What are conditions like at YOUR precint polling place?

[last1standing]

I got to the polls at noon, walked right up to the first table, showed my ID and filled in my info. At the second table, they checked my name off and gave me the ballot. I went to one of two free boxes, of 15 or so, and filled in my PAPER ballot. Then I went over the the reader and watched my ballot be successfully registered. I was done in less that 10 minutes.

Then I saw my next door neighbor so I decided to wait for him so we could walk back together. I started chatting with a poll worker who gave me some interesting info. Apparently, there are just over 2000 registered voters in my precinct of which over 500 had sent in absentee ballots and I was the 574th voter in person. This means that by noon, about 50% had voted and they are expecting many more to come later. She said that rarely does the vote go over 50% at all in our precinct so she was really encouraged.

So here in a working class suburb of Detroit, we are experiencing overwhelming turnout and still there was no trouble voting or long lines to manage (other than at polls opening, but that's rather common).

What was your experience?

[A-Schwarzenegger]

1. 40 minute wait in Santa Monica, line of about 75.

Never waited longer than a minute ever before.

[Raven]

2. Little Marlborough NH is very calm and quiet today. I voted at 2 pm

and got right in and out. They did say that it had been busy and I'm sure it will pick up later this afternoon.

[Ozma]

4. My sister is working for Obama in Keene and Marlboro today!

Isn't the weather WONDERFUL????

[Raven]

30. This weather is a good omen!

[Blue_In_AK]

3. We went to our neighborhood polling place

about 10:00 a.m. There was no wait, but just a nice steady flow of voters. My mother-in-law voted in a different precinct but had a similar experience.

[atomic-fly]

5. I waited 2 hours in Richmond Va this morning.

I recently rode by there with some jackets for folks stuck in the rain, but no one was waiting outside. I expect it will pick up
again around 4pm.

[newfie11]

6. Melbeta Nebraska

No wait when we got there @ 7:30. When we left there were 4 people checking in and a fellow just getting out of his cattle hauling truck to go vote. Cattle were voicing their opinion on who to vote for as he walked away.

This is a repug area in the far western part of the Nebraska panhandle but we have hopes that this year it will be different.

[fencesitter]

7. 2:30 PM in suburban Philly.

Just three voters, me and two others.

[sufrommich]

8. Wow, my experience almost exactly (I didn't run into

anybody I knew)I'm also in metro Detroit. How did you find out how many people voted before you,I've seen quite a few posts from people who knew what number they were?

[last1standing]

10. Since I was waiting I chatted with a poll worker.

She had taken a vacation day to run things and seemed to want to chat so I did. :)

She gave some very detailed numbers and Lincoln Park is solid blue so I'm very glad our numbers are so high.

[sufrommich]

18. I knew Lincoln Park would be blue!! My cousin lives there

and works for the city,she promised me it would,lol.

[last1standing]

23. That's a promise that won't be broken if I can help it.

I've pushed everyone I have influence over (namely my dog and cat) to get out and vote for Obama. :)

[tigereye]

60. they have a paper with numbers on it and we could see them circle the #

after they checked your registration on the paper and gave you your voter card. There's never been a complication in all the years I have been voting there.

[bunnies]

9. Got there at 6:40 in Dover NH...

Already about 40 people in line. By the time we got out (about 7:15) the line was around the block! Unreal.

[slackmaster]

11. There were two people in front of me when I walked in - San Diego, CA

One was at the wrong place. I was in and out in under five minutes.

[Connonym]

12. I don't think it took even 15 minutes to drive there, vote and drive home

1 guy in front of me. Didn't have to show an ID, they looked up my registration on a roster. Historically, the place I live has one of the top turnout percentages in the country. I've lived in 3 different districts in the city over the past 15 years and I've never seen a line of more than 5 people. Coincidence that I live smack dab in an island of red? I think not.

[AlCzervik]

13. the line was out the door for the first time ever, i had my huge California sample ballot

got in line and talked to a few people, 3 first time voters and that was pretty sweet, waited with my elderly neighbors who i drove to the polls and we finally finished up after an hour and half.

I have never seen a line like this where i vote.

[last1standing]

15. What's your feeling on Prop 8? n/t

[AlCzervik]

17. i think it will fail, i'm hoping it will fail big, same with 4, i'm tired of voting on that one.

[last1standing]

24. Glad to hear that.

What was 4 about?

[AlCzervik]

25. Parental notification, i think this might be the 4th time i've voted no on that.

[mokawanis]

14. No line at my polling place in WI

Very calm atmosphere. Poll watchers keeping an eye on things. The optical scanner broke down for a minute but they fixed it quickly.

[crossroads]

16. I had a 20 min wait to vote in NO, La.

It wasn't bad at all... no problems!
CR

[Medusa]

19. Normally takes me 10-15 minutes, tops to vote

from the time I walk in the door to the time I leave. Today it was over an hour. And I'm told that earlier in the day when the polls opened, it was taking 2 hours to vote. Never in my life have I seen a line that long ever in line to vote at that precinct.

[kilaana]

20. 1.5 hr wait in Indianapolis

There around 300 people in line when I got to my polling place in a blue neighborhood in Indy at 6 a.m. The line was much shorter when I left. Other areas of Indy had waits ranging from 15 min to nearly 2 hours.

[luvs2sing]

21. North side of Columbus, Ohio

My neighborhood is heavily Democratic, and we have a very strong grassroots organization. I'm betting most people around here have already voted. I drove by my polling place at 7:20am, parking lot was full, but there wasn't a line out the door, which meant the line inside had to be less than 20. I drove by again on my way home from work at 2:15 and, again, no line, and not many cars in the parking lot. I'm going out to walk the dog in about an hour, and I'll cruise by again.

My boss lives about five miles east of me, and he encountered a huge line this morning - the first time he's ever had to stand in line at his polling place.

And me...I voted at Vet's a month ago. Stood in line for 90 minutes with a bunch of college kids and friendly, happy people who had just come from church.

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Dr Fate]

22. 45 minute wait in San Francisco County. n/t

n/t

[Xithras]

26. Other than the biased poll worker?

There was no line, but all eight booths at my polling place were full when I walked in (I'm usually the only one there). While I was casting my vote, and older gentleman was having a problem getting the machine to take his ballot (we use optical scanners here...we fill in a paper ballot and feed it into the machine to be read). A poll worker came over, looked at the screen, and informed him LOUDLY that he'd voted for two different candidates for president. She "blocked" the box (so the scanner wouldn't read it) and handed him a second ballot so he could recast a vote for president, which he did. When he walked out, one of the poll workers made a snarky comment to another, "Hey, I guess that isn't just a Florida problem after all!" The other poll worker, the one who had helped him with his ballot, answered back, "No, but what do you expect from an Obama voter?"

Living in freeperland is such a joy :eyes:

Sadly, I also got to see an unfortunate exchange with a young woman as I was leaving. Apparently she had just turned 18 and had come down to vote against Proposition 8, and FOR Obama...a fact she was very happy and vocal about. She was unaware that he had to register beforehand, was refused a ballot by the poll workers, and left the polling place on the verge of tears.

I stopped her outside and told her not to worry, because we were going to win anyway!

[sufrommich]

32. You should call your city elections office and complain

about those workers,they likely won't be there anymore if you do. I would have said something to their faces,loudly. Very sad about the 18 year old,glad you attempted to make her feel better.

[Xithras]

36. Already did.

I was NOT going to let that get by without challenge. I didn't say anything to them directly (no real point in doing so) but I did call the county registrar. They took the details down and said they'd send a supervisor out there to deal with it.

On edit: I should also mention that the person at the registrars office told me that I wasn't the first caller about that particular comment. She wouldn't give me any details, but apparently one or two of the other voters in the other booths also took offense to the comment and called about it.

[last1standing]

40. I agree with sufrommich, complain. LOUDLY!

Squeaky wheel and all, you know. Thanks for sharing, as well. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. I went early on, and took an hour and a half

we in line commented that it is NEVER like this, aka this busy

My hubby went an hour ago and was done in ten minutes

:-)

[NEDem]

28. Lincoln NE

Empty, but it's the middle of the day. I was voter #147 for my precinct. Which is about where I was last time.

[Mike Daniels]

29. Voted in Northern Virginia - In line at 5:40, polls opened at six, out by 6:20

And that was with at least 150 people in line ahead of me.

[Clio the Leo]

31. Other than the fact that there were WAY too many McCain supporters there, it was fine...

.... no line, no wait. In and out.

And considering the fact that it IS a heavily Republican area in TN, that is a VERY good thing.

The time I went (10am) helped. They said there had been a line when they first opened.

[lebkuchen]

33. CNNI had reported a half mile line somewhere

After Obama wins, I hope he will make election day a national holiday, as in nearly every other country. How are people supposed to wait in a half mile long line on a workday?

[mvd]

34. Longest line I can remember here

But they were pretty efficient at getting people in. They would even let voters with names starting with certain letters go ahead if there was a short backup. Waited about 15 minutes. All I had to do was sign next to my signature, and the vote seemed to go fine.

[tigereye]

61. we heard the same thing - they had a line out the door in the early morning

from what we heard- that has never happened at my polling place.

:hi: Matt :hug:

[mvd]

69. Hi Barb!

:hi: :hug:

We are going to win PA! This is a Repuke precinct here, and I think the extra turnout is probably more Obama voters. Have been getting support in the stores around here when I wear an Obama button.

[tigereye]

72. Fox News! just called Ohio for Obama!

hell has clearly frozen over! :rofl:


So glad to see PA said no PAlin! :bounce: :woohoo:

[JohnnyRingo]

35. I had the same experience as you

Here in Cortland OH I've never had to wait in a line. Today there were 2 empty machines and more poll workers than voters as usual.

I don't know what that says about the voting demo here, but I like the convenience.

[blue_onyx]

37. I went in around 9:30

There was short line....maybe 20-25 people. I was the 247 vote. Everything went very smoothly for me. The poll workers were talking and they kept saying how turnout has been good. One guy said the line had been out the gymnasium doors all day. Luckily, I got there at a slower time because I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.

[Codeine]

38. So Cal: In and out in five minutes. Paper ballot. Totally smooth. nt

[TwilightGardener]

39. Just got back--I was the only one in there (at city hall) for the first few minutes, and then

by the time I was done filling in the ovals on my paper ballot, there were about six or seven voters--not an indication of low turnout, my town only has 1000 people or so, and the conversation in the hall was that it had been very busy, but in waves. The poll worker ladies were very aloof, BTW--they were the last time around too, when I voted for Kerry--not sure if that's the way they always are, or if it's small-town personal stuff (I didn't recognize them, but everyone always seems to know who I and my family are here), or if they just don't like registered Democrats in general in the middle of the Red Republican Sea of Nebraska. Either way, pretty fast and easy, and I was happy to put in yet one more vote for Obama/Biden. Second time I have voted for Obama, BTW, first time was at the caucus!

[1corona4u]

41. West Palm Beach-walked in, voted, under 3 minutes.

[spinbaby]

42. It was manageable

Half hour wait (usually there's no wait). Only two or three of the six Diebold machines were in use at any one time because checking in the voters went very slowly. One old lady had all the pages with the registered voters and she was perpetually shuffling and stacking her pages. Very slow going. Usually it doesn't matter, but this year it would have been nice to have more people or more efficient people handling this.

A very loud McCain supporter ahead of us in line held things up, too, when it turned out he had just moved into our precinct and just kind of thought someone would transfer his voter registration. He didn't even have an ID showing his new address. He went off with an election judge.

[tencats]

43. Chicago near west side I was #180 at 2:30 this afternoon.

I was the only voter present coming and going. By the looks of the list of registered voters something like less then one in ten were scratched off for having voted today. Its not known how many voted early though.

[jumptheshadow]

44. 1.5 to 2 hour wait in Brooklyn

Who said that the young vote isn't turning out? A large number of the people on the line here in Park Slope were under 35. I saw cross-generational families voting, and a lot of young mothers and fathers brought their young kids. "Mom, are those people angry?" asked one little girl, surveying the line that covered more than two city blocks. "No, honey, they're waiting and they're happy," the mother replied.

When I finally got inside, the line slowed down because the poll workers were showing quite a few first-time voters how to vote on the old (thankfully non-electronic) machines.

Everybody was out. I saw the Latina lady around the block who always says "hi" but whose name I don't know. The older Chinese guy upstairs who once lived in a one-bedroom apartment with several immigrants but worked hard enough to get his son through Cornell was there. The daughter-in-law of a famous television political pundit was showing her young son what a voting booth looked like. The VP of a local commission, a 9/11 survivor, said to me, "I think we're probably voting alike." One of our favorite waiters was waiting in line before his shift.

There was no drama, except for the people emerging from the booths smiling broadly or high-fiving companions. I personally saw only one person leave the line. If there's anything that the last eight years has reinforced, it's how precious each vote is, even if the outcome in your neighborhood is a foreordained conclusion.

What a great day this has been. I hope fervently that it ends well, too.

[coalition_unwilling]

45. I was at the polls in Mar Vista, California 15 minutes at 6:45 a.m., 15 minutes before they

opened. (Polling station at intersection of Venice Blvd. and Beethoven St.)

When I got there, there was already a line of 50-75. Line grew to close to 100 before poll opened at 7 a.m. Line moved slowly and orderly. I waited about 20 minutes before voting.

7 voting machines (ink-a-dot) there.

When I came out at approximately 7:25, there was still a long line. Was running late to work, so did not hand-count, but I would estimate line at 50-75 still. People were straggling up as I left.

Never had to wait more than 2-3 minutes before today.

AMUSING and CUTE ANECDOTE:

About 7:15, a yellow school bus pulled up to the stop light. All the kids on the bus looked to be elementary-school aged.

They had several windows on the bus open and were yelling "Obama" at people standing in line outside the polling station. In addition, several of the kids had hand-drawn Obama signs on notebook paper and were holding them up to the windows of the school bus.

It is one of the cutest things I have ever seen in any election and made my heart soar. People standing in line took it in good humor too (except for the old bastard in front of me in line who muttered, "That's illegal" -- about a bunch of little kids, no less :)

I was posting on DU when this happened on my cell phone and did not happen to have the presence of mind to snap a photo of this with my cell phone camera. I really wish I had. It was SOO CUTE!

[last1standing]

46. LOL! Great story.

What did that old guy want the cops to do, arrest 6 year olds? :rofl:

[tigereye]

63. kids on the bus from a school near my house have been doing that eveyrday

too!

It's really cute. (better than some of the stuff they usually yell) ;)

[kcwayne]

47. No wait, >50% of VERY REPUBLICAN precint had voted by 12:00 noon

On the other hand, as I drove by the polling places in middle income neighborhoods, there were massively overflowed parking lots and long lines.

I guess the election commisioners wanted to be sure the Republicans have a very easy time voting. Or is that just a conspiracy theory?

[kcwayne]

49. I forgot to mention that I am in Indiana....

And live in a precint where 80% voted for Bush.

[AtomicKitten]

48. SF, no waiting. 6 machines for my small neighborhood.

[whistler162]

50. Dull as usual - Camillus NY(St. Joseph's Church)

I arrived two other voters had just arrived. Two polling machines for different districts. No wait for me.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. 24 people in line at my neighborhood school at 11AM

which is unusual, since it's a quiet residential area and most people work during the day. (I'm a free-lancer, so I have more flexibility.) However, the line moved quickly, since they had a lot of booths, as well as tables for those who were okay marking their paper ballots that way.

[carnie_sf]

52. No lines at all in SF nt

[buzzycrumbhunger]

53. Left coast FL

I voted last week (no wait and Scantron ballots), so spent four hours today helping to man the Obama table outside my precinct. This is a redneck town of largely retirees and min. wage peons, so is usually heavily red. I think out of season, our population is about 20,000 (at least doubles in the winter).

From what we can figure, most Dems voted early. For the entire time I sat today, there couldn't have been more than two dozen people coming to vote--and probably a third of them were glad to get their "I voted for Obama" sticker (and candy!) Most of the rest gave us a wide berth and a couple tried to get really ugly with us, but were easily frustrated because we farted them off. The county apparently DID use the dumb touch screen machines they'd gotten in 2004 for the main election, but I didn't hear any complaints.

Granted, there will probably be a flurry of activity after work, but given that the majority of our residents are retirees who are free to vote before the rush hour crush, I don't think there are going to be huge numbers on the red side.

There was NO McLame table at all. :7

[Zech Marquis The 2nd]

54. 2 hours in VA, thankfully line was indoors

My parents went at 6am, i went to vote at 730...OMG the line was massive:wow: Thankfully the line was inside the middle school, so we stayed dry. one optical reader was down, BUT the Election Protection members were on hand and warned us to see if the tally reader was moving after we cast our votes or not.

There were so man new young voters, I only saw like 2 people leave, everyone else stayed in line. We even had a Redskin fan get into it with a Steelers fan (all in good nature, everyone had a good laugh).

This afternoon I did some canvassing--another 2 hours walking, but it did stop raining--, most were at work, the Obama supporters who were at home had voted :bounce: I'm worn out, otherwise I'd go help with the polling place until 7pm.

[FatDave]

55. I was in and out. No line, no wait.

Of course my town has a population of 478....

[progressivebydesign]

56. Here is Gig Harbor, Washington.. my family reports long line, traffic to the site.

This is unheard of here. Last times I've voted in person here, it was empty, and some very nice elderly ladies manning the polls gave out the worst cookies ever made. I had to spit mine out when I got to the car. But today.. long lines and traffic. But probably only an hour wait (we'll see, cuz they just got in line there.)

Gig Harbor is a strange place in that it's balanced almost 50/50, though more registered Dems by a small margin. LOTS of Obama stickers and signs here.. MANY born agains and military officers here, too. But I've heard that many of the officers are voting for Obama this time around (and these are solid Bush voters.)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

57. Great in the Portola District of San Francisco!

:hi:

I was at the polls at 7:00am when they opened. I vote in a residential garage on an OptiScan ballot. All of the poll workers were young people, no one looked over 20. They had seven stations opened where you could fill out your ballot. We had three pages of races/ballot propositions to fill out -- being in SF/CA we had a buttload of local and state props to vote on. Everything went very smoothly for me, and the machine gobbled up my ballots just fine. As always, I thanked the poll workers for volunteering and headed in to work.

I have been in a spectacular mood since. :)

[tigereye]

58. fine, we walked to our polling place, waited about 5 minutes

there were 6 machines and not all were busy. They had had about 250 people by 10am or so, when we went, and apparently that is the most ever.

There were no glitches - we use e machines, and are in a blue area. No problems.

[gmoney]

59. Stopped by my precinct earlier, and it was almost empty...

this was about 10:30am, so I guess it was between the early morning and lunch hour rush, but there were 4 voters, 2 workers in a gymnasium. This is out in the burbs... I'm sure people downtown were still on line after having to wait since 8am...

perfect weather today, 71 and sunny south of Dayton OH

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[last1standing]

68. Yes, a lot of trouble because it's called election fraud. No one here would support that.

Unlike the freepers, we don't support stealing elections at DU. I certainly hope your "friend" didn't do that or is caught and prosecuted if he did.

[Zombie2]

64. Small town.... Southern Indiana

My ghoulfiend and I were able to walk right in and vote.... no wait. We had our choice of 3 voting machines.

[DawgHouse]

65. Smoother than EVER at my polling place.

Walked right up, showed ID, got my ballot. Marked my ballot (two pages, front and back), put in scanner and DONE. Whole thing took maybe 20 minutes.

[Chemical Bill]

66. Easy, no line anywhere.

I went after 9 this morning, and the place was moving people very efficiently to the voting stations. A good time was had by all....

Bill

[donco6]

67. In Colorado, 60% early voting.

At my polling place, a steady stream, but no long lines - maybe 5 deep at times. I work in the same building, so I keep my eye on it. Just a steady stream all day. Expecting a crowd about 3:30 p. The kids have coffee and cookies for everyone.

[donco6]

71. UPDATE: At 4:00 p.m. - room full, line out door.

This a.m., secretary said the line stretched out the door and down the street to the corner.

[dixiegrrrrl]

70. Harper Lee's hometown, Alabama

We use a paper ballot, goes into mechanical reader, which has a counter.
ID can be one of a long list of items: fish license, driver's license, water bill, etc. Plus the voter Registration slip.
IN the primary, there were about 2400 people who voted. Small town.

So I am standing in a 3 person line at 1 pm, a woman complains her ballot went into the machine but the counter did not turn over, the 2 women precinct workers start yelling at each other across the huge gym, about ways to get the vote counted, and suddenly a flash bulb goes off, in my face, blinding me. ( I am very photosensitive).
I said "hey, no pictures" and the precinct worker yells at the photographer, "Don't use that one, she doesn't want her picture taken".
I was mad, but finished putting my ballot into the machine, noted the number, left, and called the County Board of Registrars, left message for a callback.
Then I called the local weekly paper, thinking maybe the pics were for the paper.
Got the editor, he has no idea it is illegal to take pics in a polling place !!!!!! but says he had no one taking pics where I voted.
Got a call back from our newly elected Probate Judge, he explains the photographer was from the ballot machine people. He is not sure we have a law against taking pics in a polling place. But he assures me none of the pics at my polling place will be used. He also says the machine we use to count the paper ballots have never had problems, a fact backed up by another person who has voted with them in another state.
Mood at polling place was calm, low key, people smile a lot anyhow in this town.

Edited to add:
I also of course voted against our Repug. Senator, Jeff Sessions, and just now, as I typed this, got a robocall from him soliciting my vote. :rofl: