Did anyone encounter anything weird at the polling place today?

This is the first time I've ever had a weird situation develop at the polls. First of all, I applied for my absentee ballot more than 2 weeks ago and never received it! Twice last week, I called the county registrar of voters to see what was up. They said my absentee ballot was mailed on October 30 (and somehow it didn't make it 20 miles in a week). I was told that if I didn't receive my absentee ballot before today, I was to show up at my polling place and complete a provisional ballot.

So I went to the polling place this morning bright and early. I told the workers there of my situation and they were all kind of confused about what to do. They had me fill out this ledger with all sorts of personal information on it, including Party Affiliation and Drivers License Number. There were 3 other names on the ledger already so I was privy to their information as well. I noticed all 3 other names had "DEM" written next to them just like I wrote. And all 3 had a box checked (like mine) that said they didn't receive an absentee ballot in the mail even though they'd requested it.

Anyway, long story short... I did the provisional ballot on a touchscreen and then handed the memory card back to the poll worker. At that same time, another guy walked in to vote and I overheard him say the same thing... he'd ordered an absentee ballot that never arrived. They had him fill out a different form and sign his name. I told the worker, "If he's in the same situation, why is he signing his name on a different form than I did?" And the poll worker said, "Oh yeah, that's right. We need to have you fill out the other form too."

The whole thing was very odd and made no sense. I got home and called the state Democratic party voter line here and was told that it is illegal to ask me to write down my Party Affiliation and my Drivers License Number as they'd required. They said they'd literally received hundreds of phone calls today where people had inquired about the same thing in California.

I'm pissed. We all know what they're going to do with provisional ballots that are marked "DEM" as we were instructed. They will never be counted in Republican-leaning Riverside County.

This country is ridiculous when it comes to voting. I have zero faith in the accuracy of the votes.

Numerous sites like Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, etc., are reporting serious voting problems around the country. As of this early afternoon, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania had the highest totals according to Electronic Protection, a site that monitors these problems.

Several of my friends in LA county said they had encountered those same irregularities and one of them is a Republican. So, I don't know how accurate being a Democrat influenced this.

As for me, I went to cast my ballot for Ah-nold, and then a Democratic undercard throughout, including Sen. Feinstein, who will easily get re-elected.

1st, I was re-districted.............to another location, further from where I voted last year.
2nd, I wanted to use a paper ballot, but was urged to use a electronic touch pad system (Diebold).
3rd, I was required to use the Diebold they had just 'repaired'.

TRL

Not much of one. There was a two-hour wait at the closet voting place, but we were told if we didn't want to wait, we could go to one three miles down the road. (Due to a new set-up, anyone in the city can vote at any voting place.) Went there, got to the front in fifteen minutes, the voting booth had all the correct races lit up, and I voted without incident.

LXN

Wow! I just had to wait for the very next free available Diebold machine. That wasn't more than maybe two minutes at most. Thank goodness for the church around the corner being available.

I was fine, although I saw a couple other students having problems with their registration at my polling place.


A friend of mine told me the turnout in my district was higher than his in downtown Chicago.

I waited in line for 40 minutes in Fort Lauderdale. There were many elderly people voting who needed s lot of help with the electronic machines, but there were no problems that I could see. When I got to the front of the line I was told my address had been selected for confirmation, so a second poll worker came over and signed that she had confirmed my registration address matched my drivers license. After that I voted with no problem.

They ran out of paper ballots for my particular SMD (the lowest DC office available, represents part of a neighborhood), so I had to vote electronically. The guy checking me in didn't know the alphabet very well, so kept going the wrong way in the book (d'oh!). Other than that, voting in DC went as planned - democrats took everything available, Catania kept his seat as a minority councilmember, Eleanor is still our delegate... maybe with the House in Democratic hands, she'll get a vote on the floor now!

Funny that once the Democrats started winning, complaints about voting "irregularities" got quieter and quieter.

Oh, the hypocrisy!

...

Sorry, I guess I was channeling MIB there for a minute...

LXN

To keep it from getting too quiet, let me add a couple.

One - South Carolina passed an ID law that was obvious so confusing, the Governor did not even understand it. He went to vote, and in front of the cameras was denied because he did not have the proper ID. Go figure.... we need a uniform law.

Two - In Sarasota County, Florida there is a serious problem with under votes. The frop off from the number of votes for the governor's race to the US House race was greater than 15%, for the other counties included in the same House district (ironically Katherine Harris' old district) the drop off was about 5%. Many people were complaining their vote was not being recorded, yet nothing was done. The final results have the two candidates about 300 votes apart, and we are talking about a drop off of over 10,000 votes. Now I am not saying the race would have beend decided differently, but it is a major problem.

A friend who lives in northern VA (Fairfax county, outside of DC) was stopped in front of her polling place by a man and 2 women who blocked the sidewalk. The man said "we want you to agree that marriage is only between a man and a woman". My friend replied "I agree that people should be able to vote without being harrassed!" and bolted around them. Once inside, she saw that one of her neighbors was an election volunteer and they alerted the supervisor, who called the police.

Oh by the way, I finally received my absentee ballot in the mail.... last Thursday, two days after the election. So it took 10 days for that ballot to travel 20 miles.