Your Voting Experience Today

I live in a rural precinct and went to vote a short time ago. I have known the poll workers for years, but they still asked me for my ID which I gladly produced. We used to vote on a purely computerized machine, but they have transitioned to a paper ballot plus a computerized scanner/reader which stores the printed ballots in a locked box after they are read and the votes recorded. They said it made it much easier for them to do a recount if that became necessary. Folks this is freaking rural KY and we have the most secure voting procedure in the nation.

When I walked in the door, I was 3rd in line, but when I got to Wanda, she handed me a sample ballot, told me I should shade in the entire box next to the candidate's name instead of making a check in the box as the scanner read it better that way, asked me if I had any questions and instructed me to move down the line to register. Produce ID and sign in on the pre-printed roster of eligible voters, and move on to person #3 who handed me the official ballot and instructed me to take voting station #2, once again instructing me to shade in the box instead of making a check mark.

I did my part and moved to the scanner. Really simple process and I saw my votes had registered. I asked Beth, who is the supervisor for our location if they had been busy. She said that this was her 23rd year at this location and she said if people kept coming, it would be the busiest election day they had ever had by far.

I am glad so many people feel compelled to vote and hope it continues in future elections.

How was your experience?

Identical to yours, Dan. First time ever, for me, filling out a paper ballot.

Pretty similar. Took less than five minutes round trip from my car. Steady traffic but no line (Station Springs precinct in Frankfort).

I voted last week. Pretty much the same routine. Has been lots of talk about wait times in FL as some type of voter suppression attempt by the GOP. The problem isn't that anybody is attempting to make voting so inconvenient that people don't vote (aka voter suppression) but rather the FL ballot has several long amendments that are being voted on. Reading them and understanding them takes about 15 minutes and I've heard of reports of people taking 45 minutes after they start filling in their ballots before they are done.

I was required to produce my driver's license only. My daughter also early voted and had some minor issues since her residence is in Boca Raton where she goes to school however her voter registration is for my home which she lives at during the summer. Her driver license has a typo which lists her address as St Andrews SW rather than SW St Andrews. Took about 10 minutes to straighten out but the process was very smooth from my point of view.

I voted early myself. And as Doc noted, there were 12 amendments that required close attention to detail due to all of the "legal-eese" you need to decipher through. Aside from that it was easy as pie.
As I described to everyone in another post, there is a lot of participation this time around, mostly "baby boomers ". Up to this point today, minority turnout has been light. Absentee ballots are running about twice as many submitted as usual.
Whatever happens in Florida will probably be dependent upon how those liberal nut jobs in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade vote.

I always get flabbergasted at election horror stories from other states. KY seems to have some of the smoothest, well-run elections out there. Here in Lex we've had the same computer voting machines we've had since I've been of age. And aside from the "wheel" system being somewhat confusing to a few people, there's never any problems and the waits are very short.

We went to the polls at 10:30. It took about 15 minutes. We celebrated our votes by going to Chick-fil-a for an early lunch.

I got a call from a friend in New York. After standing in line 4 hours, he realized he was standing in line at a gas station.

Walked right in, shaded in boxes and walked out in less than 10 minutes.

Voted at 5:00 in Meade County's largest polling location. Line was about 20 deep. 20 minutes total. All peeps, both polling workers and voters were in good spirits.

Dan, my experience was almost identical to yours. Took me probably 5 minutes.

I voted at 5 pm. When I drove by the voting location this morning, traffic was backed up about a block in eac direction.waiting to enter the church parking lot that is the polling place. When I finally voted my buddy the precinct captain said it was already a record turnout. 3300+ registered voters and 3012 had already voted. He was concerned about running out of ballots as they had <400 left.

Lots of democrats were turning out. Precinct is normally 70%+ Republican. Romney and Ryan will get huge margin in Alabama, maybe the largest in the South.

Was there when the polls opened at 06:00 and was out in less than five minutes. Of course I had done my homework.

1100 - about 12 people in line

Made it in at about 5:30. Love the paper ballot. Five minutes total.

As Salsa said, Lexvegas has had the same kind of machines for a long time, if you can't figure them out (they have people to help) you probably don't need to vote.

Took me the longest it ever has b/c I had to vote close to lunch and a group came that seems to have included a few of the women's basketball players and they had not used these machines before. Coming close to 15 minutes, usually takes me 2 minutes to vote and then gab with my neighbors for 5 minutes.

I show my license as everyone has to but my polling place is VERY local and every one of the poll workers is a friend from my neighborhood so I only do it as a formality in my case. They've known me for 15 years. You show your license, they check that you're on the voter registration list and they sign on the line in the registration book and you counter sign.

As has been said, Kentucky runs a far better election than states who generally look down their noses at us. It's not rocket science, but of course those states want the systems to have lots of faults so they can be exploited politically.

It took me about 5 minutes to walk in, get checked in and fill out the paper ballot and stick it into the machine. Here in Monroe Co. IL, you get the chance to use a paper ballot or do it electronically.

could not have taken me more than 5 min from the time I left my suburban until I was back, total electronic. We have the ID law but of course Obama is holding it up, but I showed mine anyway even though they all know me.
I voted out of revenge, revenge for what Obama has done to this country, too bad the rest of the country isn't as smart as Ky, Ala and Miss

Went to the polls at about 11:30 this morning. First time since I turned 18 that I didn't vote right at opening. I've worked 3rd shift for 22+ years, and have always went straight from work at 6:00am. Poll place was pretty busy when I got there today..not what I was used too. Got my voting done in about 10 minutes and then went to Kroger. Kentucky has been using the fill in the dot ballots with the machines since I turned 18....28 years ago!! I've never understood the hanging chad states!!

I went to the polls in Arlington, Virginia, which was next door to where I lived around 5:30 PM. The polls closed at offically at 7:00 PM but everyone in line before 7:00 PM were allowed to vote. I waited in line with my neighbor, a sweet heart of a girl who is blind, and her service dog Railley.

We stood in a massive line with hundreds of people for 85 minutes slowly winding aroud the hallways of the basement level of a 17 floor apartment building. During that time we were offered bottles of water, donuts, snack bags, and hot pizza. We also were offered non-partisan written listings of various various resolutions and proposed bonding bills for Arlington County.

As we entered the doorway to the voting room the election staff saw my neighbor and moved us to the front of the line (at that point we were not that far away). My neighbor had just moved to our building a few weeks ago and was fortunate to have a bill with her new address on it. She had registered before the Arlington/VA deadline but a mail problem had kept her from getting her voter registration card.

Our machines were computer based with touch screens. Paper ballots were available at a table My neighbor was given a headset and the voting options were read to her.

The audio took a while so we were done and heading home in about two hours.

I vote absentee. So last week I opened my ballot, read everything, voted, sealed it in the first envelope, sealed it in the second envelope, which I signed saying I filled it out and still live in this district, put a couple of stamps on the envelope and mailed it in. On Monday I looked on the Secretary of State's website which told me my Clerk and Recorder had received by ballot.

Voting problems where people wait five hours are from states with "same day registration" because getting registered takes time. I remain suspicious of that process.