Long time bitcher, first time voter. I knew where to go via the voter registration card I received n the mail.

The first problem was that the polls where I went too have two lines; one line for each precinct. The lines weren't marked until you actually got into the voting room. That caused much confusion for people in the line (not lines as intended) outside of the room.

Second, the list of names for each precinct was taped to the doors with masking tape. That lasted about 10 minutes.

After that it was smooth sailing. No dangling chads. No broken machines, and no computer voting machines.

The local ballot was somewhat humerous. OF course, there was the Prez issue, the 1 state constitution ammendement, 4,000,000 judges and prosecutors, a school bond issue, and a county child services levy up for renewal. I was surprised that there were so many real issues vs. people running to be judges.

As college students, my friends and I voted via absentee ballot this election -- and I must say, doing so produced quite a few debacles.

Some didn't receive their ballots in time, even after requesting them a month in advance, then calling their districts several times to follow up. Others received ballots (we live in Pa) with Nader on them, and feared their ballots would be null and void for this reason, no matter who they voted for. Others received ballots with Nader's name covered hastily by blotches of black marker. And we could vote with pencil? Zuh?

Were we to include a copy of a photo ID with the ballot or not? Folks told us we should, but the ballot information explicitly said we were not to include anything but the enclosed ballot materials.

All in all, a fulfilling experience, but not one I'd want to repeat any time soon. It was almost as if someone were keeping our notoriously liberal demographic away from the polls...hmmmm...

Voting went quite well for me in Maryland. The line was quite long. We got there 30 minutes before the polls opened and left about an hour later...and we were very close to the front of the line!

I would have liked to cast a paper ballot since the machines in Maryland don't have a paper trail, but the option wasn't there. Otherwise the machine worked quite well (as long as my vote was counted).

One thing of note, when I was being verified, I had to sign two documents and verify my address and phone number. I was surprised by that because when I lived in Virginia all you had to do was give your name. Just thought that was interesting.

Looking forward to a late night tonight!

I voted at 6:30 this morning in NYC (10th and University). Everything was very well run - helpful, informed workers; voting booths that seemed to work (but certainly not enough of them). Even that early I waited over 20 minutes. The average age of people voting at that hour was 50+ so they are experienced voters with their registrations in order. Where are the NYU/New School students? Hopefully they don't get frustrated when they roll out of bed at 11 and see a long line out the door.

Waited in line for almost four hours for early voting on Saturday. It was a huge turnout on the last day of early voting here in NC. The actual voting process once we made it through that crazy line was painless (large ballot with a draw-the-line-through-the-arrow way of marking them).

My vote was awesome. My polling place, PS 314 in Brooklyn, and it was open when I walked by at a quarter to six (it wasn't supposed to open until six). I set up a camera that's going to take time lapse of the polls for a movie that's being produced in my office and then went in to vote. I didn't have to wait in line because there were six election officials/volunteers for each district. I didn't perceive any problems with the booth I voted in.

No major issues in Connecticut. Went early (6AM), pretty decent crowd there for such an hour. They had our precinct organized by street name (suburbia at its finest), fairly painless wait, very clear instructions in the voting booth. I did decide to bend down to make sure I was voting on the proper line...not necessary, but no taking chances in this one. There was some campaigning outside of the school in which I voted, just a few realtively tame people handing out brochures politely. I wonder what kind of effect that last minute "advertising" has, as I did find myself reading one of the brochures while waiting in line. Kind of the equivalent to Point-Of-Purchase advertising, with a little more distance. All in all, a pleasant experience.

I voted about 30 mins ago here in Cincinnati. Lines weren't horrible, but supposedly the longest poll workers had seen for that time of day.

No hanging chads to be had, for sure. And I was remarkably surprised at how relatively clear the voting process was.

Slip in the ballot, turn the pages (that block out all other choices except that category), punch a little hole. Couldn't be simpler (except, cough, computerized).

Out of all of this, I just hope that voter/citizen apathy is on the decline.

No problems in the political hotbed of Cleveland, Ohio. My husband and I arrived when the polls opened at 6:30 to find about 30 people in line already. We waited in line for about 45 minutes, and when we were done voting shortly after 7:00 a.m., the line was well over 100 people long.

We know where to go from past year's elections, but we always forget our specific precinct and have to look it up on our county's website. We were asked only for our names and addresses, no ID required, and there were no challengers that we could see. One nice thing about pre-dawn voting is that there were no exit pollsters out yet. There was a handy bake sale and coffee stand just outside the voting room though!

Voting was pretty painless in Indiana. Got there at 6:15 and had to wait about half an hour to vote, which wasn't bad because there were only 2 voting booths and 6 people in front of us.

Verification was easy, but I also had to show my ID because when I filled out a change of voter address last month, it went to the county courthouse. My finacee didn't have to do this, even though we sent our forms in together.

The semi-computerized system was easy to use. Press the button next to the candidate's name and the light next to it would light up. When you were done, just press the big red Vote button and it would log your votes.

All in all, it was pretty easy.

Dead easy, no line. Voted at 7:10am right after they opened. Used a paper ballot with little ovals that you filled in using a kind of felt marker. Then you put your ballot in a paper sleeve and walk over to feed it into a machine. Done and done. Oh, and one of the polling ladies gladly held my 7-month old son for me.

Voted at 6 this morning, number 41 in Virginia. There was a pretty long line which is encouraging I think. Went smooth. After I stood in line for about ten minutes I think it took me maybe 5 minutes to make my vote (president, congress, 2 referenda).

Did early voting here in Florida. It went very smooth, I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. The only thing I noticed that was out of the ordinary were the number of Community Relations Board people that were there to observe the process and answer questions. We also have electronic voting with no paper trail and that disturbs me a little.

Zeke and I got up at the crack of dawn and started the two and a half mile walk into town. Zeke sniffed the latest news from the ditch while I waved at neighbors driving by.

We wound up at the church (community room fitted up for our wards election) about fifteen minutes early, six people in line before us. I tied Zeke up to a nearby poll, er, pole and we waited. The UPS guy who delivers to our office showed up a couple minutes later and made faces at Zeke, causing him to break out in song. I had to go over and tell Zeke to shutup and lay down and a lady in line came over to give him a biscuit.

The doors opened at 8, by a volunteer and a local cop (K9 division sans dog). We filed into the sub-chamber to be looked up by name and checked off, given a ballot, vote using a marker on paper, re-looked up, and finally the ballot slid into a paper shredder. Well, it looked like a paper shredder but was probably an electronic ballot reader.

Zeke was happy to see me. I took the leash off of him, Kerry & Bush sign wavers both said he was a good dog, and we walked the last mile to the office.

I manned the Kids' Voting USA booth 6:30 - 7:30 am. What a great way to start voting day. I feel great.

Voting in Indianpolis went pretty smoothly. The officials were patient, helpful and cheerful.

My only complaint is that when I put my "ScanTron" in the machine, I'd very much like to get a reciept in case of a recount.

I'm really glad you asked about this. My wife and I voted early in west Houston in Texas. Absolutely smooth process, though there was a line. Everyone (the poll workers and the people waiting to vote) were friendly, conversational, and pleasant. There was talk both ways about issues, but no ugliness whatsoever.

Finding out where to go was easy; there were lists of polling places at grocery stores, shopping centers, and so on. My wife's company also handed the list out to everyone.

All in all it was a perfectly smooth process. Througout the entire experience I felt that anyone who wanted to vote could find out how to do it.

There's one general election issue I'd like to know people's feeling on. My training is in science and engineering, and in such fields we make measurements all the time. The election, of course, is a measurement: we're measuring public support for competing alternatives. If we assume that roughly 100 million people will vote, and we set as our goal a perfect count, then we're asking for measurement accuracy to eight decimal places. That's more or less unheard of accuracy, except in special circumstances. If you had two quantities match to the fifth or sixth decimal place you'd usually consider them to be equal.

So, my question is: does the American election process really need to get a perfect result down to the last voter, or does it need to 1) clearly distinguish between the alternatives when there is a "significant" difference between them and 2) yield a decisive and unambiguous result even when public support is as evenly divided as it has been in the last couple of elections?

I lean toward the latter as a realistic approach. That of course doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to minimize fraud (accuracy to n+1 decimal places is better than accuracy to n), but it does say that maybe we're getting tied in too much of a knot over all of this stuff. I really worry about the direction we're heading by making everything so controversial.

What do you all think?

Kip

My voting wasn't too bad here in Indiana (Indianapolis). I only waited maybe 20 to 30 minutes. I live in a small suburb North of Indianapolis which could be why. The polling place was set up in a very odd fashion though with lots of lines for all the different precincts. Then, for each precinct, 2 separate lines, one to register your and sign your name and address, and one to vote. The problem was, people were just getting in the voting line, and nobody was bothering to tell them. The poll workers didn't seem to find that minor point important, so it ended up being mainly people in line tellling others to register until the poll workers caught on. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but could have been a lot smoother.

does the American election process really need to get a perfect result down to the last voter

I think this is a very interesting question, but I'd prefer that we ignore it for now and focus on gathering people's voting experience stories. I want to keep this thread as on-topic as possible. Thanks.

And keep the stories coming...I'm happy to hear that things on average are going so well.

I voted in Kalamazoo, Michigan; our district uses optical scanners. I arrived around 7:30 am. I vote at the school my daughter attends, and I walked her down. The line was quite long -- it was cool and a bit drizzly, but I didn't sense that people were leaving. I got out at 8:40. I noticed that I was the 101st voter; the previous voter was right ahead of me. So, with the polls opening at 7:00, this means they were handling about 1 voter per minute. The slow point was the number of booths--for some reason, they only allow six per precinct.

This is just the second time that optical scanners are being used here. While I was in line, the scanner started beeping--a person had 'over voted' (voted for two candidates for the same position, for example). But he left before either he or the poll worker had noticed. The scanner wouldn't allow the next voter to insert her ballot until this was acknowledged by the poll worker--apparently, this was the first time it had happened this morning.

I was a little chagrined that people in line could effectively see how others voted as the ballots were fed into the scanner, unless the voters took care to cover the ballots. No one seemed to be worried about this--not the workers, not the voters, not the poll watchers. The MoveOn people were there, as well as Democrats. There may have been some Republicans, but I couldn't tell.

Oh, by the way, thanks for asking.

I voted in Massachusetts and did the whole "fill in the circle" a la scantron ballot. It was my first time voting and I was at least 20 years younger than anyone at my polling place this morning. (I'm 23)

All in all things went smoothly, pretty quickly despite the long lines and everyone seemed to be generally in a good mood. My only complaint was the lack of parking as it seemed everyone had to walk a couple blocks from their cars. Overall a good experience though.

No problems here in super-populated Vermont. Yes, we're a state thank you.

Voted at 715ish, shortly after the polls opened, and there was a fairly decent line, maybe 50-100 people in the two lines (3 wards each).

We still vote with paper ballots, thank god, with fill in the circle choices. But they're electronically counted, which is fine because they keep the real ballot in case of problems.

Some towns here still count by hand. We're probably one of the more backward (thus, accurate) states. ;) Whole news segment last night no how "them durn electronic vote counting machines are just to expensive."

I voted at 8 am in the lower east side in NYC. I have to say, it was a bit disorganized. I was directed to the wrong precinct desk and then had to go back and get the right one. The polling workers were on average over the age of 70 and were not as vigilant as I would have liked (eating their breakfasts, a bit harried, disorganized). Also, the NY machines are the old lever type ones, which is fine, but the directions were somewhat vague. I knew how to use it but I could imagine that others could be confused. Overall, I felt nervous about the situation instead of reassured which kind of bothers me.

That said, the energy was palpable. People were excited to be there and very patient to get their votes in. I felt energized and even a bit nervous. I hope my overall experience at the polls are an anomoly and others' experiences are most reassuring.

Go Kerry!

The EFF Deep Links blog is focusing on electronic voting experiences all day today.

Voted in NYC in lower-manhattan. Similar issues with too many unmarked lines; people confused, no one there to answer questions. Very frustrating, and the really upsetting thing is that one large, well-placed sign could have cleared up hours of confusion for everyone.

The actual ballot is a 1970s-era mechanical booth with a giant lever and all. You vote by toggling metal switches for each candidate. The interface is so confusing to me that I panicked and had to re-check several times to be sure I had flipped the right switches. Very upsetting.

Voted absentee, as I pretty much always do. Particularly nice to sit at home, where it's quiet, and make sure I've correctly parsed the fascinating language of amendments and referenda.

This is in central Florida (Melbourne, to be exact). No problems applying for the absentee ballot (online); got it in plenty of time, the instructions were clear, etc. It would be nice if they specified the correct amount of postage required, thus saving a paranoid trip to the post office counter to avoid it being returned.

It took about an hour. I arrived at the small school that is my polling place. There was a line out the building and down the sidewalk, but it moved at about the pace of a roller coaster ride line at Six Flags. There were no representatives of either party in attendance, no pollsters, no cameras, no fake Kerry reps making bad impressions, nothing. I had phone numbers, camera, and cellphone in hand, but there was no need. Of course, we are using paperless computerized voting with no paper trail, so there is that to consider. However, this part of Atlanta is likely to have its votes counted - I worry more about south Atlanta in that regard.

Everything was smooth here. I found out where to go from a postcard in the mail a few weeks before hand, and double checked that a few days ago by using mypollingbplace.com.

I got to the polling place a little after 8 am, found my table to sign in with no wait at all, then waited about 15 minutes in line for the polling machine, got a helpful explanation on how to use the voting machine and then voted and left. It was one of the old 'pull the red lever' machines and everthing was pretty straight forward as far as that goes.

I voted in Connecticut by absentee ballot from the UK. I requested it VERY early (sometime in the spring) and it arrived the last week of September. I was a little surprised at the format (when I voted in CA by absentee ballot in college, it was completely different). The actual ballot was basically just a blank piece of paper...nothing printed in advance except something like "I vote for ________ for the office of ________." The list of candidates was on a separate piece of paper... it was a grid with offices across the top and parties down the side and the candidates typed in where appropriate. It was particularly strange voting for the president, as the office listed on the grid of candidates was "Presidential Electors" but the candidates were Bush/Cheney, Kerry/Edwards, etc. Which meant when I filled in the blanks it read: "I vote for Kerry/Edwards for the office of presidential electors." Huh? My biggest complaint about voting absentee is that there is absolutely no way of knowing whether your ballot has even been received, let alone counted. Obviously you can't be sure of the latter even when you vote in person, but it just feels more likely.

^ I should add that I was in NYC @ 13th + ave B.

Voting went pretty smoothly. I knew my polling place ahead of time, and it's conveniently a block from my apartment in Brooklyn. Arrived around 7:45 and it was crowded but not too bad. The only snag was that the line you encountered when first entering the polling place was actually just to determine which district you were registered in if you didn't know, but since we couldn't see into the room were the line terminated, some of us stood in it for several minutes before a volunteer came by and informed us that if we knew our districts, we could proceed directly to the line for that district. There were only two people in front of me at my district's booth (it looked like one booth per district, about eight or nine districts total), so the rest went pretty quickly. All told, about fifteen minutes from walking in to walking out.

I voted this morning (Central Florida - Orlando) and had no problems. The polling location had 11 voting booths, so the line moved quickly enough for me to arrive at 7:15 and be out by 8:40. I think I was close to the 200th person to vote at that location (according to the counter on the ballot box and 2 ballot sheets per person).

The only annoyance was waiting in line outside, rather than in the air-conditioning. With the clocks moving ahead last weeked, the temperature is about 80 degrees by 7am.

As for the ballot, here in Orange County we get to "fill in the arrow" that points at the candidate for which we are voting. About as easy as anything I did in 3rd grade.

My first time voting ever. (I'm 31, and feel guilty about not voting before.) I got to my voting location @ 6:30A when they opened and there were already ~50 people ahead of my wife & I. Only 3 booths, but the people working were friendly and helpful, though they weren't checking IDs, which worried me. Who's to say someone didn't just give me their voter registration card to go vote for them. They did match up the signatures, but who can't forge a signature? Other than that, no challengers present and things moved smoothly.

The semi-computerized system was easy to use. Press the button next to the candidate's name and the light next to it would light up. When you were done, just press the big green Vote button and it would log your votes.

I was disappointed that none of the Sunday liquor licenses were up for vote in my district. I was so looking forward to controling who can get me drunk on Sundays.

I also felt bad for the ~150 people in line when I walked out @ 7:45A. They're going to be late for work. I just hope they stuck around and didn't leave.

I live in Oklahoma where voting anything but Republican is all but a waste of time. That said, I went to my normal polling place, used the same ballot as always (fill in the lines with a marking pen), and waiting about as long as usual.

The media coverage had me expecting long lines. I hope that didn't scare some people away.

Smooth going in Durham, NC. I got there about 7:30AM. We were ushered inside pretty quickly, and waited for about 20-30 minutes to get our ballots. There weren't enough polling booths (I estimate there were easily 200 people in various stages of voting), so we found a quiet spot on a bleacher. Colored in the arrow, slipped it into the scanner (#527!), and we were out in an hour, all told.

I live in a pretty affluent part of Durham. I wonder how the other, predominantly lower class districts fared.

Filing this report from suburban South Jersey...

I went around the corner to my old elementary school to vote. It was the first time I had been there in 20 years. We moved this year, and our new voter registration cards arrived shortly after we changed our driver licenses. I was a bit worried, though, because I never received the 'sample ballot.' Not that I use it, but I was concerned nonetheless.

There were about 8 people in front of me at 8:30am. I went to the "P - Z" table, told them my last name, signed in and proceeded to the voting booth. The voting booths are the same I always remember. We use the large stand-up booths -- you pull the lever next to your candidate's name to cast your vote.

I pulled all the levers in quick sucession save one. I angsted over that one, and I still angst over the choice I made.

No hangups, no pollsters, no intimidation, no disenfranchisement. I just hope it's all over quickly.

I haven't headed to the polls yet --- will probably after my second cup of joe -- but my brother isn't going to be able to vote. He came down here (Michigan) from Alaska to visit and head over to England on Oct. 13th and I immediately set about arranging for an Absentee ballot. Unfortunately -- the mailing of the ballots from Alaska were twice delayed. The first time due to a Court ruling that called for the ballot to be rewritten -- and the second time (this past Friday) because the postal service underestimated the cost of the postage. He's flying back today and won't land in Anchorage until half an hour after the polls close. Alaska has absentee ballots available at the airport until 8, but that's not late enough. I tried to encourage him to vote Absentee-by-fax, but he did not want to waive his right to a confidential vote. His vote would not have affected the outcome of the presidential race -- but the Senate competition between Murkowski and Knowles is tight and could've used him.

I'm in Columbus, OH, BTW.

Voted at 7am in the northside of Chicago and it took about 10 mins. About 5 mins of that was because of the woman in front of me whose name was not in the big book. The judges couldn't have been younger than 80 and multitasking was obviously not their strong suit. So an argumentative voter basically held up the entire line. After getting my paper ballot there was no queue and no indication as to where to stand next so naturally i stood in the line to have my ballot scanned, which was not right. God help them when they have a line longer than 20 people, it will be chaos. Otherwise no issues. The polling place was a church a block from my house. In 2000, if I recall correctly, it was the library - go figure. The alderman had lackeys handing out flyers with his "suggestions" on them at the front of the church. Weather is kinda crappy (rainy, cold).

I've been registered in this location for three years, so I knew where to go and what to expect. My wife and I drove to the community center, passed three guys chatting in the parking lot - one said hi - and went in the door. Maybe four others were in line ahead of us. The woman behind us was asked to remove her Kerry pin - that stuff isn't allowed within ten feet of the polling place. I gave my name, a woman pulled my card from a box, and I signed it. A stub was torn from it, which I kept, and I was led to the 50's-era Army-jeep green booth. There's something comforting about these old battleships. I yanked the Dem lever and stood there a minute, savoring the moment, making sure all of the little levers were firmly in place, then I hit the red button. The machine made a whirring noise as my levers reset, and the curtain snapped open. Civic duty accomplished. On our way out one of the three men in the parking lot said, "Thanks for voting."

My vote this morning was a bit tumultuous here in suburban Connecticut. Since I moved 3 months ago from the town over, I knew things were going to get hairy with my registration. I probably should have visited the registrar's office. So they had me at the wrong address (Fairview Ave instead of Fifth - how do yo confuse that?) and I had to fill out a provisional ballot.

I wish a) there were an easier and more direct registration system - like once you move and change your postal address, your voting address is changed too; b) the half hour wait was not horrendous, but could have been shorter if the ladies working the books were more efficient - they should just be able to scan your driver's license or passport; c)eventually we should all be able to vote from our homes without the line.

Voting went great for me, here in Montgomery County, Maryland (just North of D.C.). The new touchscreen voting machines by Diebold (who's President promised that he'd do everything in his power to "...make sure Bush would win...") were very cool, very easy to use, and a welcome change from paper voting.

I was one of the first 20 in line, and it only took about 40 minutes to get through and do it. All in all, it was a good experience.

early voted in tennessee almost a couple weeks ago. it was the first day of early voting and so naturally, it was packed. we waited about 35 or 40 minutes. not bad when compared to other experiences i've heard about.

the polling place was a church. the only thing negative i might really say is that the line snaked through the church halls and past the usual stand full of tracts that you would find in just about any church. but of course, there were tracts on the "slippery slope of stem cell research" and right to life and getting help to cure homosexuality... which are obviously issues to some of the christian crowd. definitely not ideal i think. i mean, anybody there that day had their mind made up. i didn't feel badgered to vote one way or another by the tracts, but when you think of fair voting practices, littering the line with opinions supporting the platform of one of the candidates is a bit over the line. this wasn't a matter of free association. i didn't see an amputee vet in a wheelchair and think, "god, war sucks. i'm voting [blah]." we can't wear blinders through the 50 or 100 ft voting bubble. actual literature though? i just hope that by today it was removed or something. if someone can be swayed by a redskins or red sox victory, guilt-inspiring statements like, "the slippery slope of stem cell research" could surely affect at least one vote out there.

maybe if TN was more of a swing state it would matter more. maybe. someone whose parents attend that church remarked that the church had encouraged to keep the tract stand intact, as a way to preach their beliefs to people coming in the door. or something. again, if this wasn't TN, maybe it would matter more. there's a general culture here that from a moral point of view one side is the right side and one is clearly the wrong side. of course, some of us might argue strongly against that. i would, but it's so pervasive that the tinge of guilt trip extends much further outward than 50 or 100 ft from the door of the local church gone polling place.

a few more tracts placed in the voting line are just one more nail in the pile. that's life in the political minority anywhere i suspect.
m.

One of the advantages of living in a rural area (about 2 miles from the nearest town of about 200) is going to the polling place, located in the volunteer fire department. The elapsed time, from the time I walked out my front door, to the time I exited the polling place, was 7 minutes (including the 2 mile drive). I was the only voter present at the time (about 7:30am), so it was me and four election officials (one of whom is my neighbor), although two other voters were walking in as I left. There was coffee, donuts, and typical small town small talk.

Ballot was an optical ballot, marked with black felt tip, and read via machine upon completion. The only minutia to worry about was whether or not an election official had initialed the ballot prior to my voting, which it was.

Voted at about 8:45 this morning in the hinterlands of Massachusetts - turnout looked surprisingly strong for the small town I live in, and I actually had to wait in line for about 30 seconds as all five booths were full.

As for the ballot - paper and pencil, mark the box next to your choice 'X', and your ballot gets cranked and stamped into a wooden box to be counted by hand later.

All I had to provide was my name and address, although the voter information card I received from the state a couple of weeks ago indicated photo ID providing proof of residence would be required.

In and out of the polling place in less than 5 minutes. I went at 9:45 AM EST - trying to avoid the before work crowds and lunchtime crowds. My ballot was the 891st cast (from the electronic counter on the ballot box). We used a #2 pencil, which I think is still the most reliable method of voting. Electronic voting will come, but it's not there yet.

I wanted to register and vote, but it turns out that you have these silly laws about having to be an American to vote.

Such a pity considering that I am a very experienced voter and was willing to fly over to the states to make another contribution to democracy.

Well, with a bit of luck, I may be able to try again in four years time. In the mean time, I envy you all.

Westlake, OH. We waited in line for 45 minutes... 8:50 - 9:35am never had to wait before... the turnout was tremendous. Very calm... everyone upbeat. Some first time voters came to the wrong building, but were quickly pointed to the right one. Very organized, no hired guns checking registrations...

Voting was easy this morning in St. Louis, MO (well, the metro area, anyway). I received my registration card in the mail last week, as did my boyfriend who had just registered two months ago at the DMV. That card identifies my polling place. I arrived at the church basement, around the corner from my house, at about 6:20. There were two lines - not marked so you just found out by asking folks - one to show ID, sign your name, verify your address, and get your number, and the other to trade your number for the ballot and go to one of the 10 or 12 booths. We do punch cards here, and it went very smoothly. Took me about 20-25 minutes overall. Everyone was friendly and chatty. The officials said they had never had a line or wait time like they had that morning.

Reading the comments here the one thing that really surprised me is the length of time it seems to take to vote in your country. My voting experience in Britain has been waiting in line for ten minutes at the most and that was in a line of many people and it took less than a minute to cast my vote once I reached the voting booth.

Kip Ingram says:
does the American election process really need to get a perfect result down to the last voter

jkottke says:
I think this is a very interesting question, but I'd prefer that we ignore it for now and focus on gathering people's voting experience stories. I want to keep this thread as on-topic as possible. Thanks.

That's cool. I am interested in peoples thoughts on my question; so if anyone would like to share their opinion with me privately please email me at KipIngram@Yahoo.com.

Happy voting, all!

I voted in Minneapolis, MN. I got to the polling place right as it opened at 7. The line was pretty long (it ran outdoors). The total time it took me to wait in line/register/vote was a hour and fifteen minutes. The ballot was your traditional fill in the circle. Everything went fairly smoothly.

As my first voting experience, I'm not thrilled with the way it went. I went to my polling place (Warren Harding High School - this is in Bridgeport, CT) to find that I'm not on the list. They sent me to City Hall, who couldn't tell me why I wasn't on the list - I registered to vote when I moved to this city a year ago - but let me fill out a provisional (actually, it was marked "overseas") ballot anyway.

On my run this morning, I passed a polling place twenty minutes before it opened. There were ten people in line, and I passed more on their way there.

I was worried that our adventure would be time consuming. But, after the short walk from our downtown apartment, the line was non-existant. Once I changed my address, which only needed a signature from my wife to witness, I recevied my ballot and voted. It took five minutes, tops. Very slick.

Waconia, MN. My first election in my new home, and there was a problem. I'm voting in the gymnasium at my son's elementary school.

Three big lines. The first, about a hundred people long, to verify you're registered to vote.

The second, similar length and snaking back and forth within the gym, to sign your name in the voter log.

Then, and here's the big problem, you step away from that table and get in a third line, also snaking back and forth in the same room to get your voter receipt and the turn that in for your ballot.

There's no control to prevent anyone [say, an unregistered voter, or someone who had already voted that day] from walking into the room and standing in that third line immediately, collecting a receipt and ballot and voting.

I notified the Secretary of State's office.

Rolled out of bed about 6:30 to get in line. The polls opened here in DC at 7:00 and I was done by about 7:40. Was given the option of using a paper or electronic ballot, chose paper.

The entire process was rather smooth and anyone familiar with DC government knows how colossally inefficient they can be. I recieved a handy voter guide in the mail about two weeks before the election and a handy card telling me where my polling place was (conveniently located about a block from my apartment building). They asked for name and had me sign a ledger. No fuss, no muss. Glad I got there early, the line was easily three times as long when I left as when I arrived.

Louisiana Voter here-

I voted at 8AM CST, and my wife and I were the only ones in the place. Funny, I never got any notification card in the mail as in past elections. Hmmm. Otherwise, things went smoothly- I live in a mostly African-American neighborhood, and hopefully people turn out later in the day.

Louisiana uses electronic voting booths- not touchscreen, but pushbutton. It was very clear what my options were, and how to use the booth.

I voted in my own precinct this morning around 9AM. It was very quick & easy - I was out in less than 20 minutes. The people who went for early voting were stuck in line for 3 or 4 hours. I figured voting in my own precinct would faster & easier since it's pretty small and we don't have people from all over the county coming to vote.

Here in St. Paul, Minnesota, I was heartened to see a 3 inch stack of yellow forms (for new registrants) and also several 18-20 year olds in line with me. By 8:25 the lines were short and the process took less than 10 minutes. Even still, people were filling in their scantron ballots all over the polling place, because no one wanted to wait for the privacy booths. A colleague of mine was doing legal monitoring outside the polling place and said there had not been any problems yet.

Husband and I voted at our kids' school after dropping them off at their entrance and parking in the very crowded lot. Greeted a neighbor couple who had voted and were kissing each other goodbye before going their seperate ways. We were the 171st and 172nd people voting so far, which is a huge increase over our last election. Knew all the election judges and greeted them by name, as well as daughter's soccer coach, ahead of us, and neighbors behind us. One of the judges, with whom we chatted briefly, said that many of the voters were first timers and were confused by the township vs. municipality issue--we live in a city but vote as a township. But they were easily assuaged and voted successfully. We signed our form, the judge carefully compared our signatures to the ones copied on the receipt, which was cute since we see her every day as we walk the dogs. I truly love this part of election day. The rest of this process seems so terribly broken.

My voting process was just about what I would expect in Dallas. Paper ballot. Voting "booth" was a portable table with walls on the sides. No curtain. Just the bare minimum of privacy. Sharpies were provided for marking the Scantron-like ballot. The election officials were not the most helpful. The gentleman handling the voting room preferred to grunt and point when I asked him questions. The line was great, though! There were only four people ahead of be to get ballots. That's the shortest I have ever seen.

I almost skipped out on the vote today out of sheer laziness. Even if my vote doesn't count for much in this hopelessly Republican state, I'm glad I got out and voted. I feel great because of it!

37 years old. First time voter!

Found all the info I needed in regards to when,where and how to vote online. Local gov sites were very helpful.

Got there about 7:45 and stood in line for about 2 hours. Good mix of people in line, young, old, black and white. Lots of children running around entertaining us all.

I thought it was a good turnout considering I live in such a small town, and there were three other voting locations in town.

Tonight it will be fun to watch all the 'news' reporting.

I voted this morning in Madison, WI. My wife and I got up bright and early and were in line about 10 minutes before the polls opened. We vote at the local high school, and the door we have used the past 3 or 4 times we voted was staffed by a few helpful students who told us they had moved the polling place to the gym because of the expected large turn-out. Turns out it was a good thing-- the line was pretty long, and there were easily over 100 people in line when the polls actually opened.

The pollworkers are a collection of very nice old ladies. They seem to have been doing this for a long time, since they all looked familiar from the previous votes I've cast. One of them is getting a little hard-of-hearing, but she's got some back-up.

Our ballots are a connect-the-arrow type of ballot that gets counted by a machine right after you fill it out. You get a nice happy bleep from the machine that confirms that your vote is counted, and I know that my paper ballot has just gone into the big box as a recount-able backup to the computer's count. I'm a fan.

The only issue I saw was an inadvertent case of voter intimidation: I saw 10 or so people turn around and leave after seeing the length of the line. I was the 65th voter in my precinct, and I am sure there were over 125 people in line (and growing) when I left. I hope all the people who left go back and vote later today.

Just got back from voting in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (9:30 am). My husband and I walked the few blocks to the polls in the steamy 80+ degree heat of mid-morning. We've voted twice before, so we knew where to go. Unfortunately, there were three or four precincts crammed into one elementary school, and no one seemed to know which entrance to go to. To make matters worse, one of the precincts was abruptly moved to a different location, and the signs were confusing. Several people waited for 15 minutes in line only to be told to go somewhere else. Frustrations were aired loudly.

(Oddly enough, My Polling Place doesn't appear to have any data for our precincts. The LA election website will tell you where you need to go, but it's harder to dig up the link.)

Lines weren't bad -- maybe 10 minutes, mostly in the sun. We only had three voting booths, the semi-electronic ones where you press a button and a green arrow lights up next to your selection. If you look down, it also displays your choices in a tiny LCD screen. Voters ranged in age from early 20s to blue-hairs with canes. Sadly, no air conditioning in the building. No campaigners in sight, although a van did drive by and shout "Vote for Kerry, y'all!"

I did see a representative from Voters' Legal Aid on her cell phone. She seemed to be investigating a complaint that the poll workers at my location wouldn't give a voter a provisional ballot. All the poll workers were in their 70s and seemed a little discombobulated. Nevertheless, I made sure to tell them that they were doing a good job. They have to put up with enough shit today -- and I figure if they're in good spirits, they're less likely to be cranky to the legions of potentially confused voters.

my wife and i live in portland, oregon.... we vote by mail... got our ballots a week or two ago... filled them out one night after dinner.... had time to discuss local measures, etc.... dropped our ballots off at the county election office after work a few days after we received the ballots... we like voting by mail... you have to sign your name on ballot and they compare it to your registration card signature... so it seems pretty reliable....

I voted last week via absentee ballot in San Francisco, CA. We had an enormous amount of important state proposals and I needed to sit down with my voter guide with the full text of the proposals and my League of Women voters ballot guide (which gives excellent non partisan information and explanations of ballot items). It took me a good long while, but I knew there was no one behind me, and I sat drinking diet coke, and carefully filed out my ballot. I walked it to the mailbox and while it was not as satisfying as pulling open the curtains of the voting booth, I dropped it in, and got a little choked up as I walked away, like I do every single time I vote.

I got mail notification with polling places and a second reminder of the deadline to vote absentee, San Francisco does a really good job of making the info impossible to miss.

Voted this morning in Minneapolis. The queue at 7:45 AM was about one hour long. When I exited the polling place at about 8:45, it was considerably shorter. The MoveOn people and a voting rights advocate set up camp at a legal distance in the adjacent city park. The process itself was fairly smooth. I registered this morning, having moved within Minneapolis since the last election. Marked a paper ballot which was subsequently tallied by an optical scanner.

Different topic for different thread: Some opponents of the electoral college argue that it unfairly awards states with small populations greater per-capita electoral representation. I was thinking yesterday that it would be interesting to analyze how electors would be distributed if they were based not on a state's population, but on that state's production in various sectors of the US economy. My guess is that a very large percentage of our domestic food source (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc....) is grown in Midwestern states that are among those that electoral college opponents cite as wielding undue influence.

Flawlessly. I was 4th in line at 6:50am and was the first person in my polling area to actually cast a vote. I signed the machine register tape that said there were no ballots in the counting machine before mine, and I fed my 5 1/2 page 8x14 California ballot into the machine to hear it beep as my vote to oust The Idiot was counted.

By the time I left at 7:10 (I did my homework and actually brought a cheat sheet so I knew how I wanted to vote) there was a small line outside. San Francisco is Kerry Country, so I didn't see any knock-down drag-outs or even anyone in drag, surprisingly. I was hoping I could thrust my finger in righteous indignation at a Republican "poll checker" and yell "Ha!" but apparently in states where the outcome is a given, they'll let just anyone vote! Oh, to live in Ohio, just for one day.

This morning's vote was the shortest line I've encountered in 12 years, though in neighboring areas there are long lines reported. I moved to Watertown, MA over the summer, and now I vote at the local Hibernian Hall (an Irish-American social club) with a full bar and mural of rolling green hills on the wall!

There were only 15-20 people in line, it went very quickly and efficiently. I brought ID, cable bill, and voter registration form just in case, but didn't need it -- just name and address. We do a "complete the arrow" paper ballot, with a magic marker -- I miss the lever machines, though.

The only contested election in my area is for President -- all our local reps are uncontested Democrats, ahhh Massachusetts. We also had a ballot question on protecting civil liberties while fighting terrorism and moving to repeal the USA Patriot Act -- Yes on 1!

I've been a poll observer before, and I have to say the system is LONG overdue for modernization and standardization, despite the comfort of paper ballots. If people can use an ATM and file their taxes online, how can we let the franchise languish in this mess of arcane, bureaucratic rigmarole? Not to mention intimidation and fraud at the polls...sheesh. Good luck, swing staters! GO KERRY!

I've lived in the same Village for 10 years, so registration and where to go was not a problem.

For my ward, the wait was 1 hour, but for others it was short.

All and all it was pleasant and about the same wait as the last election when the Democrats won (Gore) - bake sale, coffee, chatting with neighbors. All good.

In suburban Chicago (Cook County) we use punch cards. Voting was easy and straightforward. The turnout was high, which is the same as usual.

Oh, and the ballots were paper and you ran it through an optical scanner.

electricinca says:
Reading the comments here the one thing that really surprised me is the length of time it seems to take to vote in your country.

Aside from voting for President, there are many local issues to consider as well, such as tax levies for schools, state & local reps, coroner (on our ballot in Columbus, OH.) Plus, my voting place only had 3 machines, so if the line builds up and people take their time, it can take a little while, but it's mostly time spent waiting in line.

Farmington Hills, MI.
Just voted. 4 people ahead of me in lines to about twenty booths...Took all of 10 minutes inside. I did find the OPTECH ballots a little annoying.

in oregon we are allowed to vote by mail. your ballot arrives a few weeks before election day, and you can fill out the ballot from the comfort of your own home.

if you choose to vote early you can send it through the mail. if you procrastinated till this weekend, like i did, you have to drop the ballot off at a drop site. mine was in our local neighborhood library, on my way home from work. no line. two volunteers with signs indicated wildly from the side of the road that it was a drop site. easy as can be.

Voted at aprox 8:45am (Indiana polls run 6am-6pm).
Waited in line for about 30minutes.
2 machines (Microvote model)
Can see where there could be confusion with where the arrows point to the canidates on the ballots.

I didn't early vote this year because the closest early voting location was an hour away (which is ridiculous ... and our county caught lots of flack for not having more locations available). So - this morning - I was at the polling location at 6:45 AM. An hour and 45 minutes later, at 8:30 AM, I was electronically submitting my vote in the 2004 Presidential Election. There will be no hanging chads in Tennessee.

And people wonder why more people haven't voted in years past? This year's voter turnout is going to have record numbers ... and yet it seems that the voting system is just as archaic as ever. An hour and 45 minutes? I can't imagine what the waiting times are going to be like the rest of the day. I thought I was there pretty early - 6:45 AM.

If they want more people to CONTINUE to vote ... in all elections - not just every four years for the President - you've got to make the process go more quickly. It's just not feasible to "go during your lunch hour" ... because if you waited until then - I'm sure it's a 3 hour + wait.

Ah well ... it does feel good to vote though. I stepped out of the booth with a feeling of ... making a difference. Even if I do only count once. (Don't even get me started on how wrong the Electoral College system is.)

My polling place was two blocks from my apartment building (note: mypollingplace.com gives the wrong address for my district), but at 7:45am there were already lines forming. First I had to go to an information table to find out which booth I needed to go to, and then I visited a different table to sign in and get my voter card before finally going to the booth. All in all each person waited in three separate lines before voting, but everyone was very helpful and patient.

The voting booths contained pull-lever machines, with instructions in both English and Spanish. It was pretty straightforward, and satisfyingly mechanical.

Nobody gave me any guff or even asked to see ID, but then again New York is hardly a swing state.

I voted absentee (as I always do) here in Washington state. They send you a punch card. It's fairly idiot-proof, although Florida residents of 2000 could probably prove me wrong. Read the ballot. Punch out the holes for the candidate you want (the ballot and card have numbers that match for each hole).

Let me start by saying that I'm a big fan of the same-day registration offered here in Minnesota. It makes for some truly interesting scenes at the polling places. My precinct votes at the local elementary school and while this area of St. Cloud is mostly middle-age working families, there was a nice mix of younger people (I'm 23) and senior citizens - registered and registering alike. It was refreshing to walk in and see at least a dozen people registering in the lobby of the school and probably another dozen registering in the gym where the actual voting took place. I arrived shortly after 9:00, expecting it to be busy, but not let's-all-vote-before-work busy. There was little or no wait, as I've voted here before and only had to sign my name on the roll.

We have paper ballots with the "connect the arrow" type of indicator that the Madison voter described above. I was surprised to see at least 8 different presidential options, and I was not prepared to have to search through the list for "Kerry/Edwards." (Does anyone know what it takes to get onto a Minnesota ballot?) Still, I gladly voted for the Democrats in that race, did the same for our Congressional race, and then went through the requisite local races, tax referendums, and whathaveyou. I fed my ballot into the big machine, watched the counter tick over to "217" and then got my red "I VOTED" sticker on the way out. It was painless, quick, and dare I say, enjoyable. I love my country. I hope we can take it back from the neo-con clowns in charge right now. (sorry, did I let my opinions shine through too much? :) )

Lifelong voter (never missed a year since I turned 18), so I went to the usual polling place (with my kids, 7 and 2, along for their civics lesson). I got to the local firehouse at 9 and had to wait in a line, which I have NEVER had to do before (I live in a pretty rural area). They had an A-L line and an M-Z line and the A-Ls were going right in but the M-Z had about a 10 minute wait. I'm unsure as to whether the people handling the A-L ballots were better at their job or if fewer A-L people were voting, or what. Got my ballot (punch card as always), cast my vote, checked for chads, dropped it in the locked box and split. No snags.

We voted Monday in Chickisha, Oklahoma at the county election board. Oklahoma has what is called absentee in-person voting on Friday, Saturday and Monday before major Tuesday elections.

We took our two eight-year old boys along with us so they could experience the process (they got "I Voted" stickers and got to help us feed our paper ballots into the scantron-like voting machine).

Total time spent there was under five minutes. The machine said my wife, step-daughter, and I were voters 1133, 1132, and 1131.

Voted here in St. Louis County (Vinita Park) at 9:00 a.m. at our usual polling place - the basement of some big church. It took an hour in a snaky line - people were chatting - heard a lot of new ring tones. The majority of the voters present were African Americans of all different socio-economic classes. Most of the conversations I heard concerned important things - kids, family, etc. - not too many were talking politics except for the few that I heard discussing the possibility of four supreme court openings. Every other time I've voted, I didn't research the court judges, so I've had to vote them all out of office. This time, I carried in a list of who I wanted to retain and vote out, so I felt better that I wasn't voting against people who deserved to stay in office. Frankly, I voted strictly along Pro-Life lines, and I used the election guides published by Missouri Right-to-Life for about half the judges, and then stuff I found online for the other half. A 33 year old is running for Governor as a Republican in Missouri - that is very interesting to me. I also noticed that no one represented the Republican party in one of the state legislative races here - I imagined my name on the ballot in that spot just to give people a choice next time... That's what I need, a fourth job.

My wife and I walked the block to our northeast Atlanta polling place. We arrived there at about 6:50 and joined the roughly 100 people already in line. The earliest had arrived at 5:30.

After the polls opened at 7:00, the line moved slowly but smoothly. When we got to the door they held us until there was space in the room (a poll worker hold up two fingers indicating two people) and then ushered us in. Apparently our district skews to the early-alphabet last names as the registration line for A-L had about 20 people and the M-Z line (ours!) was empty. Because of this bottleneck there were plenty of empty voting machines. It took about an hour total.

I typically do my research into each of the local races ahead of time and take a crib sheet with me. This is hampered by the lack of a sample ballot in Georgia (I've never received one at least). I was suprised by at least one non-partisan race that I hadn't heard of and had to leave blank.

All-in-all a good experience and I was heartened by the long lines of people and all the of "I'm a Georgia Voter" stickers I saw on the train and street.

By the way, we had the punch card style ballots, and there were signs clearly specifying to make sure there were no hanging chads. The ballot was also butterfly, but it was very clear.

Voted at aprox 8:15am (Arizona polls open 6am-7pm).
No wait whatsoever.... it is Arizona
About 10 booths and 5 open tables
Ballot was both simple and straightforward
Optical scanner made what seemed to be the appropriate ballot approval noises?

Was encouraged so see a Mother discussing the issues with her young son while he filled out some sort of Kid Ballot.

From Center City Philadelphia-- I waited for 45 minutes beginning at 8 a.m. Moveon.org volunteers were outside polls checking off names as we went into vote. Slow progress but no confusion. I noticed a poll worker on the phone with HQ to figure out what to do with two voters. Didn't hear resolution. A rainbow of people in line. Poor, preppy, corporate, bohemian, young, old, disabled, white, Asian, black. Everyone had faces of grim determination. This is Kerry Country.

I voted this morning with my 18 year old son. I remember bringing him to polling places when he could walk into the booth without bending underneath the curtain. Now he's almost as big as me. Tomas was overwhelmed by being amongst all these rushing adults, not knowing where to stand.
He had a big smile on his face as he pulled the lever of that old voting machine to complete his vote.
At 6:30 AM we where the 76th and 77th voters. As I walked out, I had the sense of being in the presence of my father, one of the many immigrants, a refugee of the Spanish Civil War, most proud of his US citizenship, looking down at us, his son and grandson. Papa always said, show your son the way, don't tell him the way, he will take care of the rest. We the children of immigrants, honor those who came before by praising the opportunity we're given but questioning our leaders when they have strayed from the path set down by the ones who came before us.

I had to wait 2 hours as it was raining and they had to cram all the people into a tiny firehouse. People were nice, but what seemed like local clergy were "helping" people figure out what to do and where to go... Not officially, they were just in line and people seemed to know them. I saw one lady who left after talking to one of these people, but it must have been just so she could drop her child off at school. I think I saw a couple of other people, too, leave, and they had talked to those same clergy. I think mainly though, it was because of the wait that they left.

- th0m

I waited about 2.5hrs in Charlotte, NC...but it wasn't bad.

At least I didn't have to travel for days via mule
like the people in Afganistan.

Just got back from voting, in the heart of DC -- Capitol Hill. This was my first time voting at an actual polling place (voted absentee in past years -- away from my precinct at college), and it was quick and painless. I'd thought about going right after work, but people in my office convinced me to to at 10:30 am, so I skipped out and went to the junior high school, about 5 blocks away.

I stood in two lines -- one based on last name to check into the registration log, and then another one to get a ballot, and I was asked, "Paper or electronic?" I was surprised at that, but said, "Paper." I don't trust voting machines.

I was a little disappointed that there weren't any of the old flag-draped booths that I'd seen when I was little and my mom would take me into the booth with her! I stood in front of a 3-walled, lit cubicle-type thing...it wasn't very secretive at all. I connected the broken arrows with the #2 pencil, and then put the ballot through the machine, where I watched the counter go from 1027 to 1028. All in all, very pleasant.

GO JK. :-)

I voted absentee in NM, but I'm not sure if my vote is going to be counted. The actual instructions on how to use the (optically-scanned) form were hidden way at the bottom of the envelope, so I didn't know whether to use a pen or a #2 pencil until after I'd already used a pen, incorrectly assuming that optical technology didn't care whether it was a really-dark-gray mark or a black mark, and wanting to make sure that no corrupt election official erased and changed my marks. I went over my marks again with the correct implement in case it's a reflectivity issue, but it still has me nervous.

Then there's also the issue of whether my vote will actually make it into the polling station on time -- after all, it's pretty easy for a large envelope marked with "official election correspondence" coming from an extremely liberal state (NY) to a fairly conservative one (NM) to be accidentally lost or misdirected.

Also, Ralph Nader might have fucked things up too; he got a lot of absentee ballots invalidated because they didn't list him on it. (I'm pretty sure mine did list him, but you never know.) Fucking Nader.

Didn't read any from Colorado yet, so here it is. I voted over a week ago and boy was it an enjoyable experience. I went before I ate lunch and was surprised to see so few people in the place. I found my early voting polling place from a great paper that circulated my street. Basically some great person typed it out and passed it around.

The voting machines in Colorado are fun to use and quite easy if you know how an Ipod works. There is a wheel you turn to scroll trough the selections and a button you press to select it. Some of the older folks in the room were having a little trouble.

The folks checking people's ids were quite nice and quick with their job, much faster than the people at my bank. I was in and out in under 15 minutes, which included filling out some paperwork, reading the machine instructions, checking in, and having a short debate in my mind about an issue I had forgotten about.

My polling location is relatively new (last November was the first time it and 3 other precincts were in their current locations) outside of Findlay, Ohio. I arrived 5 minutes after the vote started and was sixth in line. It took 15 minutes to get a ballot - every person in front of me was at the wrong location. (Cards were sent a year ago when the locations changed, plus the local election board has a great web resource to pull up your location.)

The delay was all in the poll workers trying to help people figure out where the people really needed to go.

Once I got my paper ballot and sharpie pen, the voting experience was fairly normal. However, the presidential section was strange and poll workers explained it to every voter (at least while I was there). The Pres. and VP names were so far apart, and the VP appeared so close to the next Pres. candidate that they were afraid people would either vote for Kerry by mistake (instead of Bush, since Cheney's name bumped up with Kerry) or vote twice invalidating their vote.

I voted in Dallas this morning, and it was at some kind of old folks home. Paper ballots and sharpies. I was voter #316 in my precinct.

Brook Meeks details his voting experience on Dave Farber's IP list:

"And then with this handful of 'sample' ballots, the election official did an astounding thing. 'Does anyone need a sample ballot?' he said in a loud voice, holding up a fist full of the yellow, Democratic 'sample' ballots? 'Anyone?!'"

Voting went smoothly in Antioch, Tennessee (just south of Nashville). Polls opened at 7:00 a.m. Central and the line was long. It took about an hour for the whole process. Poll workers were helpful and curteous.

The voting machines were electronic, but rather simple. You'd enter the curtained voting area. A poll worker would throw a lever or bush a button to activate the process. You would then push a square on the large paper ballot insert. A light behind the selection square would light up to indicate your choice. When you had finished making your selections, you then had to press a big, green "Vote" button below the ballot. The selection lights went out, as did a small overhead light I hadn't noticed on entering.

I voted by absentee ballot, and had no problems, other than wishing the election board went one step further and let you apply for the ballot online, instead of sending you online, taunting you at this prospect, and then asking you to print out the application and send it in. But I got it in a timely manner, so all was good. And whenever I did vote in person, I never had a problem, except maybe which side of the room I was supposed to check in on.

Johnstown, PA: Got to the polling place at 7am sharp, and was the 19th voter. In line ahead of me was a couple who were not in "the book of names". The wife had her voter registration card from 2003, and they had not moved since then. The husband asked the woman manning the book, "Shouldn't we be able to use a provisional ballot?" He recieved nothing but blank stares from the staffers.

This bit of confusion really held up the line- the four woman staffers, three of them pushing 75 or 80, seemed confused by default, and this didn't help matters. They finally made a call to the county seat, determined that the couple were at the right polling place, and gave them ballots. I couldn't believe that the staffers had not heard of a provisional ballot until 7:10am on election day- and they had no process for dealing with someone not in the book!

Aside from that, it was smooth sailing. We still have punch card ballots, and this time around, they had two new instructional handouts to help people avoid errors, which was nice.

i voted on the north side of chicago around 7:30. i've been voting in the same place at about the same time of day for the past 5 years and have never had more than two people ahead of me in line. today i waited in line for nearly an hour with at least 50 people ahead of me. there didn't seem to be any problems, and nobody seemed to mind the wait. of course we still have the horrible multi-page butterfly ballot, but that's another issue.

I just got back from voting in Howard Co. MD. No lines in the middle of the morning.

I used a computer to cast the vote. My only previous voting experience was with paper connect-the-arrow ballots in Massachusetts. The experience was not significantly different.

I did find it interesting that the paper ballots always included abridged text for each ballot initiative, plus an explanation of what a yes or no vote meant. The computer interface only showed one sentence and no explanation of what a yes or no vote would do. Maybe this is just a MD/MA thing. But read up on the intitiatives before you go in!

Chicago, IL: I voted at the local church where I voted once before. I have lived in my current apartment almost a year! A new record for me. The process was quick and I punched the ballot using the little sharp hole puncher.

The Judiciary section was annoying, as there were alot of judges up for confirmation. I pulled the card out and double checked that the hole punch at 4 was correct for the presidential election before I popped the card into the little machine that lets me know if I under or over voted.

When you have to vote for just a few candidate, the hole punch system here works fine. It got ridiculously hard to follow in the judiciary section where each judge needed a yes or no.

Voting process was very smooth for me in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Took about 40 minutes to get in and out. I got there around 7:15 am (polls opened at 7) and was the 37th voter with last name starting with A through E. Interesting thing I noticed was those folks with last names beginning with F and up must have slept in today, as there were no lines for them.

Austin, TX: Voted at the supermarket across the street about a week ago during early voting. Surprisingly long lines, but otherwise identical to my past experiences voting at the public school across the other street. Used a computer with an iPod-like scroll wheel, which we've used in Austin several times.

Woke up early and decided to see if I could beat the voting rush by getting their at opening. My polling place is a rural firestation, but there were approximately 20 people waiting in line when I got there. Everyone was polite and cordial and the lines move pretty quickly once they opened the doors.

One definite user experience issue was the placement of the alphabetical division signs that indicated where you needed to go based on last name. The signs were hung them from the front of the table and they became obscured as soon as a line formed in front of them which was an inconvenience on a day like today.

I presented my voter id card, printed my name and received a paper scantron style ballot. I had to wait a little while to get to a booth, but there were 9 or 10 total and it wasn't a big deal. In retrospect had I had a black pen and been in a big hurry I probably could have just gone up against a wall and filled it out since there was nothing special about the booths. One I was in a booth filling out the sheet the poll workers did announce that they had special privacy ballots available for those that were in a hurry and couldn't wait for a booth.

Despite the fact that the ballot was fairly heavy paper stock I noticed after I flipped it over to fill out the back that my marks from the back side had soaked through and were clearly visible. Luckily the marks didn't allign with the answer space or this could have been an issue I think. The scantron machine happily took my ballot when I was done however (give me a paper trail or give me death!) and the counter indicated I was number 27. I grabbed my little I voted sticker and headed out feeling happy and proud to have voted for the first time in several years.

I voted in Raleigh Fire Station #20, North Carolina. There were over 100 hundred people in the line before the voting station opened a little before 6:30 AM. I was in the line at around 6:05 AM.

There was one main queue and then it got broken into 6 queues as you entered the fire station. The queues were based upon the first alphabet of your last name.

And then there was another queue for receiving the ballot. The place was cramped and there was a lot of confusion.

There werent many booths for filing out the ballots, however we could fill out the ballots without going to the booths.

Once you filled out the ballot, you had to deposit it in the optical scanner. The scanner cound was 80 when I deposited my ballot.

I left the station at around 7:05 AM.

I voted last Tuesday afternoon during early voting. I waited for about ten minutes in line. I lost my voter registration card so I had to use my driver's license to sign in. We have electronic touch-screen voting booths, which I used without any problem.

I've been voting for almost 10 years in the same county in New Jersey, but for the very first time in a different town. I rolled out of bed and into the voting booth at 6:30AM and I was the 20th person to have voted in my district. Everything went swimmingly, as it always does in New Jersey. Electronic voting machines rock...no computer, no hole-punching. Just simple circuitry.

Columbus, Ohio.

The demographics for my area code (43201) are pretty innercity. Of
course, that's the other side of High street. My side of High is
pretty much dandytown. The vote challenger probably had never been to this part of town before and looked a little stymied because there were only white folk to challenge! So, what he did was randomly challenge people which must have been great fun for him until this super bitchy queen (faced with a 2.5 hour wait, anyone can get grumpy -- though most everyone seemed to take it well) TOTALLY STARTED YELLING AT HIM. I mean, YELLING. The situation was defused by a kindly vote monitor (note: I think vote monitors tend to be lieberals and vote challengers tend to be republocrats) who escorted the irrate man from the room but not before our hero hissed "you should be ASHAMED of yourself!"

Other than that, voting was fine. I was kept up late last night because I live right around the corner from the Short North (shortnorth.org) Temple of Kerry and they were tilting at windmills until the late hours. I want to share in their exuberance, but I'm too afraid to get my hopes up.

Easton, Pa: Almost no line late morning - about 4 people ahead of me. Lots of Kerry signage on the walk there, and one Bush supporter outside. Still using the voting machines with the little levers that you pull down to mark your choices to reveal a red arrow pointing to your choice, and you can put them back up to "undo" a mistake before you cast your vote.

It did say something like check ID required under my name, but they just looked at my signature and didn't ask for ID.

I volunteered to work the poll with the voter registration office, and was told I would be contacted if there was need. From the looks of things the old folks contingent were there in force and I was never contacted. I also volunteered my services as a designer to consult on readability and legibility for ballots, signage for locating the polling place, etc. I got no response to that offer.

I figured that there would be long lines today, so I voted last Friday. New Mexico allows early voting and it was really quite simple. I showed up at the county clerk's office, there was no line despite there only being three voting booths, I voted on the paper ballot and was out of there in five minutes.

The clerk said that over 25% of registered voters in Los Alamos County had already voted (as of Friday afternoon).

Early voting was extremely convenient for me and I hope that more states add this option in the future.

Voting went well here in Philadelphia. Showed my ID because it was my first time voting in this precinct, otherwise I wouldn't have to. I got there at 7AM sharp and waited for about 50 minutes to vote, 30 of which were because the voting machines weren't set up yet. I was something like #40 in line by the time I got there, but the line went by quick once the machines were going. No Nader on our ballot, but I wasn't voting for him anyway, and there was lots of other third parties on like Libertarian, Green. The macines were electronic, which kind of sucks because you can't write in a candidate, but it was very easy to vote. Most of the people in line were between age 20-30 (lots of medical students because of nearby university hospitals). Nice turnout, lots of cool people.

Vting went down without a hitch in Baltimore County, Marlyand. No waiting in line, hassle free voting computer, easy-to-read ballot. I was kind of upset about the electioneers peddling their wares beyond the "no electioneers after this line" sign. At any rate, a seemless process.

I enjoyed my second Presidential vote today in MA. (third if you count my pro-Dean vote in the primary) I got there early (7:30am, polls opened at 7am), and there was a line 100 yards long (counting the twists inside the building). Easy enough, I was on the rolls, I was handed an optical scan ballot, filled it in with a "special" magic-marker (circles like on standardized school testing), and waited in another line to feed it though the optical reader. Rumor has it the counting machines used here are made by Diebold. That scares me. But living only about two miles from the Kerry residence, I don't think I have too much to worry about. When I lived in CT, the machines were big lever-pullers. Felt much more like i had my hands on the government and was physically chaging things. Much more rewarding. All in all, the experience took about 35 minutes, though I wasn't timing it, ballots were not confusing. More info at my post linked above. ~brian
PS- best reason to vote if you're not in a swing state: if the electoral college doesn't follow the popular vote, you want the difference to be as large as possible as to have the most inertia reform the system!

My wife and I both live in the UK and are registered out of California. Back in August, I got notice that my absentee ballot would be coming. Nothing about my wife. Three emails to the SF voter registration department spread out over the weeks got no response.

My absentee ballot arrive in early October, I believe. Off it went. Meanwhile, my wife for whatever reason had lost her registration. It's complicated, when you are overseas, about how long they'll keep you on the polls. End of story -- she had to print a new registration document and request a ballot, then hope this would come in time.

Well, it didn't. We were notified she was registered in mid-October, but still no ballot. Apparently, we could fax in her vote if we really tried. Given we're both voting Kerry and California is exceedingly safe, it just wasn't worth the extra effort. Now if he loses by one vote, then you can come after us.

End of story -- voting from outside the US suck, and it always does. Heck, San Francisco still thinks my residence is a place I lived in 7 years ago. If that's where you last lived, that stays on your record forever -- and sometimes, things may go there, as well.

I dream of a day when I can vote electronically. Yeah, maybe. But as an overseas American, I'm pretty used to being disenfranchised. The census department, for example, doesn't count us. My "local" reps in California don't really care about our unique issues. What I'd love is for all of us overseas to have our own representative that we could vote for. At least they'd have incentive to make the voting process for us easier.

I live and vote in what I suspect (from your old osil8 photographs) might possibly be in or near your old neighborhood, Jason -- Seward, in Minneapolis. Polling place was the high-rise at Minnehaha and 22nd, right up the street from Coastal Seafood. It was *jammed* at 7 a.m., but everything went smoothly, and everyone was in high good humor. There was a guy at the door with some general info on how to handle possible challenges, but nobody was doing any challenging--probably smart, since anyone attempting such in this precinct would likely be gang-tackled and beaten with a granola bar.

Can't speak to registration, since I've been continuously registered since 1972, but I hear the Republicans are planning to challenge students at the U. We'll see how that goes.

The waiting in line process was bad. There were 2 lines: A-I and J-Z. A-I's line (which I had the displeasure of occupying) extended out the door and around the building. J-Z's line was 2 or 3 people at its longest.

The actual voting process went smoothly - we had touch screens that were very easy to follow.

Voted this morning in Wisconsin, one of the battleground states, in Madison. Went to my local polling place at 6:50am, polls open at 7am. I was the 249 person in line. I diidn't get in to the voting booth untill 8:10.

I saw the line initally and thought 'This will take HOURS!' But the line moved pretty quickly. I am glad I did it this morning, because they think with the record turnout that 500 people could still be in line at 8pm when the polls close. But they still get to vote, which could lead to a long time before we know who wins Wisconsin.

BTW, we use the connect two arrows with a special black pen optical type ballots

I was not mailed my polling place 10 days prior to the 2004 Election like they were suppose to do. I had to go online and find my place. When I got to the place, they told me I had to go to another polling place. This upset me, because I thought the Internet polling locator offered by Arizona's Recorder would be accurate. It was not!

On the plus side, the election officials at both polling places were friendly, helpful and informative. This made the actual voting process painless.

It was easy to vote, and the design and setup of the actual ballot left room for no mistakes on what you were voting for. When I was finished, they allowed me to put my ballot in the machine, and it showed that my votes were counted.

Writing from suburban South Jersey (Gloucester County). I showed up at the polls about 6:15 (they opened at 6), and the parking lot at the municipal building was pretty busy. I had glanced at my district number before showing up, which was good, as lines were broken out by district. I had one person in line ahead of me to sign the book of names, and again one in front of me to use the voting booth. I was #13 in my district that morning, which strikes me as pretty good before 6:30 AM. I was in and out in 5 minutes.

The voting machines were electronic, but not precisely touch-screen. Instead, the surface of the voting booth looked like a giant ballot, pre-printed on plastic. There were blinking green lights next to the name of each race -- once you voted in a race by pressing the box containing the person's name, the blinking green light went away, and a solid green X appeared next to the box. Once finished, you registered your votes by pressing the big red "Vote" button down at the bottom.

Two UI problems that I could see:

1) It would have been nice to have a visible indicator that said "You have voted in all races" or some such. I spent as much time double-checking to see if I missed something, as I did voting. Or more. Alternatively, you could get a flag or a 2-step confirmation if you haven't voted in all races. (Perhaps they have this, I don't know.)

2) It would have been good to have some feedback that you have successfully voted other than the machine going dark. I heard several people there saying, "Have I voted now?"

Otherwise, pretty uneventful -- I am sure that it was a mob scene by 8 AM, though.

In our rural suburb of Boston, the voting went the way it has for as long as I've lived there: 10 years. There are some 1500 registered voters in town, so voting tends to happen either in the morning as people are on their way to work or in the evening when they're on their way home.

The trickiest part is finding a parking space in the Town Hall lot, but since voting is quick, someone is usually pulling out just as you need the space.

You climb the stairs to the second floor of Town Hall (there's only one precinct in town) where the registrars, all wearing cheerful red aprons, check you in by street address. When they find your name, they cross it out with a red pencil and hand you a fill-in-the-oval ballot. If you want, you can take a "privacy sleeve."

There were about a dozen and a half boothlets equipped with black markers and instructions ("Don't place children on shelves.") We had, in addition to the Presidential and Congressional questions, local state senate and house, sheriff, and a non-binding referendum question.

After you mark your ballot, you head to the checkout table where another registrar crosses your name off the list to indicate you've voted. A friendly policeman watches as you feed your ballot into the scanning machine.

The only problem I encountered is that some people where going down the up staircase.

Long time voter, but for some reason both my wife and my names had "inactive status" flags on them. We simply filled in our street address, signed, and were permitted to vote normally.
The vote machines are fairly low tech (reliable?) "Microvote" boxes I've been used to voting on. The process seems simple and efficient.
We didn't have to wait in line, and everyone was friendly, at 7:00 AM in Hammond, Indiana.

I am voting after work today and am looking forward to it. I work at a University and we are doing an informal polling station for students, asking them to fill out "voting cards" at the same time handing out red-white-and-blue paraphenalia. There's a tv with continuing coverage on it in the room this is taking place in (although it is now showing FOX coverage). I will be staffing the room from 2 - 3 p.m. and plan to turn the channel to a more fair and balanced station.

I am giddy with anticpation on the prospect of voting today and have taken tomorrow off - to celebrate if Kerry wins or to sulk if Bush wins!

USA! USA! USA!

Surpisingly hostile to the elderly and probably disenfranchising anyone in a wheel chair (or any claustrophobes), the voting station in the Silver Towers at LaGuardia and Houston Street in Manhattan is accessible via a narrow stairway that serves as entry AND exit, plus there's no hand rail. The line at 10:30am was long as most people don't know their district and wait to have it looked up. The machines have toggle switches, and a big handle to register them when you're done. Someone in line mentioned that there were places in Harlem using paper ballots.

I voted this morning at our neighborhood's usual polling place, the local real estate office. Consistancy counts. Every few elections, this office isn't available, so they move it to a nearby church. I prefer the real estate office over the church for the same reason that somebody else mentioned: no creepy literature lying around. The parking situation is better at the church though, and I guess the real estate people have their own forms of creepy literature.

I brought my daughter with me so she could observe the process. No lines at all, but there were a steady stream of voters going in and out. The California ballot is loaded with propositions as usual, so you would expect people to take some time to go through it, but most of the people at the polls this morning seemed to be marking their ballots in rapid fire mode. We use the InkaVote system here, where you fill in the bubble using a felt tip pen poker thingy. You compress the spring to make the pen tip have contact with the ballot. I noticed that sometimes it didn't leave a mark even though I pressed down firmly. Bottom line, you have to check and make sure your ballot is marked. After voting, a poll worker takes your ballot and drops it in the ballot box. Sounds like in other places they scan your ballot on the spot. I'll bet that accounts for a lot of the slowness and subsequent lineup. The poll worker handed me an 'I voted' sticker. Gave my daughter one too, which made me happy. I was kinda disappointed that there were no exit pollsters outside this time.

i sent for an absentee ballot about tw