The anecdotal voter (open thread)

Posted at 7:34 AM on November 7, 2006 by Bob Collins (33 Comments)

Post your quips about your voting experience here today. Turnout, conversations, etc.

7:51 a - Better half just returned from Woodbury's precinct 1 (Lake Jr. High). 210 people had voted in the first 40 minutes.

8:20 a - On way out of town. Only Dem sign-wavers -- Klobuchar and Marsha Swails (Rep candidate in 56B) represented. Where are the Repubs at Woodbury's busy intersection.

8:23 - Lone sign carrier for Sen. Brian LeClair greets me at on-ramp to I-94. No Dems

8:23 - Signs for Klobuchar and Hatch stuck on overpass near cloverleaf.

11:31 - My vote was #756. That's, what, about a 110-115 an hour? I guess that's not bad. I voted right after the kid with the t-shirt that said, "liberalism is a mental defect." Checked the cars in the lot to look for bumper stickers, but only one candidate (Swails) was represented.

I like to talk to election judges when I vote. So I asked the elderly election judge (seriously, are there many who aren't?) "how long have you been doing this?" "four years," she said, asking me whether I thought she was ancient. She caught me. This was like asking a woman "when are you due" who is not pregnant. Busted.

12:08 Son #2, casting his first vote, says 828 votes so far. That's a slight uptick in vote rate. Expecting gushing interest in politics -- as with #1 son -- he said "it's OK" in that 18-year-old, I'm-too-cool-to-gush voice. He then tears into me for cutting my Dish Network tier and dropping Fox Sports North and FX. Kids.

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Comments (33)

Saint Paul, 7-2. Polls opened on time; there was a little confusion between the folks actually giving out the ballots. The little old lady giving out ballots seemed very flustered and thought there were two full pages. When I got to the booth, I found two full ballots in my 'secrecy' folder.

Suffice to say, I voted only the once and gave the judge watching the ballot box the extra immediately. Such are the pitfalls of going in before everyone has had their coffee. #2 @7:08am - my polling place has one of the lowest percentiles of voting in the city.

Posted by Drew | November 7, 2006 8:22 AM

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I'm usually the first in my Anoka County polling place to vote -- today when I arrived at 6:50, a dozen or so people were already waiting for the doors to open.

A promising sign -- speaking of signs, I saw an unusual nuber of "sign holders" at intersections on my ride in to work. People are energized.

I predict that Minnesota will have unusually high voter turnout in spite of (or perhaps because of) the most negative campaign advertising in some time.

Posted by Bob from ALAMN | November 7, 2006 8:27 AM

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I almost didn't vote today because I was so turned off by the amount of political ads and their negative tone. However, once I got to the polls I felt this strong connection to the history of this country by participating in a free election process. As the machine sucked in my ballot and one of the poll volunteers gave me an "I voted" sticker, we high fived and cheered! And it didn't even matter which side of the aisle we voted.

Posted by Linda Jones | November 7, 2006 8:33 AM

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I voted in New Richmond, WI this morning and would guess that we had 150 or so voters in the first half-hour, which is the sort of turnout I've seen only in Presidential election years here.

Posted by David Wilford | November 7, 2006 8:56 AM

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ah, but did you vote this time?
;)

Posted by rew | November 7, 2006 8:58 AM

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No problems at Whittier (26th Street in South Minneapolis). I arrived at my polling place at 7:01AM - I was number 71 to vote. Big mix of ages, races and gender. Many were just registering for the first time - good to see. The polling place was extremely organized - many polling workers there to help and assist those new to the voting process. Still voting paper at this precinct.

Posted by Susan | November 7, 2006 9:00 AM

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Unusual heavy turnout in my area.

Posted by Noah Kunin | November 7, 2006 9:08 AM

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I was 30th in line in Apple Valley at 6:50. By the time I left the line had grown to about 100. On my way to work, lots of people were waving candidate signs; people were honking horns. It was a good feeling to be part of another election day.

I think about the people who died for the right to vote - even in my lifetime. Each election day is a gift, in my opinion.

Posted by marguerite kirchhoff | November 7, 2006 9:16 AM

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I had a 20 minute wait to cast my vote this morning in Marion Township/SE Rochester. I got to the polling location (Burr Oak School) around 7:35 and inserted my ballot just before 8:00. Mine was the 200th ballot in the box.

Posted by Rachel | November 7, 2006 9:20 AM

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I was 174 at 8:15 am in CRYSTAL W-4 P-01. Looks like a good turn out today, guess 75% statewide.

Posted by Brian Hanf | November 7, 2006 9:32 AM

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Wife and I were in line at 7 AM, to get ballots 49 & 50. Like others noticed, we saw new voters registering, among the usual chaos at the check-in table. No line for A-G, where an election judge sat doing nothing, while the judge for H-M and N-Z had a line running out the door. Surely there is room for improvement in that system...

Posted by bsimon | November 7, 2006 9:35 AM

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//ah, but did you vote this time?

Not yet. My wife did and then I had to take her to the car repair place and get into work for the Midmorning gig. But now I'm heading back to Woodbury to vote and take a nap.

But I'm probably only going to vote the bottom-of-the-ticket races.

Posted by Bob Collins | November 7, 2006 10:07 AM

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Same thing here: the "A" desk was line-free, and I breezed right through.

I eagerly voted "YES" on the Minneapolis Instant Runoff Voting amendment.

Now I'm just crossing my fingers that the national voting results will actually match the exit polls for a change...

Assuming the exit pollsters are ever allowed out...

http://tinyurl.com/uktyx

Posted by Albatross | November 7, 2006 10:35 AM

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Well I showed up at Eagan Precint 17 to vote and they said I wasn't on the registration list and sent me away. So I went to another polling place and they said to go to P-17. This time they "found" my name on the list and let me vote.

It seems that party of treason (republican) is trying to rip off elections in Minnesota. Maybe it's time to start hunting Republicans instead of deer.

Posted by Steve Wilson | November 7, 2006 10:36 AM

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The election judges seemed confused on the rules at my polling place (Plymouth). The person doing registration turned away 2 people before me incorrectly telling them their proof of residency needed to be older than 30 days. He was trying to turn me away but another judge stepped in and corrected him. Most of the judges were not explaining the instructions for filling out the ballot as well. I worked as an election judge in the 2000 election and was shocked to see how many problems there are at the polls. These ranged from running out of ballots and someone going to Kinko's to copy them, to people not understanding that they don't have to vote for each office on the ballot to be counted.

Posted by Sarah | November 7, 2006 10:38 AM

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I was in line in northeast Minneapolis (HD 59A, W-1 P-5) by 7:15 and finally voted around 7:45. I was number 68. There was surprisingly few same-day-registration voters; most everyone was already registered.

Just over 1,500 people voted in this precinct in 2004, and about 950 voted in 2002.

Posted by Minntelect | November 7, 2006 10:43 AM

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I cast the 60th ballot this morning in the party room of an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis @ 7:25 am. I got there at 7, the doors to the building were not open, but there were about 75 people lined up on the sidewalk. They had the check-in and registration tables set up in the lobby right inside the doors, so I'm glad that today is supposed to be warm because most of the line was outside. I'm also glad I wrote down my choices beforehand (using Google and the Secretary of State's list of candidates on the ballot) so I didn't have to think too much this morning!

Posted by Anita | November 7, 2006 10:59 AM

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Voted in South Minneapolis this morning...no problems and it was pretty quick.

I DID have to consult the MPR candidate picker thing to solidify one of my decisions...thanks for the political insight here on MPR.

Vote early, vote often!!!

Posted by The Onanist | November 7, 2006 11:02 AM

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Voted at P-9 in Edina at 10:30. It wasn't "swamped" but was definately busy - I got the one available voting booth (out of about 10) and about about 430 people had already voted. It appeared that the election judges were handling things smoothly and, for the first time that I've seen, there were "student" election judges (high school age) that explained how to use the ballot.

Posted by Steve | November 7, 2006 11:06 AM

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I was voter #210 in Plymouth Precinct 14 (SD 43) at approximately 8:30 a.m. There were few voters there at that time, no line.

Posted by Matt Abe | November 7, 2006 11:18 AM

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Correction, I was voter #220.

Posted by Matt Abe | November 7, 2006 11:20 AM

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I live in the St. Paul Mac-Groveland area and I voted at 8:40 this morning. There was no line but all the booths were full. My ballot was number 259. There were 1400 votes in ths precinct in 2004, and it chose Kerry 73% to 25%.

Posted by Greg Long | November 7, 2006 11:46 AM

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I voted at 7:10 this morning in Savage, and I was about number 60. There was quite a line - I hope it continued all day.

Like some of the others here, I think of the countries like Iraq or Iran or any number of countries in Africa, where voting is so hard (or not allowed). The least we can do is pick a candidate and vote! A few anoying phone calls (and I made some of those as a volunteer) is a small price to pay, I am just happy I HAVE a phone and the ability to make and receive calls.

Posted by Robin Martinek | November 7, 2006 11:53 AM

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I voted at my NE Mpls precint at around 7:30 this morning. I was number 67, which seems pretty good. All the booths were full when I got there and when I left. Good numbers of same-day registrations coming in; a couple getting turned away for not having a utility bill or other ID (if I'd known them I would have stepped in to vouch for them).

One gripe: the person handing out the ballots wasn't clarifying to anyone that it was a two-sided ballot with very important seats and questions on the back! I should have said something when I left, but was basking in the glow of my "I Voted" sticker.

I hope all those same-day folks try again... and thank goodness we have that option!

Feeling very hopeful for a wave of change.

Posted by Jess | November 7, 2006 12:15 PM

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My precinct in St. Paul was moving very briskly. They had a duplicate copy of the registration list near the door for those who were not sure if they were registered or not. A good addition, I think.

The sweet older lady who gave me the ballot was very careful to point out that I should mark on both sides. The turn out seemed very good for about 8 am.

I just listened to Joe Manske from Ramsey Cty on with Gary Eichten, answering question after question. The rules around voting are really very complicated! In my view, the nearly-volunteer election judges are the weak point in our system. Not for fraud, but for turning people away on bad reasons or for messing up the count at the end of the day when everyone is very tired.

Posted by Leslie | November 7, 2006 12:28 PM

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I was #280 at about 9:30 this morning in Standish neighborhood. Long lines, everything went smoothly. A coworker told me that the ballot scanner was broken at her precinct; they just collected the ballots in a basket and were going to scan them later.

Posted by Victoria Ford | November 7, 2006 12:35 PM

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I voted in my ancient township hall about 10:30. Although the workers said things were busy, I was in and out in about 6 minutes. Thank you MN poll workers!!

Posted by Marsha | November 7, 2006 2:16 PM

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Hey Bob... I thought you didn't vote!?!?

Posted by gml4 | November 7, 2006 2:27 PM

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I voted in the Longfellow neighborhood of South MPLS at 2:20 p.m. I was voter 1003. The election judge told me that there are about 2500 people on the roster in my precinct, so that's 40% turnout already, and we haven't even hit the after-work rush yet. Wow.

No problems at all. Busy but moving along at a pretty good clip. Optical scan machine was working fine; poll workers were organized and knowledgeable.

Yay democracy!

Posted by Susan W-B | November 7, 2006 2:49 PM

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I voted in Armatage (SW Mpls) this morning- arrived at 7:15, voted around 7:30. I was voter #112. Better half voted at 2:30, said it was slow and he walked right in, he was voter #703.

Voters were allowed to spread out on several tables next to their neighbors to vote, or vote in one of the privacy votes. A colleague of mine said in Mendota Heights she was made to wait for one of the booths. I agree we should be allowed to just spread out. It really moves things along.

A couple glitches with registration- I registered 3 months ago but was not on the list. No biggie. But while I was registering, a gentleman who had lived (and voted) in the neighborhood for 12 years was made to register as he was not on the list. The election judge mentioned that others had made similar complaints. Not sure who is to blame- but there ya go.

Posted by Renae | November 7, 2006 4:11 PM

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I voted at Kewaydin community center in the East Nokomis neighborhood of south minneapolis at about 10am. I was approximately voter 550. There was a line of people waiting for booths so I just filled my ballot out on a table. I was glad I checked the back because I didn't initially see it was two-sided.

I am always very heartened to see the range of ages and different sort of folks at the polls. It makes my heart glad. Hopefully depression won't take over when the results start coming in (i still haven't completely healed from 2004)

Posted by Sara | November 7, 2006 4:37 PM

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Things moved quickly but there was still a line this afternoon. No obvious confusion on the part of voters. Plenty of neighbors paused to talk. I love voting!

#974 here, reminding you all to give those vote voluteers a big hearty "thank you".

Posted by Julia Schrenkler | November 7, 2006 6:23 PM

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//Hey Bob... I thought you didn't vote!?!?

I didn't vote in the primary and don't vote if there's a race with candiates I'm not interested in.

I generally don't vote top of the ticket anymore or races that I've "analyzed". and I won't waste a vote just because I have it. If a candidate doesn't earn my vote, he/she/it doesn't get it.

I dig legislative and city council races, although I admit, that when I got in to the booth today, i couldn't remember which one of the knuckleheads for City Council was the one who said Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was her favorite movie.

Posted by Bob Collins | November 8, 2006 6:31 AM

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