Did you vote? How busy was the polling place?

[angus]

Which number voter were you?  (if you know it)  What time did you vote?

I voted around 8:45.  Most of the voting booths (about 10 of them) were full and I was number 174 75 minutes after the polls opened.  There are roughly 3300 residents in my precinct.  In 2008, just under 1700 people voted.

Walked into the building at 8:41.  Walked out at 8:54.  I didn't pay attention to the numbers.

It was coldish.  26F when Louis and I hopped on our bicycles.  I bundled him up and we made the three-block ride to Southdale Elementary, as we do every morning.  I got him there, locked his bicycle to the rack (and kissed him and reminded him not to throw stones and be sure to eat all his lunch and say excuse me if he burps and listen to the teacher and say thank you and please) just before the 8:40 warning bell, and then rode two more blocks to the Jesus H. Christ Megachurch and Cultural Center where I vote.  (Okay, that's not really the name of the place.  I can't remember the name of the place, but it's a huge monstrosity of a church about two blocks from my son's school.)  I left the bicycle in the front and walked in and looked around at the people.  funny thing, here on this forum, at 43 I'm one of the really old guys.  In my voting place, I'm quite sure I was, by far, the youngest.  All the other voters are looking at me with that "Oh, it's so good to see young people voting" kind of gleam.  I had to wait behind three women and two men ahead of me, but the line moved fast.  Eventually I got to the blue-haired, pencil-thin, bespectacled octogenarian woman working the "sign here to confirm your address" station.  Then, I took another step to the next very old woman who had the "I promise I have not voted in any other precinct" documents to sign.  Then I waited to step forward to the next station where two much younger (mid-sixties?) women were asking questions and typing things in on Lenovo thinkpads.  (Computer literacy is limited to the young, I suppose.)  Finally, I got to the last station where a rather rotund elderly man (with no hair except a few white whiskers on his chin) gave me a ballot. 

The voting part was actually pretty quick.  I'd studied beforehand about all the major office.  I probably left about five of them blank, wishing I'd educated myself a bit about things like County Board of Supervisors and District Appellate Judges.  I did notice that Iowa Party and Socialist Workers Party were choices this year for the straight-ticket option, along with the standard Democrat, Republican, and Libertarian.  Not that I'd ever vote straight party ticket, but it's nice to see some other options. 

There were also three questions.  I voted NO on all of them then put my ballot into the little electronic device that sucks it in and, presumably, reads it.  Voila!

By then I needed to pee.  Luckily there was a men's room just down the corridor.  All told, I was in and out in under 15 minutes.  Pretty efficient.

[angus]

Yes.  I voted at about 10:45.  I was the 34th voter in my precinct; there was no line whatsoever, and only a couple of people in the room when I was there.  I guess that's what I get for voting in a college precinct

They're doing it on campus here at UNI, in the Center for Multicultural Awareness.  My department head says it's been pretty busy there.  I think in Iowa you can use either your "permanent" (mama and daddy's) address, or your local address to vote, but not both.

Mister Grassley is an alumnus of UNI and the rumor is that he'll swing by for a visit.

[angus]

one of the few states in the Union that wants you to vote

Think that's lucky?  In Iowa there is same-day voter registration.  Not only does the Iowa lege want you to vote, it doesn't even require you to be prepared and knowledgeable, or even to have had any previous notion that there was an election to be held when you woke up this morning.  "Hello?  Oh, an election?  um, okay.  You'll give me a carton of cigarettes if I vote for who?  You'll come by here and give me a ride?  Sure, okay, got it."   

How lucky is that?

[angus]

(North Dakota, unique among the states, has no voter registration requirement at all.)

LOL.  Well, until you can produce a death certificate, I say it's a fair vote and has to be counted!

ND people are the luckiest of all.  


I don't remember the same-day thing being a big deal here.  Seems like I'd remember it if it happened in 2008 since I moved here in 2007 and have generally been paying attention to elections.  But you did get this from wikipedia, after all.

I do remember when I was living in California and it came up on the ballot as a binding proposition.  That was about 2002.  I and a majority of California voters sensibly voted against it.