Your voting experiences (11/4 - E-Day)

[rhoenix]

My experience voting about 12:15pm was rather pleasant. Almost no line in front of me (though that was quickly changing behind me), and scantron forms were used - no touchscreen bullshit here.

Voted Obama/Biden for president, and straight Democrat for the rest. I did so not because I am a Democrat, but because they have a better chance and better momentum to get with Obama's mandate, should he win like it appears he will.

There wasn't an option to vote "no, and fuck you" on Proposition 8 (which is the Proposition on the ballot to outlaw gay marriage), so I just sedately voted "no."

[SirNitram]

Accompanied wife to polls. Line took 10-15 minutes, yet the poor lady in the M-Z section of our district was so bored waiting for someone to show. Mild problem when the scantronic's feed jammed. Was not urged to vote provisional this time, must find someone with camera and record that to emphasize 'voter purge' problem someday. IE, if you're purged, your citizenship is about as useful as my lack thereof in an election.

[General Havoc]

Took me three goddamn hours to fill out my absentee ballot a few weeks ago. 14 state propositions, 22 city props, a whole host of local officials to elect, and of course the President/Congress races. I consider myself a fairly well-informed voter, but I defy anyone to know all the ins and outs of 40+ ballot measures by heart prior to receiving their ballot.

Fortunately, with an absentee ballot, I could research each issue as I was voting for it.

I voted Obama/Biden (for reasons I've elucidated elsewhere), and no on almost every single proposition (including Prop 8). There were a couple exceptions. I voted yes on Prop 1A (the High speed train between LA and SF), yes on Prop 2 (stricter regulation on farm animal conditions), and yes on Prop 11 (the redistricting reform one). I voted no on almost every city proposition (we have some INSANE ideas around here), but I did vote for Prop R (renaming the sewage plant after Bush) because it amused me to do so.

... what? It's my damn ballot, I'll waste money on things that amuse me if I like!

What else... oh yes, Prop 4. Prop 4 was a state prop mandating that children who get abortions must wait 48 hours while their parents are notified (no permission required, just notification), unless there's a medical need to get it done before that, or there's a risk of abuse and whatnot. I really struggled with this issue. I was back and forth on it for hours, changed my mind four times. In the end, I decided to vote no, though I'm still not happy with that one. I'm not convinced that wasn't an error, but I prefer to err on the side of fewer restrictions on abortion. Mostly it came down to the fact that I'm very uncomfortable about the people who support Prop 4. They see it as a stepping stone to restricting abortion rights in general.

Your mileage may (and should) vary.

Voted republican for congress (a throwaway in this district), and against the incumbent for city supervisor (same). Voted to throw all those ignorant ideologue fucksticks on the board of education out on their asses, ESPECIALLY those bastards trying to shut JROTC down. Wrote in a few names for positions I simply could not care less about (Sherrif), and voted to toss our current DA (who is a hateful, evil woman who believes that the police are all racists, and that I deserve to be murdered and robbed because it is righting the injustice that "my kind" perpetrated against black people in the 1800s). Nothing else stands out other than some bond measures (all of which I voted against).

How'd everyone else wind up?

[Jason_Firewalker]

I voted for the least of the evils locally and made my life easy and voted for Obama... I had a great time voting absentee...

[Dark Silver]

Absentee vote for me, since I didn't know if I was gonna be home for the election, or at work.

So I voted Obama and Biden for President. Landreau for Senate. Voted a varuiety of ways on a couple of propositions on the parish level. Overall, it was a decent ballot.

I'm still amused the Louisiana Taxpayer's Party Presidental ticket didn't have any Louisiana residents on it..one was from Cali, the other Arizona. I chuckled.

[LadyTevar]

Well, as Nit said, there was a brief wait, and the scanitron was jammed by a ballet misfeed.

However, I voted Obama in, Capito Out, Rockefeller in, and Manchin in.

Several Magistrates up for election: Voted Zakaib (He called my ex-hubbie's attempt to sue me 'pathetic' and threw it out). Voted Fouty (my dad's ex-fiancee). Voted for several State Senators. Voted Douglas for Dept of Agriculture (hey, like Byrd he's been there for years and has done a good job).

Found myself voting for a lot of women in various races: Judges, Secretary of State, State Senate. Several races had only one Candidate, so I left them alone. Why vote on a one-horse race? You know who'll win.

The WV Mountain Party (usually allied with the Greens) had only federal and gubernatorial candidates. They seriously need to start running more local offices, like Magistrate, State Senate, etc. Third Party might get more recognition if they got grassroots positions first.

[General Havoc]

Question for us non-WVers. What is a "Magistrate"? Is it a city position? County?

[Destructionator XV]

I just got back from the poll. I'm such a cross party dude.

Irrelevant vote was for the socialist candidate - I couldn't support all his policies, but it beats the alternatives.

Votes that actually count:

Democrat for state supreme court. (I didn't even know his party before getting in the voting booth. His qualifications are just right for the job.)

Democrat for state senate. (the incumbent; he also got my vote a few months ago in a special election which he narrowly won)

Democrat for state assembly. (ugh, bad choices there, but oh well.)

Republican for US representative. I wasn't able to find any info on the other guy until today[!], when it was too late to do an assessment. The Republican candidate (the incumbent) has been doing a decent job and his policies are pretty agreeable anyway.

edit: damn it, why couldn't I have heard about him earlier: "I am for Universal Healthcare, single payer. " Boom, that puts him ahead of the incumbent. Oh well, too late now.

[Mayabird]

I mailed in my ballot weeks ago, because that's how we roll in the Pacific Northwest. Mail-in for everybody (unless you're some old fart that insists on going to the polling place and thinks that mailing it in doesn't count ). No waiting in lines, no rigged machines, no cranky old people, no clothes if that's how I'm feeling, and I can look up all these people, even the local candidates for county auditor or whatever. First time I didn't have to leave one position blank or skip it because I didn't know who they were (or what the position even did). Also, there's a paper trail.

Important votes:

President: One guess. Hint: he's going to get Washington's electoral votes anyway. Also he's younger, better looking, and his VP choice isn't batshit insane.

Governor: Gregoire (D), the incumbent. The last time she ran, she was facing the same guy and it was decided by 133 votes in her favor. It's going to be really close this year again, and I won't be surprised if we don't know who won until December.

Initiatives:
985: Hey, let's open the HOV lanes to EVERYBODY, because that totally doesn't defeat the purpose of HOV lanes. Also, at a time when we need to improve and seriously invest in our public transit and transit infrastructure, let's reserve lots of money for traffic flow and synchronizing traffic lights all over the state! Voted no.

1000: It's basically Oregon's Death with Dignity law, but with "Washington" instead of "Oregon." It's worked well in Oregon, and despite all the scaremongering of forced euthanasia only a few hundred people in the last ten years have actually availed themselves of it. I've seen what cancer does to people. Not everybody will want to shorten their lives, but they won't be affected. It's a few dozen terminally ill cancer patients of sound mind and in great pain a year. Voted yes.

(I forget the number): Requires a lot more training for long term care nurses when we've already got shortages of nurses. We don't have problems with undertrained nurses anyway. Voted no.

[frigidmagi]

Walked in. Voted on a paper ballot. Fed it into the machine. Walked out.