Non-political political question

[JSUPreston]

Not trying to break any rules about discussing politics, but I am interested in voting experiences yesterday. For example, when I went to my polling place at 5:15, there were at least 100 people in line in front of me, and the location had to call for more supplies!!!! Once the supplies arrived, things started moving fairly quickly, and I was home a little before 6. When I left, the line was actually longer than when I arrived. No free parking spaces, and traffic was backed up on a major road.

I've voted at this location for nearly 10 nears. I've lived in this area of the state for 14, and the longest wait in the past was the lady at the counter making sure my ID matched the rolls. Usually it has taken me longer to fill out the ballot than to get it.

Was it this way all over the country? From what I understand, this was the best voter turnout my area has seen in a long time. For the sake of this discussion, it doesn't matter who won or lost. I'm just glad to see that people are exercising their rights.

Mods, if I've overstepped the rules any, please feel free to lock and/or delete the thread and accept my apologies.

[dbhost]

Moderator input

As you undoubtedly are aware, this does blur the line a little bit. After reviewing the history of similar threads, these sorts of things seem to have been allowed, as long as they were kept civil and out of the areas of peronality, policy, or party.

I have no problem letting this thread go on, but please keep it civil.

[dbhost]

My input as ME...

I have never seen such turnout. The parking lot at the grammar school I vote in was completely full, and there was a line out to the main street and back around the school to vote. Took me 1.5 hours to vote yesterday. Another surprise was that I saw only one person trying to garner votes for her candidate, usually I have to run a gamut of people begging me to vote for this or that person, or this issue or that...

[Cochese]

Turnout in my area was much lighter than 2008. Which is surprising, and I'll leave it at that.

[phrog]

I've had just the opposite experience of JSUPreston and dbHost. When I drove up to the church gym where I usually vote, I thought they had changed the location. There were only about six cars in the entire parking lot. I walked in, walked up to the desk where I show my id and get my ballot. There was absolutely no one at any of the registration desks. Upon receiving my ballot, I looked towards the back where the desks are located for the voters to mark the ballot and noted there was only one voter in the entire gym. I expected turnout to be low as a result.

[Black wallnut]

My county is voting by mail only with execptions made in rare cases; not sure what they would be. Last night as I was checking returns it seems only 50% turnout, as if you can use that word for a mail election, with maybe another 10% expected in the mail in the comming days.

[Ed62]

My wife and I went to vote around 9 A.M. We were the only ones there to vote at that time. But our area is a small one. This close to the norm if it's not a presidential election.

Ed

[pelligrini]

I didn't get to the polls until about 6:10, they closed at 7:00. It wasn't very crowded. No wait really, but all the booths were usually filled. It was about the same as the last few times. I got there about the same time last time, and went in the morning the time before.

[JSUPreston]

db, you hit on something I noticed but didn't really think about that much. There were two people just outside the limit at my polling place giving out sample ballots. Usually there are quite a few folk. Then again, the weather was starting to look a little dreary, and with it being 2 hours before closing, maybe that's why I didn't see many folks advertising.

[twistsol]

Because I travel I vote at the courthouse on the Friday before. I've never seen another person voting at the same time, but this year there were two couples in line in front of me and some else came in and had to wait for me.

Our precinct only has 700 registered voters, my wife said it was the same as most other elections. Walk in, vote, walk out 10 minutes tops.

[LCHIEN]

i voted in the absentee balloting mostly because I was due to arrive back in town late on Tuesday but also partly because Houston, the 4th largest city in the US is mostly located in Harris county and two months ago our entire stock of digital voting tablets was destroyed in an uninsured county warehouse fire.

Apparently they recovered and borrowed enough equipment so it went smoothly but i was worried there might be long lines and SNAFUs resulting.

[dbhost]

I forgot about that. I wonder if Harris County borrowed voting machines from Galveston County. We usually have 4 in my precinct, and this time we had 3.

[woodturner]

For example, when I went to my polling place at 5:15, there were at least 100 people in line in front of me

Wow, that's impressive. Our polls didn't even open until 7 AM, and I was number six (I arrived about 7:05).

Our polls were open until 7:00 PM (19:00) as well, so people did have a full 12 hours to vote.

[Shep]

My wife and I arrived at our new polling location around 3pm. Crowed was very light. I don't know if it was due to the new location, but in 08 it was packed. Of course in 08 we went in aroudn 7:30 when the polls opened. It was packed then.

[unknown poster]

There were only a few people in line with me this year. In 2008 the wait was 2 hours at this same polling place at the same time of day. We didn't have much going on in my state this year, for the most part the Federal races were already decided and as a location with a lot of non-natives (people moved who here recently from other states) I don't think people care much about the state races.