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shadowkatIt was a lovely day to vote. Clear blue sky, no clouds, plenty of sunshine, mild temperatures. If it weren't for my headache, I'd have taken a walk to Greenwood Cemetary afterwards. Voting itself was rather uneventful. Due to the district that I was in or my last name, there was no line for ballots and a relatively short line for scanning. The way it works is you go to your district's table, they find your name, you sign next to it, and get a ballot. The ballot is a legal size piece of white paper with the candidate's names and little bubbles next to each name to fill in. Easy to read, and the directions are in five different languages. If you mark more than one box in the selected category -- your ballot will be invalid. If you attempt to vote for a candidate twice, your ballot will be invalidated. And you will get a chance to try again. They will provide you with a new ballot.
Each person gets to go to a privacy booth, which is basically a table with a white privacy shield in front and to the sides of it. They fill out their ballot, then stand in line for a scanner. Once you get to the scanner, you slide your ballot into the machine. It takes the ballot and states your vote has been counted. And the volunteer gives you a nifty little sticker stating that you have voted. [It's important to note this is how voting is done in New York State, each State does it a little differently, but the rules are generally the same. Everyone who is registered must be permitted to vote. No one can vote twice, your vote is only counted once. And no electioneering, loitering, or promoting of a specific candidate can happen near or at the polls. You can't wear Hillary or Trump t-shirts at the polling station.]
This is the first time that I've voted for a female candidate for the position of President of the United States. While other countries around the globe have had female presidents and prime ministers, the US is woefully behind the curve. While this is a wonderful moment in history, some of that is tainted by the fact that most people did it to ensure the world class idiot doesn't get elected and destroys our country and the world.
Anyhow..pictures:
Each person gets to go to a privacy booth, which is basically a table with a white privacy shield in front and to the sides of it. They fill out their ballot, then stand in line for a scanner. Once you get to the scanner, you slide your ballot into the machine. It takes the ballot and states your vote has been counted. And the volunteer gives you a nifty little sticker stating that you have voted. [It's important to note this is how voting is done in New York State, each State does it a little differently, but the rules are generally the same. Everyone who is registered must be permitted to vote. No one can vote twice, your vote is only counted once. And no electioneering, loitering, or promoting of a specific candidate can happen near or at the polls. You can't wear Hillary or Trump t-shirts at the polling station.]
This is the first time that I've voted for a female candidate for the position of President of the United States. While other countries around the globe have had female presidents and prime ministers, the US is woefully behind the curve. While this is a wonderful moment in history, some of that is tainted by the fact that most people did it to ensure the world class idiot doesn't get elected and destroys our country and the world.
Anyhow..pictures:
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Date: 2016-11-08 08:49 pm (UTC)Somewhat over a million ballots, including mine, were mailed to the election board in my county alone. It is also legal to turn in your mail-in ballot on election day at the polling place. But because there is no time to check the signatures on the ballot envelopes today, those ballots get checked and counted after election day. In the last major election at least one state legislature race changed from one person seemingly winning on election night to another winning after all the ballots were finally counted days later.
Voting here is much the same as Shadowkat describes, except that the ballot is physically larger and we connect the head and tail of arrows pointing to the candidate's name rather than fill in circles. The longest time I ever waited to vote was about 90 minutes in Missouri, I think when George H. W. Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton (with help from votes drawn off by Ross Perot). In Arizona ballots are available in English or Spanish whether in person or mail-in.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-08 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-08 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-08 11:23 pm (UTC)