Tomorrow is election day. You're going to vote right? Unless you've taken care of that oh-so-important civic duty a bit early this year.
In the morning we'll be heading up the road to our favorite polling place - a garage. Click here to read about our primary election voting experience.
I also found this article today about other odd places to vote. Do you have a fun polling place?
Good reminder. Thanks. It makes me think how lucky we are to be able to stroll to our polling place or to jump in the car to vote in a garage!
ReplyDeleteWe vote where we were married. :)
Mom, that is a very cool place to vote! I remember going there with you when I was little and waiting while you voted.
DeleteApparently voting in our township used to be in someones shed, complete with cookies and coffee and neighbors hanging out just to socialize. Then it was in the back of a hog building for awhile, which by all accounts was very stinky. Now it's just at the community center in town.
ReplyDeleteBUT we voted early which meant we got to take a trip to our county court house (one of our FAVORITE places in town, no joke) and our awesome County Auditor himself talked us through both the front and back of our ballots (pointing out which were partisan, which allowed for voting for more than one candidate, how to use the security envelopes, etc.). It was lovely.
Although I sort of missed the old guy who used to look me up in his registered voters book back in Seattle. I'm not sure he had much in the way of eye sight left, but he sure did love seeing all the people that came by. Luckily the people holding down the other lines were always happy to reach over and help him.
Ah, why do the ones with the worst eyesight have the job of looking up the names? That's how it is at the garage. Maybe it's a seniority thing?
DeleteI voted absentee from Greece this year, which was great. Michigan emailed me my ballot, and the US Embassy mailed it back to the States through their expedited mail service (no need to worry about my ballot getting waylaid in the Greek postal system!) for free. With all of us voting absentee, though, you realize just how different each state handles the voting process, from registration to ballot delivery to voting process. Some people had their ballots mailed here from the States; others voted entirely online. It's pretty striking - one country, 51 different electoral systems.
ReplyDeleteKate, we were just talking about this last night. Even in the states we all vote a different way - electronically, punch cards, giant-lever-machines, connect the lines, etc. It's amazing that somehow it all works out.
DeleteWell said, Kate. What would the "Founding Fathers" think about the ability Americans now have at literally every corner of the earth? Great hearing how you h .s. friends are participating. Our younger child is excited about his first opportunity to vote today!
ReplyDeleteI get to vote in my dining hall! (I'll let you guess who this is.)
ReplyDeleteYay! Enjoy it! Do you get to pull a giant lever? That's what I remember about voting in WI.
DeleteIn our small WI township we have paper ballots. I voted early this year, in the kitchen of the Township clerk's house. Very grassroots. The variation across the country is amazing, there should be a federal system for federal elections to minimize fraud and errors. Oops, that would interfere with having the states take care of everything, right?
ReplyDeleteHere's what I want! We Americans have to adopt the purple finger ink that voters use in Iraq and India. You get to vote, then you dip your finger in semi-permanent ink. Then your finger shows you have voted that day. You can't vote again until the ink washes and wears off. Will save time at the polling place. No need for stickers! You just hold up your fingertip! It would be the greeting for election day. My fingertip is purple. Is yours? Politics is a dirty institution. It's time that voters get a little dirty, too!
ReplyDeleteWhich finger?
ReplyDeleteWe vote in a local church. Very boring! On the bright side, there were almost no lines when I voted at 8 a.m., nor when my husband voted at 5 p.m. Both of my boys are away at college, so they voted absentee.
ReplyDeleteI think Rockford Dad just wants to disguise his fingers already stained blue from that terrible blueberry liquor he is fond of. Next he'll switch from themes of democracy to family values to justify hanging around the house and eating some smelly "Norwegian" delicacy. I did vote, by the way, early in fact, but wore a suit and tie and my "I Voted" sticker yesterday so as to add some formality to the day. It is a big day in a republic like ours.
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