If you live in USA....

[Joe S.]

I know it is a challenge but now is the time to start planning how you can do it. I do not care how or who you vote for. I just care that you get out and vote. Please do not list any candidates or anything else of a political nature. Just if you plan or did go out to vote. If you were able to get out, give yourself a gold star!

[irish]

Joe, Sure glad you started this thread. Yes, I plan to vote. I am sure glad that I am not working cause I think I would be calling in sick a lot this fall. I am a total dedicated political freak. I have been for many years.

I flip through the stations and listen to the radio and read the editorials and I even read the political cartoons. Can't seem to get my fill. Thank goodness I don't seem to see many commercials.

I plan to vote and I will add that I am wondering if there will be long lines. Any of the older crew remember the election that Jimmy Carter won. The lines were really long that year.

Plan to go early to the polls in case there is a wait. It is a good time to visit with your neighbors.

Side note: Folks, it is raining in southern Minnesota and it smells so good outside. Thundering also. It has been a long, long time and I am so thankful for every drop. Irish

[olmphoto2]

We're voting absentee by mail this year.  If I was to try to vote early in person...well, that could be a problem as transportation there might be difficult (hubby works during city hall hours) and one has to turn their ballot in then and there.  I have yet to see a facsimile ballot and would like to do some research regarding the county and city races.  (Some races are done without party affiliations even if I was of a mind to vote a straight ticket.)  I was able to fill out the ballot request with a form available online and then we mailed it in and are waiting for the ballots now.

FYI for early in-person voters.  If you are considering voting the Monday just before the election, you might want to check to into current policy in your area.  Ours just made Friday the deadline for in person early voting as it was too hard on the workers to have Monday in the mix also.

[Sleepy In Seattle]

YES!!!! VOTE!!!!!  Democracy dies if you don't.

I very much DO care how you vote, but I won't tell ya how to do it, LOL....just make sure you do.

If nothing else, it gives you the right to complain for the next 4 years - if you didn't bother to vote, then you really shouldn't whine about anything that happens in government - and that takes away a really important source of amusement... :p

[eyeamdry]

We already voted a couple of weeks ago.  Cen't wait until all the ruckus is over.  Blah blah on tv 24/7.  Lucy

[Joe S.]

I was reading that in a free nation we have two responsibilities; raising children and voting. The thing is that most of us have little or no training for either of these responsibilities. The book had no suggestions to remedy of this situation.

[Sooki]

In Washington state, all voting is by mail.  I mailed mine in yesterday.  Everybody vote!! 

No complaining about how the system works if you don't vote.  The demographic groups that vote get representation.  I made up a new statistic (while registering voters in front of a store) and am waiting for someone to show it to be true:  The harder and longer someone works for a living, the less likely that person is to vote.  I'll bet single, working moms are less likely to vote for the same reason. Makes sense; one more thing too many.  And the less our representatives are beholden to those demographic groups. 

(Belief here:) If all eligible voters voted, we'd have a better government  (go democracy!).

[Nancy60]

I voted Friday.  I will be working during the hours I can vote on Nov. 6th, so I voted early.

Nancy

[warmwaters]

I live in California, which allows you to vote by mail. I love it!  First of course, it means that I do not have to worry about whether I can drive on voting day, so that I am sure I vote, which is indeed very important to me.

Second, I have time to look over the initiatives. In California, if you get enough signatures you can have an initiative on the ballot, and if it passes, the state is obliged to do it, even if it contradicts exisiting laws, or there is no current funding for it. So the initiatives can have a lot of unexpected consequences.

Now the state sends you a booklet with all the initiatives, a summary by a state official on the likely costs and likely consequences, and then a statement by a group who supports the initiative, and one who opposes it. It's really detailed, and really useful.   

I had a wonderful evening looking through this stuff, looking up things on the Internet, checking on what various groups that I tend to trust thought about the intiatives, and figured out what to vote for.

Ok, maybe a strange idea of a good time, but if I'd done this at the polling place, I wouldn't have been as well informed, and probably would have only voted on a couple of them.

[gmomjuju]

I saw on the national news networks last night how the impact of Hurricane Sandy may effect the election.  It is so important that we encourage others who may not vote to get out and give a voice to these areas where there is flooding and no power. The early voting in my area has had so many people that the lines are out of the door.

I am working next Tuesday as an election judge. It is a VERY long and stressful day but it makes me feel as if I have done something special for my county.

Encourage all you know to vote.

Judy

[Joe S.]

Judy, I admire you for the time you are putting in as an election judge. They are long stressful days. I spent years as a head judge in MN. A few years ago it became too much for me.

Thank you for your efforts as an election judge!

[gmomjuju]

Thanks, Joe:

It is a grueling job. I have always been a book judge.  They moved me in this past primary election to be a provisional judge.  You have to sit at a table all alone.  I did not have any voters in the spring.

You can't communicate with the other workers too much as they are across from you.  Maybe I can do some knitting to catch up on my unfinished projects.

This will be my last year after 3 General elections and 3 Primary elections.

Judy

[xANTHONYx]

I didn't get to vote...the man is keeping me down.

Seriously though, being in college in one county but registered to vote in another county proved to be too difficult for the simple minded people in the courthouse to understand. I was told I had until November 5th at 5:00PM to cast an absentee ballot. That's true, but the catch is they didn't tell me it was only if you cast it in person, otherwise they needed it mailed in by October 30th.

Driving 500 miles to cast an absentee ballot in person immediately before the polls open seems like an oxymoron now doesn't it?

Instead of an "I voted" sticker, mine should say "I tried."

[lighthouse33]

A heads up to North Carolina voters.  No camera-equipped smartphones are allowed in the voting places.  Here is a link:

http://www.wral.com/smartphones-not-smart-at-the-polls/11732034/

You are allowed to bring a paper list of your choices into the polling place, as long as you don't show it to anyone else and don't leave it behind.   We've always filled out a sample ballot and taken it with us. 

Here is another link that stresses for everyone to be kind:

http://www.wral.com/12-things-to-know-before-you-vote-tuesday/11730852/

Apparently there have been half a dozen fights in Raleigh already and it isn't even Election Day.

[gmomjuju]

As a an election judge in Maryland you can not read magazines, but you can read books. You can drink bur not eat while in the voting area.  No cell phones are allowed. I have to report to polling place @ 5:45 and will be hopefully out of there by 9.  I will have to go hunt for some "spoons" for Wednesday as I will be done in!!

Judy