(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

Yay! I have now officially voted. (Which is good, because when I left, the line reached approximately to Guam.)

So, my morning so far has looked like this:

5:00 - Roll out of bed.
5:01 - Get up off the floor where I landed and throw on some clothes.
5:10 - After smacking myself to wake myself up, head out to the voting place.
5:12 - Walk towards the voting place wearing a black hoodie and listening to "Mosh."
5:13 - Pause the first time I look around for other people in black hoodies to officially accept the "World's Biggest Idiot" award.
5:30 - Arrive at elementary school voting place. Wonder where all the other black hoodies are.
5:31 - Realize that it's entirely possible the other black hoodies don't even know that 5:30 is a real time and think it was just made up to scare slackers.
5:33 - Am bored. Get thoroughly tempted to call my dad in PA and ask him whom he's voting for. Figure out my father, the world's only terminal night owl, probably got up early enough for his vote to count as being submitted last Tuesday, if he even voted at all.
5:40 - Take out my AlphaSmart fully intended to write. Spend the next ten minutes staring at it trying to remember what it is. Swear off attempting to even think before six in the morning.
5:55 - Watch as pollsters promptly piss off half the line by announcing they're sorting voters in alphabetical order rather than first come, first serve. Become amused when poor, stupid pollster gets yelled at by members of the line for being too doofy to add that he's only doing it with the first ten people or so.
6:00 - Voting begins.
6:02 - As I'm only twelfth or thirteenth in line, yes, that's exactly when I got in there.
6:05 - Leave voting booth. Gaze longingly at the e-voting machine like the technojoy nerd I am.
6:07 - Exit the building. Am promptly confronted by the sight of a line so long it's probably extended itself to New Zealand since I started this post.

So, yay. Now I need to write. And later, to buy booze, because the 7-11 only has crappy alcohol.

Comments

[silly-dan.livejournal.com]

Why did they make the first ten people go in alphabetical order?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

The thing was, they had three different tables set up in the gym, one for A-G, one for H-O, and one for P-Z. They only had one or two at a time who could wait for their voting registration to be verified, so they'd take in the first two people whose last names started with A-G, then the first two with H-O, etc.

It wasn't so much fucking with the line as it was sorting everybody out, but they nearly started about a dozen arguments because the dumbass announcing it decided it was a good idea to go down the line to tell everybody rather than wait until they got to the front of the line and inform them. A whole bunch of people thought he meant they were taking all of the people with last names between A and G first, even if they'd gotten there way earlier. It was a dumb move, but nothing more than that,

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

Where there any black hoodies in the line?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

At that time, I counted me, another girl about five people ahead of me (who almost had a fit when they brought up the alphabetizing thing), and another guy about halfway down the line. When I got out, there was about five or six in line that I could see, but then again, it was disgustingly early, so I'm not surprised.

[fyrdrakken]

Frankly, I'm just delighted that you saw that many at so early an hour.

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

Congrats for your very early civic heroism :)

*puts pictures of you with "definitely cuter and earlier than you" all over the net*

ok hard drinkers, let's drink hard.
I would advice tequila, you can never go wrong with tequila.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The fact that it took a presidential election to drag my butt out of bed at five in the morning is terrifying. ;)

I'm all proud of myself. I think I need to buy myself a "Baby's First Presidential Election Vote" present. And maybe one for my brother, too, just because I think it's incredible he wants to vote.

Yay, booze! *drinks Smirnoff like it's water, gets wasted*

[lots42.livejournal.com]

My dad dragged me out at 6, though we got there at 7:30, it being only five minutes away. I've long ago given up trying to understand why my family does crap like that

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

If I called my father and told him I got up at five in the morning to vote, he'd think I'd been replaced by a pod person.

Hee. I probably should do that just for the laugh. *runs for the phone*

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

Hey, you want scary, I stayed up all night to be able to drag my behind to the polls first thing. I only ever see 6AM from the wrong end...

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I was tempted to do that, but it never would have worked with me. I was much more awake this way.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Am promptly confronted by the sight of a line so long it's probably extended itself to New Zealand since I started this post.

Oh, God, don't scare me like that. I'm still in here studying Shakespeare. My head is all full of inverted sentences and words that don't exist anymore for a reason. And I really don't want to contemplate waiting in line for 2 hours that I really need to get my homework done for tomorrow.

*wibble*

The things we do for democracy. :)

-blue

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

How come there's so much queuing for voting in USA, do you have like only one place to vote in each town ??

Whatever time I chose to go to vote, there was never more than 5 or 6 people in front of me.

If it's the same each time, why don't they just set up more polls.

[thesumo.livejournal.com]

Last year, when my mother went to vote in local elections, she was one of two people in our polling place. Today, the line probably goes to the other side of Cambodia. It's a big, bad election today, and more people are voting for a change- typically, people don't vote, because they're lazy or don't care, or whatever great reason they have. <3

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

thanks :)

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

You make it sound so simple. :)

There's one polling place per voting district. I don't know exactly how many people there are in each voting district, but I imagine it varies depending on where you live. Live in the nice, densely populated Northeast, and you'll have lots of people in your voting district.

As for why they don't "just set up more polls"- it's the machines, silly. For example, my district uses old-fashioned lever machines that work well but aren't really manufactured anymore, except maybe for replacement parts. Buying new machines or switching to a different type is an immensely complicated bureaucratic process, and an iffy one, too, considering how shady those electronic machines are. Look up Diebold memos if you don't believe me.

So...there's lines. Long, long lines. But it's worth the wait.

I feel sick.

-blue

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

ok, thanks for answering :)

Just in case you're in a good answering mood I've got another question why do you keep the electoral college thing-y ? Is it a tradition or something ? Why don't you try something like everybody votes and the guy who got more voices wins ?
Just wondering.

[wenchamok.livejournal.com]

It also depends on time of day. The busiest times are the first couple of hours (people voting on their way to work), 11 a.m.-1 p.m.ish (people voting on their lunch break) and late in the day (people voting on their way home from work). If you have flexible schedules or work near your polling precinct, voting becomes somewhat easier. I work five minutes away from my polling site. I took my lunch at 10:30 this morning and was there and back in half an hour. No waiting. Mid-afternoon (2 p.m.ish) seems to be another fairly good time to vote. Then again, I've always been in rather smallish cities/towns when I voted, so that likely affects things as well.

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

Okay, thanks for the answer :)

True I forgot about that. Why do you elect people on working days, I'm just wondering... maybe there's a perfectly good reason.
Here all the elections are held on sundays between 8am and 8pm and as I said, never ever had to queue.

I've got so many questions about your political system like why do you keep the electoral college thing-y why don't you try something like everybody votes and the guy who got more voices wins ?

[wenchamok.livejournal.com]

I've got so many questions about your political system like why do you keep the electoral college thing-y why don't you try something like everybody votes and the guy who got more voices wins ?

When someone figures that one out, please let me know too. :) Ditto for the voting on Tuesdays. It's what the law says, so.... *shrug* I personally think the electoral college needs to go, but gods forbid we change 200-some years of tradition.... *eyeroll*

(P.S. Love your icon!)

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

I wonder if not doing that on sundays like here, got something to do with sunday being god's day or something (my theological knowledge is close from nil).

In France like in the USA, some of our laws goes back to 200 years ago (our civil code is from 1804 and, on some issues hasn't really been touched since).
It would be about time that someone decides to dust them in both our countries.

As for the icon, thanks but it's been made by someone far more talented than me (whose name I forgot, if somebody knows it drop me a line) that actually know how to make icons :)
Yours isn't too bad either.

Anyway thanks for all these kind answers and sympathy for you and your country.

[sasscat.livejournal.com]

It reached to New Zealand. I saw it. Waved to some Americans who looked terribly confused to be in a night-time timezone. Handed out torches and blankets and mugs of hot chocolate. Anything I can do to aid democracy.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

*wants to vote so goddamn bad*

[william-mize.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm.
AlphaSmart voting goodness.

I didn't know you were one of us!
Best wordprocessing invention EVER.
Did you see my little love note to my own AlphaSmart?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Nope, I missed that. My AlphaSmart is my baby. I love carting it to Starbucks and working on my fic with it. *hugs it to my chest*

I also have a sticker on the back of it that says, "Don't piss me off -- I'm running out of places to hide the bodies." That pretty much describes my characters to a Q. :)

[william-mize.livejournal.com]

The only thing that really keeps me from marrying mine is that I'm sure it would be illegal in the South, as opposed to marrying a close relative, which I'm sure is fine.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/william_mize/75107.html

I am, however, toying with buying a Palm with a folding keyboard to go even SMALLER.

[fyrdrakken]

Voted last week, saw no hoodies, had so much time before the end of voting that day that I ran home to get a book to read in line (because I was a dumbass and didn't bring it with me when I went).

[xerne.livejournal.com]

I vote in my black hoodie. I saw no one else wearing one, but then I was in my Small Town Polling Place at about 10.30 and all the respectable people were at work or school. =P (I also only had a three minute wait, so.)

[acetal.livejournal.com]

Well the motorways of our biggest city did turn into a huge carpark today.

I, however, did not have to deal with that. Instead I listened to talkback radio hosted by a Libertarian at work all day. Imagine my joy.