How did your Voting Experience go today?

[Thin Black Line]

I went over the lunch hour and didn't have much of a line at all. Plenty of
un-highlighted bar codes next to the names of the people who did not show
up to vote today. I did not have to show an ID of any sort. We used the
same paper ballot with the "complete the black arrow" vote selection like always.

The only hang-up was the old lady in front of me who somehow put her ballot
into the optical reader (one of the old analog ones) wrong and jammed it for
a moment. One of the station workers came over and tapped it on top which
cleared it up with the "Vote Counted" beep. Mine went through without any
problem.

No political signs out front, or buttons on people. A wide range of people
from young parents with toddlers bouncing off the walls to the elderly with
canes and wheelchairs.

That's pretty much it.

 

[orangelo]

A couple of the voting machines were down but they still had around 6-8 working. Waited about 5 minutes before I got my turn.

Worst part was entering the write-in for Tom Delay's old seat. SHELLEY SEKULA GIBBS takes forever to spell out on the rotary dial.

 

[jnojr]

I got in a little after the polls opened at 7AM. They had a few of those damn Diebold machines. They were "having problems" with them, so I voted on good ol' fashioned paper

I work in IT, and see daily some of the things technology lets us do. I can also see that there are times and places where technology isn't the answer. The polls is one of those places.

 

[TX1911fan]

I voted last week. No lines. My wife voted this morning. No lines, no problems.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I showed up a couple minutes before the polls opened, with about 25 people already there. Took about 25 minutes to get checked in and vote. Looked to be around 40 people waiting when I walked out.

 

[mountainclmbr]

I voted early two weeks ago because I had 3 weeks of business travel ahead. No one else was there at the time. I had to show drivrs license which was compared for photo with me and the address was compared against voting registration roll. I got to choose between paper ballot or electronic voting. I chose electronic voting so I could comment on that option. The electronic voting was easy and had two steps of verification of voting. After I finished voting the screen showed the tabulation of voting for me to accept. After that a paper backup was printed and was visible under a plexiglass window and I had to verify that as well. After the final verification the paper was rolled ahead and the screen showed that my votes were cast. Very easy and I was happy that my ID was checked.

 

[Thin Black Line]

A couple of the voting machines were down but they still had around 6-8 working.

LOL, we had ONE so when it jammed on the person ahead of me I thought
I'd have a more interesting story for everyone. It was comical, though, to
see someone just knock it to make it work.

 

[ARGarrison]

Just got back walked in and I was the only voter in there! Had the choice of touch screen or Paper fill in the arrow. Choose fill in the arrow, at least there is a paper trail.

Delaware County Indiana was all touch screen and could not get the machines to come on this morning. They will be open two hours and forty minutes later than the rest of the state.

 

[Deanimator]

Apart from not being able to find the polling place, things went great!

They moved the polling place since the last time I voted. I went to the old place and nobody was there. I then drove around for a few minutes without finding any clues to the new location. I then stopped at the local courthouse to ask directions. They said to ask at the civic center, and in fact, that's where the polling place was! After consulting the map to figure out what precinct I was in, I went to the right table and waited no more than five minutes to vote. I'd never used a touchscreen ballot before, so I had them explain it to me. I don't think it too much longer than five minutes to dismiss Lee Fisher to the pit of eternal electoral damnation, and I was in the office, via Caribou Coffee!

 

[cosine]

Voting was really easy here. I walked right in, got my ballot, spent two minutes marking it, slide it in the machine, and walked out. No lines, no waiting, no headaches.

 

[Art Eatman]

I wandered in, folks all said, "Hi, Art!" and I did my voting thing with pen and paper. I guess you could call it a steady trickle of folks.

, Art

 

[geekWithA.45]

I strolled past some candidate's signs, pointed at them in turn while loudly saying "eenie, meenie, minie, moe", joked with the mayor, pushed some buttons, and walked out.

 

[rhubarb]

People vote on election day?

When I voted last week, there alongside "Republican Straight Ticket" and "Democrat Straight Ticket" there was a box to vote "Kook Libertarian Straight Ticket." I don't remember seeing this option the last couple of statewide elections. Of course, the last couple of statewide elections I voted for some Republicans. I clicked the box and went on my merry way.

 

[Zundfolge]

I went this morning.

Large Mason's hall in my neighborhood (beautiful view of the range while waiting in line).

There was nobody at my precincts table (about 6 precincts vote at this one spot).

I moved 3 weeks ago so they looked my DL over pretty close and there was a little discussion (as it has my old address on it) but the lady in charge said "he's on our list so he's ok".

Stood in line for a couple of minutes (there were 3 guys ahead of me) ... voting itself took about 5-6 minutes (we had 7 constitutional amendments, 7 state referendums, 3 city referendums and 2 county ones! Thankfully I took in a cheat sheet so I already new how I was planning on voting and didn't have to re-read the items).


Overall it was smooth and quick ... a lot quicker than I expected.


Oh and they gave us the choice ... paper or touch screen (I chose paper)

 

[MS .45]

I voted early because of travel for work. No problems.

 

[Cacique500]

Took about 5 minutes door to door - went about 10 a.m. First time with a Diebold machine - interesting and would have preferred a paper option. Think next time I'll just vote absentee so there's a paper trail.

I was also amazed at how many seats went unapposed - almost all the Judge positions and my state senator and state rep. were the only choices.

 

[ceetee]

I went this morning. No lines. The Diebold machine showed my votes back to me, but I don't know what votes were actually recorded.

I read a story about a woman who voted early. She says she touched the straight Democrat box, and the machine came back as straight Republican. I don't know how truthful that is, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Voting machine "error"?

 

[jamz]

Mine was fine, I had the day off (but also had the kids all day) so I voted on the eway to pick up the Boy from school. It was in the same area that the Girl has her preschool in. No waiting, and we voted with good old pen and paper. There were maybe 20 booths for people to stand and fill in the ovals, and I would say 16 were taken. Mrs Jamz has been there since 10AM, manning a bake sale that was there all day to benefit the preschool, and she said it was really nice and busy all day, but moving well with no lines.

They are making a bunch of money at the bake sale, too.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Just finished voting here in the small town that I live near.Took about 10 minutes and I was #34..something.We shall see how things end up out here in the middle of the mid west....The liberal population centers are excercising the tyranny of the masses upon us country folk.

 

[geekWithA.45]

I read a story about a woman who voted early. She says she touched the straight Democrat box, and the machine came back as straight Republican. I don't know how truthful that is, but I wouldn't doubt it.

I have some serious reservations about the security of computerized voting.

That being said, one of my company's (not voting related) products involves a touch screen, a particular piece of technology I've dealt with since the mid 90's.

Touchscreens, and by that I mean the combination display and pointing device are a) cranky, b) need to be periodically aligned, and the big one is that users, especially those not used to dealing with them introduce a surprising amount of error. Bad UI makes that issue much worse.

We once had someone during UI testing swear to muliple deities that they'd hit choice A, but 3 people were watching her saw her hit B. It turned out to be a discrepancy between where she thought she was supposed to touch, and the actual area she was supposed to touch.

"Pilot error" abounds w/ touch screens.

 

[RealGun]

SC had a number of State Constitution amendments on the ballot. Nothing was said when I voted by touchscreen, but I had heard days before that there was a three minute limit to vote. Reading the amendments was a challenge, but the summaries included made it pretty easy to move through them.

I just wondered if having time limits was biased against the less educated, the slower, or the sight impaired. I don't know what would happen if someone went over the time limit.The amendments were at the end, so it seems to me that whatever candidate votes had already been cast should not be thrown out.

Of course, voting straight Republican gave me a jump on the time needed to move beyond the candidate section.

 

[Declaration Day]

I voted at about 7:30 this morning. I didn't have to wait at all.

My only complaint is that nobody asked for my ID.

They asked for my last name, and took my word for it.

 

[michiganfan]

Voted about 2 pm. Few people handing out literature. Took about 5 minutes total. Poll worker told me they were having a very good turnout. I threw one of the old guys off when I asked how many times I was allowed to vote.

 

[gezzer]

Went to the poll at 8:15 AM with my son who became eligible to vote in this election, He registered to vote had to show his drivers license.

My Glock was in its holster on my side under my shirt. (Oh yes it is legal of course)

I went to table Said morning Janet and she said morning ken Please state your name I replied with my full name, she said address I said my address and was handed the ballot, Same went for my son.

We voted handed our ballots in again stating out names and address to Sharon.

Moved to the back of the hall and at least 15 citizens of our town congratulated my son for voting the first time.

The police Chief shook my son's hand and stated you are a man now, thank you.

Boy it's great to live in a small town of 1200 residents.

 

[silliman89]

very well, thank you for asking. Went about 2:00. No line.