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So, how was it for you? (Share your voting stories!)

Jack

Let’s share our voting stories! Post the good, the bad, and the ugly here so that we can document, discuss, commiserate and cojubilate (if that’s not a word, it should be.) Also, remember to check out Twitter Vote Report to find out how to report on what’s going on at your polling place.

I’ll start! My partner and I woke up at 6am, when the polls open here in NYC. Brushed teeth, threw on clothes, fed the cat, then walked around the corner to the school where we vote – we can literally see our polling place from our window, which is pretty sweet. When we turned the corner, we were surprised to see a long line already wrapping around the opposite corner. We were excited at the turnout but a little worried about the wait. There was a bit of chaos inside; people were confused about whether or not folks who already knew their election district could bypass the longest lines (they could, at least early on), some folks started getting grumpy and impatient and frustrated by the confusion, and one of the voting machines broke down. But the line for our election district was rather short and things went pretty smoothly for us.

When I stepped into the booth after my partner, it was pretty damn exciting to see Obama/Biden right up in the top left corner. Finally, after this impossibly long presidential campaign and all of the ups and downs within it, the moment had arrived! I actually moved down the line to the right and found Obama/Biden on the Working Families Party ticket and voted for them there (New Yorkers, remember that you can do that – a vote for a candidate on the WP ticket counts just the same as a vote for the same candidate on the Democratic ticket and helps to support a third party.) Voted Working Families and Dems for everything else. The only Green Party candidates were McKinney and Clemente. I was tempted, really tempted to vote for them. Still feel a little conflicted about that. Sigh. (IRV, IRV, IRV!) I checked my entire ballot over about six times, then pulled that big red lever to the left and locked in the most exciting vote of my life thusfar.

The lines were still stretched out long when we left the polling place, beaming happily but unfortunately not wearing an “I VOTED” sticker – they didn’t have any! Anyhow, I hope people stick it out through the long waits. Since I live so close to the school I might try to check out the situation later and maybe figure out a way to help people endure the long wait.

So – how about you?

47 thoughts on So, how was it for you? (Share your voting stories!)

  1. Being an Englishwoman in New York, I can’t vote. But the impact of the voting on the streets & subway this morning was remarkable – there was absolutely no one on the 1 or V trains, which are normally nightmares at 8 in the morning. Normally just getting a seat makes me gleeful, so I cannot begin to express how excited I was to realise just how many New Yorkers were out and about exercising their rights to vote. It’s wonderful, and what’s even better is you know that it’s happening all over the country. Good luck and fingers crossed for the results!

  2. I made it to the polling station at 6am as it was opening and there were already lines out the door. Luckily the lines moved pretty quickly. When I got to the front of the line, the woman who was checking the names on the list suddenly got into an argument with the Republican poll watcher (as labeled on her name tag). The Republican poll watcher was insisting that she should ask me some question before allowing me to sign in, and the woman with the list seemed confused. I was also confused by the conversation, so I asked what was going on, and the poll watcher turned and asked me, “Are you a Republican?” I was surprised, but I simply said, “No.” Then another person jumped in and said, “You only need to ask for her name.” So then I signed my name in the slot and they let me go into the voting booth. But are they supposed to ask for my party affiliation at all…?

  3. I just tried to go before my husband takes the car for the day . . . but it was a madhouse and I wouldn’t have gotten back in time! I think that people were dropping their kids off at the elementary school next door and stopping on the way back. So I’m going to catch a ride with my brother later . . . which is actually good, because I was really sure that he was going to vote but when I called he said that he didn’t know! Apparently he wasn’t sure if he was registered (though I know that he registered when he was 17, just like I did, and hasn’t moved so he has no reason to be not registered). So I just double-checked for him on the Board of Elections website. It’s true, folks — it never hurts to ask people!

  4. My voting place (in DC) opened at 7 am. I got there about 7:15 and the line was wrapped around two corners. It took me about an hour to vote. In 2004 I showed up around the same time and there was no line at all. It was great to see so many people out, especially in a solid blue “state” where our votes don’t really matter.

    One downside – as soon as I got into line my sack of shit ex-boyfriend showed up and got in line behind me. He tried to make small talk but I ignored him, and then he started chatting up the woman behind him. I was tempted to warn her…

    Whatever – go Obama!

  5. Well, conveniently, my polling center is literally right on the way to work and a mere couple of blocks from my apartment. I got in about a quarter to seven and took a seat to wait. It was pretty uneventful. I made my selections and noticed an endless sea of people behind me and felt a certain relief that I got there when I did. This means tonight I can an head home and watch the coverage. All in all, it went smoothly, which was nice.

  6. Ana – I don’t know for certain, but I believe that you have a legal right not to divulge who you voted for. And if you don’t, then you damn well should!

  7. The polls open in Philly at 7am; we got there at 6:40 this morning and there were already about 50 people in line, waiting for them to open. Everyone was chatting to each other in line and first-time voters were asking poll workers for information — it all felt sweet and exciting. We were done voting and out of there by 7:30am, but one of the voting machines was already broken, and it made me concerned for how long the wait is going to be for folks when it gets really busy later in the day.

  8. Easy peasy! We walked right in, and didn’t even need our magazines. Signed up, voted for Obama/Biden and all the other Dems and bond issues, stared at my awesome vote, cried, and pushed the button.

  9. I voted at 8:45 in Virginia this morning – no problems at all. I was in and out of my polling place in 5 minutes, and I got to vote with a paper ballot (rather than being required to use the electronic voting machine with no paper trail).

  10. There were a few people but no wait at my voting location, though the workers were talking about how big the turnout had been so far. No problems with anything, happily. Voted a straight Working Families ballot; thank you, fusion voting.

  11. Ana, I don’t know if that was legal, but I would still call 866-OUR-VOTE and report it. (They can tell you if it was legal, for one thing.) If nothing else, it was intimidating and time-wasting. It’s worth letting the Election Protection folks know that there’s a potential problem there.

  12. Do I early voting stories count?

    My dad and I went to vote last week, and even then it was pretty packed — we had to wait forty-five minutes in the middle of the afternoon on the Wednesday before the election.

    It was my first time. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was taking a standardized test and at any moment the poll workers might attack me for some infraction, like during the SATs: “No talking!” or “I’m going to have to confiscate that iPod!”

    That couldn’t have been farther from the case, though. The elderly man who fed my ballot into the machine asked if I was a first-time voter, and lit up when I said I was. He congratulated me and said they’d had more first-timers than ever before this year.

  13. I think early voting stories should count, Daisy.

    I voted a good week and a half ago. I was going to the grocery store and noticed that my polling place was right there. It seemed wrong not to take care of it right then, so I walked in. There were only a few people in line, so in no time I was up front. I realized then that I didn’t have my regestration card on me, and my address on my Drivers license wasn’t up to date (I fixed it online and it’s just registered within the system). I explained that to the poll worker and told her if it was a problem I could run home and grab my Reg card in no time. Apparently there was enough info on my Drivers License (it even has my SSN on it) that I was confirmed without a problem. I got my little slip wiht my number and was sent to another of the battalion of retirees at this polling place.

    The woman they sent me to was this older woman who sounded like she smoked 8 packs a day since she was 12. She took me by the arm, led me to a voting booth, and showed me how to use all the buttons. “Now you show me that you can do this” so I had to show my technical proficiency to this retiree! Talk about irony in a way.

    I voted (for Obama – it’s sorta obvious) and the final screen is so packed with candidates and charter amendments that I go back to my presidential page just to make sure that the “BAR” that shows up means “Barack” and not “Barr”.

    Then I pushed that big red button and headed to the door with the whole crew there still helping others.

    I was so excited! Last presidential election I voted by absentee. I had used these machines for local elections in the past few years. But for some reason, with everything at stake here, this voting experiance was so intense!

  14. I’m in the UK, so obviously I can’t vote (I wish I could). But, I just wanted to say how awe-inspiring these stories are, and that I wish I could take part. I really, really hope Obama wins.
    Congrats to all who have voted thus far!

  15. Three hour wait in midtown Atlanta this morning. Got there about 10 of 7 and left about 10 AM. Nothing really interesting. Actually — oddly — all the machines were working this morning. That almost NEVER happens. There was just a line like I have not seen before. In ’04, I was in and out in 45 minutes. Midterms and primaries, usually 15-20 mins.

    On the plus side, I got some quality time with the podcasts on the ipod this morning.

  16. No drama this time.

    In 2004 I worked election protection in upstate New Hampshire — I have family all over New England and I have an emotional connection to New Hampshire and to Maine, in both of which I spent a lot of time as a child. So I got up at 2:30 to drive five hours to get there for the polls to open in a district where college students might be disenfranchised, and stood out in the drizzling rain until the afternoon, and then hauled ass back to my own district, where I missed the absentee deadline and had to make it in person. The drive back felt good. It was the “seven hour presidency,” when many of us believed the early reports that Kerry had pulled it out. The days that followed were bitter. It felt like the whole country did the wrong thing and, knowing it, walked around shame-faced.

    This time, I got up in the morning and voted before heading to the train. The line was out the door at my polling place, which I’ve never seen. I knew almost every down-ballot candidate personally. The parking was a mess, and I parked people in, so I left the engine running — yeah, where I live, I can do that. (Plus, my station car isn’t worth stealing.) I expect tomorrow will not be the same bitter experience, but will be more like the ’06 midterm, when I felt like as a nation we had come to our senses and chosen to be better. All indications are that hope will triumph over fear; that we believe we deserve better and can dare to demand it.

  17. It’s 10.45a and I just finished walking home from my polling place…it’s maybe a mile from my house and I didn’t want to run the risk of no parking (even though it’s at a church that has huge dual parking lots), so I decided I could use the exercise anyway. Grabbed my little black backpack, threw some snacks in there with a bottle of water, made sure I had my voter empowerment card from the ACLU along with my pocket-sized guide to the Constitution, voter registration card, and driver’s license…then I headed out the door around 9.40a.

    On my way there, I remember thinking “I am on my way to make history.” Made me tear up as I was walking and I nearly tripped over a pothole >_<

    When I got there, the line was pretty minor. Maybe a ten minute wait was all I had. I had planned to wake up super-early and get there directly at seven, but I’m glad I didn’t; one of the poll workers told me that when she got there to open everything up, there were lines snaking through the parking lot.

    Got in my little booth and started filling in the little arrows…and I think I checked my ballot about fifty times to make sure I hadn’t screwed up anywhere (cuz dammit, I want my vote to COUNT). Seeing my vote next to Obama’s name just made me swell up with pride, like “This is for real, finally!” When I walked out the door to make my merry little way home, I couldn’t help but smile the entire way. I’m still smiling now.

    That’s my little story from the NE part of Lansing, Michigan. Another friend of mine (who lives more SW in a predominantly African-American neighborhood) said that she and her boyfriend headed over to their polling place around 8 this morning to find lines so long they waited for an hour and a half. (Also, to my delight, she said they were the only non-African-American people there. Their entire neighborhood lined up in droves to vote.)

  18. We vote at an elementary school, so early this morning there were two kids (maybe 7 years old?) standing around watching people line up. As we walked in I overheard them saying really quietly “I bet they’ll vote for Obama” and I turned to them and said “We totally are” and they got all excited and cheered between themselves.

    I’ve never really had a heart-warming voting story, but it was nice today to know I was casting my vote also on behalf of those two kids who can’t vote but will be impacted by adult decisions.

    (I also pressed extra special hard for no on 4 and no on 8 – I’m from California.)

  19. Just got back from the polling place for a second time . . . and it all went smoothly. I think we were there for less than 10 minutes. I’m actually glad that I went with my brother. We’ve never exactly been close, but it was cool being with him for his first time voting, telling him how to work the machine and having someone to share the moment with. Together, we just voted for (who I fully expect to be) the first black U.S. president, you know? It’s amazing to think about. It also makes me happy to know that in spite of his turning out like my father in every other way, he’s a dirty hippie liberal like me!

    I voted for Obama on row E Working Families, and Kryzan for Congress. I ended up leaving the assemblyman column blank because it was between two Republicans with no one on the Democratic ticket. Fuck that shit.

  20. It took me about 15 minutes to vote at my polling place and my boyfriend about 20 to vote at his. Some of my coworkers (almost all of whom came to work in blue today) reported lines of 200 at theirs, which I thought was kind of cool. I was kind of on the lookout for voter suppression in an “I wish a motherfucker would” kind of way–I’m sort of confrontational like that–but everyone from the front door to the back door was really nice and helpful.

  21. I voted yesterday at the county registrar of voters, because I’d taken to heart the call to vote early if it was possible. It took me five hours and twenty minutes. AND I DIDN’T HAVE MY IPOD. *gasps*

    At least I had time to study the propositions I hadn’t decided on yet. And the mood in the line was invigorating. Everyone was complaining, sure, but they were also sticking around. Makes me proud. By the time we got to the front of the line, we were actually cheering every time the security folks let a group of five through the door.

    Actually voting was a breeze. It was a paper, fill-in-the-bubble ballot, and I always feel good with an actual record of my vote in my hands.

  22. (I also pressed extra special hard for no on 4 and no on 8 – I’m from California.)

    I was tempted to change the “NO” to “FUCK NO” on those, but I worried it would screw up my ballot. 🙂

  23. I voted on Friday, in the middle of the afternoon. The line was about an hour long, and the poll worker handling the line said it was the shortest he’d seen it all day. By the time I was done with the whole thing, the line was about twice as long. But the one disabled woman who turned up while I was waiting was ushered through with her aide with no problem or delay, everybody seemed upbeat, none of the workers seemed stressed or harried, and everything went smoothly. Paper ballots take longer to fill out, so the line was moving more slowly than it did with electronic voting, but after what happened last time (my county screwed up a HoR race badly enough to make CNN), I’m sure everybody feels a lot better with it in place.

    According to the state website, we had 2.61 million people turn up to vote early, out of around 11 or 12 million potential voters. Hopefully that will take some of the pressure off the precincts today–we had a 74% turnout in 2006, so that’s a lot of people left to vote.

  24. I headed out at about 9:30 this morning, worried that I wasn’t going to have enough time to vote before I had to be at work at 11. When I got to my polling place there was no real line to speak of. It took me about 5 minutes to get my ballot and ten minutes to fill it out. I was home by 10:00 and now I’m sitting around waiting to go to work.

  25. I love Election Day! It’s my favorite holiday!

    I got to the poll place at around 6:15 & stood in one line for about 15 minutes, then another line for my specific district for about 30. It was incredibly disorganized and people had no idea where to go or what to do. Everyone seemed shocked at how many people were there (I’d say about 50 just in the small part of the room I was standing in) and how long the lines were.

    I’m happy I voted early though b/c it’s going to be a nightmare for the people voting after work. Cranky poll workers, tired machines, lack of supplies, etc. Not my cup of tea. I’ll be watching the punditry in my cozy bed.

    Vote Report on Twitter is awesome! I reported a broken machine at my poll place & another one I found out about at a nearby poll place. I overheard one of the poll workers reporting the broken machine to somebody on the phone, and she was very insistent on getting somebody there. She said it was ridiculous that they were already using emergency ballots not even an hour into voting.

  27. I’m in northern Virginia (which is apparently a separate state now? thanks, Sarah P!) where the polls opened at 6 am. I arrived at 5:45 with coffee and book in hand, feeling like I was being overly cautious, only to find that the line was already wrapping around the block!

    An hour and a half (and one novel) later, I cast my vote! Things were a little off inside– being pointed to different tables to pick up access codes, etc. but everybody seemed to be in pretty good spirits and everyone was polite.

    This is my third presidential election (I missed being able to vote for Bill Clinton by 24 days) and I’m really hoping my candidate wins and takes office this time…

  29. (Also, to my delight, she said they were the only non-African-American people there. Their entire neighborhood lined up in droves to vote.)

    I had the same experience; I was the only white guy at my location. It added to my already-good feeling.

  30. I voted in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. I got to the polls by 7:05 and waited for no more than 5 minutes. I also got to vote on the one electronic ballot they had.

    My coworkers voting on the south side (bronzeville) haven’t arrived to work yet.

  31. I’m in ruralish mid-Missouri (a real American, apparently, and yet an Obama supporter) and I turned eighteen only a few weeks ago, so I was excited. My mom went a little before six and found a long line, but when I went around 6:40, there was almost no line. Voting–especially in this election, and especially for a candidate I was excited to vote for–was a great feeling and left me in a good mood. And I had enough time to grab some coffee on my way to school! Good day.

  32. “Oh, and I’m also VERY bummed that they didn’t have any “I Voted” stickers. Like, VERY!”

    The early voting people where I am rocked out with special fancy-pants “I voted” stickers. They had an eagle and “November 2008” on them and everything. I think they do everything they can to make sure people wear their stickers because it reminds everyone the person runs into that day that hey, we can vote early.

  33. I voted this morning after our rain clouds cleared up a bit and there’s no line. About one minute to sign in and two minutes to connect the arrows with the ball point pen on the humongous ballots which were about four pages. We used to vote electronically but can’t now due to an order by the Secretary of State.

    In 2004, the line was a lot longer, about an hour’s wait but there were city charter amendments on the ballot and I nearly fell asleep in the voting box b/c I’d spent three months campaigning on one charter initiative which thankfully passed.

    We had stickers!

  34. voted in Cambridge, MA this morning. Polls opened at 7am, we got there just before 730am and the line was…at least 150 people long at that point. We waited about 45min to get in. Once in I, but not my partner, was asked to show ID (which has never happened before).

    Voted, then went to sign out where the woman asked me, “how did you vote?” and I was like, “uh,,, excuse me?” and she was like, “nevermind”. I don’t know what that was about.

    But other folks had a more problematic occurance–a woman coming out of my polling place complained about her name being left off the voting list, and apparently she wasn’t the only one.

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/scores_of_cambr.html

  36. catswym — I hope that she (and others) at least got a provisional ballot. Did you call 866-OUR-VOTE to report that there’s a problem down there?

  37. I folded my ballot, sealed it in it’s envelope, added a stamp, and mailed it.

    I love being able to vote by mail, but it does take some of the thrill out of voting.

  39. I voted absentee in MA. I did find the instructions for the envelope to be very confusing. I can’t remember the question exactly, but it was something about where I cast my vote. Did they mean my home town or where I was at that very moment? I wish there was an explanation for that.

  40. Thank you, Semaphore & Kate. I did call 866-OUR-VOTE, and the person I spoke to told me that nobody is supposed to ask for your party affiliation at any point while you’re in the polling station (at least in New York). So I did report it. Thanks again for the push!

  41. cara– I didn’t call, but she said that they eventually got it figured out and gave her a ballot. According to the article they seem to have it figured out (I think).

  42. I voted at the university in town on Friday. There was a line but I was in and out in under 10 minutes. I voted electronically this year for something different. My husband voted by mail I had a chance to look at the ballot before I went. In my city in Colorado, we don’t have assigned precincts. You can vote anywhere in the city. It is nice and takes the pressure off the busier areas. There was a news report on Friday that over half of eligible CO voters had already cast their ballots. That was good to hear.

    My mother in law is an election judge this year and said she only had 300 people left to vote in her precinct.

  43. i voted a little over a week ago. in oregon, you get your ballot via mail, so i sat down with the laptop and a whole sheaf of different voter guides & endorsements. did the first round of bubbles based on who i knew i wanted, then did another round based on endorsements, and then looked up info about the water & soil conservation board candidates. i could have just put it in the mail at that point, but i wanted to drop it off at a collection point. i kissed it, said, “please let this work. please let this work.” took a deep breath and let it fall into the slot. tonight we’ll have an election party w/ apple pie. tomorrow… we’ll see.

  44. Voted last week, as we have voting centers in Indiana and could vote through Sunday at one of these places. Had about a 20 minute wait and it did not take me long to vote a straight Republican ticket. Today is just another day–or at least until about 9 or 10 tonight when I am sure Obama will be declared as the next president. I am anxious about his presidency but will try to support his appointees and his programs. Time will tell how his presidency goes. Either way, God Bless America.

  45. Got there about 6:30AM. Only one person in front of me.

    We have the old-school machines with the little levers by each name and the big red *ker-SHUNK* one at the bottom.

    I didn’t bother with any of the judges — with all the cross-endorsing, what’s the point?

    My polling place is an elementary school, so the kids always have a bake sale. I got a muffin on the way out. That’s the best part 😉

  46. I voted by absentee a couple weeks ago, so today wasn’t super exciting. However, I sat down to fill out my ballot about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and then, before voting, had a long conversation with my sweetie and roommate about whether or not I wanted to vote for McKinney/Clemente. I’d been going back and forth on it, because I’m excited about Obama and have been volunteering with the campaign in New Hampshire (I’m living in Boston), but I definitely am more aligned with Cynthia McKinney’s politics, and I would love to expand our 2-party system.

    Eventually, I decided to vote for Obama.

    So, I start to bubble in my ballot, being very careful to use black ink and not bubble outside of the lines. I finish, and with pride and satisfaction look down at my ballot… only to realize that I accidentally filled in the bubble for Nader, who was right next to Obama. WOOPS.

    I got a new ballot in plenty of time, though, and vote correctly that time around.

    I also bubbled very forcefully yes for 1A (high speed rail), and 5 (a step in the right direction to reform California’s criminal justice system, and it decriminalizes marijuana), and very forcefully NO on 4 and 8.

    Today, in Massachusetts, I stopped to talk to a woman with her retired greyhound who was doing visibility for a dog racing-related initiative here, and got to feel a little bit more like I was involved in today’s voting excitement. I think I might go out to some of the polls in and around where I live in Boston (JP, Roxbury, Dorchester) and give people cookies, because I hear the lines are long.

    Yay voting! And Jack, I’m SO with you on IRV.

  47. Thlayli – are you in NY? I looooove the NY voting machines. Also yay for Watership Down username, but I digress.

    Anyway, me. New Rochelle, NY. Very short line. My best mate is voting today, too–last time we spoke about it, he hadn’t been planning to because he’s generally cynical about politics and said his vote wouldn’t make a difference in New York anyway, but he’s since decided to, and not as the lesser of two evils, but as a positive choice. I’m so proud of him.

    I’m underage by a few months, but I went to vote with my mum. The polling place is at my old middle school, and when we came in, I saw the lady security guard who was basically everyone’s mother when we went there. (quote her: “When you walk in that door, you are my children.”) I explained to her that I was here to pull the lever with my mum, and she said “Go and make history.” I teared up instantly. This day makes me so sentimental.

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