Your personal voting experience, 2008

[RebLem]

I voted about 3 PM on Supah Tuesday. My particular polling place was the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) headquarters about a mile from from condo. I went to IHOP first and ate my first meal of the day, which was the chicken florentine crepes, my favorite thing on their menu.

Now before any right wingers  start foaming about the alleged impropriety of voting at a union headquarters, I must say that most of the polling locations were at public schools, and, secondarily, city park system community centers. My regular polling place for most elections is the closest church to my home, a New Beginnings Church right on the NW corner of Carlisle and Montgomery here in Albuquerque.  The New Beginnings Church is one of dem right wing, highly politicized churches headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And back in Chicago, when I lived in Hyde Park in the 1970's, someone told me that on 55th St, before urban renewal, there had been an anarchist bookstore whose owner was not above renting his place out to the Board of Election Commissioners as a polling place on election days! 

The process was a little confused, but I was in and out in about 10 minutes. The two ppl before me were not on the rolls and didn't have IDs, so they were given provisional ballots; I showed them my voter ID card and they found me on the rolls in just a minute. I signed in and was told to go to the end of the table, or the end of a long string of tables where the officials sat.

So, I went down to the end, and waited my turn. Turned out, I had gone too far to the end. The last table was the one where they issued the provisional ballots. They issued the regular ballots at the table before that, so I got in that line, and was issued a ballot without much waiting.

My ballot, I was surprised to see, had Obama at the top. Everyone who had ever been a candidate was on the ballot, including even Mike Gravel. Richardson was down about 4th or 5th. The last two lines were for those who wanted to cast uncommitted ballots, so that the delegates could pick and choose. That's for dyed in the wool party people who, basically, would just like to expand the ranks of uncommitted superdelegates. I said two lines--one worded in Spanish, the other in English. Spanish and English are, by state law, co-official languages in New Mexico. This seems to be in the spirit of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which transferred New Mexico from Mexican rule to the United States. Anyway, Hillary was dead last on the list of actual candidates, just before the two lines for uncommitted votes.

After I had marked my ballot, but before I put it in the ballot box, one of the election officials came over, and told me to put away the copy of Obama's The Audacity of Hope, which I had conspicuously carried through the entire process. Nothing that looks like electioneering materials allowed, she said. Horse already out of the barn, I thought, but I complied, just holding the book with the back cover out instead of the front cover out, as I had before. I also explained that I had thought that the difference between a primary and a caucus (ours was officially called a caucus, even though it involved secret ballots) was that electioneering was allowed in caucus polling places, whereas it wasn't in primaries. I explained that the last time we had one, in 2004, people had been inside the polling place collecting signatures to get judicial candidates on the fall ballot. She explained that the rules were changing all the time, and acknowledged it was a little confusing. I apoligized and put the book away, put my ballot in the box, and left.

I voted for Obama, of course. Clinton was alleged to have it in the bag here, as Richardson was in favor of her; the two Bills watched the Super Bowl together, as everyone knows. Hey, they are both major chip and salsa types, it seems. 

But it seems that Obama is making a surprisingly strong showing here. Just before I came in the office to write this, MSNBC carried the news that with 47% of the vote reported in NM, Hillary had 49% and Obama 47%, well within striking distance, with 53% of the vote still unreported. It is now, after writing this, 1 :45 AM Feb 6.

So, how did your voting experience go?

[RebLem]

@ 4:35 AM, MSNBC reported that whith 92% of precincts reporting, the New Mexico count is now 49% for Obama and 48% for Clinton, still too close to call. Same percentages, btw, except with 97% of precincts reporting, in Missouri, which is supposed to be a bellwether state. This is a really close one, folks!

[Steve]

Arrived at the polling place around 7am. Turnout was strong, albeit weaker than forecasted. Glad to see that McCain has done well. 

[MN Dave]

Thought about going. People were standing out in the cold because they couldn't get in, it was so crowded. Glad of my decision not to go.

[jwinter]

I headed forth and voted for Obama last night after work.  I took my 4 year old daughter with me, which was actually kind of nice as the polling place was at the kindergarten where she'll be starting next year.  After the vote (which went very smoothly, less than 5 minutes -- like others, everybody who'd ever run was still on the ballot), we spent a good ten minutes checking out the playground and comparing the pros & cons of each item vs the preschool playground and various public ones near our house.  I left with the strong impression that her methodology for selecting a playground and mine for picking a president differ in only very minor respects...