How long did you wait in line to vote? (Don't say who you voted for)

[mrscatinthehat]

I had not wait. In and out. husband went after I did and didn't say anything about a wait. Nice thing about smallish mid western towns. easy child would have gone with me but we have an appointment as soon as she is out of school and I didn't want to take any chances. She knows I went to vote. We have been talking in detail about it as she is in government class in school right now.

beth

 

[Woofens]

I waited about 10 minutes at 8:15 this morning. I had to wait because we only had 3 touch screens at my polling place LOL We're tiny

 

[gcvmom]

Took me 10 minutes from the time I got out of my car until I got back in my car.

The only negative was the chatty poll workers who were talking so loud I had a hard time concentrating (at least I'd brought my voter guide so I already had my choices marked). I was tempted to say something when I was finished, but just wanted to get OUT of there! It was held in a neighbor's garage, so it was cramped as well.

 

[KTMom91]

Hubby and I both have permanent absentee voter status, so all I had to do was walk in, hand the old guy my envelope, he asked, "Is this you?", I said, "Yes, that's me." I got my sticker and headed back home.

I firmly believe that if you don't vote, you can't complain...and I want to be able to complain when necessary!

 

[Nancy]

10 minutes at most. We're using paper ballots so they could have had more spaces set up for actual voting if they wanted. We have a lengthy ballot because of all the local elections and issues but I printed a sample ballot and had it marked so I wasted no time.

Nancy

 

[flutterbee]

I walked right in and there were several machines open. No wait. The guy showed me how to use it - this is the first election I've done electronic voting...last election was the punch cards and everyone was worried about making sure there were no hanging chads.

But, the guy walked me through using the machine. It was so easy.

 

[tiredmommy]

We walked right in, no wait.

 

[donna723]

It didn't take me more than 10 minutes or so either. I left work early to hit it at an off-hour before everybody else got off. There was a steady trickle of people but there were two machines and it went very quickly. It took longer to get past the herd of geriatric poll workers than it did to actually vote.

 

[hearts and roses]

About 7 minutes from beginning to end!

This was difficult child's and easy child's first general election...difficult child came with H and I this morning. I'm so proud of both of them for exercising their right to vote!

 

[Andy]

After school, went to Holiday Station to stock up on hot chocolate and snacks for our wait in the polling line.

Get to the place we vote and ..... NO WAIT WHAT-SO-EVER ....

The only 1/2 second time taker was when I walked in and blanked out as to which precint we are in (we used to be 2 but am now 1). I saw a familiar voting official so went over to her. I think they were having a boring day. She teased me by asking my last name and making a issue over finding it in the book. My name was last on the page and the rest of my family is on the next page so she said I had to be so and so. I told her she is not suppose to be harrasing the voters. LOL

We use paper vote and the machine didn't want my vote. The voting official in charge of the "box" helped me get it in.

My neighbor's house is up for sale. I will hate to see her move but they are moving back to family and friends. Anyone who wants a no-wait-hardly-ever-in-any-election place to live and get me as your neighbor come on over. (and Star, it didn't rain here. It was another beautiful day - want to move?)

easy child is first time voter who didn't do the pre-registration process. She walked in just after 12:00 to an empty voting place and was registered and voted within minutes.

husband voted on way out of town so I don't know yet what his wait time was.

 

[Marcie Mac]

Jamie ended up walking the three blocks up to the school, in the rain, cause Mom told him there would be no parking to be found and a long line.

He walked right in - took all of 45 seconds. Now I have lost all credibility and he is not ever going to listen to what I tell him ever again.. LOL

Marcie

 

[Hound dog]

husband, Travis, Nichole and I all went in as a family unit. There was no line and we went about 1pm. Took about 5 mins to cast our vote. I was the last one done because I always double check and actually read. lol

 

[gottaloveem]

I went expecting a huge line and there was only one person in front of me. It took longer to fill out my ballot.

 

[nvts]

Not only did we do the whole drive to, park, vote, and get home in less than 15 mins., but we decided to go with the whole family (all 3 difficult child's), BUT, husband brought difficult child 2 into the booth with him and I brought 1 and 3 in with me and answered all of their questions - AND STILL no line when we got out!

Amazing!

Beth

 

[Suz]

I got there about 6:50 this morning and there was already quite a line. Took about 45 minutes.

Suz

 

[muttmeister]

I'm home from working the election here. Polls were open from 8 to 8. I can honestly say, nobody in our precinct had to wait....period. This is the biggest turnout we've ever had: there are around 250 registered voters in the precinct (although that includes a few who have moved, died, etc. but not made it through the process to be removed from the list) and we had 167 people come to vote, plus about 15 who did early voting so I think that is a pretty good percentage. Everything went smoothly but I am glad it is over.

 

[gcvmom]

Everything went smoothly but I am glad it is over.

You can say that again!

 

[LittleDudesMom]

We walked down to the church to vote a little before lunchtime. There was a lot of action and a very steady pace, but the only person who had someone in front of them was easy child who was behind me! We were in and out in 5 minutes. She was at the touch computer next to me and when the big red "You Voted" symbol came up she actually gave a little cheer! She was thrilled! It was hard to imagine that this was the little toddler who would go behind the curtain with me and pull the levor - now she's a voting citizen! It was bittersweet.......

Sharon

 

[Marg's Man]

Gday from Marg's Man,

MTMom91 said

I firmly believe that if you don't vote, you can't complain...and I want to be able to complain when necessary!

Too right, lady! Anyone who knows Marg knows that we complain when it's needed, voting gives us that right to complain. It's different for us in Australia because we don't so many other elections happening at the same time and we don't directly elect our Head of State who is Queen Elizabeth II. Twenty five minutes would be a V-E-R-Y long time to spend casting your vote at any one election.

We have multiple elections at different times with different terms so hardly a year goes by without some sort of election happening. We elected our Federal (National) Government for their four year (maximum) term last year, the next Federal poll could happen any time up until November 2011 but they will have some tough depending on which State you're in; here in NSW they have fixed four year terms. Local elections are on a fixed three year schedule but we only vote for the local council members. Posts like Crown Prosecutors (DA's), Police (all ranks), Sheriffs, Dog Catcher (do you REALLY vote for dog catchers?), etc are all government (various levels of government) employees. Combine this with compulsory voting at all three levels and we get a LOT of practice at running elections smoothly and coping with high voter turnout (typically 95+%). Absentee voting is easy and common, as is postal pre-poll voting. Even Aussies travelling overseas are well catered for - all our Embassies and High Commissions are polling places for those who wish to vote on the day. Elections are always held on a Saturday between 8 AM and 6 PM so most of the electorate don't have work/school conflicts.

I've been seeing the long queues on the news bulletins and been thinking to myself "Gosh they make it hard to vote!" I think I understand a little better now.

Marg's Man

 

[TerryJ2]

Got there at 6:30, waited 35 min. The main holdup was separating votes into three alphabetical groups so they could be more efficient once they got inside. Once that was done, things sped up immensely.
Everyone was cheerful and calm, as happy as could be, considering the dreary rain.