I've tried to vote twice in Palm Beach County...lines too long!

[Vickers]

Yesterday I went to the main election office (home of the lovely Theresa LePore of butterfly ballot fame :eyes:) up on Military and Gun Club Road (seriously!), and the line was about 300 feet long OUT of the building. I figured hey, I'll go to the Delray Beach office tomorrow.

Well, I went to the Delray Beach office this morning, and the line wasn't coming out of the building, so I walked in, and the line snaked through the hallways for about 150 feet on the first floor, up to the second floor, another 75 feet or so of line, then in to a conference room where another 60 people or so were waiting.

Man, I can not WAIT to see what percentage of people are voting in this election.

Anyway, I will go to my precinct on Tuesday no matter how long the line is I will wait. This is getting crazy!

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Don't give up!

And I hope a lot of us Dems don't get discouraged by the long lines and long wait. It is worth it to get * out of office!

[Memekiller]

2. They might also not be giving you enough voting machines...

It's one strategy to suppress turnout.

[RivetJoint]

9. It's a Democratic County

why would we supress voting in our "own" counties?

[FlaGranny]

11. Teresa LePore anyone? n/t

[RivetJoint]

12. She was/is a Democrat

[FlaGranny]

17. No, she isn't.

Her family is Republican and so was she. She changed to Democrat before she was elected supervisor of elections. After 2000, she changed to Independent. Ms. LePore does what is necessary to get the job done. That's why she was voted out of office a few months ago. It's a shame we couldn't get rid of her before THIS election.

[FlaGranny]

10. Actually, what they're doing,

according to my son who stood in line three different times before he got to vote, is not having enough computers to check peoples' registrations. He said there were only two, connected to the internet. When he finally got inside there were six voting machines with three of them empty!!! I'm not sure which office he finally voted in, but it was southern PBC.

[Memekiller]

20. Hmmm...

That's definitely something to look into since the GOP is putting so much effort into challenging votes.

[DrZeeLit]

3. Your headline cracked me up... sounds like you're voting two times..

...on first read.

I was thinking -- whoa, lots of guts there!

[still_one]

4. don't wait until tuesday...

[Grillymom]

5. I love it when people take voting so seriously!

Glad to hear the good news of voter turnout.

[quisp]

6. that's right - vote early and OFTEN! n/t

[Cannikin]

7. OMG...if I hear Dems didnt vote because of long lines...

I will blow my top.


MOVE, TROOPS!!!


GET IN GEAR!!!


MOVE IT! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!

[Warpy]

8. The lines will be longer on Tuesday

so you might as well suck it up and vote today.

Lines here in central NM have been down the block for a couple of weeks. The wait when I went on the first day was about an hour.

If it gets rid of Bush, it's time very well spent.

[Vickers]

14. No, the lines Tuesday will be shorter...all precincts open

There are only 3 places county-wide where you can vote early, and that is the reason for the long lines On Tuesday, dozens of polling places will be open.

I have never had a problem voting here on the actual voting day, either primaries or general.

But, this did get me to thinking...are they PURPOSEFULLY making the early voting difficult to discourage voting on Tuesday?

*stroking chin thoughtfully*

[Suziq]

13. This is Great!

Huge voter turnout = win for Democrats! :bounce:

My state does not have early voting. Mr. Suziq and I are going to try to be first on line on Tuesday. I am so psyched!

:hippie:

[RedEagle]

15. Lines = Electronic voting and poll books?

I thought this was the technological voting age.

(Sarcasm)

What's coming out about touch screens and electronic poll books is that they make voting take LONGER.

I was told by a smart election official in an Illinois county last year that she didn't want the touch screens for that very reason- they are too slow.

People who know who they are going to vote for come in on their lunch hour, fill out the paper ballot, and they're done.

Paper poll books are just as fast as electronic and have the added benefit of auditability- voters have to sign in.

If it's all electronic, anyone could go back through, see who's registered but not voted, and, um..... vote for them.

[FlaGranny]

18. In my experience, I find the machines

very FAST. But my husband, poor soul, who hates anything "newfangled" takes forever. He even hates the remote control for the teevee and push button phones. I just thoroughly study my sample ballot ahead of time so I know what I'm doing. Takes me just a few seconds to vote. Then I go over my votes carefully, but which probably takes a bit longer than the actual voting.

Edit: I'd actually love these machines for voting IF I could be sure they were foolproof. Anyone with any familiarity with computers would never assume they were foolproof though.

[Bandit]

16. And we oppose "Vote By Mail" why?????????

Oregon has had Vote By Mail for several years and they absolutely love it. They do not worry about long lines or voter intimidation or only two computers for all voters etc. etc. We need to get Vote By Mail for every state or suffer the consequence like we are currently doing by all reports. Republican thugs calling themselves "Poll watchers" just so they can intimidate people. We must put an end to the folly.

[FlaGranny]

19. Sounds good to me. That's why

we requested absentee ballots. The trouble is, we haven't received them yet. I just tried to call to see when we might expect them. THE PHONE LINE IS SO BUSY that I just got a bunch of tones and a Bell South recorded message that said the circuits were all busy and to try again later. Not a good sign.

[cliss]

21. You're right.

The entire state of Oregon is vote-by-mail now. We're a whole family of Democratic voters. We got our ballot booklet in the mail. We sat down after dinner and went through the ballots. We discussed the issues.

After some debate, we decided to vote the Democratic party line all the way down. After we were done, we just put a stamp on the ballot and put it in the mailbox. As easy as can be.

All it cost us was a 37 cent stamp.