Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

[ Create a new account ]

bethanie (675210)

bethanie
  (email not shown publicly)
I'm just here for the guys.

Journal of bethanie (675210)

Voting in the Sticks

[ #150895 ]
Tuesday November 07 2006, @11:13AM
User Journal
It's one of those messy, rainy fall mornings -- one of those where the rain has knocked a bunch of the loose leaves off the trees and they litter *everything*. Previously stunning autumn foliage is now taking on a tattered look. Time to settle in for the bleak half of the year.

Got to the poll -- the local fire station. Pulled in just as Hubby was pulling out. Waved. Hauled Squirt out of her car seat and walked in.

There are 6 people standing there waiting their turn at the 2 machines, and an old guy at the table pulling all the shit out of his pockets and his wallet looking for the smart card that he has misplaced in the amount of time it's taken him to get to the front of the line. In the meantime, I am asked for my license (NOT req'd in GA, actually, but I didn't point that out to the guy -- I had it, so I didn't give a shit) and get checked in. Squirt begins recon for her eventual whirlwind tour of destruction.

Someone had gone out for biscuits and the poll workers sat and enjoyed their breakfast... in between cigarette breaks. I picked up the sample ballot (first one I'd seen -- it irritates the hell out of me that they don't mail them out and/or make them easily available online or something before election day) and reviewed the various referenda. All kinds of exemptions about old people getting to weasel out of paying school taxes. Fuck them. If they're not bitching about paying for schools, they'll be bitching about hoodlums knocking down their mailboxes. Tax those fuckers up the ass.

Everyone there seems to know each other, whether they went to high school together or grew up together or go to church together or work together... I feel like a complete outsider. But that's nothing unusual. I've never felt like I've belonged any place... except maybe on the interweb. These my peeps.

In any case, I cast my votes, record time... The electronic thing is really easy to do. Best touch screen sensitivity I've ever used.

In any case, I've said my piece. I was the 41st person at my polling place today at about 8:45 AM. Took me about 30 minutes to get in and out, and Squirt was tolerated and even accommodated. I love that she gives them a rash of shit, but they all fawn all over her 'cause she's just the cutest thing. Morons.

Time to go spread the gospel of inglés to the unwashed masses. Happy Be A Good American Day, everyone.

List all Journal entries
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Voting in the Sticks 11 Comments More | Login /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More | Login
Loading... please wait.
  • I managed to find a pdf of a sample ballot for Travis County (TX) just last week. I was glad I did, because there was one issue that I hadn't heard about before, and would have had no idea how to vote if I didn't have time to look up the full text of the proposal. The little blurbs that are on the ballots themselves really give you no idea of what's involved - and, depending on how they're worded, can actually be misleading.
  • Sunny and 45 degrees this morning in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The wife and kids and I went over at 8:00 this morning. No line. I signed in, went into the booth, and was quickly followed into the booth by all four kids. I showed them how it worked:

    "This is the job (point), these are the two people who want the job (point, point), one from each party (point, point). You pick the one you like most, or, if you don't like either of them, you go over here (point) and write in the name of somebody else. The jo
  • I cast my ballot by mail 2 weeks ago, finally mailed it Friday (ballots only have to be postmarked by election day). Given the speed the Post Office handles election matterials it should be at the elections office today.

    Dispite voting absentee for the past 8 years or so I've always dropped my ballot off at the polling place in-person. Due to voting as soon as I got my ballot and having schedule conflicts election night I actually mailed mine in this year.

    Even before the recent changes many Washington Counti
  • This is the first time that I've ever had to drive to the polling place. It was an excessively nice elementary school, and we were to vote in Mr. Fischer's Phy Ed Room. It was far too small for the 10 voting booths, voter registration line, 4 voter sign-in lines, and ballot line. I got there at 7:05. I had planned to be there right at 7, but it wouldn't have mattered. There were probably 35 people waiting to sign in, 7 people registering to vote, and another 10 or 12 people waiting for their ballots.
    • P.S. I have a feeling that the libertarian in you might appreciate how I voted on a proposed constitutional ammendment. The ammendment was for allocating vehicle sales tax to mass transit and roads, whereas now about 60% of that money goes to the general fund. I am really in favor of the concept, but finally decided that the constituion was really not the place for it.
  • We have early voting here, so I voted two weeks ago. We have touch-screen machines with a printer off to the left. After you make your choices, you verify them on-screen. After that, it starts printing your vote. You verify that the printout is accurate and then cast your vote. When you do that, the printout scrolls out of view.

    Early voting is available for two weeks at the local malls, so it's about the only thing that'll get me into a mall. (They also set up other polling places for one or two day

  • 15 out of the 20 voting booths were down. So when I got to the polling place around 10:30 there was a line of 50 people out the door already. They finally got the rest of them working by the time I got to the front of the line. Total time to vote = 50 minutes.
  • Mail in ballots are the best. I was done in 10 min weeks ago. Plus no risks about electronic votes getting lost in unreliable voting machines. (This is a non partisan issue, MD Gov. Ehrlich (R) said he is casting an absentee ballot due to problems with touch screen machines.)

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2008 SourceForge, Inc.