Vote

[mu_hilltopper]

I waited a half hour in a REALLY SLOW line this morning.  When I got to the front of the line, I realized why it was so slow.  The three really nice ladies that were looking up the names and checking IDs were older than dirt.    A n d   s l o w   A F .    If they put one old experienced person in there with a couple students, I bet I wouldn't have waited more than 10 minutes.

Yep.  We've got this too.  The poll workers are mostly the elderly and they are not quick. 

I get it .. not a lot of people out there can take a day off and work the polls .. but perhaps the municipality should supply a city worker during the rush hours.

[Benny B]

Ah .. that's no good.   We have 3 places, maybe 8 booths, one machine each location.  Our bottleneck is the 3 polling workers who are looking up your name, checking ID, getting you to sign, handing you a ballot.

So .. this all being said, I'm curious how these waits are allowed to continue. 

In Wisconsin, it's the municipality that draws the wards and selects the polling spots .. while those are typically drawn by the staff/management, they are voted on by the council/board/trustees.   I was a trustee in 2011 and did exactly this, after the 2010 census.

So .. if there were giant lines, as an elected official living in the area, I'd receive complaints -- and would be pissed too, after all, these are people in my neighborhood being denied a reasonable path to voting.

So this is what I don't understand.  Maybe it's different in each state.  Saw on Twitter that there are 3 hour waits in Atlanta.  The Atlanta City Council is .. mostly minority members.  Aren't they outraged?  Weren't they outraged 2-4-6 years ago when this happened before?

It's not galactically difficult to have more polling stations, helpers, booths.   How does this keep happening?

All this could be solved by allowing online voting.

But Benny, how can we keep hackers from tampering with elections when Target can't even keep my credit card information secure*?

Quit your whining... if these hackers are so good, why do they continue to go after credit card numbers and Ashley Madison data when it seems they could simply sit at home getting rich by hacking into banks and draining people's bank accounts. 

Oh yeah, because when you actually need to keep something secure on the internet - like money - there's actually a way to do that.



* Or insert your own fear-mongering red herring of choice.

[UWW2MU]

Because voter suppression is not in the best interests of a democratic society.

So according to your response, if I don't post on social media that I voted and/or that others should do the same... I am then suppressing votes?

[Archies Bat]

I waited a half hour in a REALLY SLOW line this morning.  When I got to the front of the line, I realized why it was so slow.  The three really nice ladies that were looking up the names and checking IDs were older than dirt.    A n d   s l o w   A F .    If they put one old experienced person in there with a couple students, I bet I wouldn't have waited more than 10 minutes.

This will self-correct over time.  I had a 50ish lady, a 60ish lady and a 70ish man at our check-in.  The 50ish lady was checking in about 50% of the voters, the 60ish lady about 35%, and the man got the rest.

Most folks under 60 have decent computer skills (as do many older folks, just not as high a percentage).

[GGGG]

I waited a half hour in a REALLY SLOW line this morning.  When I got to the front of the line, I realized why it was so slow.  The three really nice ladies that were looking up the names and checking IDs were older than dirt.    A n d   s l o w   A F .    If they put one old experienced person in there with a couple students, I bet I wouldn't have waited more than 10 minutes.

Nothing stopping the students from volunteering.

[Jockey]

Nothing stopping the students from volunteering.

My grandson (16) volunteered at an inner city polling place. He is there from 8am - 8 pm.

My wife and I volunteered at for a Jispanic outreach canvass program to encourage people to vote. Served them lunch. Great to see 150+ kids out doing this (mostly minority, probably 40% Hispanic, 40% black and 20% white).

[MUBurrow]

I don't want to debate the substance of the referendums themselves, but can we talk about the language of referendums as they appear on the ballot? Today was a perfect example of a well-written referendum and a godawful one.

Good:

Should marijuana be legalized, taxed and regulated in the same manner as alcohol for adults 21 years of age or older?

This is concise, apolitical, and just detailed enough to provide real insight into the minds of voters. Every word in that sentence is required to understand the true meaning of the referendum. If this referendum passes, and a state legislator speaks out against corresponding legislation, he or she should have to reckon with this - which as I understand it, is the entire point of a referendum. A+

Bad:

Should the state legislature protect residential property taxpayers by preventing commercial and manufacturing property owners from using tax loopholes to shift the tax burden to homeowners?

Excuse me? This is leading AF and never even mentions the substance of the question. This is the "dark store" referendum, and is seeking voter opinion on whether big box stores should be able to lower their property tax assessments by accounting for (the increasing number of) similar vacant properties in their appraisals.  Regardless of your position on the dark store theory of appraisal, you wouldn't even know that's what was being addressed here. And using phrases like "should the legislature protect" and "preventing tax loopholes" renders it legislatively meaningless. F, take home and have signed by parents.

[Lennys Tap]

I don't want to debate the substance of the referendums themselves, but can we talk about the language of referendums as they appear on the ballot? Today was a perfect example of a well-written referendum and a godawful one.

Good:
This is concise, apolitical, and just detailed enough to provide real insight into the minds of voters. Every word in that sentence is required to understand the true meaning of the referendum. If this referendum passes, and a state legislator speaks out against corresponding legislation, he or she should have to reckon with this - which as I understand it, is the entire point of a referendum. A+

Bad:
Excuse me? This is leading AF and never even mentions the substance of the question. This is the "dark store" referendum, and is seeking voter opinion on whether big box stores should be able to lower their property tax assessments by accounting for (the increasing number of) similar vacant properties in their appraisals.  Regardless of your position on the dark store theory of appraisal, you wouldn't even know that's what was being addressed here. And using phrases like "should the legislature protect" and "preventing tax loopholes" renders it legislatively meaningless. F, take home and have signed by parents.

Good call, Burrow.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Wearing a sticker is stupid af (no offense to the many wearing one, but..)

Two reasons to wear the sticker:

1. To get your free slice of pizza at Ian's in Madison

2. To ward off canvassers trying to get you to the polls on election day.  "Leave me alone.  Didn't you see my bleeping sticker?"

[Jay Bee]

Two reasons to wear the sticker:

1. To get your free slice of pizza at Ian's in Madison

2. To ward off canvassers trying to get you to the polls on election day.  "Leave me alone.  Didn't you see my bleeping sticker?"

Those both sound reasonable.

I wonder if any people complain about the taxpayer cost to fund the stickers and the environmental waste of them?....

[MU82]

My grandson (16) volunteered at an inner city polling place. He is there from 8am - 8 pm.

My wife and I volunteered at for a Jispanic outreach canvass program to encourage people to vote. Served them lunch. Great to see 150+ kids out doing this (mostly minority, probably 40% Hispanic, 40% black and 20% white).

In our fine state, the ruling party is so determined to maintain control that it has tried everything possible to suppress the vote. One thing they tried to do was cut number of early voting days in half, making only one Saturday available, and closing the polls entirely on Sundays. Why close them on Sundays, because surveys showed that was a popular day for blacks to vote after church. Heartless, racist d-bags running things here.

The other party had to go to court to get those racist policies overturned. After the court ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, polls were open Saturdays and Sundays in the two weeks leading up to the election.

This past weekend, my wife and I volunteered to drive people without transportation to the polls. We didn't ask anybody's party or whom they were voting for. It was satisfying.

[Jay Bee]

In our fine state, the ruling party is so determined to maintain control that it has tried everything possible to suppress the vote. One thing they tried to do was cut number of early voting days in half, making only one Saturday available, and closing the polls entirely on Sundays. Why close them on Sundays, because surveys showed that was a popular day for blacks to vote after church. Heartless, racist d-bags running things here.

^^^ ban dis gf-person

[rocket surgeon]

Wearing a sticker is stupid af (no offense to the many wearing one, but..)

People feel righteous and special for voting. I don’t get it. Might as well wear a “I washed my hands after hitting the John (pause)” sticker

didja ever come out of the bathroom with wet hands and ya run into someone ya know, they shake your hand and then look at ya kinda funny?  well worry no more if ya keep one of these handy-

[Herman Cain]

I think this country should bring back the poll tax . Would get a much better outcome. Too many uninformed people who are easily swayed that vote.

[tower912]

Obvious troll.

[Mutaman]

didja ever come out of the bathroom with wet hands and ya run into someone ya know, they shake your hand and then look at ya kinda funny?  well worry no more if ya keep one of these handy-

There he goes talking about bathrooms again.

[Pakuni]

I think this country should bring back the poll tax . Would get a much better outcome. Too many uninformed people who are easily swayed that vote.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

I think this country should bring back the poll tax . Would get a much better outcome. Too many uninformed people who are easily swayed that vote.

Why dont we repeal the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments too?

C'mon man.

[GB Warrior]

Gonna be a late night here in Wisconsin

[MU82]

^^^ ban dis gf-person

Hypocrite

[Benny B]

So according to your response, if I don't post on social media that I voted and/or that others should do the same... I am then suppressing votes?

Still giddy about voting on the pot referendums, are you?

[Jockey]

I think this country should bring back the poll tax . Would get a much better outcome. Too many uninformed people who are easily swayed that vote.

Quit beating around the bush. Say what you mean. “I hate poor people”.

[muwarrior69]

Tell me again why we want more people to vote?


Also, why is voting the only civic duty where we feel the need to brag we did it?     I don't go around bragging that I paid sales tax at lunch today...   

You can choose not to vote. I wish I could choose not to pay sales taxes.

[Pakuni]

You can choose not to vote. I wish I could choose not to pay sales taxes.

Sure, as long as you also choose not to call police when someone breaks into your home, call the fire department if said home catches fire, use public roads to get around or have your trash collected.
Deal?

[naginiF]

An hour long wait in my voting precinct.  Viva Democracy!

8 voting stations in a precinct of 10, 000

Congrats on the weed though!

We had 3 different medical marijuana proposals to vote on (they had different tax rates and benefactors of the tax collected) and one passed pretty easily.  one step at a time.