Election Day!

[skhill]

So thankful that the ads are coming to an end!

I had no line. Probably had something to do with the polling place being moved since 2008, and no sign was posted at the old place directing people to the new place. New location is hard to get to on foot, in a precinct where many voters don't drive. No bike rack either, and they wouldn't let me bring my bike in with me. Seriously. They were prepared to refuse to let me vote because I came by bike and was not willing to leave my wheels leaned up unlocked and unguarded outside. Stood up for myself and they ended up letting me vote with my bike present.

While out walking my dog very early this morning, I had the honor of being able to help 6 of my fellow citizens find their new polling locations (a lot of local precincts have been moved over the last 4 years). That's an election day mitzvah...

My brother who is now in Columbus OH had an interesting day. He was expecting to have problems, as he hasn't gotten an Ohio driver's license yet. So he put on his best suit and brought printouts of Ohio voting law with him, and did his best imitation of a lawyer. He managed to vote despite being challenged, and helped 2 other voters who were about to be turned away.

So, how was your election day? Hopefully less exciting than what my family faced!

[TrekDianna]

I voted by mail a couple of weeks ago.

[Jolt]

No long lines at my polling location when I went...right after the pre-work rush since I work evenings and had the day off anyway. SO glad to be done with the darn political ads (and hearing about politics constantly)!! Is it just me, or were the ads worse this year?

[Blueberry]

No long lines at my polling location when I went...right after the pre-work rush since I work evenings and had the day off anyway. SO glad to be done with the darn political ads (and hearing about politics constantly)!! Is it just me, or were the ads worse this year?

They were terrible, and I'm not in the worst of the battleground states. Between the ads and the calls, I've been going nuts!! We voted this afternoon prior to the after work rush - no line, no wait at all.

[OakLeaf]

For some reason we put it off until today and I didn't get home until almost 4, and since we walked to the polling place (about 2.7 miles) people were starting to get off work and there was a bit of a line. Not too bad though, we're in a rural location, so we were back home before full dark (thank goodness, I'm not much on being out on rural roads after dark).

[ny biker]

My neighbor waited for 2.5 hours this morning. Many others in Arlington county waited that long.

I got there around noon and waited just about an hour. The woman in front of me was wearing too much perfume so I had to hang back to keep from sneezing.

[Irulan]

mail ballots rule. I can't wait for all this to be over.

[Catrin]

So now I am watching the returns and just finished cooking for the next 3 days... For some reason I associate election night with cooking - and I've been taking care of business!

[Crankin]

I had a client cancel and I was able to go home at 1, to vote. I rode there, voted, did a loop, and then ride to my client's house. I voted at 2:15 or so and it was busy, but no line at all. Saw a few neighbors, who seemed surprised I rode, since it's the coldest day of the season. I ended up sitting and waiting to pass the time at Ferns country store, as I didn't want to stay in Concord center and be tempted to buy stuff. Saw 2 cyclists there, but they were not friendly. By the time I left there, I had my front light blinking and my back light on, too. Got to my client's house around 3:45 and left at 5:30. It was fully dark, and about 33 when I got home. I did not have my warmest gloves on, and I needed them. Was happy to see my hill, as that was what warmed my hands up.
I had an 18.8 mile ride to celebrate election day.

[Owlie]

I voted by absentee ballot, so no lines! The leasing office of a friend's apartment complex, however, was a polling place, and they didn't see fit to tell anyone. She had a very hard time getting out. A different friend waited for around 2-2.5 hours.

[smilingcat]

Finally, no more robo calls. no more flyers stuck on the door. no more canvassers knocking on door... I am so burnt out on the ordeal. Life is back to near normal once again. Yes we voted early by mail chuffed!!

And i don't have to bother people at their homes. Yes I was one of those pesky people canvassing door to door multiple times.

"Hey, weren't you here before?"
"Looks familiar but I was sent here by God"* LOL...

The two candidates I supported looks like won so even better.

* really wanted to say that but I said something else.

[Selkie]

Like NY, I'm in Arlington, VA and the line was very long. We waited about 70 minutes and were given the option of touch screen or paper ballot. Went w/the touch screen. It was so great to see that people got out and voted.

Was very very happy to see the our local Parks Bond went through so now the County can build a big aquatics/fitness center!!!

Smilingcat, thank you for canvassing.

I have to admit, I miss the spirited political discussions we used to have on TE!

[limewave]

It took me 30 minutes to vote which was about 27 minutes longer than usual (small district). But a neighboring city where I work, they had people that waited 4 hours!!! It was almost midnight before they cast their vote Crazy. Glad its over.

[Trek-chick]

No, lines and I went after work around 6:30 pm. There was a longer line to get a pizza.. :)

[missjean]

NH was a battleground state so my land line phone rang constantly - this last week, I didn't even bother to look at when rang, I figured if someone who knew me wanted to get a'hold of me they would call my cell.
I rode my bike the 1.4 miles to the polling place around 11 am. The only excitement was when a Cadillac Escalade, looking right at me, started to pull out of the parking lot in front of me, but I stuck my hand up in a stop gesture and he stopped.
I had to wait about 10 minutes, but that was only because the M - S line was really long. There were only 1 or 2 people in line for all the other letters of the alphabet.
There is a new (totally unnecessary) voter ID law here in NH, so I said hello & handed the nice lady behind the table my drivers licence, she looked at me and looked at my licence, and asked me "What is your name?" I pointed to my driver licence in her hand and she said in an exasperated voice "You have to say your name." opps, ok. She must have been getting that all morning.
I did hear the lines were very, very long later in the day.

[OakLeaf]

Given what the likely demographics of this forum are, vs. the demographics of the places where they kept the lines long, it's not surprising none of us had to wait all that long.

A friend of mine trotted out that old Emma Goldman quote about voting ("if it changed anything, they would make it illegal"). I had sworn I was going to smack the next person who said that in my presence. It turned out even better ... the person who said it had known Michael Schwerner's brother (of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner). I reminded him of that fact, and of all the efforts that have been put into making voting illegal for so many people, once again, in the past few years. I think that shut him up.

[ny biker]

Given what the likely demographics of this forum are, vs. the demographics of the places where they kept the lines long, it's not surprising none of us had to wait all that long.

What demographics?

[Koronin]

I voted during in person early voting so I have no clue what the lines were like around here. For that matter I have no clue where my actual voting place is. (I know where the early voting place is). I actually got my new October Glory Maple Tree planted yesterday. Extremely happy about that.
Add me to the list of very happy this is over so there are no more political ads. I live in NC so I know they were nothing here compared to other states. I have family in Ohio and have heard from them how bad the ads got, esp during the last few weeks. My sister told me when she got to her polling place she got right in, when she was finished there was a line of around 10 people waiting to vote.

[Irulan]

Here's the thing about ads.

D V R.
REMOTE CONTROL

We time shift almost everything we watch on the tube, and if we aren't time shifting with fast forwarding ads, we darn well use the remote to change the channel to anything that is not advertising. Why anyone would sit there and watch them is beyond me.

The robo calls are a little harder to escape, but with called ID at least I know who it isn't and don't pick it up if it's not someone I actually want to talk to. The rest of them can leave messages if it's a real person who was trying to contact me.

[Irulan]

What demographics?

The implication which I don't think is correct, would be that TE doesn't have many members in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, or any of the superstorm states.

[malkin]

What demographics?

Lotsa women here, for one thing! (probably mostly not in binders)
;)

[zoom-zoom]

Lotsa women here, for one thing! (probably mostly not in binders)
;)

I read the implication that TE tends to lean blue. The long lines did seem to be in red communities. The 3-4 hour waits near limewave and me are in a heavy red area. Our county is a speck of blue in a sea of red.

Funny thing, though, that these states still ended up going blue...booyah! :D

[Owlie]

I think it's less red-vs-blue and more income bracket related. In order to actually participate in this sport, you have to have some degree of disposable income.

[ny biker]

We had huge lines in parts of Virginia, which is one reason why it took so long to get a result from here. If you were waiting when the polls closed at 7, you were allowed to vote even if it was 10 pm by the time you reached the front of the line. I think it was the more population-dense areas that had the long waits. But we had a really long ballot which included two state constitutional amendments and three county bond issues, as well as senate, house of representatives, county board and school board.

[Koronin]

I voted early (1st day of voting here) and waited about 45 minutes to vote. Actually I do live in a red area of my state (although I actually think it's more Libertarian than anything else). My family lives in a very blue area of Ohio. Trumbull County Ohio is part of the deepest blue area of the north east part of the state. From friends I have in Ohio it seems the longest lines were in Columbus. (Franklin county which is a more purple area of the state). I also would be shocked if the lines were not bad in Cleveland (Cuyahoga County) that's just because the lines there are always bad. Of course there's also Cincinnati (Hamilton County) which is also a more purple county.

[OakLeaf]

The implication which I don't think is correct, would be that TE doesn't have many members in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, or any of the superstorm states.

No, not at all (I'm in Ohio, and I know there are several other very active TE'rs here, after all. But I'm not in one of the precincts where people had to wait for so long). I did say "likely" demographics, but I was afraid someone would take that wrong (and went ahead and posted it anyway :rolleyes:). Sigh.

The only assumption I made, which I understand is a big one on the Intertubes, was that most of us are who we represent ourselves to be here, and that most of us originally came to TE to talk about cycling.

We all have enough leisure time and computer access to be hanging out on the internet. We all have an interest in cycling that goes beyond strict economic necessity, which means we have some leisure time and some disposable income.

And most of all - more than once, people here have expressed concerns about merely RIDING through certain neighborhoods. The same kinds of precincts where year after year, elections officials have posted far too few voting machines for the number of voters. While many times people have said that we ride through those neighborhoods at certain hours and with perfect safety, *not once* has anyone responded with the kind of indignation that I personally feel when people express their prejudices about the kinds of people who live in my neighborhood (which is a whole different set of prejudices, but they can be just as deeply held).

And is it too crass to talk about race, when that played such a big part in so many decisions this year? Only the tiniest handful of us have identified ourselves as African-American or Latina. Of all of us who've posted pictures of ourselves, I can't think of anyone who isn't either white or Asian. That matches the racial makeup of women cyclists nationwide - I can't cite anything off the top of my head, but I know that there have been many surveys as well as local observations. De facto segregation is the reality in most of the country, and it's well documented that the people who live in the under-served precincts are overwhelmingly African-American.

All of the above leads me to believe that very few, if any of us, live in those precincts where people were forced to wait for hours.

[malkin]

I agree about the likely socio-economic status of the majority of TE members.

I didn't know long lines were limited to low income areas--I'm not surprised that low income areas would have long lines and other voting difficulties, I thought other places were having these problems too.

Did Florida get their votes counted yet? What is up down there?

[Irulan]

I agree about the likely socio-economic status of the majority of TE members.

I didn't know long lines were limited to low income areas--I'm not surprised that low income areas would have long lines and other voting difficulties, I thought other places were having these problems too.

Did Florida get their votes counted yet? What is up down there?

Long lines were not limited to low income areas. It was not a precinct by precinct phenomena. It has to do with how a particular state has voting procedures set up, whethere there is early voting, and how many people show up. The whole states of Virginia and florida are low income? I don't think so.

[zoom-zoom]

At least in areas near us that had 3-4 hour lines the issue was due to much higher than expected voter turnout (and these were in solidly "WASP" precincts/areas). Several precincts ran out of ballots. I'm not sure what they did, then, print more...?

[Selkie]

Longer lines might have been a result of some States limiting early voting.... IMHO the attempts to limit the electorate's access backfired, thank God. What about the new voter ID requirements? This sort of thing can make people more determined not to be denied their right to vote.

Oak, you are right on.

Longer lines might have been due to people realizing that this election was very important. Particularly if you are a woman and/or you believe in everyone having the same opportunities/rights.

[tulip]

My neighborhood is low-income and 85% black. I bet many people on these forums would not want to ride bikes here, although its an awesome and quiet community where people look out for one another. The cops say it's one of the quietest neighborhoods in the whole city. There were lines early when alot of people went to vote at the same time before going to work. Only interior lines in the gym when I went at 9:30 am. I heard about long lines in other parts of the city (some very white) and some issues with power outages, wrong information being asked by poll workers (which party, for example), and long, long lines at the end of the day when people who didn't vote earlier showed up to vote before the closing. I'm in Virginia, by the way.

I don't think there was some big conspiracy by "Them." If there was, apparently it didn't work because "Them" didn't win.

[NbyNW]

Washington State makes it really easy for expats to vote. They rolled out the mail-in ballots a few years ago, and I believe the state has now gone exclusively to that system, or at least King County has. When we moved to Canada in 2009, I was able to sign up to have my ballot sent to me electronically. This involves filling out an online form, and then sending back a printout with signature via email, fax or snail mail. And there's a website where you can go to track whether your ballot has been received and signature verified. I've been really impressed with this system, compared to other places where I've voted.

[Crankin]

I have a friend who worked at the polls in one of the most affluent counties in Va. He was there for 17 hours.
No early voting here. For such a "progressive" state, we don't like certain kinds of change.

[Irulan]

I have a friend who worked at the polls in one of the most affluent counties in Va. He was there for 17 hours.
No early voting here. For such a "progressive" state, we don't like certain kinds of change.

Uh, yeah.... it was a problem statewide in many areas.

[ny biker]

Virginia doesn't have early voting, but you can do absentee voting early in-person. The lines for that were also very long this year.

[Trek420]

Washington here. We voted by mail. I read this was the first presidential election handled by mail in WA. We're happy with the results overall yet wish I'd done more (volunteering). A they say; now the real work begins of healing and uniting. Just no robo-calls. :p

[OakLeaf]

I don't think there was some big conspiracy by "Them." If there was, apparently it didn't work because "Them" didn't win.

Well, I don't remember using the word "Them." The people I'm referring to have names, mostly with the word "Defendant" after them in a whole lot of successful voting rights lawsuits. Jon Husted, Ohio Secretary of State, is one of them. There are others in Ohio, in Florida, and in other states as well.

Husted, for one, was not up for reelection this year, so his actions can't have been on his own behalf. What do you call it when someone does something illegal in concert with other people? That's the legal definition of conspiracy.

As far as whether "they" won or lost, I'm as glad as anyone and more surprised than many that the presidential election was over on election night, but there are still many important races that hinge on the outcome of provisional ballots and suppressed votes. Many of those races have implications for the conduct of the next presidential election ... and far more implications for the lives of everyday Americans than the presidential race.

I WILL let this rest now, but I can't let it go without pointing out that dismissing the existence of voter suppression is not an effective way of keeping it from happening.

[tulip]

Hey, I'm with you. But I prefer to keep TE somewhat bike-related (or cat-or dog-related, as the case may be). I just think there are more appropriate forums to discuss such issues.

[Selkie]

Like I said before, I miss the off-topic political discussions of the past. Even though they were not bike-related and could get heated at times. For the most part, people were respectful and those who were not usually did not stick around TE, regardless. I enjoyed reading others' perspectives/opinions/experiences since TE is pretty diverse (although no overtly so). Some of those discussions stayed with me in meaningful ways, particularly the ones about marriage for everyone.

In any event, I apologize if I turned this thread into a "non-cycling" discussion (although this thread is in the off-topic section, but I digress). I admit that I have become very passionate about these issues in my dotage, particularly the potential rolling back of women's/minorities/GBLT rights.

[ny biker]

We were talking about voter suppression? I must have missed something. I thought we were talking about long lines.

[malkin]

Long lines are a pretty good way of making it impossible for some people to vote.

Imagine a person who has a long commute by bus to a kid's childcare and then another bus to work and then back to the kid, and then back to home; this person isn't likely to be able to spend 1,2,4, or 6 hours in line to cast a ballot.

So no, nobody at the poll said "Go away. You can't vote." But the system accomplished it pretty handily.

[Trek420]

Imagine a person who has a long commute by bus to a kid's childcare and then another bus to work and then back to the kid, and then back to home; this person isn't likely to be able to spend 1,2,4, or 6 hours in line to cast a ballot.

So no, nobody at the poll said "Go away. You can't vote." But the system accomplished it pretty handily.

To say nothing of eating. And dare I mention without getting this thread locked ;) what do you do when you're stuck in the line and gotta go? :confused: My suggestion is since lines are long we send the food trucks. You're still stuck in line but at least you can get Korean BBQ, Samosas, maybe some nice local beer something like that.

But seriously regardless of how we voted we need to make it easier, not harder to vote.

[Irulan]

To say nothing of eating. And dare I mention without getting this thread locked ;) what do you do when you're stuck in the line and gotta go? :confused: My suggestion is since lines are long we send the food trucks. You're still stuck in line but at least you can get Korean BBQ, Samosas, maybe some nice local beer something like that.

But seriously regardless of how we voted we need to make it easier, not harder to vote.

I read mention of an elderly lady who brought a catheter bag with her.

[malkin]

Long lines seem like a perfect place for food trucks, whether the people are waiting to vote or to shop.

If I were in line and had to pee, I'd let my line neighbors know that I'd be back after a visit to the toilets.

[Trek420]

I read mention of an elderly lady who brought a catheter bag with her.

Now that's dedication! Regardless of how you voted we must remember the sacrifices made so we get to vote.

Camping out so you can be there first, stuck in line ... you might as well have fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRnuFFpkg1I

[Koronin]

I must bring this thread up for one more observation about my particluar voting issue this election. Something I'm not happy about, but not sure what to do about either. I was totally shocked by the number of races on my ballot that had only 1 candidate for the position. Most of these were for non partisen position. 2 were for state legistature (NC House and NC Senate) and had about 6 non partisen races with only candidate. I've never seen that before where I've previously lived so that was a bit surprising to me.