Early Voting

[Elmorton]

On CBS this morning, there was a stat that 30% of Americans have already voted. I was wondering if this trend is true on PS? If you voted early, why?

DH and I were approached by the Obama peeps during a small town celebration in August. Instead of asking us for $, they asked us to register to vote. We said we already were. Then they asked us to vote absentee because they said, in essence, we''d be taken off their calling list. I hated the idea because I love going to the polls, so we walked away. Then DH reminded me that my Tuesday is insane and that I may not have time to vote if the lines are long and absentee might be a good idea. I went back and registered. A thing that makes me nervous though is that the volunteers told us that we could drop off our ballot at the poll if we wanted to go to the polls on Tuesday, but that''s actually untrue if I read the directions on the ballot correctly.

So, we both ended up sending in our vote. From what I understand, our vote will be counted on Tuesday (and not opened after the fact, etc). While I had reservations about it, I think I''m happy with the decision, though it was strange to not vote on Nov 4th.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

I voted absentee, FI voted early, my parents voted early, and my Grandma voted early. For me it was because I am away at school, but for the rest of my family it was mainly to avoid the CRAZY lines we are expecting.

Yay!

Here if you vote early you could only vote for Pres, but absentee you could do the whole ballot. Absentee had restrictions, early didn''t.

 

[Irishgrrrl]

I would have voted early if I could have. Unfortunately, I live in PA and we don''t get to vote early.

 

[AprilBaby]

I have to be at work 8-5 and thought I might not make the polls before closing without losing time at work so I took advantage 2 weeks ago to vote.

 

[Loves Vintage]

We do not have early voting here in CT. I will vote on my way home from work tomorrow.

I have *never* encountered a long line to vote. I have no idea what is going on in places like Florida. I had the news on briefly this weekend, and they were at the a voting place somewhere in Florida. People were lining up before the polls opened. One woman, who was a first time voter, said she was there the night before, but the polls closed before she could get in to vote. I really don''t understand why that is? Why don''t they just have more polling places? Why are people waiting for hours to vote? Do they not have multiple polling places per city?

My apologies for soundling like a small town girl who is out of touch, but I am genuinely curious about this?

 

[goobear78]

Unfortunately New York City doesn''t have early voting, so I''ll be voting on the 4th. The good thing is that our polling place is usually empty. Wait, that''s not a good thing, but you know what I mean. LOL. But my husband and I are willing to stand in line as long as it takes! We can''t wait!

As per Florida, I''m not sure exactly what the deal is, but I do know that just last year they passed a bill limiting and restricting the hours of early voting. So instead of a polling place being open 12 hours during the week, it was only open 8 hours, for example. Clearly, those hours were not enough and Gov. Crist declared a state of emergency and allowed the early voting to be open longer.

 

[wishful]

FI and I vote absentee. makes it much easier and we can sit and read through all the props (and do some internet research if necessary) to come to an informed decision. (plus avoid crazy lines and taking time off of work to do it.)
we voted a week and a half ago.

 

[neatfreak]

I voted absentee (we have early voting too in WI) because I am on bedrest because of being pregnant with twins and wanted to make absolute sure I was able to vote in case I ended up in the hospital or something on election day!

My DH on the other hand didn''t vote early because our polling station is usually pretty orderly and efficient on election day and his schedule is flexible on tuesdays.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 11/3/2008 11:45:38 AM
Author: Loves Vintage
We do not have early voting here in CT. I will vote on my way home from work tomorrow.


I have *never* encountered a long line to vote. I have no idea what is going on in places like Florida. I had the news on briefly this weekend, and they were at the a voting place somewhere in Florida. People were lining up before the polls opened. One woman, who was a first time voter, said she was there the night before, but the polls closed before she could get in to vote. I really don''t understand why that is? Why don''t they just have more polling places? Why are people waiting for hours to vote? Do they not have multiple polling places per city?


My apologies for soundling like a small town girl who is out of touch, but I am genuinely curious about this?

It''s expensive to run/set up polling places, so I am sure some of it is simple economics. But in other places the people who volunteer are not the most efficient people, so it takes them 10 years to find your name, check it off, etc. So I think a lot just depends on who is running your polling place. Some polling places run like well oiled machines and some are just horrid.

It''s like the DMV.

 

[FrekeChild]

I voted via absentee about two weeks ago. As did my parents. My mom is terrified my vote won''t count because I signed Liz instead of Elizabeth. Hey, it''s my signature-some people''s aren''t even legible!

FF voted last Wednesday on campus and my two best friends voted on Wednesday and Thursday. We are taking advantage of this early voting opportunity in NM!

 

[trillionaire]

Date: 11/3/2008 11:45:38 AM
Author: Loves Vintage
We do not have early voting here in CT. I will vote on my way home from work tomorrow.


I have *never* encountered a long line to vote. I have no idea what is going on in places like Florida. I had the news on briefly this weekend, and they were at the a voting place somewhere in Florida. People were lining up before the polls opened. One woman, who was a first time voter, said she was there the night before, but the polls closed before she could get in to vote. I really don''t understand why that is? Why don''t they just have more polling places? Why are people waiting for hours to vote? Do they not have multiple polling places per city?


My apologies for sounding like a small town girl who is out of touch, but I am genuinely curious about this?

Early voting locations are limited in number... there are usually only a few per county, so the number of people per polling place gets concentrated, and causes lines. I waited an hour to vote early in 2004, but this year (2007/200 I had no wait. I voted early partially because I was excited, and partially because I am 60% sure I am heading to DC/VA tomorrow to enjoy election day with SO! I like the feel of voting on election day, but it is supposed to rain, and standing in line doesn''t sound as glamorous as voting, but I am sure the energy tomorrow is going to be crazy fun! What an exciting election!

 

[panda08]

I could have asked for an absentee ballot but didn''t because I''m old fashioned and enjoy the ritual of going to the polls. I would have loved to vote early but the only early voting site for L.A. county is more than 20 miles from my house and was only open from 8 to 5. I heard on NPR this morning that the lines at L.A.''s early voting site had waits of 3 to 5 hours. Yikes! My polling place doesn''t open until 7am tomorrow, which is too late for me if I want to get to work on time. I''m gonna leave early from work instead and hope that the line won''t be too horrible; I have to be home to get ready for an election viewing party!

 

[goobear78]

Just so everyone knows, most voting places close at 9:00 PM tomorrow night, but if you are in line BY 8:00 PM, you are allowed to vote no matter what. So if you''re going late, make sure to get there by 8:00, and to be double safe, check the hours in your voting locale!

 

[aprilcait]

I voted via absentee ballot because I had an address change after the voter registration period. Now am I glad I did. The poll lines are supposed to be bonkers!

 

[krispi]

I stood in line for 4 hours Friday afternoon to vote early. Even though it took forever, it made the most sense for my schedule. My office closed half a day early on Friday, so I didn''t have to take any vacation time. Tomorrow, I''ll be at work all day and then I have a church group that meets every Tuesday night. I would have had to miss something if there were no early voting. I love the idea of making it more convenient for people whose schedules might not be so flexible.

 

[Haven]

Date: 11/3/2008 4:29:24 PM
Author: goobear78
Just so everyone knows, most voting places close at 9:00 PM tomorrow night, but if you are in line BY 8:00 PM, you are allowed to vote no matter what. So if you''re going late, make sure to get there by 8:00, and to be double safe, check the hours in your voting locale!

In my county the polls are open from 6 AM to 7 PM tomorrow.


I voted early, on Saturday the 24th. I wanted to avoid the long lines, and more importantly, I teach my first class at 7:45 and I was nervous I would be late if I went in tomorrow morning. (I have a 45 minute commute, so if it took longer than an hour to vote I''d be in trouble.)

I waited in line for over 30 minutes, but my town generally has enormous voter turnout so I wasn''t surprised. Hubby voted early on a weekday and only waited for 20 minutes.

We''re having an election party at our house, can''t wait!

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Date: 11/3/2008 5:00:41 PM
Author: Haven

Date: 11/3/2008 4:29:24 PM

Author: goobear78

Just so everyone knows, most voting places close at 9:00 PM tomorrow night, but if you are in line BY 8:00 PM, you are allowed to vote no matter what. So if you''re going late, make sure to get there by 8:00, and to be double safe, check the hours in your voting locale!

In my county the polls are open from 6 AM to 7 PM tomorrow.



I voted early, on Saturday the 24th. I wanted to avoid the long lines, and more importantly, I teach my first class at 7:45 and I was nervous I would be late if I went in tomorrow morning. (I have a 45 minute commute, so if it took longer than an hour to vote I''d be in trouble.)


I waited in line for over 30 minutes, but my town generally has enormous voter turnout so I wasn''t surprised. Hubby voted early on a weekday and only waited for 20 minutes.


We''re having an election party at our house, can''t wait!

Also 7pm in VA.

 

[Octavia]

Date: 11/3/2008 9:22:49 AM
Author: Irishgrrrl
I would have voted early if I could have. Unfortunately, I live in PA and we don''t get to vote early.

Ditto. Luckily, my first class is at 1:30 so I can wait all morning if I need to. Although my condo building has its own polling place, so the lines shouldn''t be too awful in any case.

 

[meresal]

Voted last Thursday.

Absentee Voters: I have a question???

A friend of my dad voted absentee in Atlanta, and is now trying to reverse it, becasue he found out that they only utilize the absentee votes if there is a TIE in the normal polls. Is this not a very common practice?

 

[Krissie]

Date: 11/3/2008 7:33:53 PM
Author: meresal
Voted last Thursday.

Absentee Voters: I have a question???

A friend of my dad voted absentee in Atlanta, and is now trying to reverse it, becasue he found out that they only utilize the absentee votes if there is a TIE in the normal polls. Is this not a very common practice?

Not necessarily if a tie, but many states will not open absentee ballots unless the election result has a very narrow margin of victory (set forth in the individual states'' election laws).

That is why I will not vote absentee, even though it now means I vote in DC (and thus do not enjoy the full representation in Congress that I would if I were still a voter in my prior state). I want my vote counted, period.

 

[krispi]

Date: 11/3/2008 7:33:53 PM
Author: meresal
Voted last Thursday.

Absentee Voters: I have a question???

A friend of my dad voted absentee in Atlanta, and is now trying to reverse it, becasue he found out that they only utilize the absentee votes if there is a TIE in the normal polls. Is this not a very common practice?

Wow! I''ve never heard that before and find it a bit disturbing. I live in Atlanta and took advantage of early voting last week. At the polling place, they told us that all early votes are technically absentee votes - does this mean that the 35% or so of votes that came in before today won''t be counted?

I tried to find some further info on this, but this is all I could find on the Secretary of State''s website:

"Once the information on the oath envelope is verified, the registrar will compare your absentee ballot oath envelope to your voter registration card to verify your signature, as well as compare your signature on the voted ballot with your signature on the absentee application. On Election Day, the ballot and the envelope are separated. This process, and the processing and counting of absentee ballots shall be open to the public."

The website for the National Conference of State Legislators states that in Georgia, an absentee ballot manager counts the absentee ballots before the close of polls.

I also found this on answers.com:
"Each state has different laws regulating when absentee ballots must be counted, and who does the counting. Most states count absentee ballots on Election Day which can continue for several days after. The latest deadline is 10 days after Election day (for Washington, D.C., and for overseas absentee ballots sent to Florida.)"

That would tend to imply that the ballots are eventually counted, even though it might not be on election day.

I live in Cobb County, and I found this under their election faq''s:
"Does my Early/Absentee/Advance vote or Vote-by-Mail ballot really count?
Absolutely! All Absentee and Vote-by-Mail ballots are counted on Election Night along with all of the votes cast in person during Early Voting, Advance Voting and at the polls. Unofficial Results are released before the staff can leave on Election Night. Military and Overseas Citizens'' ballots that are received Wednesday through Friday, and were postmarked by Election Day, are added on Friday. The results become Official after they are certified by the Cobb County Board of Elections & Registration on Friday evening.

Why are all of the Military and Overseas Absentee ballots not counted on Election Night?
All of the ones we have received by Election Night are counted Election Night. In addition some will be added on Friday. Military and Overseas Citizens must postmark their ballots by Election Day, and then we have until 5:00pm Friday to receive them and count them."

Again, this would seem to indicate that all ballots are counted eventually. I didn''t find anything stating that ballots wouldn''t be looked at whatsoever, just that they might not get to them by election day. I''d be interested in hearing from someone who knows more about this. I think it would be terrible if people''s votes essentially went to waste by not even being counted!

 

[Elmorton]

Krispi, that is what we were told too when we signed up to do absentee. Here (Iowa), if I read correctly, they had to be postmarked by midnight on Nov 3rd to count and all that are received are opened and counted on Nov 4.

 

[princesss]

I voted two weeks ago.

I did it because 1) it would take something really earth shattering to make me lose faith in my candidate, and 2) I would have had to think up somebody to write in, because I wouldn''t vote for the other guy. So I figured it was a safe bet that I wasn''t going to change my mind (and I didn''t).

I also wanted to avoid standing in long lines if I could. Since there''s been so much focus here in NC on getting out the vote with us being a swing state and all, I thought there would be crazy lines and wanted to avoid them. I only ended up waiting about 45 minutes, so it was well worth it to me to go early.