Anne and I just got back from voting.
Our polling place was well-staffed by very friendly and helpful people, and there was absolutely no line at all. We were in and out in about ten minutes. The Los Angeles Times was conducting an exit poll at our location, but I didn’t get asked to participate. Darnit.
I was a little unsure about how I’d use our new optical scan ballots, but they are actually identical to the punch-card ballots I’ve used since I was eighteen, with the only difference being we stamp the card rather than punch it.
So as of about 8:15 this morning, John Kerry has two more votes from California. 🙂
My friend Kathleen is a poll worker in Los Angeles, and she wanted me to share the following blogging.la post with Los Angeles voters:
I know, I know. You’ve been told to vote by everyone and their uncle already. However, as your friendly neighborhood election official, I feel an obligation to ask you to vote. If you don’t know where your polling place is, you can go to LA Vote, My Polling Place, or My Polling Site to find out. If you haven’t received confirmation of your registration, just locate your polling place and bring a photo ID. If we can’t find you on the rolls, we can issue you a provisional ballot. If you’ve recently moved, or you have any other reason to think your registration hasn’t been processed, you can at the very least go to your local polling place and find out. It’ll be busy there, but we’ll make sure your vote is counted.
I hear that people in Florida and Ohio are waiting for several hours to vote, and I hear that there are already massive instances of voter intimidation in Ohio and attempts in South Dakota, so I consider myself very fortunate that I cast my ballot so easily.
Today is our day, America. Get out there and make your voice heard, and be sure to thank the people who have volunteered to work the polls. They’re probably going to have a long and difficult day.
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Well done Wil
Hope the election goes your way we in the uk are staying up for an all night results party at the comm I visit
Voted this morning in CT, took about an hour. But heck, that’s worth it if we can get Kerry in the White House!
I was lucky enough to greet Kerry last night as he got to La Crosse, WI shortly after 1AM CST! It was absolutely amazing!!! Got to shake his hand and it was amazing!!! 😉 Pictures to follow w/in a few days! 😉
GO KERRY!!!
two hours here in tampa florida, and the lines weren’t marked, so i stood in one for 45 minutes before being told i needed to be in the other, longer line.
see URL link for another story that happened to me.
er, that url would be http://www.michaelmoore.com/electionwatch/state.php?state=FL …
I think this 4 year nightmare will be over very soon everyone.
Vote Kerry!
Good for you and Anne, Wil!
Hubby and I voted just down the road east of you (in the 909), and our polling place was hopping. In the 15 years we’ve lived here, I can’t remember so many people showing up to vote!
Go Kerry – Edwards!! Let’s hope that the conservatives haven’t completely taken over the IE!!
I voted here in TX “early” last week. My friend at Columbia law school in NY (who is a “resident” of NJ) sent for her absentee ballot on time, and though they think they sent it to her, it was NEVER SENT!
So, she is skipping classes today to take a train to NJ to fight the courthouses in order for her voice to be heard. A lot of her law school friends have gone to Ohio to help deflect the instances of Republicans turning away “people who look Democratic” (read: “black”) by telling them that they were “illegally registered.”
I understand that differences exist in how people think this country should be run. That’s fine if people want to vote Republican. But low sh-t like voter intimidation is just pathetic, frustrating, evil, and depressing.
Photo ID? It doesn’t apply to me… I voted as well & was in/out in 5 minutes. But anyway, I heard on MSNBC this morning about people having a problem voting.. and one person said that no place in the US is it required to have a photo ID to vote.
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
I’m an Ohio voter, but luckily I didn’t have any lines to deal with. It’s a little unsettling about the case late last night that allowed people to challenege your eligibility to vote outside of the polling place in Ohio.
Glad you voted – even if it were not for my guy!
As for voter intimidation – I’m sorry, I don’t buy that it exists – either for Dem’s intimidating people or Republicans intimidating people.
The problem is the lawyers have convinced people they are victims every damn day of their lives – to those who feel they are being intimidated – grow a set of stones!
Unless you are one of the morons who can’t handle filling out a registration form correctly – there is nothing anyone can do to intimidate you. If you are one of those who 4 years ago voted 3 times on one ballot – take a deep breath and accept the fact you may be less than smart.
Reporting in from voting in Ohio, one of the “swing states”. Voting here was smooth sailing, although I don’t live in one of the “highly contested counties”. Its funny to me that a state that is so controlled by one party(the republican party) can be a crutial state in the presidential race. Anyway, there are some reports of voter intimidation in the larger cities(Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati) but those are areas with “large minority populations”. Thats gonna be where the stories come from. Despite all these voting horror stories, I’m confident that this years voter turn out will break records.
If we’re lucky this time tomorrow we’ll get a shiney new president ^_^
I’m a life long O.C. Republican… leaning heavily towards Libertarian, lately as I’ve finally gotten fed up with both the Ass & the Elephant parties seemingly being only Right & Far-Right, and Left & Far-Left, respectively. Wha’ ‘appened to the Centrists in both parties!??
Regardless… ANYONE trying to intimidate or lie to voters about their registration, thus their Right to vote should be thrown in JAIL head first. This is America! Not some third world country with a dictatorship holding “fair & free” elections. [er… or is it??? How could it be… how could citizens let it happen in America???]
Just my two cents.
I’m amazed at the states that still use paper. WA uses paper and gives you a pen to go fill in a IOWA/SAT form. Looks like CA has punch/stamp cards.
Connecticut (where I grew up) had machines that had actual levers. You’d go into a booth, close the curtain (with a lever), click down the switches you wanted to select, and when you left, you reversed the curtain lever and that counted (and cleared) your vote. I’m just shocked that CT had something more advanced than, well, the rest of the nation.
I live in Florida, in the hotly-contested “I-4 corridor,” and I was at the polling place at 7:15 am. The line was already out the door, down to the street and around the corner. But I waited and voted! Only took about an hour.
There were people doing the “early voting” thing here yesterday who waited in line in the 90-degree heat for 4 hours. I’m glad I waited until the actual day.
I even motivated my husband to vote, and my brother got out of bed early enough to go, too. So that’s 3 Kerry votes in Florida, at least! And here, we know how much every vote really does count.
I’m a Canadian, and while I’ll miss the fat Canadian dollar that we’ve been experiencing due to the Bush administration, I’m hoping Kerry will be elected (and without the drama of the last election).
To all of you who have voted and are going to vote: good for you.
I would like to see America return to its former glory. It’s too bad that Bush spent the last 4 years undermining everything your country stands for.
Hey Randy… here in Cali each county seems to have it’s own devices… some are [rather different] versions of punch cards, but some have upgraded to either touch screens or ink-blotter stamping devices. [Bingo! anyone???]
Voted early this morning in North San Diego. No issues other than the street sweeper sweeps by on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays in my neighborhood and that might suck for the people parked outside the polling place. To Chris above I wanted to mention that intimidation doesn’t happen during the registration proces, it’s when people who might be a little nervous of the government in the first place (whether with justification or not) walk up to a polling place and see people (R or D, but apparently in Ohio mainly R) grilling others in line. There’s also the (multiple) cases of flyers being distributed in urban (again, read: black) neighborhoods stating that if you even have a parking violation that you can be arrested if you try to vote. The fact is that when the turnout is high it favors Democrats, so it’s in the Republican’s best interests to suppress the vote.
Things are quiet in the Raleigh, NC, suburbs. My wife an I were in and out in about a half hour.
Thankfully, we still have the same paper ballots we’ve had for years, so it’s connect-the-arrow and feed it into the machine for us.
And 2 votes for Bush here in Tennessee.
I might not agree with your politics, but I am glad to see people taking such an interest in politics. I don’t know about this voter intimidation. I think it is created by the media also. Go vote, people (even if it is for Kerry!). Don’t let anyone intimidate you- its 2004!
The message should be “DON’T VOTE”, and i’m honestly sick of seeing so called “celebrities” pushing the “VOTE” message. Until sheeple stop voting the system is never gonna change.
There is so little difference between Bush and Kerry it’s not worth it. Do you really think anything will change if Kerry is elected? It won’t.
Maybe there should be a choice for someone who will make a real difference, and wasn’t able to run based soley on the fact they have a SHIATLOAD of money and/or connections to big business.
Thank you for voting and for taking a stand against Bush!! THANK YOU!!
Well my Birth day is November 20th. Wish me wishes.
In Mt. Laurel NJ a man ran into a polling place and sprinkled what was characterized as a “white powder” all over the floor and then fled.
Mt. Laurel is a staunchly Republican area of NJ.
The polls were closed for 2 hours while the situation was investigated (turns out the substance was salt.)
Voter intimidation? You decide.
From another swing state — Voting in central MN took me 15 minutes or so. I was waiting in line when the polls opened at 7, and there was about 15 people in front of me. There was a challenger present, but she didn’t seem to be doing much.
Here’s hoping for a Kerry win!
True Majority sent me an email yesterday that showed my voting rights. It’s available at http://www.movetoiceland.com/vote_guide.htm
Pay extra attention to this part: You have the right to vote if you are in line when the polls close. Stay in line until you vote. I’m going to be going to my polling place at 7:30 to make sure everyone who’s in line gets to vote.
I hope John Kerry wins your election! It’s about time Bush got a taste of his politics.
I was one of the (fairly) lucky ones. I live in Philly. My apartment building is also my polling place, and I was the 7th in line to vote. However, we had a few problems with the voting machines and the vote, while officially supposed to start at 7:00, didn’t start until closer to 7:20. I was very pleased to see the line behind me extended out the door, through the courtyard and about 1/2 way down the block. Way to go Philadelphians!
However, another friend of mine in MI saw a bit of injustice. There was a black gentleman in her (primarily white) district that was challenged because his name was misspelled in the rolls (Shawn rather than Shaun). He waited for two hours until someone from the elections commission came in and told the officials that he was entitled to vote. My friend waited much of that time with him and even gave him a ride home when he’d finished. She said the whole polling place cheered for him when he finally finished voting.
If we’ve got to hear the stories of the bad, I hope we hear just as many stories of the good to go along with it.
I’m in a crunch, so i don’t have time to read everyone’s comments so this might be cleared up already. anyway, if you are a first time voter or someone who has changed their voter registration because you moved (like myself), there is a book at your precinct that you have to sign. in order to sign it they have to confirm either your social security number or driver’s license number thus the photo id. and if you are in indiana be prepared to wait. there were only 4 touch-screen voting machines, and one of them was broken. be patient. and if you even think about leaving the line because you are running late remember that the line will only be longer later, and you might not make it back in time. what’s more important than voicing your opinion in this election? just stay and be patient. you’re local election officials are waiting for you with a smile and a snazzy sticker when you are done. i also need to add that i’ve seen a lot of those “i voted” stickers which makes me very hopefull that voter turnout will be high.
Long wait in Florida. Gainesville peeps had to wait for an hour on Friday–line went out the lobby, down the stairs, and a block down the street. It’s even longer today.
I’m in Oakland Park, FL (Broward County, ground zero in 2000). It took me about 20 minutes to get to the poll, vote, and get out. There was absolutely no line.
The people who went to early voting got stuck 3 or 4 hours in lines. I figured voting in my own precinct, which is fairly small, would be faster & easier, since we don’t have people from all over the county coming to vote.
More is at stake in this election than ever before.
A woman’s right to choose; the draft; human rights; privacy; separation of church & state; gas prices have doubled in the past four years; a $6 trillion surplus was squandered and now we have a $3.5 trillion deficit; we’ve lost over 1 million jobs since Bush took office; we’ve suffered the worst attack ever on American soil; our nation is hated because of Bush’s foreign policy f* ups; and, oh, yeah – we’re at war – a pre-emptive, unjustified war. People say that oh, the terrorists want Kerry to be elected. I beg to differ. The terrorists have much more to gain by Bush being elected. Our nation is hated, and sympathies are with them, so why wouldn’t they want Bush in office? The world doesn’t give a flying f* if we’re attacked now. The respect our nation will win back when Kerry is President will make a big difference in the fight against terrorism. We’ll have allies again.
How can anyone say Bush and Kerry are the same? Candidates have never been more diametrically opposed!!
Get your vote on, people. Lots at stake here.
Brightest blessings,
Wil, I am Canadian but am crossing my fingers for your country today. Toes too! Americans are not the only ones sick of Bush. Good luck. Peace!
Wil,
I love the site, but don’t always agree with the politics you espouse. I ran across this link that quotes you from Salon as seeing your self as a Libertarian:
http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/wil-wheaton.html
While I am not exactly sure when the article was published (2002?) I wonder if you still, if you ever did, view yourself as a Libertarian. If so, how did you justify to yourself voting Kerry?
Personally I have a hard time rooting (let alone voting) for Kerry or Bush. I feel at least by voting Badnarik I am excersising my civic right and sending a message that neither candidate is addressing the issues I see as important.
Thanks for the insight to your life and politics.
Joe
Texas has early voting. All last week the lines were at least 1-2 hours long. I’m afraid of how long the lines will be today considering all the procrastinators in the world.
There was actually incidence reported this morning on the new that, I believe in Pennsylvania (though I could be wrong) that someone working at the polling place was actually calling people out by their names and party affiliation.
I thought the political ads were bad, but this? This is illegal! But hopefully, it’s been taken care of.
Here’s hoping for Kerry!!
Whoa! You mean actually put ink to paper? Lucky! You get an honest-to-goddness paper trail. Here in Texas, I just got a computer screen with a dial to select and a button to confim my choices. The only evidence that I voted for Kerry is stuck in a couple of electrons in my head and in a computer somwhere. And I’m not really that confident that the computer has been able to maintain those electrons over the week it has been since I voted. At least I didn’t see a DieBold label anywhere.
You know, I never noticed before how similar the words Electron-Election are.
I voted at 9am here in Phoenix. We were using scantron-type forms where you have to connect the ends of an arrow to mark your choice. Seems like a smart way to vote – you have a machine readable ballot, plus a paper copy in case of a recount. Doubtfull we’ll have one here, but these ballots may be a good idea for contested areas (next time).
The main result I want for today is a HUGE voter turnout – when turnout is low (like at mid-term and general elections), a few people make a choice for everyone else. Think about it: If 51% of the eligable voters vote, the winning issue only has to get 26% of the vote to win – barely more than a quarter of voters making a choice for the rest. Citizenship isn’t easy – you have to exercise your consititutional rights in order to preserve them. GOTV!
I agree with Lisa and wish I’d had a chance to do some cross-border shopping while the loonie is so close to the American dollar.
Regarding Wil’s post:
People VOLUNTEER to work the polls? When I worked as a poll clerk I got paid.
Whew! When I quickly scanned the title of this entry, my mind read “pull my finger.” It’s been a busy day what with voting and all. (And, NO, I don’t want to pull your finger, Wil!).
So Goddyss are you saying that Bush is somehow responsible for the 9/11 attacks? That’s ridiculous! The first world trade center bombing and the two embassy attacks in africa where on clinton’s watch. Clinton had ample chances catch and or kill Bin Laden, but dropped the ball. Also privacy is at stake? Remember that Kerry voted to pass the patriot act.
Voted on the 21st down here in Texas… go team America, VOTE VOTE VOTE
— Beej
Vocal Kerry supporter
I agree with you Wil. And I am glad that more and more people have been inspired to vote this year.
My take on voting and the election process.
http://lordandrei.livejournal.com/297560.html
My district’s voting machine broke down this morning, but luckily, it was fixed quickly enough for me to vote. Here’s hoping John Kerry comes through, and equally important, that the Dems take the Senate!
I go to school in Cincinnati where much of the voter intimadation has been reported. Mostly it involves a few people sitting in the corner of the room staring at the line. But even if they question someone they would just give them a provisional ballet, which is still counted if everything is in order.
I voted first thing this morning and it took about an hour. Apparently about half the village in Cross Plains, WI had the same idea that I did. It was well worth the wait to place my vote for John Kerry. Thanks for keeping such a level head this election year Wil. Your posts have been well thought out and educated. Which is exactly what I have come to expect from you.
The line was very short here in AZ. I don’t know about some of you, but I hadn’t made up my mind on whom to vote for until I filled out the ballot. Anyone else have the same feeling? I wound up voting against my usual party. It wasn’t a vote for Kerry. It certainly wasn’t a vote against Bush. It was just a vote for change. “I never had any friends later on in life like the ones I had when I was 224 (2000-1776). Jesus, does anyone?” Hopefully we’ll get some allies back around the world.
MAYBE MY FELLOW UTAHNS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS FUCKED-UP SATE TODAY! One vote for Kerry here, baby. -Miel
I’m from Ohio and while I was able to vote pretty easily, my wife had lots of problems. It seems that between the last election and this one, her name and address had changed without her knowledge. I have a write-up on my site as well as what we were told to do about it now.
Voting was relatively painless for me this morning. Arrived at my Minnesota polling place at 7:15 waited in line a little bit, voted and was out the door by 7:32. And with that, I was the 93rd person to cast my ballot by that time already! Definately the longest I have had to wait to vote so far…
This is gonna be quite a ride ladies and gentlemen, can’t wait til it’s over however.
And please, keep your hands and feet inside the ride until it comes to a complete stop!