Election day - who cares (Boston: garden, suburbs, approval)

[Louisville Slugger]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

At least in my precinct it works like this:

You enter the school gym. There are two older ladies sitting at a table. One is for streets A-L, the other M-Z. I live on an M-Z street and so whenever I vote that line has three or four people and the other line has no one.

You tell them your street. They fumble through their list to find the page with your street. Then you tell them your number. Then you tell them your name. They give you a ballot and put a black mark in the box by your name.

You go to some stands with pens and fill out your ballot.

You then go to another table with two ladies with streets A-L and M-Z. You tell them your street. Then your number. Then your name. They fill in another box next to your name. You can get an "I Voted" sticker at this table.

Finally you go in a line to feed your paper ballot into the vote counting machine. It suck the ballot in, reads it, counts it, and tells you everything worked. You can then go home.

Sometimes the counting machine breaks. This actually happened at my voting place last night, although about an hour after I voted: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...KjJ/story.html

Yup, this was exactly how it was for me.

[mp775]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Also Lantigua lost in Lawrence?

In the Primary.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

You enter the school gym. There are two older ladies sitting at a table. One is for streets A-L, the other M-Z. I live on an M-Z street and so whenever I vote that line has three or four people and the other line has no one.

You tell them your street. They fumble through their list to find the page with your street. Then you tell them your number. Then you tell them your name. They give you a ballot and put a black mark in the box by your name.

You go to some stands with pens and fill out your ballot.

You then go to another table with two ladies with streets A-L and M-Z. You tell them your street. Then your number. Then your name. They fill in another box next to your name. You can get an "I Voted" sticker at this table.

Finally you go in a line to feed your paper ballot into the vote counting machine. It suck the ballot in, reads it, counts it, and tells you everything worked. You can then go home.

That's exactly my experience, although sometimes the older ladies get confused in which i end up leaning over and point to my name on the clipboard and say "That's me". Yesterday, i didn't even get to say my name. I said my address to which the person immediately said "Are you Bostonmike7" to which i replied "today I am" and got my ballot. I still had plenty of time to scan the sheet and see if my neighbors had made it to the polls before me.

I remember when i was a naive 18-year old voting for the first time i waited in line 10 mins with driver's license in hand only to find out it as no different than taking attendance in a 3rd grade school classroom. I was actually shocked that there wasn't a more official verification process and this was well before i understood the politics behind the Voter ID law debates.

Oh and the ballot machine was broken by 8AM yesterday at my location. Had to give it to a gentleman to shove into a slot on the side. Fun times.

[ben young]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

All you do is go up to the table and tell them your street. They ask you what # and then ask you your name.

I live in a smaller town, it may vary slightly in some of the larger cities but I don't think so.

lowell does it like that on paper then carried to a machine you place it inand its automaticly counted

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

You guys are killing me. "Feed the ballots into the machine?" What does that even mean?

It's 2018. You're telling me you don't walk into a booth, close the curtains, push buttons next to the names, and then hit another button that says, "Cast Vote"?

Pretty much. I like it this way the best, and I've voted in MD, PA, IL, NC and MA. I never liked the electronic votes because there was no way to know if my vote was recorded or recorded correctly. At least in MA, that paper ballot exists and can be referred to later if required. It also cannot be hacked.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

You guys are killing me. "Feed the ballots into the machine?" What does that even mean?

It's 2018. You're telling me you don't walk into a booth, close the curtains, push buttons next to the names, and then hit another button that says, "Cast Vote"?

Look at the first part of this animated video. The machine is somewhat like we have been describing, although it's a little fancier than the one I use. You feed your completed ballot into it yourself and it just sucks it in sort of like an ATM when you deposit a check that way:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2brBaGPRkFs



I have also voted the way you describe with the buttons and the curtain switch registering your vote when you exit the booth, but that was in a larger city. Now we use paper ballots and sharpies!

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by magicshark

No we do not. We go to a small booth/stand and fill out by pen on a paper ballot.

Honestly I prefer it that way. I hear problem after problem with the voting machines. It was a nightmare in parts of Georgia because of those machines yesterday. Sometimes the old way is the best way.

Must be a REALLY old way. I am 60 and first voted at 18, and I've never seen a paper ballot.

Originally Posted by timberline742

I filled in bubbles and am much happier that way. The electronic voting systems aren't secure or verifiable.

Then again, I live in New Jersey, so...hmmm...

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

At least in my precinct it works like this:

You enter the school gym. There are two older ladies sitting at a table. One is for streets A-L, the other M-Z. I live on an M-Z street and so whenever I vote that line has three or four people and the other line has no one.

You tell them your street. They fumble through their list to find the page with your street. Then you tell them your number. Then you tell them your name. They give you a ballot and put a black mark in the box by your name.

You go to some stands with pens and fill out your ballot.

You then go to another table with two ladies with streets A-L and M-Z. You tell them your street. Then your number. Then your name. They fill in another box next to your name. You can get an "I Voted" sticker at this table.

Finally you go in a line to feed your paper ballot into the vote counting machine. It suck the ballot in, reads it, counts it, and tells you everything worked. You can then go home.

Sometimes the counting machine breaks. This actually happened at my voting place last night, although about an hour after I voted: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...KjJ/story.html

Interesting.

Ours works like this. We go to the town hall (We don't have any schools in my town--they go to an adjacent town) and there is a table set up with two lines A-M, N-Z and you go to the one for your last name, not your street (we only have three streets in our town, two start with B and one with C, lol, but it's by last name everywhere in the state). You tell them your name, they find you in a book, and the book has a photocopy of your signature from when you registered to vote there. You sign on the line next to your signature. Ostensibly the person verifies that it's you, but the older woman working on my line is my cat sitter and the president of my condo board association and actually has a key to my condo, so she knows it's me.

Then she hands me a piece of paper with a number on it (I was 199 yesterday, when I was working I was always 1 or 2) and I walk a couple of feet over to one of the two electronic booths, hand the number to the woman standing there, and go inside and pull the curtain closed behind me. Then I vote by pressing the little box next to the names of the people who are running and next to any referendum questions, hit the red "CAST VOTE" button, and come out.

I haven't always lived in a three-street town, but that's pretty much been the routine everywhere I've lived except for the cat-sitter/condo board president part.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Two of the highest ranking members of the State House besides Deleo lost their jobs in the primaries, Jim Lyons of Andove got unseated yesterday.

Losing Lyons is a shame, that one man was probably about half of the common sense that existed in that chamber.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

Then again, I live in New Jersey, so...hmmm...

I'm really sorry.