"Voting is how we Go High. How do we Go High? We Vote!"
4:30 at the early voting location in town: the fire department building. No electioneering, election signs, nothing, just VOTE HERE and huge flag sails and VOTERS PARK HERE signs in red, white and blue, natch. About 5-6 people milling about outside, relaxed poll volunteer showing folks inside.
About 15 people in line inside. Line moving fast. 4 poll workers checking folks in, with 2 more expansion stations. Got my printed personal information slip from the nice lady (all I needed was my name , address and birth date, no one challenged me or asked for any other documents. Poll lady said it was steady all day. "How does this compare with 2012?" I said. "This is my first time here, sorry, I don't know". "Hey, it's my first Early Voting time, too!" Big grin.
Got my ballot and went to a "privacy Booth" to fill it out. Maryland's fully onboard with paper ballots (with the little SAT ovals), having dumped the DIEBOLD machines in 2012. Good riddance.
Done, less than 2 minutes (PROTIP, for MD voters: Republicans are at the *Top* of the ballot. Don't fuck this up.)
Took it over to the scanner, Scanned, read and tallied. Got my "Fee" I Voted Early sticker from the nice retired lady and went out the door. Took me all of 10 minutes, total. The line then was about 25 – 30 people.
It. Felt. Great.
That's the way all voting should be, for everyone.
There's a little redneck town about 30 minutes from Austin where today voters at one precinct were met by a poll worker in the parking lot who was shouting "You must have a photo ID to vote". People told him that the Supreme Court overturned that state law and even pointed to a poster inside the polling place that said that. He refused to believe it.
Took me 50 minutes overall. I was amused by the billboard truck driving around the polling place accusing Van Hollen of being buddy-buddy with the Ayatollah.
The weather was "meh," and now I'm pretty sure I have a cold. Fuck democracy!
In California you can be a "permanent absentee voter" which is the term for people who get their ballots mailed to them. The mailman took ours today. It's very convenient but I confess I miss the social aspect of going to a local school and meeting the same election workers year after year. Time was when you didn't even have to produce identification, believe it or not.
By the way the initiative system has been totally corrupted, in part because anybody with an axe to grind can hire people to gather signatures, and those people can say any goddam thing about the initiative they're asking people to sign a petition for. This year we've got a developer who wants to build 1700 units in a remote area zoned for 120, and he financed a ballot initiative after failing to get the rezoning from the county commissioners.
They can't actually ask you for ID, at least not in CA. If someone is doing that at your polling place, you might want to consider reporting it.
Yes, the initiative process has gotten a little nuisance-y. And then the advertising for the yeses and nos makes it more confusing. Last few elections I've given up and I just wait for the flier from the local Democratic party that tells me what they endorse on the initiatives and I just go with those, lol.
I actually used to give thought to my decisions. That seems so naive now.
I realized on Tuesday that on election night I will be in a class, and I checked with my teacher and yes, he is indeed holding class that night. The class is at his house and he said that just this once we'll keep the TV on, but darn, I kinda wish I was home and on my computer, etc., although it will be fun to watch it live with other humans.
Yes, I'm in the Santa Barbara area. I have even heard a poll worker once, when a guy tried to show her his ID, say loudly, "no, put that away!" I think she even said something like, "I don't want to look at it!" I think that they are trained to do that, they don't want to have anyone be able to accuse them of even possibly having asked for ID, so they go so far as to refuse to let people show them. God I love, California.
Yes, a lot of the prop see to get incredibly manipulative and deceitful ads. I had to finally realize that I was honestly confused, which is why I let brighter minds do my thinking for me on the props and just vote the Democratic party rec commendations.
I can't imagine living where you live. It must feel so oppressive for "normal" people and also maddening to watch total idiots be deferred to and treated like they're geniuses.
Last year la Signora_Quarantanova and I drove up to SB for her birthday and after a day were ready to move there. Liked it so much we came back again this year and brought my sister and brother-in-law from DC. Plus the wines, the restaurants, that spectacular (but slightly oily) beach. Such a cool place.
It is indeed very pretty. You must have been up there last year after the oil spill?
Santa Barbara, as well as a lot of other cities in the area, have really tight building code restrictions. Some people scream that it is government overstretch but really what it is, is preventing idiots coming in and destroying the culture of a city by slapping up eyesores. And the "restrictions" are not really all that restrictive, there's lots of variety to choose from.
We were there in mid-August. Don't remember a spill but have always picked up a bit of oil on the shoe soles when walking the long city beach. I read that citizens were so delighted by the county admin building (as am I) that they decided to impose design standard for the whole city, over the predictable objections of the property-rights absolutists. It worked well.
You might want to bear in mind that until the Exxon Valdez spill, the |1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara| was the worst oil spill in U.S. history and that it continues to affect the area to this day. If tourists feel inconvenienced by a little oil on your shoes, you might want to keep in mind how trivial that might sound in the grand scheme of things. Many many many sea mammals, pelicans and other creatures died due to that spill, businesses were ruined, the beaches were a wreck for at least a decade, as a child all I knew of the beaches there were that they were always covered with "tar," it was truly an environmental disaster. A little oil on your shoes is a sobering reminder of that disaster and of all the hard work over many years it took to restore the area.
Didn't mean to make light of that amazing and horrifying event, which I remember well. I've even got it on |vinyl.| We wouldn't have an EPA or environmental impact statements or EIRs if the that hadn't happened. But I think the oil that occurs on beaches now is natural seepage from the ocean floor.
I grew up in the 50's just south of the Golden Gate, and our feet were always black from tar even then. We were told it was from leaky ships passing in and out of the bay. In retrospect, that would be a hell of a lot of fuel leaked. Or motor oil.
Yes. I was well into my 20s and the spill was mostly history before I realized that the beaches hadn't always been covered in tar like that. There are such huge oil fields under the coast all the way up to the bay, and I think that people forget that, because those rigs in the channel (and farther up the coast, I guess? have been there for so long.
And of course the history of Los Angeles and Orange County are so much about oil, and people literally putting up oil rigs in their backyards and drilling. Thank god for regulations nowadays.
The first well in CA was way up north in [Petrolia.] Like you said, there's oil up and down the coast.
I'll vote tomorrow. I drove back to Nevada today for that, in part. I keep hoping, each time I vote, that this time will be the last time in Nevada. I'll feel almost as good about voting against the pimp as I'll feel about voting for Hillary. Also, recreational pot, gun show background checks, and a county fuel tax to help fix the awful roads here.
Don't blame me, I early-voted for Cthulhu.
<img src="https://counterforce.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/hello_cthulhu2.gif">
Keep that sticker, so you can be Eaten first!
"Voting is how we Go High. How do we Go High? We Vote!"
4:30 at the early voting location in town: the fire department building. No electioneering, election signs, nothing, just VOTE HERE and huge flag sails and VOTERS PARK HERE signs in red, white and blue, natch. About 5-6 people milling about outside, relaxed poll volunteer showing folks inside.
About 15 people in line inside. Line moving fast. 4 poll workers checking folks in, with 2 more expansion stations. Got my printed personal information slip from the nice lady (all I needed was my name , address and birth date, no one challenged me or asked for any other documents. Poll lady said it was steady all day. "How does this compare with 2012?" I said. "This is my first time here, sorry, I don't know". "Hey, it's my first Early Voting time, too!" Big grin.
Got my ballot and went to a "privacy Booth" to fill it out. Maryland's fully onboard with paper ballots (with the little SAT ovals), having dumped the DIEBOLD machines in 2012. Good riddance.
Done, less than 2 minutes (PROTIP, for MD voters: Republicans are at the *Top* of the ballot. Don't fuck this up.)
Took it over to the scanner, Scanned, read and tallied. Got my "Fee" I Voted Early sticker from the nice retired lady and went out the door. Took me all of 10 minutes, total. The line then was about 25 – 30 people.
It. Felt. Great.
That's the way all voting should be, for everyone.
There's a little redneck town about 30 minutes from Austin where today voters at one precinct were met by a poll worker in the parking lot who was shouting "You must have a photo ID to vote". People told him that the Supreme Court overturned that state law and even pointed to a poster inside the polling place that said that. He refused to believe it.
That's no bug, it's a feature!
I hope he got arrested?!
No, but I think he got reprimanded.
That's cool. Too bad the Trumpies can't get into how awesome Democracy is when you just leave it alone and let it be.
Today?
First day of MD's Early Voting, through November 3rd. I wanted to beat the rush.
Took me 50 minutes overall. I was amused by the billboard truck driving around the polling place accusing Van Hollen of being buddy-buddy with the Ayatollah.
The weather was "meh," and now I'm pretty sure I have a cold. Fuck democracy!
In California you can be a "permanent absentee voter" which is the term for people who get their ballots mailed to them. The mailman took ours today. It's very convenient but I confess I miss the social aspect of going to a local school and meeting the same election workers year after year. Time was when you didn't even have to produce identification, believe it or not.
By the way the initiative system has been totally corrupted, in part because anybody with an axe to grind can hire people to gather signatures, and those people can say any goddam thing about the initiative they're asking people to sign a petition for. This year we've got a developer who wants to build 1700 units in a remote area zoned for 120, and he financed a ballot initiative after failing to get the rezoning from the county commissioners.
They can't actually ask you for ID, at least not in CA. If someone is doing that at your polling place, you might want to consider reporting it.
Yes, the initiative process has gotten a little nuisance-y. And then the advertising for the yeses and nos makes it more confusing. Last few elections I've given up and I just wait for the flier from the local Democratic party that tells me what they endorse on the initiatives and I just go with those, lol.
I blame the 2000 election for turning me into "that" voter, too.
Turned you away from being a voter for the party of personal responsibility?
I actually used to give thought to my decisions. That seems so naive now.
I realized on Tuesday that on election night I will be in a class, and I checked with my teacher and yes, he is indeed holding class that night. The class is at his house and he said that just this once we'll keep the TV on, but darn, I kinda wish I was home and on my computer, etc., although it will be fun to watch it live with other humans.
Oh no, you might miss the best live post in the history of Wonkville! D:
I know I know I know I know I know.
That said, it's all good. I will be with like minds and it will be a nice evening to remember.
You should definitely enjoy it. It'll feel great if we pull this off either way!
Yes, I'm in the Santa Barbara area. I have even heard a poll worker once, when a guy tried to show her his ID, say loudly, "no, put that away!" I think she even said something like, "I don't want to look at it!" I think that they are trained to do that, they don't want to have anyone be able to accuse them of even possibly having asked for ID, so they go so far as to refuse to let people show them. God I love, California.
Yes, a lot of the prop see to get incredibly manipulative and deceitful ads. I had to finally realize that I was honestly confused, which is why I let brighter minds do my thinking for me on the props and just vote the Democratic party rec commendations.
That sounds so nice. Here they've been doing everything they can to make it harder to vote.
I can't imagine living where you live. It must feel so oppressive for "normal" people and also maddening to watch total idiots be deferred to and treated like they're geniuses.
We survive by reminding ourselves we're not Indiana. Or Kentucky. Or West Virginia.
Ohio is so not Indiana. Thank FSM.
Last year la Signora_Quarantanova and I drove up to SB for her birthday and after a day were ready to move there. Liked it so much we came back again this year and brought my sister and brother-in-law from DC. Plus the wines, the restaurants, that spectacular (but slightly oily) beach. Such a cool place.
It is indeed very pretty. You must have been up there last year after the oil spill?
Santa Barbara, as well as a lot of other cities in the area, have really tight building code restrictions. Some people scream that it is government overstretch but really what it is, is preventing idiots coming in and destroying the culture of a city by slapping up eyesores. And the "restrictions" are not really all that restrictive, there's lots of variety to choose from.
We were there in mid-August. Don't remember a spill but have always picked up a bit of oil on the shoe soles when walking the long city beach. I read that citizens were so delighted by the county admin building (as am I) that they decided to impose design standard for the whole city, over the predictable objections of the property-rights absolutists. It worked well.
You might want to bear in mind that until the Exxon Valdez spill, the |1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara| was the worst oil spill in U.S. history and that it continues to affect the area to this day. If tourists feel inconvenienced by a little oil on your shoes, you might want to keep in mind how trivial that might sound in the grand scheme of things. Many many many sea mammals, pelicans and other creatures died due to that spill, businesses were ruined, the beaches were a wreck for at least a decade, as a child all I knew of the beaches there were that they were always covered with "tar," it was truly an environmental disaster. A little oil on your shoes is a sobering reminder of that disaster and of all the hard work over many years it took to restore the area.
Didn't mean to make light of that amazing and horrifying event, which I remember well. I've even got it on |vinyl.| We wouldn't have an EPA or environmental impact statements or EIRs if the that hadn't happened. But I think the oil that occurs on beaches now is natural seepage from the ocean floor.
I prefer to think about dinners |here|
I grew up in the 50's just south of the Golden Gate, and our feet were always black from tar even then. We were told it was from leaky ships passing in and out of the bay. In retrospect, that would be a hell of a lot of fuel leaked. Or motor oil.
Yes. I was well into my 20s and the spill was mostly history before I realized that the beaches hadn't always been covered in tar like that. There are such huge oil fields under the coast all the way up to the bay, and I think that people forget that, because those rigs in the channel (and farther up the coast, I guess? have been there for so long.
I remember before they took down the oil piers, and I guess there were even far more, back a century ago.
<img src="http://www.surfcrazy.com/stanleys/images/oilpiersvta.jpg" />
And of course the history of Los Angeles and Orange County are so much about oil, and people literally putting up oil rigs in their backyards and drilling. Thank god for regulations nowadays.
The first well in CA was way up north in [Petrolia.] Like you said, there's oil up and down the coast.
Here's a house I lived in for a couple of years in Playa del Rey. Thankfully, those oil derricks behind it didn't get moved with the house.
<img src="http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/MaeMurray/maehome.jpg"</img>
I'll vote tomorrow. I drove back to Nevada today for that, in part. I keep hoping, each time I vote, that this time will be the last time in Nevada. I'll feel almost as good about voting against the pimp as I'll feel about voting for Hillary. Also, recreational pot, gun show background checks, and a county fuel tax to help fix the awful roads here.