Had a precious moment at the polling place while voting today (and share your voting story as well)

[glenn1]

Voted this morning before work, my polling place is at this little elementary school a couple of miles from my apartment. It wasn't quite 8AM yet, so needless to say it was pretty much just me and some senior citizens there. At the entrance to the school, there was a little gaggle of people standing with campaign flyers and begging for votes, so everyone had to run the gauntlet before they could go inside and do their business.

As i'm walking up the sidewalk to the door, the first person in the greeting line (some little old lady who looked like she was 140 years old) handed me a flyer and started into her speech. "Thanks for voting today, and i hope you'll consider casting your vote for Joe Biden... he'll stand up for our most vulnerable citizens by opposing privitization of Social Security!"

Needless to say, i hadn't planned on voting for Biden, so it's time to have a little bit of fun with her. So I simply tell her the truth. "Ummm... i think that Social Security is a scam and unconstitutional, and think it should be abolished. That's why i'm voting Libertarian."

Well, i suppose i said it a little bit louder than i had intended, because both her and everyone else who was there begging for votes looked at me with a stunned look, like i had just slapped the Pope. Funny enough, she didn't persist and no one else in the greeting line bothered to talk to me or hand me any flyers... you should have seen how that sidewalk cleared off in order to let me pass. Man, if i had only brought a camera with me

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: glenn1
Voted this morning before work, my polling place is at this little elementary school a couple of miles from my apartment. It wasn't quite 8AM yet, so needless to say it was pretty much just me and some senior citizens there. At the entrance to the school, there was a little gaggle of people standing with campaign flyers and begging for votes, so everyone had to run the gauntlet before they could go inside and do their business.

As i'm walking up the sidewalk to the door, the first person in the greeting line (some little old lady who looked like she was 140 years old) handed me a flyer and started into her speech. "Thanks for voting today, and i hope you'll consider casting your vote for Joe Biden... he'll stand up for our most vulnerable citizens by opposing privitization of Social Security!"

Needless to say, i hadn't planned on voting for Biden, so it's time to have a little bit of fun with her. So I simply tell her the truth. "Ummm... i think that Social Security is a scam and unconstitutional, and think it should be abolished. That's why i'm voting Libertarian."

Well, i suppose i said it a little bit louder than i had intended, because both her and everyone else who was there begging for votes looked at me with a stunned look, like i had just slapped the Pope. Funny enough, she didn't persist and no one else in the greeting line bothered to talk to me or hand me any flyers... you should have seen how that sidewalk cleared off in order to let me pass. Man, if i had only brought a camera with me

You threw them with "i'm voting Libertarian"! Anyways, think of her approaching you as a compliment. Obviously she thought by your pleasant looks and nature that you at least weren't a Republican

 

[NewSc2]

other voting stories? just turned 18 and didn't bother registering to vote =\

nothing really that big in politics seems to affect me anyways up to the point where i'd get off my lazy ass and do something~

 

[Ornery]

I got an American flag sticker, a nail file and a nice list of Democratic candidates to vote for. It did come in handy later, when I got to the judges on the ballot, and didn't know one from another. I just voted the opposite of their suggestions!

Edit: Translated to English

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

You threw them with "i'm voting Libertarian"! Anyways, think of her approaching you as a compliment. Obviously she thought by your pleasant looks and nature that you at least weren't a Republican

Or maybe he's dressed shabbily enough to vote Democrat?

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: NewSc2
nothing really that big in politics seems to affect me anyways up to the point where i'd get off my lazy ass and do something~

Hmmm...you're 18. You know if we go to war with Iraq, if it ends up being long and drawn out, they might have to reinstitute the draft. Guess how old you have to be to get drafted.

Politics CAN affect you.

I voted absentee cause I'm out of the state for a while. The town I'm living in has a horrible slow postal system, so I'm not holding out for my ballot getting there today, thus it won't even matter. Not my fault either, because I most certainly didn't wait until the last minute to mail it out. Unfortunatly for me, it takes about 5-10 days for letters to make that 100 mile trek from one place to another .

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

You threw them with "i'm voting Libertarian"! Anyways, think of her approaching you as a compliment. Obviously she thought by your pleasant looks and nature that you at least weren't a Republican

Or maybe he's dressed shabbily enough to vote Democrat?

Yeah he should have borrowed your Leather Chaps

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

You threw them with "i'm voting Libertarian"! Anyways, think of her approaching you as a compliment. Obviously she thought by your pleasant looks and nature that you at least weren't a Republican

Or maybe he's dressed shabbily enough to vote Democrat?

Yeah he should have borrowed your Leather Chaps

DAMN that was good

nik

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: glenn1
Voted this morning before work, my polling place is at this little elementary school a couple of miles from my apartment. It wasn't quite 8AM yet, so needless to say it was pretty much just me and some senior citizens there. At the entrance to the school, there was a little gaggle of people standing with campaign flyers and begging for votes, so everyone had to run the gauntlet before they could go inside and do their business.

In here it's illegal to promote a candidate next to the polling-place.

 

[Ornery]

"In here it's illegal to promote a candidate next to the polling-place."

Sucks for you. One judge bought my vote with an emery nail file!

 

[B00ne]

I have 1 question about the american voting system. Why do u use those weird punch machines instead of just making a cross in the designated circle(s) of your choice of the voting paperthing?? It seems like that these punchmachines call for irregularities as evidenced by the ridiculous counting after the presidential elections where they had these hanging *word which i dont remember*and bent *...* and punched and whatnot type of punches. And as far as I remember the percentage of invalid votes was very high there in FL.

well dont take the "why" to seriously, I am sure most ppl wouldnt know the why as it is simply the way it is, but I wonder what ppl think about this for outsiders seemingly exploitable system.

 

[PsychoAndy]

"I'm voting libertarian" sounds like a sidewalk clearer. I'm gonna try that one. I'll be back in 15 minutes.

-PAB

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: B00ne
I have 1 question about the american voting system. Why do u use those weird punch machines instead of just making a cross in the designated circle(s) of your choice of the voting paperthing?? It seems like that these punchmachines call for irregularities as evidenced by the ridiculous counting after the presidential elections where they had these hanging *word which i dont remember*and bent *...* and punched and whatnot type of punches. And as far as I remember the percentage of invalid votes was very high there in FL.

well dont take the "why" to seriously, I am sure most ppl wouldnt know the why as it is simply the way it is, but I wonder what ppl think about this for outsiders seemingly exploitable system.

They're counted using the same principle as the IBM punch card. If it were left to them to blacken in a circle, they'd probably screw that up as bad or worse!

Edit: Hanging chad. BTW, most of are using much more modern electronic voting machines instead.

 

[Shelly21]

Yeah, I got up this morning just to go to the local school to cast my ballot. I guess since I was wearing my Christian Dior cashmere coat, some preppy looking kids from the local private college hand me a Republican sample ballot.

Last year, I was wearing my t-shirt & jeans and got the 60 years old lady with the Democrat sample ballot. She insulted me (perhaps unintentionally) by saying "here's a ballot so you know how to vote."

At anyrate, the issues wasn't as exciting here... Why couldn't we get the pot question?

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: B00ne
I have 1 question about the american voting system. Why do u use those weird punch machines instead of just making a cross in the designated circle(s) of your choice of the voting paperthing?? It seems like that these punchmachines call for irregularities as evidenced by the ridiculous counting after the presidential elections where they had these hanging *word which i dont remember*and bent *...* and punched and whatnot type of punches. And as far as I remember the percentage of invalid votes was very high there in FL.

well dont take the "why" to seriously, I am sure most ppl wouldnt know the why as it is simply the way it is, but I wonder what ppl think about this for outsiders seemingly exploitable system.

The punch cards are so the ballots are machine countable.

 

[B00ne]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: glenn1
Voted this morning before work, my polling place is at this little elementary school a couple of miles from my apartment. It wasn't quite 8AM yet, so needless to say it was pretty much just me and some senior citizens there. At the entrance to the school, there was a little gaggle of people standing with campaign flyers and begging for votes, so everyone had to run the gauntlet before they could go inside and do their business.

In here it's illegal to promote a candidate next to the polling-place.

Here too, and after the election in september I read that some ppl were facing charges for offering their vote for sale on ebay or so- which naturally is forbidden too - muahahaha what idiots

 

[glenn1]

I have 1 question about the american voting system. Why do u use those weird punch machines instead of just making a cross in the designated circle(s) of your choice of the voting paperthing??

No paper ballots here, we have a touchscreen system. It looks kinda like a whiteboard, you just tap the box next to the candidate you want to vote for, and a little red light lights up. When you're done, you push a green button marked "Vote now" and you're done.

 

[Shelly21]

Originally posted by: B00ne
I have 1 question about the american voting system. Why do u use those weird punch machines instead of just making a cross in the designated circle(s) of your choice of the voting paperthing?? It seems like that these punchmachines call for irregularities as evidenced by the ridiculous counting after the presidential elections where they had these hanging *word which i dont remember*and bent *...* and punched and whatnot type of punches. And as far as I remember the percentage of invalid votes was very high there in FL.

well dont take the "why" to seriously, I am sure most ppl wouldnt know the why as it is simply the way it is, but I wonder what ppl think about this for outsiders seemingly exploitable system.

I made sure all my chads were removed....

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

You threw them with "i'm voting Libertarian"! Anyways, think of her approaching you as a compliment. Obviously she thought by your pleasant looks and nature that you at least weren't a Republican

Or maybe he's dressed shabbily enough to vote Democrat?

Yeah he should have borrowed your Leather Chaps

Anybody who shows up to vote wearing chaps but not on a motorcycle was probably going to vote Democrat anyway.

 

[FoBoT]

good job glenn1

i had a bit of a shocker when i voted this morning

this was my first time voting in Missouri since i moved
i have voted in Washington, Idaho, New York, and Georgia since i turned 18

i have never seen what I saw this morning on the paper ballot

at the beginning of the ballot was a section called "Straight Ticket" , i have heard people refer to voting a straight ticket, meaning they chose all of a single parties candidates, but I have NEVER seen a ballot that actually had a single check box to pick all of the candidates for a party. i was SHOCKED :Q

seems very EVIL to me, i don't think it should be allowed, you should have to actually cast a vote for each office, not a single check box to give all your votes to a party :disgust:

very EVIL, very very bad
i can't like that

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

In here it's illegal to promote a candidate next to the polling-place.

the distance from the voting place varies from state to state

in all the other states i have voted in it has been 100 feet , but here in Missouri, it is only 25 feet, waaaaay too close in my opinion :disgust:

 

[Hoober]

Originally posted by: NewSc2
other voting stories? just turned 18 and didn't bother registering to vote =\

nothing really that big in politics seems to affect me anyways up to the point where i'd get off my lazy ass and do something~

That's a really sad statement.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: FoBoT

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

In here it's illegal to promote a candidate next to the polling-place.

the distance from the voting place varies from state to state

in all the other states i have voted in it has been 100 feet , but here in Missouri, it is only 25 feet, waaaaay too close in my opinion :disgust:

that is too close.


i voted last wednesday at a grocery store... i didn't get an "I voted" sticker... and they used these electronic voting machines... it felt so wrong not putting a ballot into a stuffed box.

 

[denali]

I voted using a felt marker, like a school test fill in the blank and than the scan the ballot to count it. At 7 AM their was a line of atleast 20 people. What I really like are all the ballot issues, like get rid of bilingual education, exempt DA's from term limits, raise taxes to buy land so it won't be developed. We get to vote on anything that will take money out of your pocket and most of these items actually pass!

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

You threw them with "i'm voting Libertarian"! Anyways, think of her approaching you as a compliment. Obviously she thought by your pleasant looks and nature that you at least weren't a Republican

Or maybe he's dressed shabbily enough to vote Democrat?

Yeah he should have borrowed your Leather Chaps

Anybody who shows up to vote wearing chaps but not on a motorcycle was probably going to vote Democrat anyway.

Like there's a difference Ahahaha