Non-political political question

[jking]

Pretty high turnout in my area. My precinct usually has 4-5 voting booths set up. Yesterday, they had about twice that many & they were pretty much all being used when I stopped around 5:00pm. Of course, we had some hotly contested issues on the ballot, so, higher turnout was expected.

[Kristofor]

This was a very light year for turnout in MN (~57% compared with about 77% in 2008) due to the lack of Senate or Presidential election.

However, crowds at my polling place were about the same as at every election I've been eligible to vote in (which is to say little to no waiting). Our county was at ~%70 turn-out this year, again like the state, way down from 2008.

There were 10 voting cubbies and several overflow tables. (City of 1200ish at the last census probably about twice that now). They've used optical scanners for my entire voting life (several local cities, 3 counties) so capacity has always been constrained by check-in rather than the actual voting process.

A quick check of AL (%46 turnout down from 61% in 2008) and ME (%56 down from 71% in 2008) don't seem to point to spikes that couldn't have been anticipated, though individual districts could buck those trends of course.

[parnelli]

Wasn't any more crowded than typical in my area. The wait was a little longer as they've switched from punch cards to those fill in the circle with a marker ones. Takes longer, but probably more accurate.

I think turnout was somewhere just under the 50% range which is standard around here.

[parnelli]

There were two people just outside the limit at my polling place giving out sample ballots. Usually there are quite a few folk.

Interesting. In 20+ years of voting, I've never seen anyone handing out sample ballots or trying to drum up support for a candidate.

[gsmittle]

Interesting. In 20+ years of voting, I've never seen anyone handing out sample ballots or trying to drum up support for a candidate.

Lucky you! When I voted at 6:15 am, it was like I walked onto a used car lot with a big roll of twenties. Six or eight "vote-for-my-candidate-here's-a-sample-ballot" people rushed me. They stayed outside the distance limit and didn't impede my progress to the door, but for a moment I felt like I was gonna need a big stick to fight them off.

Oh, yeah, voting. I was in and out inside of fifteen minutes. Had the rest of the day off, too.

g.

[Pappy]

Our poling place is about 15 miles out a 2 lane road. A little before 6 PM there wasn't a line of more than 5-6 waiting to sign in but the in/out traffic was steady. None of the 6 booths were empty for more than a few minutes.

[cwsmith]

My main residence is still here in the small village of Painted Post. This year they moved the voting place to the old church hall, instead of having it in the town hall. That's the first time that's every happened in the 30-plus years that we have lived here.

That may have been because this was the first year we went "electronic"... having to fill out a rather large ballot sheet and then feeding it into one of only a couple of scanners that I saw. Not sure I liked that too much, as it's getting a bit hard to read such tiny type and I didn't think to bring my reading glasses with me.

The old voting machines were much easier to read.

But, here in our little village there is always a good turn out and I don't think we had any more than the usual traffic. Voting day here is pretty nice I think, as people we don't see that often are often there, we know the volunteers and we all exchange pleasantries, asking about each other's children, families and such. I don't think anybody cares what party or political views we each may have and it's all very neighborly. Just us small town folks doing our civic duty.

CWS

[LinuxRandal]

My polling place moved a couple of years ago (redistricting?). The last two times I have went, they had us going in opposite places (one district one side, one district the other). I arrived late for me as it was only 1/2 hour before rush hour. I have never seen more then 8 people there; this time it was more like 130.

[TB Roye]

LOML and I vote by mail (optional) Our Ballots came with pink (red?) return envelope. Our son and his wife voted by mail also, the return envelopes were blue. They are Dems, we are Repub. So I figured they were by party which is not right in my opinion. Come to find out it was by State Senatorial district. We are in district 1 they are in district 2. District 2 will hold a special election in January 2011 to fill the seat of a State Senator who passed away this summer, this was the primary for that seat.

The law calls for the primary for the special election votes to be counted first. That is why the pink and blue envelopes. Now they have taken all the pink/red envelope and stored them unopened until the have finished counting the blue ballots and regular votes from district 2. So our ballots haven't even been counted and there are over 100,000 ballots sitting in storage until at least the 15th. There are a number of City and County races still to be determined along with some State races that are to close to call. I mean just a few hundred to a few thousand votes. So it will be at least Thanksgiving or the end of the month until we know who wins.

Tom

[atgcpaul]

Turnout here was nothing like 2008. Our county did offer early voting and
absentee ballots, so I hope a lot of people used those instead of going to the
polls. There were about 10 people in front of me at 7pm.

[Sid]

I served as an election judge (my first time) so I was at the polling place from 5AM until 8PM. As we started I was told that 600 would be a large number for a mid-term election. We had 824 voters, and turnout was similarly high all over town.

Sid

[cwithboat]

Like BW our county votes by mail. Ballots counted plus those remaining to be processed results in a turnout of just under 73%. Pretty darn good.

As a side note, a couple of elections ago I had to place a stamp on my ballot. I emailed the guy in charge of the county elections and suggested that the stamp was in fact a form of poll tax. He responded that he would check with the lawyers. This election the postage was prepaid. No response from the elections guy. My guess is they are keeping this quiet because, if they did decide that the postage paid was a poll tax, those elections requiring stamps may have been challengeable.