process your ballot. Stick it into a voting machine, make your choices by touchscreen, review your choices, record your vote on the yellow card, then ...

... the annoying part: hand the yellow electronic "smart" card (my ballot) to someone who is presumably an election official, who smiles at you, and is holding a stack of votes in her hand. Done, I walk out - wondering what will happen to my ballot, in her hand with many others unsecured, no secure card reader or ballot box in sight, just inches from her pockets.

Ballots should be placed by the voter into a secured container which one can trust will be opened only in a secured and monitored location. Handing it to a stranger in hopes that it is properly counted does not comfort me.

[BrokenPaw]

Other than the electronic voting, which I can't control for this election, the only thing that bugged me was the extremely slippery gym floor.  I was wearing my road biking shoes and it couldn't have been slicker if I were on ice.

See, if you drove a car, like a red-blooded 'murrican, you wouldn't have had that problem, would you? 

Where was your polling place?  Mine's the Buckhall firehouse.  Honest, gods-fearing vinyl tile on that floor.

1) At the door, sample ballots being given out by the DNC.  So of course all the (D)'s are selected.  A little underhanded if you ask me.  Not sure how they can get away with it, either.

I believe either party has the opportunity to do so; certainly both were handing out sample ballots where I was.  If there was only a DNC rep at your polling place, it's probable that the RNC just didn't have someone there doing the same.

I think they Republicans do that as well.  They were giving out sample ballots, but I wasn't offered one.  Something about a wool wearing fixed gear cyclist probably doesn't scream Republican.

I was actually surprised that the republican sample-ballot guy approached me.  Long hair and a pentagram "Clergy" symbol on the back of the car isn't even within one standard deviation of their core.  Still, he did, and I took it, because it kept the ravening Obamanauts at bay.  Probably had garlic in it or something.

-BP

[Jamisjockey]

Here in GA, you show your ID, then you are given a yellow electronic "smart" card to process your ballot. Stick it into a voting machine, make your choices by touchscreen, review your choices, record your vote on the yellow card, then ...

... the annoying part: hand the yellow electronic "smart" card (my ballot) to someone who is presumably an election official, who smiles at you, and is holding a stack of votes in her hand. Done, I walk out - wondering what will happen to my ballot, in her hand with many others unsecured, no secure card reader or ballot box in sight, just inches from her pockets.

Ballots should be placed by the voter into a secured container which one can trust will be opened only in a secured and monitored location. Handing it to a stranger in hopes that it is properly counted does not comfort me.

Okay now I've got a third thing that I didn't like.  I hadn't thought about that one, but excellent point!  How do I even know that the person who took my card was an official?
****!
Thank sweet baby Xenu for ACORN, otherwise my vote might not count.....

[mtnbkr]

See, if you drove a car, like a red-blooded 'murrican, you wouldn't have had that problem, would you?

Didn't have much of a choice today.  I had to drop the car off to get new struts.  My bike is my only transpo until SWMBO gets home around 1pm.  Not that I'm complaining, I welcome any opportunity to ride, but bike shoes aren't very good for walking...

Where was your polling place?  Mine's the Buckhall firehouse.  Honest, gods-fearing vinyl tile on that floor.

One of the elementary schools nearby.  It was down Wellington after Wellington Station but before the HS on Wellington, down S Main IIRC. 

Chris

[ctdonath]

How do I even know that the person who took my card was an official?

I figured with 4x the elections officials in the room (Sheriff deputy included) than voters, several looking at me as I handed it to her, and her having about a dozen cards in hand, I figured she must have been an official even without a suitable nametag. Still bugged me that the cards weren't IMMEDIATELY secured and/or processed.

[freedom lover]

At the door, sample ballots being given out by the DNC.

What the... I thought there was a law making it illegal to promote candidates within 1000 ft of a polling place.

Maybe its only in my state?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

how do they allocate voters to polling places?  one precinct no lines another had hour wait

[taurusowner]

We use paper scan-tron ballots that you fill in circles with a black felt pen.  When you're done, you put it inside a sleeve with only the top 2 inches showing(it's marked how much you leave outside of the sleeve).  Then you carry it over to a table where an election official makes sure you have it in the sleeve properly.  They don't look at it, and there's a Sheriff's Deputy standing behind the table.  Then you walk up to a machine and push the uncovered part of your ballot into a slot and the machine sucks the whole ballot in, and you just hand the empty sleeve back to an official.  It seems like a pretty decent system.

[freedom lover]

how do they allocate voters to polling places?

I think its determined by where you live and how your state devides up its assembly and senate districts. All the people in one particular area vote at one polling place.

one precinct no lines another had hour wait

That probably had to do with population density and the availability of nearby state buildings.

[AJ Dual]

What little thing happened while voting bugs you?

I was there at 7:05am and the line stretched considerably outside the park pavilion building. Then people exiting pointed out that the line for my ward number started inside the building and was much shorter. They should have had signs for each ward district outside too.

Other than that, the only thing that bothered me was the petite size 2 pretty blonde MILF in line in front of me, and the panty-lines visible through her rather tight and thin khaki pants. 

[Manedwolf]

This, seen on the way.

The signs, paid for by the state Democratic Party, have the same style as Republican Senate incumbent John Sununu's signs _ green and blue lettering on a white background.

But the Democrats' signs carry messages such as "Stand with Bush; Stick with Sununu" and "Privatize Social Security" by voting for Sununu. Many have been placed next to Sununu's own signs.

Sununu spokesman Julie Teer called it "a desperate attempt to salvage Jeanne Shaheen's candidacy."

She said state Democratic Party Chairman "Ray Buckley and the New Hampshire Democrat Party have again resorted to childish pranks in an attempt to distort Senator John Sununu's record.

"The people of New Hampshire are smarter than the Democrat operatives think and we know the voters will dismiss this type of political chicanery," Teer said.

They are such...immature...PESTS.

[SADShooter]

The tables to check against voter rolls were organized alphabetically, and when my wife and I arrived, everyone waiting was in our line, with no activity at the other tables. The other volunteers were thumb-twiddling while one person checked us through. A very minor annoyance, as the whole process to ballot-drop took 10 minutes.

Whatever the outcome, I'm grateful we live in a place where exercising franchise doesn't routinely involve risk to life and limb.

[Tim L]

Standing in line this morning (still outside the building) the lady behind me was on the phone complaining that there was only one voting booth.  She went on for several minutes while others around her asked how she knew.  I finally said that there are 8-10 booths inside and she walked away.  I figured she was just trying to say she was disenfranchised.  Turns out she thought that a table outside the building was the voting booth, funny thing is I never saw a table.   :rolleyes:

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

We used to have touch screens, we're back on paper this year.