heidi | (no subject)

yay!

For whom? ;-)

I'm so jealous of all you folks in states who can vote early. *pout*

My county, at least, is strongly suggesting "in-person absentee voting" on just about any pretext, due to concerns about staffing on election day itself. I found nothing when trying to search on early voting, but someone at my church clued me in that the key word was "absentee," which I thought only applied to mail-in ballots.

YAY!

Me, too! :D *twirls you*

Me too! Last Friday!!

I voted by mail last week. =)

Yay! I voted weeks ago, as soon as North Carolina started mailing out absentee voting!

One of the measures on the ballot here in Maryland is whether to permit early voting in the future. I vote yes...esp after I have to wait in line and wind up late for work Nov 4.

I can't wait to voooooooote!

Early voting is open today here as well, unfortunately I won't have time to go until Friday. :/

I'm holding off on voting for a bit longer. I received my sample ballot over the weekend, and damned if I knew more than a few candidates for local elections. 'Who the heck are all the rest' is going through my mind.

We don't have commissioner/mayor elections right now, and a friend of mine is running for statehouse, so I was pretty lucky in the down-ballot races this year. But yeah, it's good to know before you go in!

I am filling out my ballot this week, but shall hold it until election day, when I will be dropping it off at my polling place. It is very exciting!

*happy dance*

Which reminds me, must go make sure all is good with my registration since I voted in the Dem. prelims.

. . . Odd and unexplainable things happen to the registrations of people my county's officials fear might be democrats

I understand why it's a good idea logistically, but doesn't the idea of early voting make having an election day a bit pointless ?

Some people do think so, especially in Oregon where all voting is by mail in the 3-4 weeks before November 4. It does reduce the likelihood that you'll have to wait in line specifically on Election Day - you can wait in line in advance instead! - and it helps people who want to set their own schedule for voting. BUt for the last few decades, we've always had the ability for people to vote whenever they wanted to, but they used to have to do it via absentee ballot.

But for people like me, early voting allows us to vote in a polling station and still be available to help at the polls on election day itself.

I so admire you being so involved in democracy.

I do have one other question : on a local level, do you actually canvass for the people in the electoral college who you know will vote for your favoured candidate ?

How does it work if you have an odd number of electoral college votes ? I read it up on Wikipedia, but it left me feeling like I didn't understand the system very well.

Mom and Dad voted today, too. We had a long talk last night about proposition 2 (is that what it was called?) and they are, as always, voting in favor of gay right. Go Parents!!!

I wish I could vote early too. But no matter when, my vote is for Obama-Biden.

I know some of my friends will not understand my stance. I geniunely like John McCain, just as I always have. But we all have to live as we honestly believe, according to our best-perceived values.

And no matter what, we are ALL Americans. :-)

I thought everyone voted ON Election Day (aside from absentee ballots). How is it you guys go early? Doesn't that muck up the fairness of things?

Weird, I didn't realize there were states that *didn't* have early voting... :-o

I also didn't realize there were states that didn't have early voting. In Colorado, the "absentee" ballot is just referred to as a "mail-in" ballot and you can put yourself on a list to ALWAYS receive a mail-in ballot. Additionally, early poll voting began today, and every registered voter has the option to go to a poll early on.

I've lived in three states and none of them have had early voting. What's the point of having a fixed Election Day if some people get to vote any time they want?

Wikipedia lists reasons below, but I mainly think it's due to the congestion. We would probably stand in line for 6+ hours to vote if we went on the 4th and for a lot of people who can't afford to take a day off of work, etc. this would make it hard for them to participate in the election without doing a mail-in ballot (which a lot of people don't think about until it's too late).

Per Wikipedia:

" The goal of early voting is usually to increase participation and relieve congestion of polling stations on Election Day.

An advance poll (also "advance voting") is held in some elections to allow participation by voters who may not be able to vote on the set election day(s). This may include people who will be out of the polling area during the election period, poll workers, campaign workers, people with medical procedures scheduled for that time, among others."

But then what if new information comes out and then people can't change their vote? Seems like it would be better to have more polling stations instead, or something. If people know they'll be out, they can vote absentee - but only them.

I suppose there is always the chance that something utterly shocking comes out on November 3rd, but I think the majority of early voters are those whose minds are made up no matter what. And as Heidi said above, "we've always had the ability for people to vote whenever they wanted to, but they used to have to do it via absentee ballot." This just eliminates that element and makes it more convenient for more people. In my county alone there are over 120 different polling locations!

YAY! Early voting started here in Texas today so Jeremy and I plan to go this weekend!