How far do you drive to vote?

jwstewar · Nov 9, 2006

Our trip is probably 5 miles round trip. Usually only have to wait on one or two people when we had our old electronic machines. They use to put 2 in at our polling place. Now with the touch screen machines they put 4 of them in, now we had to wait for 20 people ahead of us and we showed up at about they same time as normal. So much for the new machines being faster.

mwechtal · Nov 9, 2006

It's 3 miles for me, but on the way to-from work, so no extra miles for me!

We got to use the old lever type voting machines for the last time, they say.

It's interesting, I always thought these machines had a punched/printed tape record of every vote for recount purposes. It turns out a recount involves checking the counters on the back of the machine, and adding them up again.

Mike

hilld · Nov 9, 2006

In Oregon, we have only mail in elections, been that way for over 10 years and works out ok. The only thing we miss out on is getting the "I Voted" sticker.

Derek

JDGREEN4ME · Nov 9, 2006

Less than 2 miles round trip. No "I voted" stickers or the numbered corner of a paper ballot like the first time I voted.

cisco · Nov 9, 2006

Ah, about 150 feet to my mailbox. I vote absentee, as I must be at work most of the day, and the lines at the polling areas before and after such (say, 7-8a and 5-7p) are way long. Indeed, driving to the polls is not as much of an issue as the darn lines - we had a bunch of initiatives on our ballot, and seems most folks didn't read them (in the newspaper or whatever) before showing up to vote, and my wife said it was taking 15 minutes for some of the mentally gifted to sort through the ballot.

Bird · Nov 9, 2006

We drove about 3.5 to 4 miles to where we voted. I noticed a number of people mentioned "absentee" voting. We used to have that in Texas. I've forgotten just what questions you had to answer as to why you would not be available to vote on election day, but now we simply have "early voting" instead of "absentee" and anyone can go vote early. So we always do that and usually avoid any crowds or lines. Twenty years ago, we voted at the school which was just across the street and one city block north of our home, but we usually had to stand in a long line to get to vote.

Do some states still have "absentee" voting and not make early voting available to everyone?

GaryE · Nov 9, 2006

About 5 miles each way. We still use paper ballots, but we did have new pencils.

jand38 · Nov 9, 2006

Voted early ( TEXAS ) no lines and the best part you do not get political phone calls after you vote do not know how it works but sure makes for a more peaceful life not getting those recordings that you want to hollar at.

RobertN · Nov 10, 2006

Bird said:
Do some states still have "absentee" voting and not make early voting available to everyone?

Yes. Here, we can sign up to vote absentee(my wife does). In our particular case, we have to vote absentee anyways, even though I still drop mine off at a nearby polling place. In Calif, if there are less than a certian number of people in a precinct, you have to vote absentee; there are not enough people to actually work the polling place.

FWIW, my Grandmother will be 94 in a couple of weeks. She got up and was out the door by 5am on voting day, to help work the polling place. She stayed there till 10pm, taking care of voting stuff, and making sure the results were getting turned in properly. Now, we don't agree politically, but I gotta give her a lot of credit. She's out there the whole 17 hour day, when most precincts are having a hard time finding volunteers.