Please hurry, November 9!

[Nancyg56]

WHat bothers me is not that people are trashing candidates, that I think is par for the course, its it how personal this seems to have become. It is pretty offensive to me that some of the posts on FB are nto about the candidate, but more pointed towards who maybe voting for the candidate and the terrible things they say about those people. The last I heard, we all had he freedom to vote for who we felt was the best choice, and it makes me so angry that there are people who are attacking based on those choices.

I have not shared with anyone who I will vote for, refuse to discuss it at all. But I tell you, I know who a percentage of my FB friends are voting for, what they think about their cnadidate, and more importantly, what they think about people who vote for the other guy. I know that if after the election this nonsense does nto stop, I will be doing a clean sweep of my friends list. I am at the end of my patience.

 

[CdnCarrie]

You have two choices, vote above the line or below the line. Voting below is how to truly make your vote count, there are of course, a lot more boxes to number.

eta: missed the important info for you doh! Above the line is for the parties. Below is for candidates.

Does Australia use the same parliamentary model as Canada which is based on Great Britain?

 

[RedAngie]

We have behind the curtain voting still. I've never waited more than a couple of minutes to vote.

Same. I've never waited more than about 5 minutes. I'm amazed at stories I read about hour+ waits.

 

[bcla]

Same. I've never waited more than about 5 minutes. I'm amazed at stories I read about hour+ waits.

Depends on the location. I've never had much of a wait at any place I've voted. However, I've volunteered and served as an observer assigned to a polling place at a college residence hall. The lines were ridiculous and there were people still in line at poll closing. Anyone still in line at poll closing was entitled to vote. While there were some students, for the most part students weren't eligible to vote since most hadn't established residence there. It was mostly people who lived around the campus.

 

[jevs]

Does Australia use the same parliamentary model as Canada which is based on Great Britain?

Kind of, but not exactly.

Australia being Australia uses parts of the model from Britain as well as parts from America. Just to be utterly and completely confusing for not only the citizens but the rest of the world as well.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I really wish people would focus more on promoting their preferred candidate rather than trashing the other one.

What good things could you possibly say?

 

[SirDuff]

Not for free. But many schools, etc. will sell sausages and sometimes cakes as fundraisers. It's become quite a tradition to get a 'democracy sausage' that there are even websites to help you find out which polling places sell them!

Preferential voting means you number the candidates from 1 to whatever. Basically it's so people can say 'I don't like party X or Y so I'm voting for smaller party Z' but then their vote actually goes to party X on preferences.

We also have 2 ballots to complete on election day. The ballot for the House of Representatives has about 7 names for the candidate running to be your local member of parliament (MP). There are 150 MPs so to form a majority government a political party needs 76. This can be done through forming a coalition with other political parties, e.g. party X has 60 MPs elected and party Y has 70 MPs elected and party Z has 20 MPs elected but because X and Z are closely aligned they can join together to form government. This, combined with preferential voting, means we can sometimes wait several days for a result.

The ballot paper for the senate is more complicated and they changed it in the last election to make it even more so! The paper itself is over 3 feet long and doesn't even fit in the booth with you properly! Each state gets 12 senators and the 2 territories get 2, meaning that several members from the same political party can run and be elected. You can either vote above or below the line. If you vote above the line it means you are voting for a party and leaving it up to them to decide how your preferences are allocated to individual candidates. You have to put down at least 6 preferences for parties above the line. If you vote below the line it means you allocate at least 12 preferences to individual candidates. Again, this means we wait a ridiculously long time for the results, even weeks. My cousin worked for a senator who they knew would not be re-elected in the last election, but he continued to be paid for ages until the results were finalised.

The bit about the senate was the bit I was missing. We (Canada) only do the MP (or MPP if the election in provincial), so the above versus below thing didn't make sense. It makes sense now (for the senate vote). Well, the concept makes sense now - the whole thing sounds very confusing!

 

[DawnM]

Yeah, the only reason I'm hesitating on early voting is the school where I vote has a fund-raising bake sae.

Vote early AND have cake?

I fail to see the issue.

 

[DawnM]

I waited about an hour in 2008. It was when we had first moved to NC, so I wasn't sure if that was normal or not.

I voted early. My kids were little and in their halloween costumes waiting in line with me. My youngest was 4. He kept asking, "Mommy, who are you voting for? Mommy, who are you voting for?" I finally leaned down and said, "Honey we don't talk about that here." He thought about it for a minute and said, "OHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I know who you are voting for! Joe the Plumber!" Everyone in line started laughing.

We had just joked about it so much at home he kept hearing the name.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

What good things could you possibly say?

Well, apperantly some places have Cake!

Vote early AND have cake?

I fail to see the issue.

Everything is better with Cake.

 

[Turn the Page]

We have been using this precinct for the last 3 years so haven't done a major (i.e. presidential) election here yet but we have never had to wait at all. Granted, it is a rural area and the polling place we use covers the entire township but still. Lucky for us, DH normally has Tuesdays off so we can swing in there in the middle of the day and get it done while everybody else is at work. We will be in WDW on election day this year so we turned in our absentee ballots a few weeks ago. DH was thrilled with the convenience and wants to do it this way every year but I'm pretty sure you have to have a legitimate reason for getting an absentee ballot, you can't just get one because you don't want to wait in the nonexistent line on election day. Of course if DH wants to go on vacation every election day who am I to argue?

I did feel gypped out of my nifty I voted sticker though.

 

[Deb in IA]

We are registered as Independents, just so that we can avoid the RNC and DNC robo calls, flyers, e-mails, and door bell ringers.
However, our daughter, who lives with us, changed her registration back in January, solely so that she could caucus for Bernie.
We have gotten so much stuff reminding her to vote for Hillary and to vote early.

A lady even came to our door on Saturday morning (we live in the country, on a farm, in the middle of a field) and asked to speak to her - she was a work. The lady says "Jennifer hasn't voted yet, do you know why she hasn't?". I told her we vote on Election Day. With the polls in Iowa being open from 7 am to 9 pm, there is no problem getting to one. She says, "Well, we really want people to vote early, so that we don't have to come and remind you". Then she asks, "She is voting for Hillary, isn't she?" I said I didn't know. So then she asks me, "Are YOU voting for Hillary?" I told her that I don't even tell my husband who I vote for, and I'm not going to tell her.

Sheesh.

 

[Dan Murphy]

A lady even came to our door on Saturday morning (we live in the country, on a farm, in the middle of a field) and asked to speak to her - she was a work. The lady says "Jennifer hasn't voted yet, do you know why she hasn't?". I told her we vote on Election Day. With the polls in Iowa being open from 7 am to 9 pm, there is no problem getting to one. She says, "Well, we really want people to vote early, so that we don't have to come and remind you". Then she asks, "She is voting for Hillary, isn't she?" I said I didn't know. So then she asks me, "Are YOU voting for Hillary?" I told her that I don't even tell my husband who I vote for, and I'm not going to tell her.

 

[Marchand63]

I did early voting so I just skip all the ads & phone calls. Now if I don't recognize the number not picking up.

 

[pryncess527]

That seems wildly inefficient and needlessly expensive. But perhaps I am just not understanding the process.

The Muppets have a great explanation for how it works and why it can produce a better result

ETA the link I thought I included the first time . . .

http://archive.fairvote.org/irv/muppets/

 

[pryncess527]

We have behind the curtain voting still. I've never waited more than a couple of minutes to vote.

Turns out, the average wait time has a lot to do with the demographics of the area of your assigned polling location

http://web.mit.edu/vtp/Managing Polling Place Resources.pdf

 

[Liberty Belle]

Wow, I have NEVER experienced a line to vote in the 41 years I have been old enough to vote. That's GREAT if that many people are voting. We usually go vote as a family about 2 in the afternoon after the polls have been open 7 hours and we have never had more than about 70 people vote ahead of us. And they say here about half the folks will be voting my mail this year, so it should be even less.
Yeah, the robocalls are annoying, I probably should turn off my landline and leave my cell phone on when I go to bed. My wife, DD, DS, DDIL and DMIL are the only ones who have my cell phone number, since 2 of them live here, there are only 3 people who might call.

The only time I had to wait more than two or three minutes was the first time Obama was elected. I had to wait almost 2 hours that time.

ETA: It was a different precinct than I vote at now, but that wasn't the first or last time I voted there.

 

[DawnM]

We are registered as Independents, just so that we can avoid the RNC and DNC robo calls, flyers, e-mails, and door bell ringers.
However, our daughter, who lives with us, changed her registration back in January, solely so that she could caucus for Bernie.
We have gotten so much stuff reminding her to vote for Hillary and to vote early.

A lady even came to our door on Saturday morning (we live in the country, on a farm, in the middle of a field) and asked to speak to her - she was a work. The lady says "Jennifer hasn't voted yet, do you know why she hasn't?". I told her we vote on Election Day. With the polls in Iowa being open from 7 am to 9 pm, there is no problem getting to one. She says, "Well, we really want people to vote early, so that we don't have to come and remind you". Then she asks, "She is voting for Hillary, isn't she?" I said I didn't know. So then she asks me, "Are YOU voting for Hillary?" I told her that I don't even tell my husband who I vote for, and I'm not going to tell her.

Sheesh.

Someone came to our door when I wasn't home. They asked my husband who I was voting for and he told them he had no idea, I was free to choose.

Seriously, do you think by knocking at my door and harassing me, I will somehow change my mind about who I am voting for?

 

[runnerchick]

Early voting is just the best! Filled out my ballot at home, dropped it off to a secure voting drop off box - so convenient! Yet I am still obsessed with watching all the latest on CNN....

 

[Kimberlyann11]

My state doesn't have early voting. I am jelly.

DD voted absentee because she's at college. She got her ballot in the mail and when she was home for a visit, she went directly to the clerk's office and dropped it off in person. I guess that's her version of early voting.

Iceland just had an election Saturday for their parliament. They have a lot more legitimate parties than we do. They have an actual pirate party. Arrrrr.....