<p>Well no line to speak of. I even had time to walk from school and vote walk back and was so early that I came back home. Elderly poll workers who were concerned that I did not have enough light. light had just blown out and they were having a maintenance man come put a new one in. Luckily I beat that. They had the next batch wait outside while the bulb was changed. Fill in the bubble with a marker and insert into the machine type here.</p>
<p>With all of the waiting, what happens if it gets to be 8 p.m. (when the polls close) and a voter is still in line? Anyone know?</p>
<p>It is my understanding that if you are in line at 8:00 PM you get to vote.</p>
<p>Less then 10 minutes. I went in around 2:30 EST and had a very small line.</p>
<p>I was able to walk right up with no line to vote at 10:00 AM....unbeleivable! I was very pleasantly surprised. The other precincts set up in the gymnasium had short lines, but not one person was waiting in my precinct. </p>
<p>We vote the good old "fill in the bubble with the #2 pencil" techniique - just like the SAT's!</p>
<p>Ooops, I didn't mean to call door knockers and personal phone calling a problem. I think that's great too. I think the recorded phone calls are a nuisance though from either side.</p>
<p>This might be a dumb question...</p>
<p>But, if the polls close at 8PM EST, do they close at 5PM PST?</p>
<p>Nope - 8 p.m. here.</p>
<p>I think the recorded phone calls are a nuisance though from either side.</p>
<p>I wouldn't object to a single recorded call, or even two....but well over a dozen from Sunday night through this morning, some of them coming only minutes apart with the exact same message from the same person seems very annoying. </p>
<p>I could imagine that it could actually be counterproductive for some voters who are "on the fence." They might decide to vote for the candidate whose party annoyed them with fewer calls!</p>
<p>However, nobody's on the fence here--no matter how annoying the phone calls, this homeschooling family is solidly NOT in Bush's camp, no matter what.</p>
<p>At least they stopped after my husband and I voted.</p>
<p>I'm feeling a bit sad that my daughter voted in her first "real election" far from home. But neither her college nor her hone is in a swing state, and absentee ballots didn't seem worth the hassle. (Especially since the 2000 election certainly demonstrated how carelessly absentee ballots are sometimes treated.)</p>
<p>Plus, she's attending college in a place where there is frequently real contention for local and state offices. The elections are not almost always a foregone conclusion, as they seem to be in our home state. And it will probably be easier for her to stay informed about local political issues near her college than here.</p>
<p>She did actually get to vote at one election at home last spring, right after she turned 18. It was a school board election. The pollwatcher turned out to be a longtime family friend--who showed her how to use the voting machine and gave her a big hug. Touching rite of passage--it made me feel all weepy and proud all at once. </p>
<p>It reminded me that when my kids were little, I used to take them in the booth with me.</p>
<p>Waited 3 hours. Got to the polls at 9:30, left at 12:35. People had chairs, books, umbrellas - it drizzled off and on. Voted on touch screens - about 15 -20 touch screen machines. Took very little time to actually vote. Apparently our precinct is the largest in our county (although I thought there were laws limiting the size). there are definitely too many people in our county.</p>
<p>Since it was my son's first time to vote, I waited until he got home from school. There were about 10 people in line in front of us. I asked if I could take a digital picture of my son voting and the election judge complied. We had electronic machines and the church where we voted had cookies and coffee afterwards. It was a great experience for me and my son.</p>
<p>no wait -- Oregon is all vote by mail. Love it!</p>
<p>Took 20 minutes total for me at 4 PM, seemed much longer behind two big mouth bores-talking about how great they are. Husband showed up at 7 and it took 30 minutes. I am sick of the TV adds for the CA propositions-my husband is probably tired of hearing me talk back to the TV. Son is taking college shuttle to vote then off to the Jazz Bakery.</p>
<p>We got home from what is hopefully the last of the college tours a little before 6 and walked over to the polling site. The line was out the door. For some reason, no other voters with the initial of my last name were present, so I was escorted right in. My husband got home about half an hour after I did since he didn't have the foresight to change his last name to mine when we married.</p>
<p>This is all very interesting and what I like about thsi board as you get perspectives from all around the country (and world). I had never even thought about voter lines until I read these posts. </p>
<p>As I live in a rural town, there are NO lines. You enter and walk in and vote. It is set up at our elementary school and maybe there are ten booths and perhaps three were being used. We have paper ballots where you mark an X in the boxes and the papers are all HAND COUNTED tonight. My hubby had offered to be a hand counter but now decided to taxi my D to her stuff tonight. </p>
<p>My oldest daughter turned 18 two months ago and is a college freshman out of state. She registered to vote before she left home and voted by absentee ballot, for her first time. She happened to call home today as she does every few days and said the election is very big at her school where everyone is into it and there are big screen TVs set up and all. </p>
<p>One thing I noticed on the ballot was some party I never heard of..."Marijuana Party". </p>
<p>I just hope this election does not turn into some drawn out legal battle that goes beyond election day. I also hope that whoever wins the popular vote also wins the electoral vote. It does not sit right with me to have a president who did not win the popular vote even though that is how our system works. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Good Grief Florida!!:(</p>
<p>I voted about two weeks ago at my kitchen table. Washington is 70% permanent absentee voting. </p>
<p>We got at least 4 or 5 calls a day with recordings for one or another candidate.</p>
<p>Who else is in favor of a Constitutional Amendment going to a direct popular vote for the president, along with federal standards for the election process and monitoring? And how about a national holiday for the election--maybe roll it into Thanksgiving?</p>
<p>I had no waiting time in order to vote at our local suburban high school at 5:30 PM.</p>
<p>dmd77, IAM!! That's just what I was talking about while driving D to school--a direct popular vote so that everyone's vote counts no matter what state you live in. I happen to live in a state which was known in advance to be going Democratic (which meant, among other things, that I didn't see any campaigning here by either party) so my vote happened to be with the majority, but it also meant that my vote didn't count for anywhere near as much as it would have if the tally of the popular vote would determine the winner.</p>
<p>I had about an hour wait. I went mid-morning. My husband had the same wait when the polls opened at 7 AM. That's better than it was for the early voting.</p>