Have you voted yet?

[Party @ the Moontower]

I'm gonna be the 1st person there on Nov 4th with my Obama shirt and buttons on! Then, party @ our haus until Nov 5th if anyone is around.Fire,booze, chili cookoff...and then Obama scores!

[austrya]

I'm gonna be the 1st person there on Nov 4th with my Obama shirt and buttons on! Then, party @ our haus until Nov 5th if anyone is around.Fire,booze, chili cookoff...and then Obama scores!

 

I wouldn't wear your obama shirt and buttons. They can turn you away from the polls for that.

[bleedorange]

Maybe it's the sports lover in me, but I always enjoy watching the returns, too. Although, when do the polls close in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina? Even Indiana and New Hampshire? In other words, we could know fairly early if this is a rout.

[mpolak21]

I voted absentee, I am still registered and a legal citizen of West (by God) Virginia, though I am living in Minnesota. I was one of the twenty or so people in Wva. that voted for Obama in the primary, and the choice was pretty easy for me.

 

--Mike

[moxiebean]

Yes (Absentee)

[kimcatch22]

This morning the Trib reported that 544,000 of Chicagoland's 4.76 million registered voters have voted early and they expect the number to be around 697,000 by the time early voting ends tomorrow evening.

 

edit: I early voted yesterday and had about a 10 minute wait. I just beat a huge rush though.

[aricandover]

Alison and I voted last Saturday. We were lucky to beat the mad rush that they keep talking about on the news, there was no line at all.

[LouieB]

I voted last Friday. Now I get election day off so I can sleep in and watch TV all day. I wore one of the small Obama buttons (no words) to the polling place and no one said a thing. I also wore a Wilco shirt, but they weren't on the ballot.

 

LouieB

[jff]

My wife and I voted Monday after work in Atlanta. We got there at 5pm and were done a few minutes after 7. There were hundreds of people in line and 15 voting machines. Not too bad. Some places in GA have had 8 hour waits.

 

It's amazing that Georgia basically tied this year (or was a few days ago, anyway). Usually we're as red as it gets.

[kimcatch22]

I wore one of the small Obama buttons (no words) to the polling place and no one said a thing. I also wore a Wilco shirt, but they weren't on the ballot.

I realized halfway through my voting that the Obama button on my bag was on display, but I was not accused of electioneering.*

 

 

 

*which is a Radiohead song.

[mfwahl]

I'm gonna be the 1st person there on Nov 4th with my Obama shirt and buttons on! Then, party @ our haus until Nov 5th if anyone is around.Fire,booze, chili cookoff...and then Obama scores!

If you don't mind me asking, who are you voting for?

[calvino]

Voted yesterday. Got in line at around 4pm and finally voted around 5:30pm. The polling place was on 64th and Stoney (in Chicago), so it is somewhat near Obama's backyard. The poll workers said the lines have been long since early voting started.

 

Anyway there was no complaints for the long wait and people were actually excited and happy standing in line. It was impressive and a very encouraging site to see.

[jenbobblehead]

i voted on saturday and it was a 2 hour wait to get through approx 50 people because the county wasn't even remotely prepared for early voting. one poll worker was on the phone with someone from the county registrar's office who was looking up names, one by one, in a big paper book, to ensure that we were all legal voters and once you were cleared you could vote. So it was literally, one at a time. I am surprised there wasn't a riot. seriously.

[Moe_Syzlak]

Interesting. The split is 50/50 early voters to election day voters (with one asshole shirking his or her civic duties ). I don't know why anyone with the opportunity to vote early wouldn't.

[jenbobblehead]

from my fairfax county democrats newsletter this morning:

 

Also, so far, 50,000 absentee vote have been cast here in "Fake Virginia" (Fairfax County) - that's 1,000 more than the TOTAL Fairfax absentees in 2004 and we have a week left. If 75,000 absentee votes are cast in Fairfax County, that alone would be more votes cast than all but 8 of the 135 jurisdictions in the Commonwealth's in 2004. Only Fairfax County, Arlington County, Chesterfield County, Henrico County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, Chesapeake City, and Virginia Beach City had more than 75,000 votes cast in 2004.

[cryptique]

In Michigan, be sure not to wear any candidate-related buttons/T-shirts/anything to the polls on election day.

[jff]

I don't know why anyone with the opportunity to vote early wouldn't.

 

I agree, but in my case I can see another side to the argument...not that I agree with it.

 

In Georgia, so many people have already voted (1.3 million so far, out of 5 million registered voters), that I believe November 4 will actually be the quicker option this year. There will be lots more voting precincts, each serving a smaller population area and each probably with more voting machines than the early voting locations have. Subtract from the mix the voters who have already voted, and subtract the time it takes to fill out the somewhat confusing form that is required for early voting and election day might be a breeze here.

 

Regardless of that, I'm glad I voted early, and I encourage everyone to do the same. You never know what problem might arise. If you wait until next Tuesday, you probably won't be able to correct any problems that arise as a result of voter supression efforts and you risk the possibility that something will happen that prevents you from showing up (car crash, illness, flat tire, etc.).

[Moe_Syzlak]

Yeah I voted early with a mail-in ballot, so I had no issues with lines, etc. But I can see how the sheer numbers of early voters might discourage some.

[quarter23cd]

There was zero line when my wife and I voted last week in Ohio. There were plenty of reports in '04 of horrid waits in Columbus proper, but we're one county north of there and the crowds aren't quite so big. Mostly I went early because I just wanted it done, and the fact that voting on election day is really inconvenient and stuff when you're trying to get out the door and take kids to school and get to work at a reasonable time and stuff. I went early to avoid the hassle. Now there's nothing for me to do that day but get comfortable in my chair and hit refresh on my browser every 15 seconds to see if there are any updates.

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

This thread inspired me to vote on my lunch break.

[jenbobblehead]

I voted at lunch too. For macaroni and cheese!

[Beltmann]

I voted last week.

 

The ballots here are always amusing. I live in the most conservative city in one of the most conservative counties in Wisconsin, so all of the local races are a joke. On the ballot, the Republican incumbent is listed, and there are no challengers of any kind.

 

I voted for Obama, and for the independent running against our local Republican state senator. I left all the others blank.

[Spawn's dad]

Calm down, hippie.

[watch me fall]

The ballots here are always amusing. I live in the most conservative city in one of the most conservative counties in Wisconsin, so all of the local races are a joke. On the ballot, the Republican incumbent is listed, and there are no challengers of any kind.

 

Same here, except substitute South Carolina for Wisconsin.

[LouieB]

Same here, except substitute South Carolina for Wisconsin.

Here at the People's Republic of Chicago it is about the same, but most of the unopposed (or barely opposed) are Democrats. At least I get to vote for Jan Shakowsky as my rep (9th congressional)..that always feels good. I gave a bunch of (probably worthless) Greens a whirl however....

LouieB