Please please please, let me, let me, let meeeee get what I waaaaaant this tiiiiime
Election Day is nigh at last; I can’t WAIT to vote. And, honestly, to have this campaign madness over with at last…not to mention the last eight years’ worth.
In case it didn’t go without saying, I hereby and without reservation endorse Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. I urge all American citizens in the readership, regardless of your party affiliation (or lack of same; I’m an independent myself), to vote tomorrow, no matter how cold or rainy it is outside where you are or how long the line is or whatever other minor hassle might prevent you from exercising your right to affect the political future of your country. We’ve all just proven that everyone doing a little adds up to doing a lot; your vote counts. Cast it.
To my international readers: fingers crossed for us, please; we’ll try not to biff it again.
Not sure where to vote, or what you need to bring? PopWatch posted a handy links guide.
Tags: Barack Obama civic duty friends politix sites
My polling place was much better run than in the past, but the R-Z voters are in one book and are much more numerous at 10 am than others, so it took a while. While standing in line I welled up and thought I might cry when I voted, but I didn’t. I just grinned ear to ear and had time to come home before I’m off to the nonpartisan portion of my day.
This is an amazing amazing day.
@Sheila- yeah, the judges list was endless in NW Cook Co. as well. One of them, though, is a friend’s brother in-law.
Well, this is it… I’m going in to work later and it is going to be CAH-RAZY with people ordering pizzas for their election parties–hopefully taking eleventy-thousand calls will make the time pass faster!
I just got back from voting, and it was unreal — I have NEVER seen the polls that crowded. The line stretched from the school out the courtyard, around the block, and down the street almost to the next avenue, and apparently it had gotten much shorter since 8 AM. EVERYONE was out; another first was seeing the interpreters overwhelmed with requests. Usually there’s maybe two people waiting on a translator, but not this year.
My fellow voters seemed more psyched than annoyed, and my district got sent to the front after about 15 minutes, which shaved off some time, but the gym was teeming with people, and still everyone’s like, “No problem! This is amazing! Voting fun times!” Except the woman in front of me, who was freaking out that they couldn’t find her in the register, and when they finally turned up her name, she almost cried. Aw.
Best KECHONK! ever. Let’s hope it goddamn works this time.
@Kristina – I went by the Trib’s recommendations, at least for judges–they told me which four (theoretically) sucked, and I voted against retaining them. Then I got hand cramp filling in the little “yes” arrows on everyone else.
@De – O RLY? Thanks for the…tip. So to speak.
Oh, man, Slate’s reporting that the “free stuff for voters” is actually illegal:
http://www.slate.com/id/2203665/
So Starbucks is just giving everyone free coffee.
@Hannah and Llyzabeth: Pray that NC gets it right too. I’m still stunned that I’m living in a state that has a chance to go some way OTHER than Red.
And a big tip to all you NC voters, if you’re voting straight ticket please remember to CHECK OBAMA TOO. There’s been word that some voters thought checking the straight ticket box will include your presidential pick, and it totally doesn’t. Having so many newly registered voters deprived of their choice of president through error would make me really really sad.
Hee. Between Llyzabeth in CA, Hannah in FL, and me in NC, I think we’ve got the country surrounded.
I would like to bring up another benefit of voting that no one has mentioned: getting to see what artwork is being produced in one’s local middle school. I mean, those paper-mache masks and charcoal drawings (one of Mr. Spock!) have been on display how long, and I’ve never been over to appreciate them?
I had a grand time voting, and everyone was shockingly nice. What a great country.
Oh man, I am not going to get a lick of work done today!
Cast my vote – hubs and I brought our two toddlers to witness this historic day, as well as our Brazilian au pair (who couldn’t believe we don’t have electronic voting like she does – hah!).
This CA voted a resounding NO ON 8! No on hate! Yes on Hope!! (sadly, hubster and I split the vote on Prop 4 – he seems to believe that every parent-child relationship will be as healthy as we hope ours is with our daughter. So we cancelled each other out).
Anyway. I keep tearing up at my desk – full of the Audacity of Hope, and yet scared of feeling it!
My crockpot is simmering at home with a batch of “Obama’s Chili” (check out the Year of Crockpotting blog for the recipe). Am planning to kick back tonight and obsessively watch election coverage on the toob and all over the WWW.
Go Obama! Go America!
Voted! Yay for a law in MN that requires employers to give anyone the morning off to vote if they so choose. Waited in (a very friendly) line for about an hour, then filled in my little bubbles for Obama and Franken! Yay! Now if only it didn’t remind me of taking the SATs, everything would be perfect.
@Kate H:
Damn, that Daily Beast story is frightening. $900K????!!!! You love Jesus so much you couldn’t find anything better to do with that money to glorify his name than try and stop people from loving each other? Like, oh, I don’t know, maybe buy supplies for school children?
Registered my big ol’ NY KECHONK! for Obama this morning. It felt great, there wasn’t a long line in my little upstate town, and I even got to chat with the local DNC rep that was there counting Democratic voters.
Nothing left to do but stayed glued to the television with a good supply of beer.
I spent 2 hours in a line three blocks long, and I got to vote not only for Barack Obama, but for Al Franken and US Rep. Keith Ellison and MN Rep. Karen Clark, who is one of three openly gay MN state legislators.
The only bad thing? I wasn’t thinking, wore ballet flats, and am now all limpy. Oh, and I didn’t get to vote against US Rep. Michelle Bachman, who makes Sarah Palin look sane and smart.
Among my line-mates? A careworn but jubilant Vietnam vet handing out clearanced Halloween candy to thank everyone for voting, a larger number of young African-American men than I remember from previous years, and, most strikingly, plenty of Somali-American women, recent refugees and brand new citizens, very excited to be voting. Lots of perspective to be had…
I strongly suggest voting early in the day. Most states seem to have allowances for people who are in the line by a certain time, even if you are still in line at the official poll closing time, but better safe than sorry.
Thanks Sars! Now all the ads I see have something to do with volunteering or protecting your vote. Yay!
I have to say that I’m pretty susceptible to election burnout. It usually sets in within 5 seconds of me seeing and/or hearing a campaign ad for the first time. But seeing everyone here so excited, and talking about the excitement of others has banished that feeling. GO VOTE! Yay democracy!
Done voting here in CA and it only took five minutes. I KNOW! And this after I packed a bunch of books and toys and snacks to keep my three year-old occupied.
I seriously haven’t been this excited about an election since 1988– and yes, I know how lame that sounds (Dukakis,heh). But, it was my first Presidential election and we were coming off of eight years of Reagan and, well, you know. I’m just praying this nation gets it right this time around. I’ll be glued to the returns tonight–right after I get back from the PTA meeting.
@Sheila- Daaaaaaamn. That’s bad news for a lot of places. LOL If you go to walletpop.com (I believe), they have a whole list of freebies you can get around the country. Good times!
6:30am Hawaiian Standard? 50 people already in line for the 7am opening. Walking out at 7:15am? 200 people waiting. And everyone had a smile and a case of the gotta-pee excited wiggles.
This is just NEAT, y’all!
“KECHONK!” has become my favorite word today: It’s inspiring, and it’s hilariously onomatopoetic.
I was in front of two african american women, and one of them had never voted before. The voter turnout has been great, and my stomach is in knots, for fear that I’ll be weeping out the lyrics to a smiths’ song tomorrow. I’d rather sing Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration” without a hint of irony.
@ Kate H: Thanks for think to that piece in the Daily Beast. Interesting stuff!
@ Sheila: I had read that about giving away free stuff to voters (or heard, I think, in NPR last week) which is why Ben & Jerry’s is just giving away free ice cream regardless from 5-8. So, it looks like Starbucks (and Krispy Kreme, and whoever else is giving freebies) will probably have to do the same, to keep things legal.
@Sars
My Obama shirt FINALLY arrived in the mail today.
Mine arrived yesterday and is like a tent but I don’t care either. Wearing it with pride. Have my espresso maker at the ready here in Dublin, will call later!
“and, most strikingly, plenty of Somali-American women, recent refugees and brand new citizens, very excited to be voting.”
Liz, that made me say “Awwww…” right out loud & put big fat happy tears in my eyes.
Thanks for sharing these stories, everyone.
Okay, so this made me cry. Snif.
“I spent 2 hours in a line three blocks long, and I got to vote not only for Barack Obama, but for Al Franken and US Rep. Keith Ellison and MN Rep. Karen Clark, who is one of three openly gay MN state legislators.”
One of the worst moments I ever heard of in the MN legislature (where I worked for years) involved a now-departed House member declaring that people of the same sex marrying each other was no different from letting someone marry a dog — with Karen right there in the room. It clearly made EVERYONE in the entire room feel like crap. Just embarrassing.
But the upside was a very, very famous story about a time when they were debating something-or-other involving flood control, and there was a mention of dikes, and Karen popped right up and was like, “Well, first, I just want to say I’m glad we’re finally doing something for dikes.”
Karen is a crackerjack of an old-school, hard-line liberal, and she was an openly gay legislator at a time when it was much, much more difficult than it is now, right through the Minnesota DOMA debate taking place right in front of her. I have a ton of respect for her.
@Kathryn–woo for NC! Grew up there, then moved to Virginia (another who-the-hell-knows-what-will-happen-today-state), but never thought I’d see the day my beloved “North Cackalaky” might go the other way! Perhaps now that Jesse Helms has passed on, our Tar Heels can feel the winds of change?
On a yucky note, I am a grad student at George Mason University, and some wackjob hacked into the Provost’s e-mail account and sent a message to all 35,000 (!!) students, faculty and staff stating that election day had been moved to Nov. 5th.
In line at 6:50am, voted by 8:00am, then went to the dentist. I would have rather stood in that line again.
@ Sheila — bummer! I will still be checking out Early to Bed and hoping to get a free goody bag. Because free stuff rocks, and grownup goody bags are no exception! :)
Voted this morning, and it only took 20 minutes, tops! Everyone was super-nice, and I’m currently wearing my “I Voted” sticker in the middle of my chest with pride.
I heard the Ben and Jerry’s over where I am is handing out free ice cream for those who voted, so that’s the next destination after class!
@Hoobie: I’m torn — it’s sweet on the one hand, but on the other hand, people, DO NOT INVALIDATE YOUR BALLOT in any way, PLEASE, this year of all years. Not to be paranoid…wait, too late.
From CNN: “In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, 100 percent of registered voters — all 21 of them — cast their ballots just after midnight in the first moments of Tuesday morning. For the first time in 40 years, the town voted Democratic in the presidential election, 15 to 6.”
Initial reaction: “Awwww.” Moments later: “…Wait, wasn’t that…didn’t Nixon win that year? OH GAHD.”
I might have to start drinking, you guys. OVERWROUGHT!
@The Hoobie – wow. That was powerful. Crying at work yet again!
I forgot to mention something else I found really cool today. I was struck by how many voters were bringing our kids along for this election. I had never before seen so many folks casting votes with the wee ones along.
@The Hoobie — *snif* indeed.
This Aussie-American has cast her vote, and is now hoping the coming change is good for all of us.
And to those in CA and FL — I hope those intolerant, bigoted and down-right wrong Props get defeated, stomped on and sent packing. How can one country come so far in one way (in [hopefully] electing Obama as President) but be so backwards in other ways?
My heart will be in Grant Park tonight, but I’ll be watching from my comfy living room in the northern Chicago ‘burbs. Probably with the same butterflies I’ve had since 5.50 am this morning when I lined up at my polling place, waiting for the doors to open.
@cij, I personally have REM’s “End Of The World” on standby–and have for the last four years–but Celebration will definitely be on the playlist.
@Sars, Drinking is the coolness, care for some leftover Halloween candy with that? :)
@Suz – did anyone email everybody pointing out how wrong, wrong, wrong that is? I can just see some poor freshman on a caffeine crash not thinking about it too clearly and being crushed tomorrow.
@Sars – OVERWROUGHT, yes. I need someone to Talk Me Down, a la Rachel Maddow. I keep refreshing all the stories about voter problems and freaking out.
I have my American peeps in my thoughts today, I am just a neighbour to the North, but this election means more than my own did a few weeks ago. I told someone that if I had had my transplant before the election and I woke up to the wrong choice I would ask them to take my kidney back and I would risk it. McCain’s not a bad man, but Palin is the Debil and I fear for Amerker if she gets in. Fingers and toes are crossed up here in the Great White North.
Oh, Sars, I worried about that, too: “Wait, by linking to this in a comment, am I going to be responsible for maybe helping get this guy investigated/his vote invalidated?” But, ahh—I just was… overcome, I guess. Here’s hoping he’s anonymous enough that it won’t be a problem.
Guh. I early voted (in Illinois) almost three weeks ago, and I don’t know that I’ll ever do that again. It was totally anticlimactic, and now I don’t get to experience those great vibes involved in waiting in line on the day of. It would help if I could have taken today off work and volunteered (and/or hunkered down in front of the intertubes/CNN all day), but that wasn’t feasible, alas. And early voting was on stupid electronic machines, too—no satisfying “KECHONK.”
I’m sorry for inadvertently feeding your anxiety/paranoia! It’s taking every ounce of my (always minimal) self-control to not start pacing up and down the hall at work while clenching and unclenching my fists. WHY CAN’T IT BE 7:00 ALREADY?!?
Cry more, because at MY polling place, there were GRANDPARENTS with their
GRANDCHILDREN asking FELLOW AMERICANS to take pictures of them standing
in front of the polling place. “And this is me at my very first election…”
My polling place is a 1 minute walk from our house. In the 8 years we’ve lived here, there has never been a line of more than 2 people. In years past, I’ve voted at 5:30 pm and been only the 30th person in our precinct to vote. Also, we live across the street from low income co-op housing and, in the past, almost no one from the co-op was registered (you can look on the list outside the polls to see what addresses are registered to determine what precinct you are in).
So, imagine my surprise (and joy) when I ran over to quickly cast my vote at 6:30 this morning and was directed to a door that I didn’t even know existed because there was a line out to the parking lot. When I finally cast my vote at 7:20, I was the 85th person to vote in my precinct (there are 3 precincts that vote at my polling place). I checked out the list and saw that virtually every address across the street from me is now listed as registered to vote. The best part was watching a group of 4 wait for their friend to finish and then all 5 of them jump up and down and hug and cheer over voting for the first time. And then watching another woman walk out triumphantly holding her “just voted” slip over her head. I was holding back the tears just watching them (and am doing so again while writing about it).
Also making me well up? Looking out at the excited crowds already in Grant Park. We in Chicago have a lot to be embarrassed about politician-wise (yes, I’m looking at you Blagojevich and Ryan), but this really is a proud moment.
Finally, out of the mouths of babes, my 4 year old daughter was watching the news with me and my husband the other day and, after seeing video of Obama and McCain, told us that she was going to vote for Obama. When asked why, she responded, “he’s nicer, Mommy.”
Andrea, I agree with your daughter.
I KECHONKed this morning in NYC before work and it took all of 5 minutes. Yay quick voting in the big city!
And…VOTED!!!! Hurray! I’m wearing red, white, and blue today like a total goober, too. I have such butterflies…I want to know how this turns out…
@Noelle: you are totally right. And we will likely get married rather than get a parnership (we have a 16 month old daughter, and it starts getting tricky with kids) — it’s just who gets our marriage license fee.
@rickferrets: You summed up my screed to the last Yes on 8 phone caller. The $3 million they spent on their campaign (and the equal amount needed to oppose it!) could have bought mosquito nets, fed starving people, cleared land mines, rocked Donors Choose…and it goes to enshrining bigotry in the CA constitution. Infuriating.
Apparently my earlier post didn’t make it through.
I voted in Greenbelt, MD this morning–definitely one of the Commie districts in Fake America–and stood in line for probably about half an hour, though I didn’t keep track of time. I listened to my iPod and read from my Kindle while I waited. This was in the cafeteria of an elementary school; it was busy but organized. There was no drama except for a young woman who had to run outside and puke. I will assume she was just feeling under the weather, instead of nervous from the excitement of the election. We didn’t have any ballot initiatives more controversial than slot machines to fund schools. I cast a Yes for early voting.
We use touch-screen machines, and I wish we had something more low-tech. The fancier the machine, IMO, the more vulnerable to tampering. Besides, I want to get the KECHONK. Can’t we have the touch screen just to display the info about the ballot initiatives, and do the actual ballot-casting on a lever machine? I’d rather have the KECHONK.
@ Sheila–yes, the real Provost sent out a notice disavowing the earlier hacked e-mail (and essentially promising prosecution for the guilty douchebag) and reaffirming the correct Election Day. Gah. What’s interesting is that the school is split pretty evenly on the Presidential election, (according to student surveys), so he/she was at least an equal-opportunity douchebag.
Tim Robbins got purged. This happened to a Monmouth County, NJ friend of mine today as well:
“Politically active actor Tim Robbins almost didn’t get to vote in New York.
TMZ reports Robbins was turned away at his polling place.
There was some kind of ruckus and the cops were called.
Apparently Robbins has been voting at that polling place for more than a decade, but today his name wasn’t on the register. They told Robbins he had to fill out a provisional ballot but he didn’t want to do it. An argument erupted between Robbins and the poll worker. Robbins allegedly got loud and the poll worker said he was calling the cops.
Robbins accused the poll worker of trying to intimidate him so he wouldn’t vote.
Robbins went downtown to the City Board of Elections to get proof he was good to vote.
That’s where a TMZ camera caught up with him. Robbins held up his papers and told the camera:
“This is what you have to do to vote… I had to go down to see a judge… My name was not on the roll, and I’m not the only one. According to workers, 30 people in 5 hours had been taking off the rolls. You can do the math on that. 6 per hour, per district across America…””
My area is basically a scan-tron reader – I just wish the machine you feed your ballot into did not look QUITE so much like an oversized shredder. No fun noises, but about 10 times the usual number of people I see at 7:02am.
During the (short) wait one of the poll workers mentioned that approximently half of our precinct had voted early.
@BSD: It happened to two women on my line. My initial reaction is that, in New York City, it’s not anything nefarious; it’s just BoE disorganization, which happens eeeeeevery year (and often it winds up being voter error re: which district they think they’re in, versus which one they really need to line up for), and Robbins making a big old conspiracy-theory deal out of it in the bluest part of the country is…whatever, kind of. If they really had evildoing in mind, they’d have presumably picked someone lower-profile.
Not that it isn’t a problem generally, but according to various sources, Robbins has a habit of pitching this sort of hissy over a wide variety of perceived injustices most people can shake off. I’d be concerned if it were happening in a swing state, to a low-income or first-time voter. This is, I think, a garden-variety bureaucratic screw-up that Robbins is turning into a big whoop because he can…and it’s probably not the first time he’s done it today.
I’m a nervous wreck for two reasons:
1. Election outcome, obviously.
2. I hope I’m wrong, and I think everything will go fine, but please merciful Jesus let nothing happen in Grant Park tonight except peace, love, a great speech and happy tears. Let Chicago be on its very best behavior tonight! The weather is so unbelievably beautiful that people will be out all night and…you know. Mayor Richie can only assign so many police…
Sars, I hear ya. I just think it’s funny because I saw Robbins on two different shows within the last few weeks(one was Maher, I forget the other, maybe The Daily Show) speaking out about the purging of voter rolls and this being considered a form of intimidation that sometimes occurs at voting polls.
A friend of mine was unable to vote today even though she and her husband both registered at the same time and received confirmation notices from their precincts on the same day. His name was on the list, hers was not. Provisional ballots make us sad. :-(
There was no line when I went to vote but my name wasn’t on the list so I had to fill out a provisional ballot. I am now sending text messages to everyone I know “reminding” them that today is election day!
@Sheila: Aw, Rachel Maddow is the bomb diggity! (And my slang is 10 years old…)
My daughter got her very first tooth this morning and I am hoping that it is a good omen for tonight…like out of the darkness and pain comes this little glimmer of light and hope!
My great grandmother was a suffragist and my grandmother protested for civil rights. I think they both would have been ecstatic to witness this election…I voted on their behalf and for all of the women who came before me and made me who I am…and also for my daughter who would have been considered subhuman and then 3/5 of a person not that long ago too. Please let us win this time, we really need this!!!!!
Going to vote after work, as per usual… around 5:30pm Central.
If I have to wait in line, it will be the frist time I’ve ever had to wait in line to vote in the 13 years that I’ve been old enough to vote.
I have a feeling that this will also be the first time that the person I am voting for does not become President.
Here in OKC, we don’t get real voting booths… we get (I kid you not) cardboard podium looking things that are, well, as sturdy as a thick piece of cardboard. I’m always afraid I’m going to forget about it and lean too hard and collapse to the floor.
We also just have the scan-tron thingy dealy where it looks like you’re sticking your ballot into a big industrial shredder. lol I hate it. Oh, and we aren’t at all high-tech here yet… we still use paper ballots and felt pens to complete the little arrows pointing to the candidate’s name. It’s kinda lame.
Sorry — make the number spent on “Yes on 8” $30 million. I want to cry.