Yesterday was official voting day here in the U.S., but I was one of the many who voted early. Now it’s so much easier here than it used to be. Before you could only vote on the official day, and you had to go to the voting place for your precinct. You told them who you were, they looked it up in their book of voters, and you signed next to your name. Then you had to wait for one of the few voting booths before you could push the right levers for the candidates you wanted. It took time, and I didn’t vote in one presidential election because the line was two hours long.
Now it’s so much easier. You go to the voting place of your choice, tell them your name, sign a signature pad and get your ballot.
You take your ballot to one of the privacy areas and mark it with a pencil.
Then you feed your ballot into the ballot counter and you’re done.
What’s it like to vote where you are? Do you think it’s a lot easier than it used to be?
November 5, 2014
It is very simple here too. Registered voters can get their ID number, voting booth location etc details from the list available online. You simply go there, wait in a line, prove your identity, sign for admittance, get your left index finger inked and press a button on a voting machine kept in a secure enclave and walk out. The last time I voted the process took me exactly five minutes. It took me five minutes to walk up to the venue and five to walk back home.
The interesting thing here is we don’t have to prove our identity. Needless to say that’s a controversial issue.
Our voting place here has always been pretty simple, much as you described for your more recent voting. It’s in a small town 3 miles down the road and also covers the portion of the rural area we live in. Electronic voting machines have been available for the last several elections.
I voted early simply to get it over and done with. The methodology was the same and I was in and out in just a few minutes. I used the electronic voting machine.
Early voting is a great idea. Apparently people who voted yesterday had to wait in long lines — but only 20 minutes, not as bad as it could have been.
Yay Republicans! I have an open mind too. I voted for Obama for his 1st term.
Do you want to add this comment to your post?
On Nov 5, 2014, at 1:06 PM, jbrowman wrote:
Yay, Monsanto! Unfortunately the Republicans aren’t big on consumer protection.
But I can’t say Yay Monsanto either. The poison they put out is EVERYWHERE. (It’s a big issue whether to put GMO foods on labels now & Repub.s prob. will vote it down. Can’t win. “You have to laugh.” Jean’s quote to preserve sanity.)
I don’t like Monsanto, and I don’t like politicians who don’t care about consumer protection.
“Yay Monsanta.”–Jean says “I’m just saying it helps Monsanto to have the Republicans in.”
bikehikebabe says –You can’t win. Just look at politics as Interesting.
Here voting is on a Saturday.
You can vote by mail or by going to a place early to cast a vote.
P.S. I think compulsory voting (which we have in Aus) is a very good idea.
That’s interesting that your voting is compulsory. What happens to people who don’t vote? It sounds as if they make it easy for you. Yay, Australia!
It is much easier because we can vote by mail. I voted very early to stop all the irritating phone calls. The only part that is harder is all the amendments and initiatives that we have to vote on. It’s very hard to get to the bottom of some of them.
It’s easy enough to hear campaign rhetoric, but it’s hard to get real facts. I hate it that groups can now slander the candidates they don’t like, and the candidate they’re supporting has no say over the advertising. Things got really nasty here.
I also agree that the amendments, bond issues are hard to understand. I sometimes just don’t vote in some sections. I would feel guilty about it if my one vote ever swung an election.
I think there’s a way to vote by mail here, but I’ve never tried it. The voting place is so easy to get to.
it depends what you are voting for…some are mailed out to you and you return in stamped address free post envelope
general elections are more go to voting station – in your area if possible. If you want to do it earlier you can but only a few stations open. About 2 qweeks before voting opens you received information by post with a quick voting card (I don’t think you really need it)
then you turn up and some person finds you on the roll and then does marks and hands you whatever papers you need for your electorate, go to booth and follow direction and tick with usually a yellow marker…pop in a box and you’ve done
I guess they use a scanner somewhere along the line but I don’t know ins/outs or care…
apparently this year a lot of people around 20% voted early…I did too as I was going to an event on the Saturday and couldn’t be bothered queueing…
there was a lot of “dirty politics” this last time, including a book published during the campaign titled just that “d/p” 🙂