Voted straight democratic ticket, then looked for races where there wasn’t a democrat, and voted against the republican.
Don Fsays
We voted in Rochester MN at the Faith Christian School . . . and the JESUS SAVES* sign on the roof was all lit up still!
I voted all blue except where there wasn’t red vs blue and then if I didn’t know about the candidates, I chose the woman who was running, if there was one. Or else I voted against the incumbent.
*Back in the ‘70s in my hometown, someone did a Halloween prank and hung an S&H Green Stamps sign under a JESUS SAVES sign like this one. Now I think of it every time I vote. ( We’ve voted at this school for only a couple of years. )
doubtersays
Best wishes from Canada! I’ll be watching your election tonight the way some people watch the Superbowl.
mathman85says
I, too, voted straight D, and then went back and voted against the one rethuglican whose opponent didn’t have a party affiliation listed. The polls seemed to me to be unusually busy; a big crowd arrived just as I’d cast my ballot. I hope that’s a good sign; my little corner of Ohio isn’t exactly the most progressive place on Earth (it hasn’t gone D in a presidential election since LBJ in 1964, and it went for Nixon in 1960). Now I’m going to try to follow P.Z.’s advice and tune out until tomorrow morning.
Coincidentally enough, my polling place is at the local Knight of Columbus hall. What’s with all this moving of polling places to religious organizations’ buildings?
kurt1says
Cool, you met Amy Goodman.
Curious Digressionssays
Me too. Ours was too. Until this year, voting was hosted by our local elementary school. Then there was a shooting perilously close to one of the district schools…
rpjohnstonsays
Voted. Paper ballots too, but a pity that the machines don’t display the results that they scanned. I just hope that they work as well as any other scantron.
We voted early (first day), and in a public library!!
rpjohnstonsays
The Republicans in my precinct do so badly they print their sample ballots on greenish-cyan paper lol. They also make a beeline for me when I show up, I probably look like a likely R voter. Everyone on both sides looks like they swallowed a cow when I ask for a Democratic sampler.
siwulokisays
I wasn’t the first in the door, but I was the first to feed my (paper!) ballot into the Eagle. Back in the ’90’s I was a poll worker in the first election in which that machine was used. Good system. But this year Maricopa County introduced a new electronic touch-screen sign-in system. The voter is supposed to operate it, but the last page is entirely too confusing. (During the primary that system failed at many precincts, including my own. Had to go to a different precinct and vote a provisional ballot.) After voting I was handed a survey form and pleaded that the elections department put out some info explaining the sign-in process. I’m glad I’m not working today – those folks were hopping from station to station helping with that last page.
MattP (must mock his crappy brain)says
Straight democratic with only one Gritty write-in on my ballot last week in a library in Georgia (Oconee River Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor – unopposed incumbent in non-partisan position). Most of the Dems on my ballot are actually pretty decent people, and I definitely see Abrams’ participation in burning a traitor’s version of the Georgia state flag as yet another great reason to get her into office.
hemidactylussays
I voted straight D, even for Gillum with some hesitance given questions about shenanigans at Tallahassee city hall, but I did so early and beat the crowds. I am tempted to vote by mail in future elections, but there is something about going to the election office that is so old school. In nutty Florida we had a crapload of amendments to decipher. I voted to restore felon voting rights. That was one no-brainer. Some others were horribly bundled together, because Floriduh.
Raucous Indignationsays
I voted straight Row A. Even for King Andrew.
willjsays
I voted in a small church too. Most american small towns have only two kinds of public gathering places: churches and bars. I would have preferred the later.
What a Maroon, living up to the 'nymsays
@Don F,
The joke in Boston back in the early ’70s was “Jesus saves! But Espo scores on the rebound!”
Voted straight D, in a deeply blue county in VA. Strangely enough the only non-D likely to win is an ex-gopper running for reëlection for County Board as an Independent. Our polling place is a former school that now houses a non-profit that offers job training to people with disabilities.
microraptorsays
Voted 2 weeks ago. Love Oregon’s vote-by-mail system.
Voted almost straight D except for the county commissioner race where all the choices were R, but some Rs were a whole lot worse than others so I voted for the best of a bad lot. Abstained on all the races where someone was running unopposed.
And voted fuck no on all the ballot measures- two were to create new tax loopholes for businesses, one was to allow state money to be spent on privatized low income housing, one was to eliminate state funding for abortion clinics, and one was to eliminate Oregon’s Sanctuary Laws.
Ragutissays
I’m just gonna stay home today. Everyone’s just shouting “Vote ! Vote! Vote!” at me today, but I just can’t be arsed. Besides, I mailed in my ballot 2 weeks ago. One thing Florida’s got right is the vote by mail thing. Until the U.S. moves elections to a weekend day or people are guaranteed paid time off from their employers to go vote, it’s the best thing going. And if you miss the little “I voted!” sticker, you can drop off your ballot in person or print one out.
First time in the 20 yrs I’ve been here that someone actually canvassed my neighborhood. A volunteer for Lindsay Cross. My neighborhood is mostly R, but hopefully a campaign giving a damn and coming out to try to actually earn votes instead of taking them for granted sways a few people.
Voted all Dem, BTW, and largely followed the TBT recommendations after that, though I voted Yes for a few more amendments than they suggested.: restoring voting rights to non-violent felons, people’s vote on gambling, prohibiting offshore drilling, making it harder for pols to become lobbyists, and nixing greyhound racing. A few of those probably shouldn’t be constitutional amendments, but looking at the legislature, I don’t see them getting done any other way.
Looking forward to recreational marijuana on the ballot in 2020. And voting out that Tang colored cretin, of course.
kestrelsays
@#14, no fire stations? That’s where our voting is. I saw them yesterday bringing in the machines for it.
We have early voting in the county trailers. (Yes, our county does not have a building, it has a collection of trailers.) I voted early and it was super easy. The workers told me that with early voting anyway, there was a very good turnout, which I was happy to hear. However I am going to listen to podcasts today and staying away from the news.
DonDueedsays
#17 Ragutis: Haha, you got me!
I couldn’t quite vote straight D this time. Turns out the Dem candidate for state rep (a woman, to boot) is anti-LGBT, so I ticked the box for the incumbent R. In this state it doesn’t matter, the state legislature is overwhelmingly blue.
Snarki, child of Lokisays
If a Republican is running unopposed,
write in “KILL (insert name of Republican)”
and vote for it.
Hope it wins, also, too.
Akira MacKenziesays
My polling place in church as well. It used to be in my elementary school but the powers-that-be thought exposing children to democracy would be too much of a hassle. Now I’ve got to vote in a tiny gymnasium decorated with Bible-quote banners.
Among my nerdly people the joke goes, “Jesus saves! Everyone else takes full damage.”
davidc1says
Jesus saves ,Moses invests .
What a Maroon, living up to the 'nymsays
abbeycadabra,
A D&D reference?
laugengebaecksays
Just a stupid question from a non-American: is there any rational reason why in the US elections always seem to be on weekdays? In Europe (*) election day is always a Sunday which makes voting rather relaxed (or, my inner cynic would say, gave in the not-so-old days the priests a last chance to tell their flock which party to vote for).
(*) well, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands for sure. Not so sure about others except for European parliament elections.
microraptorsays
laugengebaeck @26: I’m pretty sure it’s because That’s How We’ve Always Done It.
I got to my polling place (a church – over the years I’ve lived here this is the third church I’ve had to go to) right after 6 am and there was a little line! I was voter 16. In Illinois we have same day registration and I think two people were there doing that.
I voted straight D, of course, although for our IL governor race it’s still Incumbent Rich Fuck vs New Rich Fuck – we’re probably screwed either way.
Oddly enough, I also have a favorite in the genre (caution: highly secular language). John R. Butler, “The Hand of the Almighty”:
nomdeplumesays
In Australia polling is at each local public school. Neutral venue and close to centre of each community. Doesn’t voting in churches conflict with church-state separation? As well as providing subliminal advertising for the Right, and discomfort for people of different religions, or none?
unbelievingdwindlersays
@Kip T.W.
Great song. Loved it!
Ragutissays
Aw. Gee. Darn. Looks like Kobach just lost the KS gov’s race.
I’d shed a tear, but I used up my last onions making a stock last night. I guess I could find something irritating to rub into my eyes, but I’m too lazy. Also too damn happy about seeing that racist P.O.S. go down in flames.
jrkrideausays
In Australia polling is at each local public school. Neutral venue and close to centre of each community. Doesn’t voting in churches conflict with church-state separation?
In Canada you vote wherever you can find. I have voted in schools (including the last referendum–and that was a tense one)– church halls and, IIRC , a hockey changing room. May have been a bit fancier but essentially that was it.
I think the last Federal election we voted in the Anglican Church Hall. Handy and only about a kilometre from home.
church-state separationchurch-state separation</>
Duh’ what’s that?
We have enough churches that the concept no longer really exists.
methuseussays
@laugengebaeck:
The voting day is on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November so that the harvest is done and so people would have the time to travel from their home (farm) leaving after church on Sunday morning and a full day to travel.
In the past (meaning over 100 years ago) the only voting location in many places was the county seat, which could take a whole day and a half of journeying to get to. Especially since counties back in the early to mid 1800’s were about the size of Belgium or even bigger.
I used to live in Pinellas County, Florida. It’s like a mini-peninsula on the west coast of Florida, so cut off from the mainland a lot. At one historical site they detail how voters had to go up and around Tampa Bay in order to get to Tampa, the then county seat, in order to vote. If weather was bad, they usually didn’t make it in time to vote even with a couple days to travel, especially since there were no real roads till the early 1900’s. Decades later they made Pinellas County so the citizens weren’t so cut off from their local government.
@nomdeplume:
In Australia polling is at each local public school. Neutral venue and close to centre of each community. Doesn’t voting in churches conflict with church-state separation?
See above, the reason they started using churches is because they’re closer to the voters. Until very recently (60-75 years) freestanding public schools, town halls, and the like weren’t that common in the rural USA. Churches were the common places in those areas. In the town where I grew up there is 1 government building with no meeting area or place suitable to hold voting, there are 2 public schools on one end of the town, and 4-5 churches (haven’t checked which are still open) in more centralized areas. If churches weren’t an option, many people would refrain from voting because of how hard it would be to get other places.
I personally believe that it should be non-denominational secular locations, but there are more churches than government buildings in the US by a large margin. There are I think 5 churches and 1 (15-square-foot) post office within 2 miles of my semi-rural house. Change that to 3 miles to add 4 churches and 1 small town hall (with a meeting room that can hold less than 50 people). At 5 miles you have well over 10 churches, 1 tiny post office, 2 regular post offices, a town hall, a town hall/library combination building (still small) and at least 15 churches. I don’t think my area is out of the norm, either. Well, there may actually be more government buildings here than most rural areas of the USA.
Well, congratulations on possibly having staved off fascism for the moment.
What is interesting is that in the German media you never hear about the massive irregularities and voter suppression.
I recall reading somewhere that the voting day was deliberately made to be a weekday in order to discourage lower-class people from being able to make it to the polls. I don’t remember where (it might even have been here!) but I do recall that the claim was accompanied by some plausible evidence.
KGsays
Giliell@39,
Same on the BBC. And not a single mention of the popular vote in the only national US poll (the House elections) since 2016.
Rob Grigjanissays
laugengebaeck @26: I’ve heard it harks back to the days when most voters lived in the country. Polling places were a long distance from most people, so weekends were out (church on Sunday).
In Canada, general elections are on a Monday, but both Canada and the States (and lots of other countries) have early voting.
Rob Grigjanissays
Ah, didn’t see methuseus’ answer @38. Haven’t had me coffee yet…
mowmowsays
At least the church served a worthwhile purpose this day. Glad you didn’t burst into flames upon entering.
Voted straight democratic ticket, then looked for races where there wasn’t a democrat, and voted against the republican.
We voted in Rochester MN at the Faith Christian School . . . and the JESUS SAVES* sign on the roof was all lit up still!
I voted all blue except where there wasn’t red vs blue and then if I didn’t know about the candidates, I chose the woman who was running, if there was one. Or else I voted against the incumbent.
*Back in the ‘70s in my hometown, someone did a Halloween prank and hung an S&H Green Stamps sign under a JESUS SAVES sign like this one. Now I think of it every time I vote. ( We’ve voted at this school for only a couple of years. )
Best wishes from Canada! I’ll be watching your election tonight the way some people watch the Superbowl.
I, too, voted straight D, and then went back and voted against the one rethuglican whose opponent didn’t have a party affiliation listed. The polls seemed to me to be unusually busy; a big crowd arrived just as I’d cast my ballot. I hope that’s a good sign; my little corner of Ohio isn’t exactly the most progressive place on Earth (it hasn’t gone D in a presidential election since LBJ in 1964, and it went for Nixon in 1960). Now I’m going to try to follow P.Z.’s advice and tune out until tomorrow morning.
Coincidentally enough, my polling place is at the local Knight of Columbus hall. What’s with all this moving of polling places to religious organizations’ buildings?
Cool, you met Amy Goodman.
Me too. Ours was too. Until this year, voting was hosted by our local elementary school. Then there was a shooting perilously close to one of the district schools…
Voted. Paper ballots too, but a pity that the machines don’t display the results that they scanned. I just hope that they work as well as any other scantron.
We voted early (first day), and in a public library!!
The Republicans in my precinct do so badly they print their sample ballots on greenish-cyan paper lol. They also make a beeline for me when I show up, I probably look like a likely R voter. Everyone on both sides looks like they swallowed a cow when I ask for a Democratic sampler.
I wasn’t the first in the door, but I was the first to feed my (paper!) ballot into the Eagle. Back in the ’90’s I was a poll worker in the first election in which that machine was used. Good system. But this year Maricopa County introduced a new electronic touch-screen sign-in system. The voter is supposed to operate it, but the last page is entirely too confusing. (During the primary that system failed at many precincts, including my own. Had to go to a different precinct and vote a provisional ballot.) After voting I was handed a survey form and pleaded that the elections department put out some info explaining the sign-in process. I’m glad I’m not working today – those folks were hopping from station to station helping with that last page.
Straight democratic with only one Gritty write-in on my ballot last week in a library in Georgia (Oconee River Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor – unopposed incumbent in non-partisan position). Most of the Dems on my ballot are actually pretty decent people, and I definitely see Abrams’ participation in burning a traitor’s version of the Georgia state flag as yet another great reason to get her into office.
I voted straight D, even for Gillum with some hesitance given questions about shenanigans at Tallahassee city hall, but I did so early and beat the crowds. I am tempted to vote by mail in future elections, but there is something about going to the election office that is so old school. In nutty Florida we had a crapload of amendments to decipher. I voted to restore felon voting rights. That was one no-brainer. Some others were horribly bundled together, because Floriduh.
I voted straight Row A. Even for King Andrew.
I voted in a small church too. Most american small towns have only two kinds of public gathering places: churches and bars. I would have preferred the later.
@Don F,
The joke in Boston back in the early ’70s was “Jesus saves! But Espo scores on the rebound!”
Voted straight D, in a deeply blue county in VA. Strangely enough the only non-D likely to win is an ex-gopper running for reëlection for County Board as an Independent. Our polling place is a former school that now houses a non-profit that offers job training to people with disabilities.
Voted 2 weeks ago. Love Oregon’s vote-by-mail system.
Voted almost straight D except for the county commissioner race where all the choices were R, but some Rs were a whole lot worse than others so I voted for the best of a bad lot. Abstained on all the races where someone was running unopposed.
And voted fuck no on all the ballot measures- two were to create new tax loopholes for businesses, one was to allow state money to be spent on privatized low income housing, one was to eliminate state funding for abortion clinics, and one was to eliminate Oregon’s Sanctuary Laws.
I’m just gonna stay home today. Everyone’s just shouting “Vote ! Vote! Vote!” at me today, but I just can’t be arsed. Besides, I mailed in my ballot 2 weeks ago. One thing Florida’s got right is the vote by mail thing. Until the U.S. moves elections to a weekend day or people are guaranteed paid time off from their employers to go vote, it’s the best thing going. And if you miss the little “I voted!” sticker, you can drop off your ballot in person or print one out.
First time in the 20 yrs I’ve been here that someone actually canvassed my neighborhood. A volunteer for Lindsay Cross. My neighborhood is mostly R, but hopefully a campaign giving a damn and coming out to try to actually earn votes instead of taking them for granted sways a few people.
Voted all Dem, BTW, and largely followed the TBT recommendations after that, though I voted Yes for a few more amendments than they suggested.: restoring voting rights to non-violent felons, people’s vote on gambling, prohibiting offshore drilling, making it harder for pols to become lobbyists, and nixing greyhound racing. A few of those probably shouldn’t be constitutional amendments, but looking at the legislature, I don’t see them getting done any other way.
Looking forward to recreational marijuana on the ballot in 2020. And voting out that Tang colored cretin, of course.
@#14, no fire stations? That’s where our voting is. I saw them yesterday bringing in the machines for it.
We have early voting in the county trailers. (Yes, our county does not have a building, it has a collection of trailers.) I voted early and it was super easy. The workers told me that with early voting anyway, there was a very good turnout, which I was happy to hear. However I am going to listen to podcasts today and staying away from the news.
#17 Ragutis: Haha, you got me!
I couldn’t quite vote straight D this time. Turns out the Dem candidate for state rep (a woman, to boot) is anti-LGBT, so I ticked the box for the incumbent R. In this state it doesn’t matter, the state legislature is overwhelmingly blue.
If a Republican is running unopposed,
write in “KILL (insert name of Republican)”
and vote for it.
Hope it wins, also, too.
My polling place in church as well. It used to be in my elementary school but the powers-that-be thought exposing children to democracy would be too much of a hassle. Now I’ve got to vote in a tiny gymnasium decorated with Bible-quote banners.
Has everybody seen this yet?
https://caching.grabien.com/c/streams/0497/kKwZxg3izAF-L2f3Szfq7g/1541564083/497609.mp4?key=kKwZxg3izAF-L2f3Szfq7g
@15 What a Maroon
Among my nerdly people the joke goes, “Jesus saves! Everyone else takes full damage.”
Jesus saves ,Moses invests .
abbeycadabra,
A D&D reference?
Just a stupid question from a non-American: is there any rational reason why in the US elections always seem to be on weekdays? In Europe (*) election day is always a Sunday which makes voting rather relaxed (or, my inner cynic would say, gave in the not-so-old days the priests a last chance to tell their flock which party to vote for).
(*) well, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands for sure. Not so sure about others except for European parliament elections.
laugengebaeck @26: I’m pretty sure it’s because That’s How We’ve Always Done It.
Laugengeback @26
Federal law since 1845. Congress could change it if they wanted.
@25 What a Maroon
Yep.
I got to my polling place (a church – over the years I’ve lived here this is the third church I’ve had to go to) right after 6 am and there was a little line! I was voter 16. In Illinois we have same day registration and I think two people were there doing that.
I voted straight D, of course, although for our IL governor race it’s still Incumbent Rich Fuck vs New Rich Fuck – we’re probably screwed either way.
My favourite “Spiritual song” of all time.
laugengebaeck In the Netherlands polls are on Wednesdays.
Oddly enough, I also have a favorite in the genre (caution: highly secular language). John R. Butler, “The Hand of the Almighty”:
In Australia polling is at each local public school. Neutral venue and close to centre of each community. Doesn’t voting in churches conflict with church-state separation? As well as providing subliminal advertising for the Right, and discomfort for people of different religions, or none?
@Kip T.W.
Great song. Loved it!
Aw. Gee. Darn. Looks like Kobach just lost the KS gov’s race.
I’d shed a tear, but I used up my last onions making a stock last night. I guess I could find something irritating to rub into my eyes, but I’m too lazy. Also too damn happy about seeing that racist P.O.S. go down in flames.
In Australia polling is at each local public school. Neutral venue and close to centre of each community. Doesn’t voting in churches conflict with church-state separation?
In Canada you vote wherever you can find. I have voted in schools (including the last referendum–and that was a tense one)– church halls and, IIRC , a hockey changing room. May have been a bit fancier but essentially that was it.
I think the last Federal election we voted in the Anglican Church Hall. Handy and only about a kilometre from home.
church-state separationchurch-state separation</>
Duh’ what’s that?
We have enough churches that the concept no longer really exists.
@laugengebaeck:
The voting day is on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November so that the harvest is done and so people would have the time to travel from their home (farm) leaving after church on Sunday morning and a full day to travel.
In the past (meaning over 100 years ago) the only voting location in many places was the county seat, which could take a whole day and a half of journeying to get to. Especially since counties back in the early to mid 1800’s were about the size of Belgium or even bigger.
I used to live in Pinellas County, Florida. It’s like a mini-peninsula on the west coast of Florida, so cut off from the mainland a lot. At one historical site they detail how voters had to go up and around Tampa Bay in order to get to Tampa, the then county seat, in order to vote. If weather was bad, they usually didn’t make it in time to vote even with a couple days to travel, especially since there were no real roads till the early 1900’s. Decades later they made Pinellas County so the citizens weren’t so cut off from their local government.
@nomdeplume:
See above, the reason they started using churches is because they’re closer to the voters. Until very recently (60-75 years) freestanding public schools, town halls, and the like weren’t that common in the rural USA. Churches were the common places in those areas. In the town where I grew up there is 1 government building with no meeting area or place suitable to hold voting, there are 2 public schools on one end of the town, and 4-5 churches (haven’t checked which are still open) in more centralized areas. If churches weren’t an option, many people would refrain from voting because of how hard it would be to get other places.
I personally believe that it should be non-denominational secular locations, but there are more churches than government buildings in the US by a large margin. There are I think 5 churches and 1 (15-square-foot) post office within 2 miles of my semi-rural house. Change that to 3 miles to add 4 churches and 1 small town hall (with a meeting room that can hold less than 50 people). At 5 miles you have well over 10 churches, 1 tiny post office, 2 regular post offices, a town hall, a town hall/library combination building (still small) and at least 15 churches. I don’t think my area is out of the norm, either. Well, there may actually be more government buildings here than most rural areas of the USA.
Well, congratulations on possibly having staved off fascism for the moment.
What is interesting is that in the German media you never hear about the massive irregularities and voter suppression.
@#26, laugengebaeck
I recall reading somewhere that the voting day was deliberately made to be a weekday in order to discourage lower-class people from being able to make it to the polls. I don’t remember where (it might even have been here!) but I do recall that the claim was accompanied by some plausible evidence.
Giliell@39,
Same on the BBC. And not a single mention of the popular vote in the only national US poll (the House elections) since 2016.
laugengebaeck @26: I’ve heard it harks back to the days when most voters lived in the country. Polling places were a long distance from most people, so weekends were out (church on Sunday).
In Canada, general elections are on a Monday, but both Canada and the States (and lots of other countries) have early voting.
Ah, didn’t see methuseus’ answer @38. Haven’t had me coffee yet…
At least the church served a worthwhile purpose this day. Glad you didn’t burst into flames upon entering.