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‘I Voted’ Field Reports: November 2022 Election
I voted today.
Here’s my report: Even though we have been Early Voting for two weeks in Miami-Dade County, FL, there was a line to get into the library to vote. I have not ever seen a line to vote at this location before during early voting.
Another first (for me). At the location where I voted, every time a voter was identified as a “first timer,” a poll worker would shout, “first-time voter!” and all the poll workers would take a second to smile and applaud for the voter. One of the times when they were clapping, a person standing near me made a small mouth noise that sounded something like a quiet scoff.
Without looking at him directly, I smiled and said something similar to, “This is a very big important event in that person’s life. One takes great pride in voting here. This is the United States of America. Recognition of importance of voting is a good thing.” He gave a small nod.
I think the precinct worker guiding the voters in my line heard me because, a second or two later when I reached the front of the line, the woman whispered “But the country is different, it’s changed too much.” I quietly replied, “I know. WE need to take it back. And, that’s what we are here to do.” She nodded quite enthusiastically in response.
I was so surprised. I live in a very blue county in Florida. Never seen anything like this before.
Have you voted? If so, please share your experience.
Published in Elections
Good post. Thanks.
The disturbing thing is having seen an ad recently, by former President Obama, saying something like “democracy is on the ballot.” I took this to mean that people voting the way that you probably did are a threat to “democracy.”
I think that his statement is a bald-faced lie. I should hope for him to be forgiven, but part of me wants him to burn in Hell.
Doesn’t he already get that for supporting abortion?
Voted in VA. No line. Hard blue county. I worked the polls last year, and saw a bunch of familiar faces, which is good. I like that crew, and they seem to run a clean precinct.
Voted the first day of early voting in Texas. No real line. There were forty machines at the polling place. About 1/2 to 1/3 were in use. You got a blank paper ballot and fed it into the voting machine. You voted using a touch screen, and when you were done a printed ballot came out. Time stamped. You could review it for accuracy. Then you fed it into a ballot box via another machine which ensured the ballot went in properly oriented.
The result is machine and human countable.
Democracy should be one party. The good one, the right one (!)
This is a kindergarten-level absurdity coming from a Columbia Harvard educated lawyer.
That’s not how democracy is supposed to work.
If it’s not one guy they hate, it’s all of us.
We have all-mail voting in our state. Ray and I voted and returned our ballots last week. For the Secretary of State position, which was two DemocRats, we wrote in a candidate. That’s the first time I have ever written in a candidate. We know that, here in Deep Blue Commie Western Washington, our votes have never counted for much. But we continue to vote in every election.
Curious, why did you vote on a day that wasn’t election day?
Registered for ballot tracking in CA. Got a notice that the ballot was in the mail. Received it on time. Voted against most of the issues/proposals on the ballot and against most of the candidates. I did find one candidate to vote for. Mailed the ballot and three days later got the notification that it had been received and counted. Vote-by-mail may be the one thing CA can do right.
You have evidence that your ballot was counted correctly?
Do you have evidence that it wasn’t?
Oh the Democrats who run things love that kind of confidence!
Traveling in a couple of hours.
Because:
I don’t really care what choices other people make, but my decision to vote early is rooted in my intent to ensure my vote gets cast and counted.
I’m voting on election day because in Illinois that is the only time you can mark a paper ballot. Early voting is all electronic, and while we have vote-by-mail, our postal situation is horrible and I don’t trust anything to get anywhere on time or safely.
Besides, voting on election day is fun.
I prefer to vote on Election Day, in person. Will do so on Tuesday in my pretty red county, where I have reasonable confidence that the votes are counted correctly.
It may be valuable to be looking at other counties that are maybe not so honest, and whose dishonest votes might completely wash away those of your honest county.
That’s another – of a long list – of things that Gary doesn’t seem to understand or care about. He’s oh-so-proud of his little county’s elections, but the reality is that his little county is outvoted almost 50 to 1 by the two largest counties of the state. If THOSE counties aren’t honest, it doesn’t matter even a single bean – let alone a hill of them – if HIS county is honest.
Me too @RushBabe49 . I have always voted GOP and have never missed an election. When we moved here 45 years ago, Seattle was considered to be a conservative city and a great place in which to raise our small children. That changed with the influx of New Yorkers and Californians.
I completed my mail-in ballot (the only kind in this state) on the 1st, but did not mail it, as it can sometimes take more than a week to get mail from Seattle to this suburb, and I did not want to risk the timing going the opposite way, either. So I walked my ballot down to City Hall to deposit it in a secure collection drop-box. The PD is located just inside the doorway next to the box so I felt reasonably confident in its security. A couple days later, I checked the county elections ballot tracker online and saw my ballot had been received, signature verified, and counted.
So far so good. I just wish votes were not counted at all until after 8pm on election day, when the polls theoretically “close,” as I would not be surprised if partisan insiders secretly provide running early counts to whomever it is who will gin up all those needed “ballots” at 3am to push their candidate in close races over the finish line. Yes, I am cynical.
Ed. for grammar
I vote early (though not months early!) because I work with first responders and could get called to an emergency.
Voted at my tiny town office—no line, no fuss. I know of at least four other life-long Democrats who are voting straight red. No exceptions. They want the party to take a historic and painful defeat. Moi aussi.
BTW, I do like voting on voting day. I like the community-event aspect of it, the chit-chat in line, the bake sales that go on all ’round.
I voted already in Utah.
Mike Lee’s return to the Senate is important and Democrats have done one of the tricky machinations trying to defeat him.
Evan McMullin, who tried to keep Trump from getting Utah’s electoral votes in 2016 is running as an independent and because of the thought that he might draw some Romney Republicans, the Democrats have endorsed McMullin and are not running a Democrat in the election. Romney is worthy of labels like carpetbagger, turncoat, or maybe fellow-traveler.
And the scary part about McMullin is the only background available on him is he was an intelligence agent at the CIA. Just what we need in the Senate, he is already trained as an expert liar.
If ( Heaven Forbid), reason #2 above happened to a resident of Cook County , Illinois, they would be voting for a democrat. ( if the rumors about elections in that county are to be believed).
< sarcasm off >
< cynicism always on >
We early voted – no issues. I did research on all the judges and amendments. Short line when entering. In just the few minutes it took to vote, a long line when we left. My new neighbors are Vietnamese and over the top staunch conservatives. They could talk for hours how much they love both Trump and DeSantis. They lived under communists and fled CA after 30 plus years! They were very proud to vote and grilled me about all the questions on the ballot.
Exactly my point. It happens in Harris County, TX, too. When my father-in-law died, my brother in law made sure to remove him from the voter rolls. He didn’t want my FiL, a lifelong Republican, to be voting for Democrats thereafter.
https://dnyuz.com/2022/11/05/miami-dade-county-was-once-a-lock-for-democrats-not-anymore/
Republicans believe they have a good chance of capturing Miami-Dade County in the Florida governor’s race for the first time in two decades on Tuesday, a feat that would have been nearly unthinkable only six years ago, when Hillary Clinton won the pivotal county by a staggering 29 percentage points in her presidential contest against Donald J. Trump.
I’m so old I actually remember when the only day you could vote was Election Day, save for a few–very few- specifically defined exceptions, such as military, etc. That’s when I plan to vote this time; just “set in my ways”, I guess! By the way, I did a post a while back on my experience as a poll worker; it is here for any who might wish to take a look at it. It reflects my certainty in expressing the near-total integrity of the one polling place in one county, Santa Rosa, in one State, The Free State of Florida. That experience increased my pride in and hope for the people of America!
God Bless America!
I never heard of non-absentee early voting until I think, 2016. Has it been around much longer? Maybe a regional thing?
It’s been around in Texas for twenty years or so. Of course it is a regional thing because each state sets up its own election laws, including things like early voting.
I don’t recalled exactly when early voting ‘for convenience’ was first permitted in Florida, but it seems to me the option has been available for awhile; perhaps the mid-nineties. I did not initially vote early, but the 2 and 3 hour lines to vote eventually became unpleasant.
I recall once while standing in line, two women were discussing the election. I did not hear what they were saying but I clearly hear a girl about age 10, shout at one of the women “No! Mommy. My Teacher said I won’t be able to go to college if you don’t vote for Clinton.”
My mental swearing began post haste.