Congrats to President-Elect OBAMA

[austrya]

I may have to bring 3 of my 4 kids with me when I vote. I need some short line vibes, yo.

[viatroy]

I voted. NO line. The best part was my son had already been there and voted.

[MrRain422]

I got to the polling place at 6:10 this morning (the polls open here at 6:00) and there was already a 20 minute line. And this is one of the states that isn't really going to count, so if voters in the swing states turn out today it might get a little crazy.

 

My mom, who lives in Michigan, said that she was told to expect up to a 5 hour wait when she goes after work today.

[Spawn's dad]

I wouldn't wait five hours on line for anything.

[Analogman]

I got to the polling place at 6:10 this morning (the polls open here at 6:00) and there was already a 20 minute line. And this is one of the states that isn't really going to count, so if voters in the swing states turn out today it might get a little crazy.

 

My mom, who lives in Michigan, said that she was told to expect up to a 5 hour wait when she goes after work today.

 

They only had 11 machines at the HS - I got lucky, as there was only one person in the line for my precinct. There was about 40 or so people there. and I got there not long after 7:30 am. We use a little purple thing that looks like a dart that touches the screen and makes a check mark now.

[Sir Stewart]

I just voted after standing in line for 45 minutes - five minutes was the longest I'd spent in a voting line before today.

It feels so different to have voted for someone instead of just against someone.

[Analogman]

Long lines form early as voters finally decideite

 

By NEDRA PICKLER and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers Nedra Pickler And Beth Fouhy, Associated Press Writers

[watch me fall]

I'm gonna wait until mid-day (2:30 or 3:00 pm) to vote. One of my coworkers went to vote this morning at 6:00 and there were over 300 people in line. He said people were sitting in lawn chairs drinking coffee just waiting for 7:00 am. Kinda curious how my polling place will be since it will be my first time voting there. It's the biggest in the county, almost 2700 registered voters. I'm excited!

[myboyblue]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I don't understand why lines are long. Is it purely a case of voter turnout being higher than normal?

 

I figured with so many people electing to vote early, lines would be shorter. In the past, I have never had to wait. I drove right past my voting center this morning at 6:15. It was so crowded, I elected to wait until this evening.

[Spawn's dad]

We walked right in and voted; no wait at all.

[watch me fall]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I don't understand why lines are long. Is it purely a case of voter turnout being higher than normal?

 

I figured with so many people electing to vote early, lines would be shorter. In the past, I have never had to wait. I drove right past my voting center this morning at 6:15. It was so crowded, I elected to wait until this evening.

Higher voter turnout and increase in voter registration is what I've been hearing. Plus around here you have all those old people like my 91 year old grandmother who like to be early to everything.

[SarahC]

the place where i vote is in a community center, and usually 90% of the turn out is old folks, so i am not expecting a long line when i go on my way home from school. i hope.

 

i was gonna go before school, but wasn't sure if polls opened at 7 or 8

[JUDE]

We walked right in and voted; no wait at all.

 

Did spawn vote too?

[M. (hristine]

Sarah was hoping for a 3 hour wait when she went at 7 with her dad.

That's the time limit her school is giving as an excused tardy today.

[austrya]

I voted. Jason went and voted before he went to work and he only waited for about 20 minutes, so I went up there and he stayed home with the kids so I wouldn't have to bring them.

 

Our poling place has paper ballots. I only voted for one Republican and that was for County Commissioner and I voted for him because he's my daughter's God Father. Plus, he's the right guy for the job anyways.

[Spawn's dad]

Did spawn vote too?

 

 

twice! in both his dead grand parent's names!!!!1

 

Sarah was hoping for a 3 hour wait when she went at 7 with her dad.

That's the time limit her school is giving as an excused tardy today.

 

that's fucking retarded

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

My original question is based on the general "taxes are bad" philosophy I hear so much of from the right. Overly simplistic people like Palin feed on it.

 

Our founding fathers had some sound advice on taxation.

 

Thomas Jefferson on Taxes

 

"Many of the opposition [to the new Federal Constitution] wish to

take from Congress the power of internal taxation. Calculation

has convinced me that this would be very mischievous." --Thomas

Jefferson to William Carmichael, 1788.

 

"Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by

the individual." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1784.

 

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is

to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the

higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they

rise." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785.

 

"Taxes on consumption, like those on capital or income, to be

just, must be uniform." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1823.

 

"The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the

whole taxes of the General Government are levied... Our revenues

liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus

applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see

his government supported, his children educated, and the face of

his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich

alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his

earnings." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811.

 

"Excessive taxation... will carry reason and reflection to every

man's door, and particularly in the hour of election." --Thomas

Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798.

 

George Washington on taxes from his farewell address

 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

[M. (hristine]

that's fucking retarded

I posted that just for you.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I voted...

 

Our poling place has paper ballots. I only voted for one Republican and that was for County Commissioner and I voted for him because he's my daughter's God Father. Plus, he's the right guy for the job anyways.

 

 

That should be the reason for every vote cast..

[JUDE]

twice! in both his dead grand parent's names!!!!1

 

Rock the Vote!

[Mrs. Peel]

I went at 7, and had no line. I got all dressed up in layers expecting to be standing outside for a while. But as we were coming out it looked like the final scene in Field Of Dreams down the road leading up to the school.

 

We have paper ballots with the bubbles to fill in for the first time. You'd better believe I spent an extra couple minutes examining each filled-in bubble for any trace of a blank spot before I turned in the ballot. They're not gonna purge my vote!!!

[quarter23cd]

YES WE ARE? ^TM

 

 

Whatever happens today, I want to say that I'm grateful for this moment. Driving to work today under sunny skies, my vote already cast 2 weeks ago. Watching people pile into the polling places. Whatever happens today, I really want to feel like we're turning a page. After eight long years of gnashing teeth and going through varying cycles of anger, disbelief, outrage, activism and voluntary bouts of head-in-the-sand apathy in order to preserve my sanity, this moment feels sweet. Whatever happens, there is at least a chance that something could change today. It has to...either way.

 

Barack is obviously the dude I'm pulling for. McCain? My best hope for him is that this campaign persona we've seen from him is a crock and he'll revert to a more likable dude later on, but I'm not really buying it. And that speaks to a larger problem I have with the current state of the Republican party. The fact that "rallying the base" depends on engaging some of our ugliest tendencies as Americans speaks volumes to me. Go get a new base, is all I can say. I hope, if elected, he can find a way to transcend that, because one way or another, no matter who is elected, we need to start finding more common ground with one another instead of drawing lines in the sand to separate ourselves. We might all disagree about a whole lot of shit, but my hope for this country is that we can all at least stop hating each other for it. (I also want Santa to bring me a pony for Christmas this year--probably not gonna happen, either)

 

But, for one day, at least, I can hope.

[quarter23cd]

We have paper ballots with the bubbles to fill in for the first time. You'd better believe I spent an extra couple minutes examining each filled-in bubble for any trace of a blank spot before I turned in the ballot. They're not gonna purge my vote!!!

Yeah, but you're in Connecticut. Is McCain even on the ballot there or is it just a runoff between Obama and Nader?

[watch me fall]

YES WE ARE? ^TM

 

 

Whatever happens today, I want to say that I'm grateful for this moment. Driving to work today under sunny skies, my vote already cast 2 weeks ago. Watching people pile into the polling places. Whatever happens today, I really want to feel like we're turning a page. After eight long years of gnashing teeth and going through varying cycles of anger, disbelief, outrage, activism and voluntary bouts of head-in-the-sand apathy in order to preserve my sanity, this moment feels sweet. Whatever happens, there is at least a chance that something could change today. It has to...either way.

 

Barack is obviously the dude I'm pulling for. McCain? My best hope for him is that this campaign persona we've seen from him is a crock and he'll revert to a more likable dude later on, but I'm not really buying it. And that speaks to a larger problem I have with the current state of the Republican party. The fact that "rallying the base" depends on engaging some of our ugliest tendencies as Americans speaks volumes to me. Go get a new base, is all I can say. I hope, if elected, he can find a way to transcend that, because one way or another, no matter who is elected, we need to start finding more common ground with one another instead of drawing lines in the sand to separate ourselves. We might all disagree about a whole lot of shit, but my hope for this country is that we can all at least stop hating each other for it. (I also want Santa to bring me a pony for Christmas this year--probably not gonna happen, either)

 

But, for one day, at least, I can hope.

 

Nice post!

[Analogman]

Record number of voter expected to deluge polls

 

By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer Deborah Hastings, Ap National Writer