November 4, 2008
clusterflock election day open thread
Please share your voting day experiences and vote baby, vote.
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comments:
- Joel Bernstein: “The police said it looked like he was a good chef. It looked like he had broth and everything...
- Michael Smith: So, she goes out to bingo, wins $50 and comes home to a clean house and meal and she’s...
- Michael Smith: I thought that said “choking chicken.” Disappointment.
- Aaron Winslow: I’m the horse. Everything else is everything else.
- Deron Bauman: Oh, yeah. Poop is the tits.
- Michael Smith: For some reason I don’t find dog poop on the carpet as repulsive as cat urine, anywhere.
- Rick Neece: Poop is better than pee, well, unless it’s loose. I’m sorry to admit I chuckled.
- Joel Bernstein: That’s pretty much when our cats get put to sleep.
- Deron Bauman: Franklin’s been pooping wherever and whenever lately. The other day, I let him in and he promptly...
- Rick Neece: So far as I know, he hasn’t gone on the carpet. It isn’t fuzzy. If he starts, I don’t...
- Rick Neece: We don’t have fuzzy rugs in the bathrooms no more. Some mornings, the tile is cold, but it’s...
- Rick Neece: I generally can’t smell cat-pee, unless it’s freshey in the litterbox when I harvest the...
- Deron Bauman: It’s a start.
- Joel Bernstein: The first of many things, no doubt.
- Deron Bauman: I’ll pick him up at eight. He may not like the way I smell.
There were a ton of people at my voting place at 6:50 this morning. But since I was registered in a smaller precinct it only took me 26 minutes to get through the line.
I voted for Dracula, obviously.
I usually walk to the polling place around 11. The weather here is perfect. I feel really happy.
I’m a fucking nervous wreck with happy undertones.
I voted a couple of weeks ago to keep my head from exploding.
I stood in line for about 45 minutes on the northside of Chicago. No problems voting. My booth was right beneath a giant cross and quote from Ephesians about the grace of God as a gift, not a result of good works. Dracula was not listed on my form.
Cindy, all I do is sit on the couch with laptop and CNN or MSNBC playing in the background.
Dracula is a write in candidate, he always is! rabbitsnake, have you lost us Translyvanians the elections one more time!? What high hopes we had.
I’m at work right now, trying to figure out what, exactly, I’m doing here.
I was feeling very happy until I overheard a co-worker explain why he thought registering a group of homeless people was the same as paying someone to vote the way you want them to.
Like Cindy, I voted a couple of weeks ago.
My mom had this tradition. Every year on Christmas morning she would have the four of us sit at the top of the stairs in ascending order of age. We would be stuck at the top of stairs while we listened to my parents make coffee.
The four of us would sit, leaning down to peak through the banister and try to catch a glimpse of the loot that was awaiting us in the living room, our ears strained to catch the hushed words of mom and dad as they put the gifts into the appropriate piles. The four bodies at the top of the stairs were held in place, against all excitement and desire, by the fear of what would happen to our gifts if we moved a single inch from our assigned steps.
This is how I feel today.
I voted seventeen times. I didn’t really know much about the candidates, so I voted for that Muslin guy. I figure I’m sick of God telling the president what to do.
over a hundred people in line when i arrived at my polling place at 5:30 this morning.
everyone was happy, excited, almost giddy. there were more teenagers -both elgible to vote and not- in line than i’ve seen an election day since the 60s….
i’m at work, with several bwoser windows open: FiveThiryEight, RealCLear, Intrade, Reuters…
yeah – hard workin’ man today, baby….
Drove 45 minutes from school, walked in, waited for 3 minutes, voted in 2, and drove back.
It’s a beautiful day =).
okay, we’re on our way (to vote)!
Our polling place was not equipped with “I Voted” stickers this year. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen such a beast in our precinct and I was puzzled to hear the rumblings of those who were disappointed by the lack of bling.
“I know I don’t need the sticker to make this official,” the thirty-something woman whined to the old soldier by the door. “I just wanted some sort of affirmation.”
From behind the sign-in table, another ancient volunteer explained, “We don’t got no donuts neither so I hope you weren’t expecting breakfast.”
The old folks cackled and the thirty-something woman walked out of the room with the confused and wounded air of a child who’d just received socks and underwear from Santa Claus.
in my town of 1172 people in rural illinois, the community building is tiny. there were 4 volunteers and about 10 voters. paper ballots, and a half-dozen felt-tip pens to share for filling them in. then a half-dozen yellow folders to share – “privacy folders”, for walking your ballot three feet and sliding it awkwardly into the ballot box.
my husband and i each took a son into the booth with us. my 11yo was beyond excited. he can’t wait until he can vote himself.
we put on our “i voted” stickers and took a walk. it’s a beautiful fall day. couldn’t feel any happier.
Don’t they realize that those stickers are worth free shit?
I think Rick’s the only KC ‘flocker, but if you’re in Kansas City, McCoy’s in Westport is giving free beer (I assume one per person) to anyone with an “I Voted” sticker.
I went with my boyfriend to vote in Brooklyn, and I feel like the only non-voter in the hood today, until of course I remember the millions and millions of illegal workers who have no right to vote and so will not be voting today either.
Starbucks and Krispy Kreme dougnuts are also giving out freebes in KC with an “I Voted” sticker.
I had consumed 1000 calories by 7:00 AM this morning….
I’ve been at the office for two hours and I haven’t started working yet. Today, anything other than voting feels useless.
My coworkers and I have agreed to use our lunch break for …more phone banking. I think we’ve hit a record for hours spent in unintended team building activities like this. The whole phone banking phenomenon has got me wishing I lived somewhere less liberal so I could canvass my own neighborhood. Calling southerners is fun… but it doesn’t always seem like we’re speaking the same language.
I vote in a quiet garage down the street. This morning the line wrapped down around the block so by the time I met my ballot, the excitement was palpable. I think I met every one of my neighbors on Haight Street! I’m crossing my fingers for Obama and crossing my toes for the ‘No on 8′ campaign.
Have you read this handy guide for tonight? Thanks Nate Silver.
my experience was kind of disappointing. we, obviously, live in a non-battle ground state but I still expected to see more people at the polls. when I put my ballot into the machine it said I was the 181st person to cast a ballot today. there were maybe four of five people there voting including me and Amy.
during the primaries there were a lot of people there to vote, and since we live in a weird primary / caucus state, a lot of people showed up at the caucus that evening.
I want the final number of this vote to be as big as it can be, regardless of what state I live in. it bummed me out to feel a lot of people didn’t show up.
I hope it was because everyone early voted.
I arrived at our polling station at 6:05 am. I put a pencil to my paper ballot at 8:30 am. I got my sticker, Andricon (aren’t you a kansascitian, too?), thanks for the tip, but I plan to cuddle up and watch the returns with a 750 mil bottle of stoli and a straw.
A transplant from Ohio, but a Kansascitian nonetheless.
Couldn’t vote as I’m Australian but it didn’t stop me still showing some support at Aussies for Obama. We’re really excited about him down here down under.
Deron, when we early voted on a Sunday afternoon, there were at least 70 people ahead of us, with the line just as long when we left. I think we can assume that the turnout will be the largest in many, many years. Even in Texas.
Suddenly, I feel like I’ve missed something because of my choice to vote by mail.
perspective:
My polling place is at the fairgrounds in Southern Maryland, about 40 minutes from Washington, D.C. This used to be tobacco country, but is slowly being developed, or other crops are grown. We waited until 10:00 to vote, to avoid the lines. When we got there a 97-year-old Black man was being wheeled out of the polls in his wheelchair. It was the first time he had ever voted in his life. When he came outside he asked if anyone could give him an Obama button. There were none left at the Democrat’s booth so I gave him mine. He was so proud and I started crying. He looked at me and said, “why are you crying? this is a day for glory.” I am still crying.
more perspective:
I just went to vote. The line snaked so long that I was able to concentrate on the excitement on the faces of African-Americans as they entered the voting booths with their children. I was more than a little envious of their joy. I wondered if the past was really past. Finally, I entered the booth, closed the curtain, and stared at the names. I stared so long that I could hear folks behind me begin to grumble. I delayed by individually pulling the Democratic levers for all the local offices. My finger went to McCain/Palin, but I didn’t pull. I moved my hand over and grasped the Obama/Biden lever. I pulled it hard and departed. There were tears in my eyes.
What took longest was finding the Guilford Town Hall. Its address, so far as I could tell, is on a street that does not exist. But with help from the Jo Daviess (Illinois) County Clerk’s office (via cell phone), I found it, and voting was kinda fun. Real quick. Real low-tech. I took some camera-phone snaps on the way to and fro, and maybe I’ll post them.
Sorry I won’t make it to the Chicago rally tonight, but by the time I could leave Galena, drive to some suburb, get on a train, and get into Grant Park . . . well, my ticket to the supporters’ area would be worth less than zero because everyone would have gone home.
Kathy had to drive to Michigan again today, so she went to the polling location just after it opened at 6:30AM. She called me with a couple of running reports — it took her about an hour and fifteen minutes to get through the voting process. Two of the six touchscreen stations failed and they didn’t tell anyone about handwritten ballots until she was almost through the line.
By the time I got there around 8:00AM there were two lines, one for the booths and one for handwritten. One touchscreen was working intermittently. I was in and out in twenty minutes. I saw several of my neighbors whose votes I was hoping to cancel. There were too many of them.
I gave away my “I voted” sticker. One of the guys at work was going to take it to Chick-fil-A for free food, most likely what we around these parts call a Christian Chicken Sandwich. The waffle fries are delicious. The potatoes’ religious affiliation is unknown to me.