One hour wait to vote in Brooklyn

Not bad, I guess, but the polling place was a serpentine mess of disorganized lines for each district. Rumsfeld was right: “Freedom’s untidy.” Let us know how your voting experience was in this thread.

Posted by Kevin K. on 11/04/08 at 08:54 AM • Permalink

I had to fill out a provisional ballot in BK because they couldn’t find my name on their list. i had my voter registration with me, but it was useless.

http://www.youtube.com/user/brjolly

After two years of excitement about this election, my vote doesn’t really count.

Nice

Brandy, really?  That’s awful. So sorry.

Insomnia drove us out of bed early, then we had a twenty-minute wait to vote on the Upper West Side at 6:30 in the morning.  Not horrible, but the longest lines we’ve ever seen there.

I usually vote on election day because something about the communal civic exercise appeals to me. But all the stories about ridiculous wait times in Florida and the expected election day onslaught scared me into voting Saturday instead.

I voted at my nearest early voting polling place, a library out in the middle of nowhere that is surrounded by cow pastures and orange groves as far as the eye can see. I had to wait for a little over an hour. There were more African Americans waiting to vote than I would have thought existed within 20 miles of the place in this part of the sticks. There were also old people. Lots and lots of old people.

Unfortunately for me, the man immediately in front of me in line was a smelly, loud-mouthed, 50-something faux biker who dispensed highly original nuggets of wisdom like this throughout the wait: “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” (In reference to the ballot amendment to outlaw gay marriage, which is ALREADY FUCKING ILLEGAL IN FLORIDA!)

I pretended to read a newspaper so he would continue to direct his comments to the unfortunate pair of women in front of him and not try to engage me. In fact, I considered replying in sign language if he did speak to me since I didn’t think I could manage a civil conversation.

A woman in line behind me deliberately made eye contact and rolled her eyes during one of his oafish outbursts. We smiled at each other, relieved to find we weren’t the only ones annoyed by his brainless comments.

Mr. Cracker shuttled the offspring to school this morning and passed 2 polling places in our very small town. He reported lines out the door at both of them. I’ve never seen that happen here.

I’m heading out to vote in a little bit.  (Gotta wait for the coffee to kick in so I vote correctly, y’know.)

Thought you & Chris might be interested in this bit of local news, from an e-mail this morning:

The Auditor’s office says over 5,300 absentee ballots have been cast for the 2008 general election. That’s 2,000 votes more than the previous record of 3,300 absentee ballots.

Absentee ballots are counted first after the polls close. That probably means the first election results will not be announced until well after the polls close at 9:00 p.m. Tuesday.

I voted this morning and waited about an hour and a half in line. Then when I’m right at the point of signing in, some guy ahead of me asked the pollworker about why they had paper and electronic voting. She rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, a few people griped about the electronic machines and made a big fuss about it, so we HAVE to have them. It’s a waste of time, if you ask me.” I promptly gave my name and driver’s license and sweetly said, “I’ll take a paper ballot, please.”

When I voted in the Primaries, I used their electronic machine. My paper record jammed and the printer just printed over and over, so the whole paper was black. I couldn’t check to make sure my vote tallied. I was pissed, and called over a pollworker and asked if my vote had indeed been counted. He assured me that it had, and then I told him he either needed to fix the machine or shut it down. Of course, he did neither.

So that’s why I wanted a paper ballot. That pollworker can kiss my ass.

Random thought: people in the South say “wait IN line.” New Yorkers say “wait ON line.” I have no idea what folks in other parts of the country say.

Actually, I say wait in line.  Maybe I picked it up during my early childhood in Missouri.

BTW, just saw on CNN that The Naked Cowboy voted for McCain. I think it’s important that everybody is aware of that.

Brandy, that’s awful!

Robert F Kennedy Jr has a site to report instances such as this if you want to report it.

http://www.novoterleftbehind.net/

Thanks. I put a video on the PBS/youtube videomyvote project page and left an account on novoterleftbehind.net. At least I live in New york I guess. It could be worse. But what a bummer. Thanks for the ear.

We’re moving to an all absentee ballot situation in Washington state.  It is tres convenient, but lacks the holiday-like feeling of voting.

BTW- Why isn’t today a national holiday?

When I dropped off the kids this morning I had to go by my polling place, the line was out the door and around the corner of the building. But, this was 7am when the polls just opened. I figured I’d go home have a shower and my coffee and try again later, sure enough there was no wait. I VOTED! WOOHOO! GOBAMA! (and all the down ticket Dems!) I’m in New Hampshire, by the way, just south of Concord, and we also say “in line”, Betty.

Haven’t gone yet, but when I do go to the polling place in my heavily GOP neighborhood, I’ll be proudly sporting my #42 Jackie Robinson throwback jersey…

Two hour and ten minute wait for me (Fort Greene, Brooklyn). Amazing turnout. Huge line. Pretty exciting!

Californians say “Wait IN line” as well.

Indiana says wait in line, unless your browser is stuck, in which case they wait on-line. :)

I and the kids early voted: heavy Republican county—took me 25 minutes two weeks ago, took my son over two hours on Sunday.

Today, my mother reported an easy one hour to get through.

Some Hoosier state trivia:

The majority in Indiana has voted for the Republican candidate in every election since 1936, with one exception. The only Republican in that span to not take the majority was in 1964 when a Senator from Arizona lost to Lyndon Johnson.

Indiana voted for Franklin Roosevelt’s opponent in 1940 and 1944. They voted for Dole over Clinton in 1996.

If you’re a Republican and you can’t win Indiana, you suck ... big time.

Indiana polls close at 6PM.  If Obama wins, or if it’s even close, the decrepit old Arizona corpse will join Goldwater as a big fucking LOSER.

Here in rural/suburban Northeastern PA I voted in about twelve minutes.  Usually it takes half that long.  Something big is happening in the land.

Yes, that’s right—Pennsylfuckingvania.  My vote is practically Electoral.

The British wait “on line,” FWIW.

1/2 hour wait for the wife and I.  Ran into a bunch of people we knew--friends and neighbors.  Best. Fucking. Vote. Ever.

The British queue.

Steve Benen says “on line” as he mentions in his short post about leaving to vote. I think most places in the west say “in line”.  I didn’t have to wait either as I mail voted a couple of weeks ago.  Daughter (who just turned 18 last month and is totally excited about voting!) and DenverDad are heading to the polls after she gets out of school today.  I read this a.m. that CO is expecting over 90% of registered voters to turn out and about 2/3 have already voted early.  I think the polls showing B up by 5% in CO are low.  We never got over McCain’s comment about re-negotiating the Colorado River pact to send more water downstream to AZ.  They are running really vicious Rev. Wright ads here the last few days BTW.  And we got a robo call last night from a Catholic bishop saying basically we would go to hell if we voted for Obama.  Obama is countering with a couple of very good, very positive ads.

Best. Fucking. Vote. Ever.

I’d have to agree.  In my long, less-than-Clooney life this was by far the happiest I’ve ever been about voting. 

Then again, this is the only candidate I’ve chosen who made it through the primaries…

Obama!

They are running really vicious Rev. Wright ads here the last few days BTW.

Seeing those here, too, on MSNBC and CNN.  I’m guessing it was a national buy (why else would they bother in NY?) and the ad seems to be running every other commercial break.

Marindenver & Kevin, we’re getting those crappy Wright ads non-stop too! Even today.

No wait for me here in Milford CT.  But my mom did mention that for the first time ever they questioned her about her middle initial.  Her driver’s license is different from her voter registration.  (long story why)

She said the 2 poll workers discussed it and decided it was ok. 

Ya think.

Oh and I got to vote for Barack Obama at John F. Kennedy Elementary School.  How’s that for symbolism :-)

Sorry, queue.  They stand on queue.  FWIW. 

I’d just never heard that idiom in the US.

I grew up in the UK, we said “in line” or “in a queue” where I came from.

More on people being taken off the voter rolls in New York for those interested.  Tim Robbins was furious! 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/tim-robbins-po lling-place_n_141029.html

:LOL:

Actually I made the whole thing up to seem worldly.  I’m from Pennsylfuckingvania!

Random thought: people in the South say “wait IN line.” New Yorkers say “wait ON line.” I have no idea what folks in other parts of the country say.

I grew up saying “in line,” and the “on line” I hear in new york just throws me every time.

Apologies for copying and pasting this from my own website:

The line at the polling place is long, but it only takes 20 minutes or so to get to the first desk. Still, there is a line. There has never before been any kind of a line.

There are too poll machines for my district. On the left, voters with last names from A - L can vote. On the right, voters with last names from M - Z can vote. 14 of us get in the same line. Nobody is in the other line. That’s only for the other half of the alphabet, and we are strictly forbidden from using it. Rules are rules.

We wait. And wait. And wait. Whoever is in that booth is taking forever.

Our booth is declared broken. Maybe somebody will fix it later. Is he coming to fix it? The pollworker asks another pollworker. But nobody knows if the pollbooth technician is coming. So they shuffle us over to the other booth, the one for the other half of the alphabet.

The WASPy lady directly in front of me can’t take it anymore. “I’m going first!” she shouts. There are at least five people ahead of her. My neighbor is at the head of the line, and he amiably steps aside. “I guess you are!” he says.

The black couple behind me starts laughing at her. “We could wait here all day, did you see the line in Chelsea?” The gay punk rocker behind them says, “I’m with you!” And I say, “I’ve got cupcakes!” (I’m actually carrying a box of cupcakes, which I’ve brought for the pollworkers and for the office).

But the lady in the booth takes FOREVER. This is mostly because she keeps arguing with her husband over who to vote for. He is standing on the other side of the curtain and they are shouting at each other. She can’t seem to hear him, but we can hear her just fine. “Nadler? Should I vote for Nadler or should I not vote for Nadler? Duane or Leible? I said, Duane or Leible? I don’t see a Goldberg. Okay, what about the judges? Which one of them are good guys and which one of them are bad guys? Duane or Leible already? Is this proposition for freeloaders?”

So she finally gets out of there, and then the line moves pretty quickly.

And when I get in there, it takes me half a second to flip the Obama switch, once I figure out that you have to pull the red bar over first (I almost break the Obama lever beforehand).

Best. voting. experience ever.

Ms. Morse had a 2 hour wait at 7 this morning, but at 2:30 when I went to vote I was out in 5 minutes.

Mine was a 5-minute wait and not-much-happening type of story.  It’s my first time voting (became a citizen in July), so that’s the only exciting thing about this.  But I do have one from my friend, who is an African-American.

His was a 20-minute wait, but in the 20 minutes, he had to endure a guy who is probably a white supremacist, neo-nazi individual, who kept on shouting “Keep America white!”, “McCain-Palin!”, etc.  If only he didn’t have a class later, he was going to talk to the guy, which would be quite a scene.

I woke up early and got to the polls around 7:30am.  No room in the parking lot, had to find a space on the street.  The line already went out the door, butit only ("only") took 20-25 minutes to vote… I just moved to this area and hadn’t voted here yet, so I’m not sure if this is the norm or not.

Best part was browsing the used book sale in the polling place after casting my ballot—saw a book called “Jeb: The Next Bush”.  I couldn’t stop giggling over the cover’s assumption that America is headed for a Bush dynasty in the White House.

The good news: No line to vote in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 6pm.
The bad news: I wasn’t on the list even though I received my registration in the mail two weeks ago.
WTF?

I voted after work since I have to leave early and there wasn’t much of a wait, but a pretty big crowd. Things were running pretty smooth. Course I live in a small town, so not many people. Took about 10-15 minutes door to door.  The polling place was surrounded with “yes on 8” signs and banners, which is just sad. Fortunately, there were lots of vandalized signs too.  There was some clown on a street corner waving his big yes on 8 sign.  I wish I’d taken a picture, he looked like someone I’d like to run over.

My Mom was getting people in the town I work in to get out and vote all day, going door to door.  The Dem. headquarters was full of people sitting around on the floor in hallways, stairways etc. making calls to get people to go vote. It was like a hornets nest!