Is it over yet?
 

With the election less than 3 full days away, I thought we should have a thread discussing the process of voting, problems, and finally, FINALLY, it coming to a close.

I voted early - it took 15 minutes, and I had no problem. The early voting at the college was INSANE on Friday - couldn't find parking, and once in the building the line snaked all over the first floor. So far things seem to be going well in the Houston TX area - I was concerned that Ike would have somehow messed things up. I need to do some research about things in Galveston.

How are things shaping up in your neck of the woods?

There's almost as much talk about the Constitutional Convention vote around here as there is about the Presidential election. I've gotten a flurry of mailings and phone calls from the Democratic town committee, which is hilarious, since my wife and I are both Republicans. I already told them as much, but the barrage of mailings and phone calls haven't stopped. I'm probably going to mention something to the Town Committee after the election, as it's a bit much. It borders on harassment...

Other than that, I'm just ready to vote and be done with it. My opinion hasn't changed since the end of the primaries, so the lead-up, while interesting, hasn't changed things.

Early voting is not allowed in Maryland (though it is on the ballot to allow it) so voting day will likely be crazy!

It's definitely not over yet!

15 minutes to vote? WOW! You have it good in Texas! Here in Florida, people are waiting 3 to 4 hours to vote early! I stood in line after work yesterday and finally got out in an hour and a half--That's amazing... according to some of my neighbors. It took one lady 3 hours to vote on Thursday. It scares me. If this is the case for early voting, imagine how chaotic voting day will be.

Rachel Maddow made a point yesterday on her show. With lines as long as 8 hours in some states, it can be considered a 'voting tax.' How many people can afford to take 8 hours off of work? Especially in the economic climate we're in.

This election has certainly been exciting. I'm just ready to know who will be the next president. It's been two years... i'm getting a bit impatient!! ha ha :D

I'm ready for it to be over. I have been since the last debate. I think the last debate should always be the night before the election.

I wish we had early voting, now that I'm understanding it. In fact, I'd love to see us move a two week voting period nationally with it all ending on election day. I am getting in line just before 7 am on Tuesday. I'm hoping most people won't be out quite that early (even before the kids have to leave for school). My boss knows I'll be voting before work so whenever I get to work is ok with him.

I lucked out and just happened to catch a brief pause between crowds at the voting place. My daughter waited two hours in San Marcos, and they were reporting 3 hours wait at Bear Creek on the same day I voted.

I fear it will be a real zoo on Tuesday.

We don't have early voting here, and you can't get an absentee ballot unless there's no way you can get to the polls on Election Day. So I'll be heading down to the polls on Tuesday. Luckily, I'm working from home at the moment, so I can pop down there mid-morning, when it's likely to be slow.

We've got a hotly contested House race here, and I have gotten so much direct mail, from both candidates, that I have to wonder how many trees they've killed.

DH wants to vote for McCain/Biden. I had to explain to him that it doesn't work that way. I personally have to wonder what McCain was smoking when he picked Palin. He couldn't have picked Lieberman?!

This may be a bit of a hijack, but if McCain had picked Lieberman, the party would have revolted. No way he could have picked someone that liberal, who wasn't even a member of the party.

Palin wasn't a good pick, and I don't agree with the pick, but Lieberman would not have worked out either.

One thing i have learned about the Republican party, is that they do a very good job of backing ANY republican, no matter what! There will be a few people who will speak openly about their "frustrations," but for the most part, i don't think there would be such a riot. That would only guarantee a lost election.

The Hillary/Obama stuff that happened in the primaries would have never happened in the Republican party.

Now, a Lieberman pick would have been a true "maverick" move. Hmm... maybe I would have voted for McCain... on second thought, probably not! ;)

I voted early a couple of days ago (Tuesday?) and it only took like 5 minutes. I went before work. There was no line, no wait. It was nice.

The board of elections in the area have been backed up with early voters -- 45 minute wait, and it's not even election day. The Secretary of State in Ohio has predicted at least a 60 minute wait on November 4 during peak times.

I voted by mail a few weeks ago. So, I'm official.

<---also in Houston - Early voting took me 20 min :D

North Carolina has been a bit of a zoo! I got through in 30 minutes but I went on like the 2nd or 3rd day. Some places have had waits up to two hours. But I feel grateful when I see the wait times in GA and FL!

I early voted last weekend. I'll be one of the attorneys joining "the nation's largest law firm" on election day and I am hoping for a completely uneventful day of watching people register.

This is slightly off topic, but congratulations! That's awesome.

A couple of us who live on campus are getting up to go vote right at 6am when the polls open. I don't want to be there for 5 million hours, but I do want the experience of going to vote on Election Day. I want to semi-be a part of the mayhem. :D

Live-in and I are waiting until after he gets home from work (crazy, I know!) but I'm packing snacks and books so we'll have something to do while we're in line. :)

Just asking... My state does not have early voting, but absentee... I voted by absentee--so I don't know what happens:

In early voting, is your "ballot" counted right there and then and is in the "pool" of recorded votes/polling?

I ask because some told me that some states misplace and fail to count all absentee ballots.

On a different note: There are all these 1-800 numbers going around if you are harassed at your polling place when you vote. The length of time in the lines are not the issue, but the "incorrect ballot", breakdown of machines or misleading information--such as come back the next day, etc.--can be argued... Also, I think there will be all kinds of election monitors on Tuesday as there are on "early voting" sites.

And if I was anyone, I would NOT answer ANYONE exit polling unless they offered me a million dollars... LOL... Just privacy concerns overall...

There were two lawyers at the polling site when I voted last week.

This is the EXACT reason why I don't vote early/absentee. I don't want some glitch in someone's computer to arise and magically anything before Nov 4th disappears. I know anything can happen with any method of voting *cough*Florida*cough* by a girl's gotta vote somehow...

Thanks! I will be at a polling place in the city making sure people don't get suppressed. I'm pretty stoked about it since my law license is just collecting dust right now - yay economy!

As for early voting - I don't know how it is in every state, but I know in WI, where all our early votes are really "absentee" votes, the votes get fed into the machine on Nov. 4th. In the city of Milwaukee there is a whole separate building just for counting absentee votes and in the smaller municipalities they'll be fed into the machine as time allows during the day. The official election law is that they should be fed in when the polls close but since the poll workers would be there for another week if that happened, they feed them in whenever it's empty.

I'm voting on Monday my roommate voted today (McCain) and he said that it was about 80% obama supporters voting early.

VOTER FRAUD!!
 

--moved to new thread--

I voted last Sunday. It took me all of 15 minutes. I'd taken a book to read while waiting in line, just in case.

I really wish they would put that on the ballot! I also feel that newscasts that project winners once the ballots from the east coast are in shouldn't be televised in the other time zones, but I've been on that bandwagon for over 15 years!

Barack just called me. My first robocall all year. It was good to hear from him :)

I know. He had to pick someone very conservative. But Palin?? She does not impress me as being prepared to run the country if something should happen to McCain.

Correct. The Plain Dealter reported 2 hour waits yesterday. Actually, many are predicting that Election day will be light because so many voted by mail or at the BOE early.

I waited over an hour two Fridays ago. My boyfriend (I forced him to go the last day of early voting in his area) and I waited well over an hour on Saturday.

My mom works next to a major library in Miami-Dade county and she says the line is down the strreet at at about 7:45. People are blocking their yards off with ropes so voters won't park on them when the library runs out of spaces. It's been insane, but I'm really glad that they are out voting. I would have never expected those types of lines in that area, but I guess the people are very adamant about not being disenfranchised this year. People have waited until 10pm or later out here in S. Florida trying to get those votes in!

How come the government in Florida said that ALL voting must take place in public government locations--i.e. schools, libraries, etc.? Or was that misnomer I picked up from the news stations...

Ours are always in public government locations, mainly schools but I've also had a fire station as a polling place. What other types of places are used elsewhere?

The Rev. Wright ads are running rampant all of a sudden here in Detroit.

And, for fun... you can personalize this to anybody you want, preferably an Obama supporter, to encourage them to vote. It's hilarious:

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html...581068-U8M4vox

A friedn sent this to me yesterday! ha ha... :)

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, Tomorrow!

You're only a day away!

Here, a lot of churches are polling places. When I lived in the neighboring county, I voted at a Mega Church. They had half of the city voting there. When you arrived, people were actually placed throughout the church to give you directions.

I almost always vote absentee. When I went to the polls in the primaries, I got there right at 6:00 a.m. and still had to wait 20 minutes because so many people were in line ahead of me.

Yesterday, there was a free Bruce Springsteen concert/ Obama Rally in Cleveland and they drew over 80,000. Palin garnered 3000 in nearby Canton. But how I will miss Tina Fey

There was an article in the Houston Chronicle about a polling place in a man's garage. He cleaned it up, and is ready to go!

My brother & sil vote in a tavern.

That has to be the weirdest place I've ever heard!

Ours always used to be at the village hall, but the village is so big now (over 10,000) that they split up the wards and now the north side of town is at the Catholic church and the south side is at Village Hall. There was a big kerfluffle in the next village over because the polling place got moved to a Lutheran church because their village hall didn't have enough parking and some man got mad that the church handed out cookies during the primary.

ACK! I love it when there's a bake sale at the polls - especially when I used to work the polls.

FWIW, I vote in a school, and my mother votes in the library. We both have 2 election districts at our polling places.

I love the word kerfluffle.

Yes, some guy's garage and a tavern are just about tied for weird places.

Some school organization always does a bake sale. They make a mint that day.