Do you have a good "early voting" story?

Well, I went to vote at the Government Center today. There was a line. I was standing there, and an elderly black couple was ahead of me in line (easily in their 80s). The lady was having a hard time with the absentee voter application. For whatever reason I do NOT know, the lady looked around and waddled back to me (she said she had two knee replacements) and asked me if I would help. I had taken all my buttons off, and there was no way anyone could tell I was a dem. She quietly asked me if I would help her. I stepped out of line and kind of hugged up to her and said quietly in her ear, "You ARE voting for Obama, aren't you?" She just cracked up and she said, "Girl, look at me - who do you THINK I'm voting for!" We both laughed and I sat down with her and helped her fill out the application. Then she asked if I could go into the booth and help her, cause she didn't know about "those machines"! I said yes, and of course, I had to sign another paper. I went in and helped her push the buttons - she pushed the final button and just beamed!!!!! She hugged me so hard I thought I'd crack. It DID make me feel so good. Then, the registrar came out and hugged me for helping her and them. I guess I must have the word "Democrat" tatooed to my forehead!!!! LOL!

I voted at the East County Library in Lehigh Acres last Thursday. The line wasn't too long and it only took about 45 minutes from getting in the line to having the ballot read by the scanner. You can expect about 900,000/day in Florida until Sunday. Especially since our Governor Charlie hit the Republican Party in the back of the head with his Louisville Slugger. That should teach them to pass him over for Vice President! We should break 4 million BEFORE the actual start of Election Day. Since turn-out is always a Democratic function. This may be a sea change in this state.

Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls http://www.iowastatedaily.com/articles/2008/10/27/news/local_news/doc49068f6ccce49245010961.txt One had already voted for him!

They mailed me my ballot, I completed it, and then I dropped it off in one of the ballot deposit boxes (videoed 24-7 to prevent shenanigans)

EASY! Why can't the rest of America vote this way?

I voted early with my daughter. In this usually Republican stronghold community, the early voting lines were a sign of change, just as the number of attendees at a Michelle Obama rally had been a week earlier. Many of the voters were young; many were black. The guy ahead of me in line was looking angrily at the back of the line...an obvious McCain supporter. There was one guy in a McCain t-shirt, which is totally legal in this state, but "tacky". I filled out a paper ballot and fed it into the reader, and I felt jubilation. On the way to the car, I took the time to fill out an exit poll questionnaire. I'm glad I voted early; this election has had me on pins and needles, especially after someone stole my Obama sign. At least Charlie Crist had the foresight to increase voting hours; maybe he is upset that he did not get chosen as McCain's running mate, but he did the right thing no matter what the reason. The winds of change are a'blowin'.

I too enjoy voting on election day (it's so traditional and all), but Obama keeps saying vote early. I gather that he is saying that for a reason, so I did yesterday on St Simons Island. We've never had a place to vote early on the island. Usually, if one wants to vote early they have to go to Brunswick. This is the first year since early voting began that we have had our own polling place to vote early. There have been lines ever day this week. A friend told me not to go at lunch time since she waited for two hours on the first day of early voting because she had to go during the lunch hour, but she waited, voted and returned to work late. Unlike 2004, there are Obama-Biden signs on the island this year. Of course, there are plenty of McCain Palin signs too. This is red-state hell, you know. But I love seeing the long lines. It means that people are getting off their butts and participating in Democracy(providing that we still have one).

Last night, McCain was leading by only 4 points in Georgia! We still have those touch screen machines so who knows what the highly hackable scanners will do to the final vote on election night. I hate to think what will happen if Obama is leading by 4 -5 % points and there is another midnight flip as there was in 2004 in Ohio. Nevertheless, I got to vote against the very crude Saxby Chamblis and that idiot, Jack Kingston.

Obama pulled his operation out of Georgia several weeks ago and I can certainly understand why, but it would be so great if the people could pull it off for him and get rid of Chamblis and as many Red reps as possible.

I thought I would feel better after voting. At least I would have gotten that behind me so I could focus on continuing to work for Obama through election day, but I don't. I'm still a nervous wreck. I came home turned on the TeeVee to hear a McCain pollster making the most convoluted argument I have ever heard as to why McCain is closing the gap just as he said he would. Andrea Mitchell didn't seem to be buying it. I couldn't help but think back to 2004. If the McCain crowd can convince people of this, no matter if it's true, they can steal yet another one, especially if the media starts buying their convoluted arguments about their internal polling. Perception is everything.

No matter how things turn out, this nearly 60 year old white woman, born and raised in the south, got to fulfill a long held dream; I got to cast my vote for a black man for president and not just any black man, but for a man who is highly intelligent, inspiring and who I believe will, with our help, transform this country in such a way that the dream of the 60s generation will be realized. To me, Obama is the very incarnation of that dream and that suspended revolution. It's time we finished it, now that we are all older and wiser and we have grand kids who are registering in huge numbers to vote for our dream.

And the children shall lead them......

Which as a Certified Election Inspector (for ::hee!:: The Republican Party - since not enough REAL Republicans could be bothered, so they're asking Independents to "play Republican"), I'm allowed to do. In my case, I just filled out a paper ballot, sealed it and drove it down to the local Board of Elections where I dropped it off by hand - just in case it might "get lost in the mail".

That's it - except I got lost afterward trying to get to my office, and ended up on in a nice small town on the other side of the county...where I saw, to my delight, Obama-Biden lawn signs all over the place....

I voted over a week ago in Kane County IL., which is notoriously a strongly Rethuglican county outside Chicago. I chose to go to the local public library to do so. Arriving 15 minutes after the start of early voting @ noon, and after having to inquire as to where in the building I should go (no signs inside) I walked to the early voting area. I was dismayed to see a line of about 25 people had gathered, but no one was at the machines. I noticed that all the election judges were sitting down and not taking registration, but one was running back and forth between the machines, talking on her cell phone. I watched as she checked connections to a machine, pushing buttons while taking on her phone. Then I overheard her say "So now I've just got to wait?". Hearing that I said in a loud but not obnoxious voice "Well I don't have time for this, I'm going over to City Hall, there's early voting there too." in the hopes of offering another option to the people already in line.

After traveling the 4 blocks to City Hall I walked right up (no line at all) to the election judge who promptly ask me for a state issued ID. I questioned this an was told that it was a state law due to the fact I was voting early. Ok fine, but I wrote down the name of the election judge. Being a Democratic judge he actually thanked me for asking about the ID requirement! I went over to one of four machines and started spinning the wheel and pushing buttons (no touch screens here, and paper tape verification as well). When I finished my choices, the printer showed my selections. After reviewing them I noticed that one of the fields at the top labeled "Batch Key" was filled with zeros. Hum what's up with that I thought, a bunch of zeros doesn't look like much of a 'key' to me. I asked one of the election judges and was told "Oh that's normal don't worry about it." Ya right... So I wrote down all the identifying information at the top of the ballot, along with the judges name. I pressed the final button to submit my vote, took a "I Voted" and started to walk out the door. As I left I saw several people I recognized from the line at the library. Good for them!!!

As I was walking to my vehicle I realize I had a bounce in my step, and a broad smile on my face. Damn that felt GOOD. After returning home I called the county Board of Elections to ask about the ID requirement, the Batch Key issue, and to inform them of the problem at the library. The woman on the phone verified the ID requirement and the fact the Batch Key number was not being used. She started asking for my name, so I asked why. "I can verify that you voted from here." So I told her my name and address and she promptly told me where I had voted and the exact time I had done so. Very nice... I told her of the failure of the machines at the library and she replied saying "Well we do have some problems sometimes, I'm sorry that happened."

I found myself smiling all day. Try it you'll like it...

my daughter and i went to lunch on monday which is my day off. over lunch we were discussing the prospect of kansas, where we live, going blue. we decided then and there to find out where we could vote early and just do it. the location was a two minute drive from the restaurant. we walked into the poling place, asked for a paper ballot and were shown to a room where we could vote. i nice young man came in every couple of minutes to show new voters where to go and to answer our questions. we were able to talk about our choices quietly together and had a super experience. total time spent: about 15 minutes. don't wait! vote early!

I live in the WONDERFUL 10th district, home of Bush crony and my so-called Representative Mark Kirk (R). I did my early voting on Sunday October 18th (the Wheeling Township polling location is one of a few open on Sundays in Cook County). When I got there, around 10:30 a.m., there were perhaps 5 people ahead of me. (There were about 15 booths, all were occupied, plus the 5-6 of us waiting.) I got through the identification paperwork easily and got my card to insert in the machine, and waited for less than 10 minutes. Once I was in my booth, I was there for a good 20 minutes; my choices were pre-determined, what took me the longest was going through the list of judges for retention (I brought the Chicago Bar Association recommendations into the booth with me ... I figure, who knows judges better than lawyers, LOL!). After I was done and made sure my paper record matched all my selections, I returned my card, got my "I Voted!" sticker and left. By the time I departed, the line of 5-6 had grown to well over 20 - - probably more like 30 - - and was out the door! And this was at about 11:15 a.m., with the polling place closing at noon. Boy, was I glad I got there when I did! Oh, and BTW: Obama-Biden '08 !!!!! and, GO, Dan Seals!

I voted on October 21st in Siler City, NC--famous for being the Mayberry-esque retirement choice of Aunt Bea. This area is so lightly populated that the nearest early voting location was nine miles from my house.

I was happy to see that there were signs in every booth--and a reminder from the person who handed me my ballot-- that I needed to fill in the space beside my choice for President AS WELL AS marking additionally if I wanted to vote a straight ticket. I'm afraid that staff at other polling places in NC are not being so conscientious.

It's a relief to me to know that I've already voted and that sickness or car accidents or death in the family or any other contingency won't come up to make it impossible for me to vote for Barack Obama and against Elizabeth Dole.

There are a lot of good reasons not to wait, but the best reason is that in case you are told that you are not properly registered, you have an opportunity to straighten out the problem and not have to cast your vote using a provisional ballot, which is much more easily discounted.

There was no danger I would change my mind about candidates. I've never voted Republican. My dad-- a white, eastern NC Southern Baptist whose mother had to leave school in the first grade to work in a cotton mill-- taught me the philosophical differences between the two parties from the time I was old enough to understand what voting was.

He always said that if the Republicans ever REALLY got control--winning the Presidency and a majority in Congress at the same time-- they would run this country into the ground.

He's 85, and he lived to see it happen.

On election day, I'll be an observer at my usual polling place-- the Silk Hope Volunteer Fire Department.

...in Orlando Florida. It was about a 20 min wait, many disabled, (including myself) could not wait in line were instead led to benches where they had to depend on the people who were in line behind them to allow them back in. When we got in there were lines again and 4 pages of ballot. There was a touch screen machine for the Disabled, but nobody would touch it. I sat at it and filled out my paper ballots.

Hard to guess who folk were voting for but the impression was that it was largely Democrats who were voting.

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I have voted early in every case it was allowed, I would say that it is very much better to do that even with a greater wait.

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If the Gang Of Pirates think that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat, only a fool would think it bipartisan to accommodate them.

Your thoughts: " my concern was for undecided voters, who need more information of who to vote for this fall. Long lines whenever people vote early… …I like voting on Election Day …even if you have to worry about long lines. …hope for the concept of democracy, a lost hope in the last two presidential elections. Elections should run from the Saturday before Election Day up until Tuesday…" ------------- My experience: Truman College, Saturday Oct. 26, 2pm voting machines — 7 touch screens, Line waiting to vote — 27 people, 24 below the age of 35, 3 of us at 60+ 2:15pm: line still less than 30, still largely young voters — 4 people ahead of me yet to vote 2:25pm: I am voting! It's 15 pages long! How many judges do we really need? 2:35pm: I am leaving the building. Very nice. I agree that elections should run longer. Many countries do this over a week or sometimes a long weekend so everyone gets a chance to vote. I think we do it (have done it) on one day so that there is less scrutiny on what some nefarious types want to do to control the voting for their party. No party is separated out for this desire.