VOTE

[filkertom]

It's election day in the US.

Vote.

Your country is depending upon you.

Update: Well, that was less fun than usual. The line for M-Z names was about twenty people when I got there, while for A-L it was... no one. Because of the logging system they used, they really couldn't do anything about it. I ended up grabbing a folding chair. And the scanner was by Diebold. Feh. At least I did mark on some paper. Voter #461 at my polling place.

Comments

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

*is on his way to the polls*

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Just got back from so doing. You may notice a little extra venom in my journal today. :P

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I do sense that there's something troubling you...perhaps you'd like to talk about it? :)

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Only that the GOP's gubernatorial candidate here should be tried on charges of impersonating a human being. We've gone way beyond mere dereliction of duty here--I mean, he is still the Secretary of State and his job description specifically includes encouraging voter turnout, not suppressing it.

I have never missed an election since turning 18--and I mean not even the odd-year primaries for local stuff. I have never once had my registration questioned... until this morning. Fortunately, 2004's Katherine Harris, Ken Blackwell, is heading for a defeat on the order of Moses over the Pharaoh's hosts, which takes a little of the sting away.

So yeah. I'm more than just a little pissed off right now. However, things were cleared up and I voted normally, didn't even have to cast a provisional. Assuming the voting machines aren't pre-hacked (and I'm not convinced of that), I got to vote.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I have never once had my registration questioned... until this morning.

What did they do?

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

There was a big "STOP" sign next to my name in the roll book. Which meant instead of just signing my name as I have in this same ward every year for the past twelve years and going to vote, I had to get my ID checked by at least three poll workers, who finally decided that I should vote, seeing as how I could prove who I was and my ID matched and my signature matched and everything. I think my crime was Voting While Registered Democratic.

And yes, I asked to vote paper. And no, it's not an option here. They *show* you a slip of paper with your votes on it in a little window on the side of the machine, and I verified every push of the button on the paper... but you know what? I'm still not 100% sure my vote actually counted the way I wanted it to.

And that makes me just flat nauseous.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Oy. :P

Once again I'm happy with how registration and voting work up here. :P

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I thought requiring photo ID before voting was very, very illegal in this country...?

Damn, dude. What a bunch of bullshit.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I don't object to verifying my identity with my driver's license. I object to the big black STOP sign next to my name on the off chance that I wouldn't have ID on me and might not get free later to get it and vote.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

You should've asked for the book so you could write "Hammertime" next to the big black STOP beside your name.

Regardless, they can ask for ID, I believe, but they can't request photo ID. If they DID specifically ask for a photo ID, that ought to be reported to the Election Board in your area.

I really hope everyone one else on their list with "STOP" next to their name has your tenacity and is just as pissed about it.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

The new Ohio law permits for the Ohio driver's license or state ID to be used to identity verification. There are signs up all over telling what all people should bring to verify their identity because we know Katherine Harri... er, Ken Blackwell is a cheat. I can't say with certainty that they asked for a photo ID, just that they asked for ID, and the DL was the one I automatically reached for.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I forgot to ask...did they explain why you had been flagged? Is it (supposedly) random on their part?

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

They claimed that I never 'verified' my registration. Not that I ever received a request for verification, or that I've ever had to verify it before.

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Right after breakfast and before I start work.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

I'm already my shiny "I voted" sticker, Evan and I cast the 1st and 3rd ballots at our polling place.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

duly voted & stickered!

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

Of course. I actually got used as an object lesson on the importance of voting one year. Ten days post knee reconstruction/ replacement, making my way up the school hall on crutches, and a 5th grade teacher spotted me and brought his whole class out to see me.

[takaal.livejournal.com]

One of the best signs I saw oustide the polling place this morning: "Ask not what you can do for your country; just DO it."

[hms42]

Already voted on my way to work. Its one of the requirements of where I live. They don't care who I vote for as long as I DO vote. (My parents has the same requirement once I became old enough to vote.)

Harold

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Sneaking in this afternoon to do so...I take heart that my polling place was so overrun this morning that there was no way to get in before work.

"Government is too big and important to be left to the politicians." - Chester Bowles.

'Nuff said.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Done.

Another vote for the long-haired viking-hat-wearing deodorant-sucking agenda.

-=ShoEboX=-

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

Done! I have now officially earned my right to complain for the next 2 years... :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And never think that's not part of the deal. If Dems screw up, we have to call them on it just as we would Repubs.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Oh, I look forward to cleaning house in the primaries in 2008.

Sent in my absentee ballot a week or two ago. Thanks for posting this.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I want "None Of The Above" as an option for when I do not like any of the candidates!! Make them offer us people worth voting for!!

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

So, how d'ya think they'll rob us of THIS one?

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Shenanigans in Ohio will keep the Senate under Republican control, but barely. But there's too much in play for the House - they can't subvert a single state (like they did in 2000 or 2004) to keep control there.

And seeing all the problems will motivate people (maybe not the general populace, but the people who really care about such things) to push for legislation requiring a voter-verified paper trail on any voting machine. I remain optimistic for 2008.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

No, Mike DeWine is *so* far behind that even Katherine Harr... er, Ken Blackwell can't engineer a win for him. And Blackwell's position in the gubernatorial contest is even worse. All the Democratic candidates for statewide office have double-digit leads, and this according to the Columbus Distort... erm, Dispatch. Hell, Blackwell is so toxic here even the reliably-Republican Distort endorsed Strickland.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

You really don't get it, do you?

They RUN the election process!

It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I don't think you realize how despised the GOP is in Ohio these days. The closer races, maybe they can flip, but even there they know there are more Democratic observers than GOP challengers because we know Katherine Harri... er, Ken Blackwell is a cheat. In any case, the national GOP has already admitted DeWine and Blackwell are going down to landslide defeats by pulling up stakes and trying to salvage a few closer races in other states.

I get it perfectly clearly, and you'd do well not to think otherwise. I live two miles from the Buckeye Ground Zero, electorally, and I tell you that Ohio would rise up in armed revolt if they tried theft on that scale. I haven't ever seen this much voter discontent, even in the aftermath of the Nixon resignation in '74.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I live two miles from the Buckeye Ground Zero, electorally, and I tell you that Ohio would rise up in armed revolt if they tried theft on that scale.

Somehow I doubt that highly. I'd love to see that happen, don't get me wrong, since I'm convinced the ONLY way to salvage what little democracy we have left is to start splattering some Republican brains on the pavement, but I doubt it.

They're going to steal them, every one, via massive fraud and disenfranchisement. And if we do so much as protest, we'll just be labeled as "sore losers" by our Republican masters who shall have the sentiment echoed by their lapdogs in the corporate-owned media.

It's OVER... There's nothing LEFT!

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Well, they didn't. DeWine conceded, Blackwell conceded, we've turned out almost every Repub at the state level. The Dems learned. We had observers out watching for GOP "observers". Who watches the watchmen? We do. It's hard to pull a theft on that scale when there are klieg lights on your every move.

As for the media... they're already known to be silly asses, by and large. Boy, tomorrow's Colbert Report should be interesting... :)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

But there's too much in play for the House - they can't subvert a single state (like they did in 2000 or 2004) to keep control there.

Oh no? WATCH them!

[gpeefalt.livejournal.com]

I hand delivered my absentee ballot to the Elections Division at the government center. I got an "I Voted" sticker and was offered a piece of candy.

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

I voted at 11:30 this morning. I was voter #252 at my polling place (of several dozen in the county). And when I got in to work after voting, Heath Shuler, the democrat (who'll hopefully *knocks on wood* replace Charles Taylor) was ahead by about 8%. That made me happy.

Also, there was a camera and an interviewer there talking to the Shuler campaigners who were at the door as I was leaving.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

This is priceless!

The republican govenor of south carolina, the one who pushed for and eagerly signed a voter I.D. law meant to discourage minorities, was himself turned away at the polls, in front of cameras, because he didn't have the proper I.D. ;-)

Furthermore, republican Seve Chabot from Ohio, who also campaigned for voter I.D. regulations, was turned away (again in front of cameras) because his driver's license listed his work address, not his home.

And ohio republican Jean Schmidt, who was all gung-ho for the electric voting machines (that they control, but dead-set against any open-standard alternative) was unable to vote, on camera, because the optical scanning machine refused to take her ballot.

Now if only a news item pops up that a republican phone scam accidently targeted registered republicans and told them the voting centers had moved, or to vote tomorrow, then I'll be grinning for a week ;-)

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Voted by mail-in ballot, last week. Dropped off my family's ballots at election HQ, personally. Just to be sure.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I wanted to make it to work on time so I got up at 6:30 am. (I usually only see hours like that if I didn't sleep beforehand!) Got to my polling place a couple of minutes after 7, and my ballot was something in the 50s.

Ditto: Marked on paper, scanner by Diebold.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

TheSpouseCreature and I will be hauling The Cheat along with us this afternoon to vote. Then TheSpouseCreature will head in at 6pm (which is when he usually gets home) to work all night updating the station's website as the returns come in.

I woke up this morning feeling incredibly nervous. And I'm not even running for anything. =P

And then I realized it's raining here, which is rarely good for an election.

[kengr]

I voted Monday. Hauled my mail-in ballot to the county elections office because even if it *hadn't* been too late to mail it, I don't trust the mail for anything *this* important.

I held my nose and vote straight democrat since the other non-republican candidates on my ballot were either no-way-in-hell (for example, Constitution party) or idiots (for example the one Libertarian)

[eruvanna.livejournal.com]

I both registered at the polls and Voted sans any kind of machine who-dinkery in good ole New Hampshire at 6:30 at night after work.