Elections are to be taken very seriously
November 5, 2008
I am sure you will all think a little less of me after reading this post. But, here are five thoughts about my election day experience.
1) When I finally got to my election site after work yesterday there was no line. I know this makes me sound like a total looser, but with all the turn out hype I was kind of looking forward to waiting in line. I even brought a book. Nope, I walked right in and had to set me book on the floor while I filled out my ballot.
2) I might have voted for someone because a really nice person outside the polling place asked me to. He said good evening and asked me to consider his candidate and when I got in the little booth I did consider his candidate and I voted for him. I was going to tell him on my way out but I thought we might both get arrested or at least yelled at.
3) I had NO idea what 90% of the local ballot questions were all about. I tried to wade through the legalese as swiftly as possible but since I had my book on the floor and no one would explain them to me I pretty much winged it.
4) I really wanted to tell off Chuck Todd. I know that he is really smart and well informed and if he was voting in my district he would have known EXACTLY what all three pages of ballot initiatives were about but that does not make him any less annoying. If he compared the map to 2004 and 2000 one more time I may have screamed, or at the very least turned off msnbc.
5) I was moderately obsessed with the electoral college ice map. I am always amazed with the art work they are able to do on fields and ball parks and this was no exception. Again, I would have loved to have been in on the meeting where someone proposed the electoral ice map. “Can’t we just put it up on a screen?” “Well, we could…but everyone is going to have a screen. Wouldn’t it be so much cooler if our map was in ice“.
How was your voting experience?
November 5, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I also had no line, but I went at 4:30 hoping I would miss the after-work crowd because during the primaries I waited foooorever.
But I voted. And there’s change
That makes it pretty awesome for me.
November 5, 2008 at 3:34 pm
i had no line either, and last night I was glued to the TV too, but it wasn’t a tough election in that results were in before I went to sleep…. and yeah Obama won! yesssss!
November 5, 2008 at 3:48 pm
My voting experience was much different.
A huge line. Lots of youngsters. Still, no confusion.
I was in and out in about an hour.
November 5, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Yeah, no line here either. And I miss poking the fun little holes in the ballot (is that just a CA thing? Or did FL screw that option up for everyone?)
But I got my cool sticker. And I got my free coffee at Starbucks. And I got a president who, I hope, will shake things up for the better.
November 5, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I almost did early voting this weekend, but the line was 3 hours long. So I went pretty early yesterday morning, and it only took 45 minutes — and it probably would have gone faster if we were divided alphabetically, since my half of the alphabet is always a shorter line.
Then I got free Krispy Kreme for breakfast and California Tortilla for lunch. It was a good day.
November 5, 2008 at 4:18 pm
No line for me at 8 AM, but I also live in a tiny town where most of the population is cows and they aren’t allowed to vote.
I did not get my free Starbucks because my Bucks is not corporate. wtf.
As for the local questions… there were only 2 and one sounded bad even though I didn’t understand it, so I said no. The other one sounded good and made sense, so I said yes.
All else was very clear cut…
Only question: Why is it that we have reverted to the standardized testing? Was the lever process really that difficult? It brought back bad SAT flashbacks.
November 5, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I voted absentee because I procrastinated too long to register in Rhode Island. I have still never voted in an actual booth and am afraid of when I will do it for the first time.
Also, what was even cooler than the ice map was when CNN beamed in Will.I.Am via hologram. Both ice maps and pop star holograms are essential to a successful election day.
November 6, 2008 at 2:42 am
I had no line, only the comfort of my desk…I voted absentee in NH three weeks ago
November 6, 2008 at 3:10 pm
The ice map was pretty awesome. I bet whoever proposed that brings ice up in every meeting.
“I hear what you’re saying, but what if we sent the proposals encased in ice!”
November 6, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I voted ansentee….very anti-climatic..
November 10, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Equally boring, no line, same reaction to our local questions as Elizabeth who was smart and knew a trick question when she saw it, and I SO miss the levers.