Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/03/its-election-day-and-the-polls-are-open-nationwide.html
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More importantly, it’s Bake Off night.
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Rough night indeed, good luck Sir.
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I gambled and decided not to vote early to ease the burden on the USPS. Luckily, NY takes voting rights seriously so I was in and out in less than 5 minutes.
Good luck everyone and don’t let them take your right to vote. Here are some resources if you do encounter intimidation or suppression at the polls:
Election Protection Coalition
- English : 866-OUR-VOTE / 866-687-8683
- Spanish/English : 888-VE-Y-VOTA / 888-839-8682
- Asian languages/English : 888-API-VOTE / 888-274-8683
- Arabic/English : 844-YALLA-US / 844-925-5287
Vote Save America
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I think this is the most on-topic location for my brief report (brief report but long-ass blog post, apologies) from a battleground state. If I’m wrong, please feel free to move me.
So I am squarely in 45-land in rural PA, where farmers too foolish to know he screws them over and frack-fans too brain-damaged to realize their wells are on fire have left me with an eyeball estimate that I’m outnumbered 10:1 based on political signage. I have voted in every election for almost 30 years and have never waited more than five minutes to cast a ballot at any of the places I’ve lived around this area.
I just waited 30 minutes. Two republicans (they somewhat angrily announced how they filled out their ballots when the issues arose) were turned away because they had filled out mail in ballots and brought them along to hand in, but did not bring their security envelopes. I won’t say their tone was “how dare you, I’m one of the ones who should count!,” but it felt that way to me. There was a lot of sympathetic chatter about the process being too difficult, and had I not been so heavily outnumbered (and a natural introvert) I’d have pointed out that the voter suppression was working as intended, but was calibrated poorly enough that it happened to catch a couple of white folks in the net.
The poll worker tried to turn me down because my address on my drivers license did not match my registration, since I moved one zip code over in June. She relented when I pointed out that I could’ve refused to show her my license since there is no requirement I do so in PA (despite some last-minute attempts to do so in 2016), but I did it out of courtesy because she was having trouble hearing my name over the din. There were at least two people behind me in line who were also either turned away or asked to fill out a provisional ballot because their registrations were wrong in some fashion. There was a line of at least 20 people out the door when I left. The overall chatter was about how scary things are and how important it is to make sure “socialism” doesn’t win. I regret to say that it seems the party of fear and hate was more mobilized than I’ve seen them before in this tiny, skewed sampling. At least every single person was wearing a mask, which is not something I’ve even been able to say about my worksite lately.
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My ballot was in the dropbox near city hall weeks ago, so all I can say here is good luck, liberal democracy in America.
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What, the two candidates have to cook something to win?
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We all know Biden would win that one. I can’t imagine Trump having even boiled an egg in his life.
What I do mean is that today there’s a new episode of The Great British Bake Off on (British) TV, which is what I’ll be watching rather than breathless cable news coverage
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I’ve worked the polls in two different counties (1980s and 1990s) and while showing a sample ballot (with name and address) was helpful, it wasn’t required.
This is why I normally refuse to show them my sample ballot or my CDL when I vote (I don’t want to set a precedent). Having said this, I probably would’ve brought my sample ballot if I voted in person. Plexiglass and masks make it so difficult to hear people speak.
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I gave her my license originally not because she asked for it, but because I’d repeated my name twice at a moderate shout and she still couldn’t hear me. The background noise, the masks, the plexiglass, and her age all combined to make it pretty rough on her, so I thought I’d be nice. She was nice enough when I asserted my rights so it worked out, but I briefly thought being nice may have got me into some drama I’d have to be mean to get out of.
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Thanks for the clarification.
I thought you were planning to spend the evening cooking, away from news coverage.
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No, I got that.
You were being helpful, but they were trying to make you assert your rights. (I have major issues with their philosophy.)
When I went through supervisory poll training, it was amazing how many of my peers asked questions about challenging votes. They were looking for ways to deny voting to “certain” people (this was in Orange County, CA). My view was give people a provisional ballot and let the clerk’s office sort it out.
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I will be doing that as well.
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In some good news, the voter intimidation at the polls does not seem to be as bad as anticipated.
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You don’t say!
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See this thread.
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Here in Italy, some form of ID is mandatory except if a poll worker knows you. You need also the voting card.
Anyway I voted the last day my old driving license was valid, when I was checked to be “roadworthy” they gave me a sheet where there was stated I was waiting the new license.
The poll worker was a 18 year old, and didn’t recognise the older driving license and asked another polling worker if it was legit. and also because it was barely legible - it was still printed using a line printer and the ink faded.
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homosexuals will eradicate fox news!
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