# It's Election Day, everyone!!! Do the right thing. Vote.



## RovingSoul (Oct 27, 2008)

Update: Alright everyone, everyone probably knows that I'm a die-hard Democrat. However. Everyone needs to get out there today, and vote. It doesn't matter who you vote for, just do the deed. Without people getting out there and voicing their opinion, democracy dies. I'm tired of people saying that their vote doesn't matter, because it absolutely does. Vote because you want the troops to come, vote cause you want them to stay. Vote for the environment, vote for offshore drilling. Vote, because it's going to affect your taxes, your troops, your friends, and your family. The future of your country is not something to be apathetic about. This coming from someone who sleeps an average of 14 hours a day. In conclusion, I'm a nineteen year old caucasian female, raised Roman Catholic in a military family. And I'm proud to have voted for Barack Obama. Now *you* get out there, vote for your candidate, and be proud. Proud that you took the time out of your life to stand in long lines, merely for the hope that your vote made a difference in the future of our country.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------​Someone at some point said that we shouldn't get political, but I really want to. And this is in off topic. So, pretty much, what are your thoughts on the election? I'm rather obsessed with politics, and most my friends just want it to be over, so I'll stop muttering about Republicans. (I have come out of the barn. I'm a donkey. Ooo, joke! "Democrats are sexy. Who ever heard of a nice piece of elephant?)


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I voted on October 15th. We have early voting here in Maine and I took advantage of it. I knew who I wanted elected and I made up my mind on the three referendum issues on the ballot. I like voting early. I don't have to worry about lines or getting a flat tire or something else on Tuesday.

Even though I'm done with my civic duty, I still watched the debates and have paid attention to all the goings-on. It's quite the three-ring circus this year!

L


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## oddsoxx (Oct 28, 2008)

We sent in absentee ballots since we didn't know for sure if we'd be in town this week. I registered Independent and vote for whoever I think will do the best job no matter what the party affiliation. 

Leslie, early voting this year didn't mean no lines here in NM as over half the registered voters in the state have already voted.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

oddsoxx said:


> Leslie, early voting this year didn't mean no lines here in NM as over half the registered voters in the state have already voted.


That's what I've heard -- lines even with the early voting. I thought this editorial from the New York Times was interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/opinion/30thu1.html

*Editorial
The Success of Early Voting  
Published: October 29, 2008 *

A lot is going wrong in this election, from malfunctioning electronic voting machines to voters being purged mistakenly from the rolls. But one thing is going very right: early voting. In the more than 30 states that allow early or no-excuse absentee voting, voters have been casting ballots in record numbers. Early voting has many advantages. The main one is that it makes it likely that more eligible voters will participate in democracy.

Election Day has traditionally been held on a single day - a Tuesday. Congress scheduled federal elections on Tuesdays because they worked well for farmers and Sabbath observers. But in the 21st century, having one day to vote is an antiquated relic. Voters have to fit in a visit to the polls with their work, family and other responsibilities. Many cannot find the time, particularly when lines are as long as they have been in recent times.

The answer, as many states have discovered, is to move away from a single day of voting and allow voters to cast ballots over a period of days or weeks. Voters across the country have responded enthusiastically. In Florida, more than one million people have already cast ballots at early voting centers, some waiting on lines for hours to do so. In Georgia, too, more than one million people already have voted, a big jump from the less than 500,000 people who voted early four years ago.

Some people are wary of early voting. As Susan Saulny reported in The Times on Wednesday, there are rumors in the African-American community in Jacksonville, Fla., that early voting is a scam and that the votes cast early would be discarded. Given Florida's history with electoral mischief, some skepticism about election procedures is not only understandable, but necessary.

But the truth is that early voting actually makes it harder for the forces of disenfranchisement to stop eligible voters from casting ballots. If election officials try to require voters to present ID when it is not required by law, early voting gives voters a chance to simply return the next day. Dirty tricks are also harder to pull off. If political operatives want to jam get-out-the-vote telephone lines, as they did on Election Day in New Hampshire in 2002, it would be harder to do if people voted over two weeks.

Early voting also reduces the burden on election systems that are often stretched near to the breaking point. In 2004, voters waited in lines as long as 10 hours. And there is every indication that lines on Tuesday, in some places and at some times, will again be extraordinarily long. The more people who vote early, the fewer who will be lined up at the polls on Election Day.

Now that it is clear how successful the early-voting process has been, the states that have not adopted it - including New York - should do so. Congress should also mandate early voting for federal elections - ideally as part of a larger federal bill that would fix the wide array of problems with the electoral system. Today, the idea that all voting must occur in a 15-hour window, or less, on a single day is as outdated as a punch-card voting machine.


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## oddsoxx (Oct 28, 2008)

I wasn't aware that not all states have an early voting system in place. The idea of everyone voting on one day is absolutely ridiculous isn't it? That editorial is dead on!

Here in New Mexico we have early voting and absentee voting but we also have another option that I find puzzling to say the least. We have the choice of "In Person Absentee" voting. I'm unclear on that concept. LOL

But why am I surprised...New Mexico is also the state that has the law that says we settle election ties with a game of chance to be decided on by the candidates. A few years ago a mayoral race in a small eastern New Mexico town ended in a tie and was decided by a hand of poker.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

A hand of poker! Amazing...LOL

34 states have early voting.


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

Ours is a state in which it is not permitted.  I have watched all of the debates, read the papers, done the research.  I vote for the man I feel best suited to meet the needs of this country.  I do not vote by party but by the person.  It saddens me that too many vote a certain candidate just because their friend did or their parents did.  I once heard (a ding-bat relative on my father's side) someone voted for a certain candidate because they thought that his wife was pretty...hellllo?


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

sjc said:


> Ours is a state in which it is not permitted. I have watched all of the debates, read the papers, done the research. I vote for the man I feel best suited to meet the needs of this country. I do not vote by party but by the person. It saddens me that too many vote a certain candidate just because their friend did or their parents did. I once heard (a ding-bat relative on my father's side) someone voted for a certain candidate because they thought that his wife was pretty...hellllo?


Well, I think there is a certain group of people who expect many of us to vote for a certain white haired gentleman because his running mate is pretty...that was the plan, at least.

L


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

oddsoxx said:


> Here in New Mexico we have early voting and absentee voting but we also have another option that I find puzzling to say the least. We have the choice of "In Person Absentee" voting. I'm unclear on that concept. LOL


The concept is that you might not be able to get to your polling place on election day, for whatever reason, so you're eligible to vote absentee. You could get an absentee ballot and mail it in, or, in some places, you can elect to vote in person at some designated time before election day. That's "in person absentee."

FWIW. . . .here in VA the lines have been long for the last week. But in person absentee ended on Saturday. I expect Tuesday there will be long lines, but I have 7 or 8 books I can take with me . . . via Kindle, of course. 

Ann


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## Lotus (Oct 31, 2008)

A couple of years ago when I went to vote, there was a really long line. One person got quite annoyed and was saying they weren't going to vote if they had to wait. 

It was electronic voting that year, and people were asking if they could do a paper (provisional) ballot just so they didn't have to stand in line. As I remember, it only took about half an hour in the line.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I lived in Chicago for two years way back when they still had the mechanical voting machines. Anyone remember those? Anyway, you could tick each individual candidate or just flip the tick at the beginning of the list to vote totally for one party (Democratic, Republican, other...). You could listen to the voting: clunk (close the curtain), tick (vote for party), clunk (open the curtain and record vote). My husband went in and started tick, tick, ticking away (there were 78 candidates to vote for!). The polling lady looked at the booth and then looked at me and said, "You know, there is a 90 second limit on being in the voting booth." Interesting experience...


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## RovingSoul (Oct 27, 2008)

That map is wrong. Cause I've lived in Washington and Oregon, and have voted early in both states. I'm living in WA right now, and I sent my ballot in Oct. 16th or something.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

RovingSoul said:


> That map is wrong. Cause I've lived in Washington and Oregon, and have voted early in both states. I'm living in WA right now, and I sent my ballot in Oct. 16th or something.


You're right...I have a friend who voted early in Washington. Duh! Well, use the map to give you an idea, not a final authoritative answer. LOL.

L


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## Teninx (Oct 27, 2008)

With early voting, will the voters of Dixville Notch, NH stillt get thier quadrennial 15 minutes of fame? For the past gawd-knows how many years, the 40-odd voters in this tiny unincorporated village (mostly employees of The Balsams resort) would open the polls at the stroke of midnight on 11/2, collect the paper ballots from the registered voters, count them immediatly and publish the result to the waiting press (on a quaint schoolhouse chalkboard). Of course, the Dixville Notch voters will still be the first to have the results tabulated (early voting states don't count ballots until Election Day), so perhaps some measure of fame may be retained.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

RovingSoul said:


> Someone at some point said that we shouldn't get political, but I really want to. And this is in off topic. So, pretty much, what are your thoughts on the election? I'm rather obsessed with politics, and most my friends just want it to be over, so I'll stop muttering about Republicans. (I have come out of the barn. I'm a donkey. Ooo, joke! "Democrats are sexy. Who ever heard of a nice piece of elephant?)


I'm out of the barn right next to you! But to address people giving up because the lines are too long; my grandparents didn't leave totalitarian states to come to the US so I could sit on my *ss and not vote....

I'll be in line Tuesday, Kindle at my side (I found a purse that it fits in, right in my house, LOL!)

Betsy


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2008)

I have to do a work thing on Tuesday, but as soon as I am through I will be hitting the polls. My grandmother would be spinning in her grave if I didn't.


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## ScottBooks (Oct 28, 2008)

I get to vote for early voting on Tuesday. It's about the only thing that's not a given in Maryland.


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## Buttercup (Oct 28, 2008)

I know it sounds bad but I'm not looking forward to voting one bit.  I have to work, 12 hours from 6am to 6pm and really don't want to then spend 2 hours in line to vote, sigh.


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## oddsoxx (Oct 28, 2008)

Ann Von Hagel said:


> The concept is that you might not be able to get to your polling place on election day, for whatever reason, so you're eligible to vote absentee. You could get an absentee ballot and mail it in, or, in some places, you can elect to vote in person at some designated time before election day. That's "in person absentee."


Well...electing to vote in person at some designated time before election day sounds like "early voting" to me. NM has both early voting and absentee voting and as a third option, we also have in person absentee voting. I guess the oximoron "in person absentee voting" just amused me for some dumb reason.

Linda


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I agree it's semantics.  I think the technical distinction is that, in places that allow 'early voting', you don't need to give a reason why you want to vote early.  Just go do it.  Where they have 'in person absentee', there are a number of acceptable reasons which might cause you difficulty in getting to the polls.  In VA, you just need to say which one is you, and they'll let you vote absentee.  You can do that by mail, or go into the county voter office on designated days ahead of the election.  Of course, one of the reasons allowed is 'personal business will take me out of the county on election day'.  And you don't need to disclose what that personal business is, which makes it essentially the same as early voting..  . . .

I figure I'll head to the school to vote around 9. . . .Kindle in hand  

Ann


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## Teninx (Oct 27, 2008)

"In Person Absentee Voting"?  Is that conducted at a special polling place for those who declare themselves  an "Undecided Committed Voter"?.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

oddsoxx said:


> Well...electing to vote in person at some designated time before election day sounds like "early voting" to me. NM has both early voting and absentee voting and as a third option, we also have in person absentee voting. I guess the oximoron "in person absentee voting" just amused me for some dumb reason.
> 
> Linda


When I was young and active in politics, northern New Mexico also had dead-person voting and overlooked ballot boxes that mysteriously appeared after the votes were tallied. 

Jeff


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2008)

As some Chicago politico once said (or was it Al Capone?): vote early and vote often.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Al Capone, I think. . .

Ann


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## oddsoxx (Oct 28, 2008)

Ann: Fortunately, here in NM we don't have to give a reason for wanting to vote early or to vote by absentee ballot. To vote by absentee ballot, you merely have to apply and they send you a ballot which you just drop in the mail when you've marked all the relevent boxes.

Jeff: Uh...well, I suspect there is still a lot of the mysterious missing ballot box syndrome in Northern NM. I remember several years ago, after the votes were tallied, several boxes were found in a jail cell in some little town up there. 

Teninx said "In Person Absentee Voting"? Is that conducted at a special polling place for those who declare themselves an "Undecided Committed Voter"? And all I can say to that is "ROFL"


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Linda,

I think it was Tierra Amarilla in Rio Arriba County. 

During the last general election, George Bush was ahead in NM for several days but Tony Snow said on Fox news that it couldn’t last because in NM someone invariably found an uncounted ballot box at the last minute. Days later they found the ballot boxes you mentioned and the NM went for Al Gore.

I really miss New Mexico sometimes – but not during general elections.


Jeff


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## oddsoxx (Oct 28, 2008)

Jeff said:


> Linda,
> 
> I think it was Tierra Amarilla in Rio Arriba County.
> 
> ...


Yes, you're right...it was Tierra Amarilla. When and where did you live in NM? I've been here since 1951, most of it in and around Albuquerque, except for four years spend on Kauai during the 90s. I've seen a lot of changes in the past 50+ years but elections seem to have kept much of their unique NM flavor through the years.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

oddsoxx said:


> Yes, you're right...it was Tierra Amarilla. When and where did you live in NM? I've been here since 1951, most of it in and around Albuquerque, except for four years spend on Kauai during the 90s. I've seen a lot of changes in the past 50+ years but elections seem to have kept much of their unique NM flavor through the years.


Linda,

I grew up in Albuquerque; went to Highland High School and UNM. Before we moved to Texas, we lived in Placitas. My wife's family is still in Albuquerque but me mother and my sister now live in Ruidoso. The last time we were back, I got lost.

I miss it especially at this time of year when the aspens are turning and there's snow on the Sandias but it's too big for me now.

J


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

from the Associated Press:
*
Obama wins in earliest vote in tiny Dixville, NH*

By GLENN ADAMS - 4 hours ago

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP) - Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, N.H., where tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied lives on.

Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday's first minutes. The town of Hart's Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns' ballots but got no votes.

"I'm not going to say I wasn't surprised," said Obama supporter Tanner Nelson Tillotson, whose name was drawn from a bowl to make him Dixville Notch's first voter.

With 115 residents between them, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location get every eligible voter to the polls beginning at midnight on Election Day. Between them, the towns have been enjoying their first-vote status since 1948.

Being first means something to residents of the Granite State, home of the nation's earliest presidential primary and the central focus - however briefly - of the vote-watching nation's attention every four years.

Town Clerk Rick Erwin said Dixville Notch is proud of its tradition, but added, "The most important thing is that we exemplify a 100 percent vote."

Dixville Notch resident Peter Johnson said the early bird electoral exercise "is fun." A former naval aviator, Johnson said he was voting for McCain, but added, "I think both candidates are excellent people."

Voting was carried out in a room in a local hotel festooned with political memorabilia from campaigns long past. Each voter gets an individual booth so there are no lines at the magic hour. The votes were quickly counted, announced and recorded on a posterboard that proclaims, "First in the Nation, Dixville Notch."

The tradition drew spectators, including Tim McKenna, who drove with his wife 16 miles from Cambridge, N.H., to witness the event.

"Living in New Hampshire, you hear so much about it in the news," said McKenna. "I think it's a very historic election this year."

Ed Butler, a Democratic state representative who runs the Notchland Inn in Hart's Location, said, "Being this small and being able to be first just makes it that much more special."

Although scores of states have voted early, the two villages are the first to officially announce the results on Election Day.

New Hampshire law requires polls to open at 11 a.m., but that doesn't stop towns from opening earlier. It also allows towns to close their polls once all registered and eligible voters have cast ballots.

Hart's Location started opening its polls early in 1948, the year Harry S. Truman beat Thomas Dewey, to accommodate railroad workers who had to get to work early. Hart's Location got out of the early voting business in 1964 after some residents grew weary of all the publicity, but brought it back in 1996.

Dixville Notch, nestled in a mountain pass 1,800 feet up and about halfway between the White Mountain National Forest and the Canadian border, followed suit in 1960, when John F. Kennedy beat Richard M. Nixon. Nixon, the Republican, swept all nine votes cast in Dixville that year, and before Tuesday, the town had gone for a Democrat only once since then. That was in 1968, when the tally was Democrat Hubert Humphrey eight, Nixon four.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5grwUADvRzUMaEoHj9bHMtdylvOLAD947UING0


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## oddsoxx (Oct 28, 2008)

Jeff said:


> Linda,
> 
> I grew up in Albuquerque; went to Highland High School and UNM. Before we moved to Texas, we lived in Placitas. My wife's family is still in Albuquerque but my mother and my sister now live in Ruidoso. The last time we were back, I got lost.
> 
> ...


Jeff,

I went to Sandia but my brother went to Highland. He graduated in 1960 many years before your time there most likely. I can imagine you got lost the last time you were here. Albuquerque is getting huge. This is exactly why we moved to the East Mountains when we came back from Kauai.

No snow on the Sandias yet but by this time tomorrow there may be.

So, here we are...another election day. I wonder what will happen this year. Some of the local races have become downright nasty and it will nice not to see those ads every five minutes after today.

Linda


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Linda,

Small world, huh?

I was in your brother's class. Betcha I know him and maybe you. My sister's 6 years younger. But I don’t know your name or your brother’s.

Send me a private message or an email.

Jeff



Jeff


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