I voted this morning

[Swerd]

A friend just sent me this link. If you really want to wonder how the US made it this far, read it:

http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf

Many of the items listed make the current divisions in US politics seem mild by comparison, which is a little heartening.

Thanks for that link. A lot of items on that list I never knew.

 

[TLS Guy]

We do not have a polling place in Steamboat Township Hubbard County Minnesota! We can only vote by postal absentee vote.

The population of the township at the 2000 census was 123. We used to have a polling place but was deemed non handicap accessible. There is not the population to fund the required building so we lost our polling place.

My wife and I voted a week or so ago, and put the ballot in our rural mail box.

 

[lovinthehd]

We don't have a polling place, but there is a dropbox at city hall for ballots if you didn't mail it back in time, believe they're taken into the county hq for counting. No line to drop it in the box just a little while ago

 

[TLS Guy]

We don't have a polling place, but there is a dropbox at city hall for ballots if you didn't mail it back in time, believe they're taken into the county hq for counting. No line to drop it in the box just a little while ago

That would be a 70 mile round trip for us. However I did have to do that once, not for a presidential election and had to hand it to the county treasurer, to prove it was my ballot. You can not take a ballot for someone else, only USPS can do that in Minnesota apparently.

 

[lovinthehd]

Can't even drive to a polling place here, there aren't any here in Oregon. Just official drop boxes if you didn't mail back in time. If military or disabled there are some online options I believe.

 

[GO-NAD!]

This may just be a coincidence...

http://www.businessinsider.com/canadian-immigration-site-crash-election-2016-11

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I feel ashamed of this, but I didn't vote, nor did I register for any of the parties. But i will promise you gents. This was the last time in my life I didn't vote.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[highfigh]

I never go early on election day- it's always crowded and if I go later, it's a matter of walking in, signing in, getting the pink slip with the number and handing it to the person at the end of the sequence, where I said "You're fired!".

I slid the ballot into the machine- that's the quietest shredder I have ever used.

 

[Chu Gai]

This may just be a coincidence...

http://www.businessinsider.com/canadian-immigration-site-crash-election-2016-11

I don't understand why people are interested in entering Canada legally. Just go and stay.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I don't understand why people are interested in entering Canada legally. Just go and stay.

You mean the way Mexicans enter the US?

 

[jinjuku]

You mean the way Mexicans enter the US?

I think Chu was cracking a joke. I think Mexico is now going to suggest a wall and even offer to pay for it

 

[GO-NAD!]

I think Chu was cracking a joke. I think Mexico is now going to suggest a wall and even offer to pay for it

I understood that. So was I.

 

[jinjuku]

Canada's immigration site is still down. Lol.

 

[herbu]

So, both houses of Congress and the White House. The next 2 years, (until the next election), will determine the fate of the Republican Party for probably the rest of my lifetime.

My polling place was a little slow. They ran out of black ink pens required to color in the little circles. We put a man on the moon 50 years ago and now have a computer in everyone's home and pocket, yet can't count the booths and guess how many ink pens will be needed at a poll? Hmmmm...

 

[Swerd]

I feel ashamed of this, but I didn't vote, nor did I register for any of the parties. But i will promise you gents. This was the last time in my life I didn't vote.

I'm not going to rub it in (too much), but consider these voting numbers from Wikipedia:

In 2008
Obama 69.5 million, McCain 60 million, overall turnout 58.2%

In 2012
Obama 65.9 million, Romney 60.9 million, overall turnout 54.9%

In 2016 (these numbers may change some as the counts mature)
Trump 59.1 million, Clinton 59.3 million, overall turnout is unknown as of today

Do the math. The 2016 numbers are much smaller for both candidates than they were 4 or 8 years ago. McCain's or Romney's vote totals would have easily won yesterday. It's not so much what votes were cast, it's what votes failed to be cast.

 

[herbu]

The 2016 numbers are much smaller for both candidates than they were 4 or 8 years ago.

Our local news said there was a record LOW turnout of registered Republicans this time. I don't understand. With the biggest contrast I can ever remember seeing between candidates, how could someone not vote? Not voting means you're OK with either extreme? I just don't get it.

 

[j_garcia]

I am embarrassed for my country.

 

[Ponzio]

Please pardon my redundancy. I meant to post this in this thread.

I guess this is what happens when we all live in our own little echo chamber. May god have mercy on our souls; whoever the feck he or she is.

For the first time since I've arrived in this country in '62 I feel like a stranger in a strange land. I’ve watched as the far right and the alt. right grew in this country and just assumed it was an aberration since the "facts" would win out. I was wrong. More fool I.

 

[Irvrobinson]

For the first time since I've arrived in this country in '62 I feel like a stranger in a strange land. I’ve watched as the far right and the alt. right grew in this country and just assumed it was an aberration since the "facts" would win out. I was wrong. More fool I.

I grew up in the 60s in a white working-class neighborhood, and to me it is like going back to that time. Open racism was common. A mixed marriage was between a Catholic and Protestant. The players have changed, perhaps now one could say it's Hispanics and Muslims who are under attack, rather than Blacks and Jews. Same dance, different tune. Remember, Kennedy was a controversial candidate in 1960 because he was Catholic - was his allegiance really to the Vatican? Two steps forward, one step back, is often how progress is made.

 

[Swerd]

I grew up in the 60s in a white working-class neighborhood, and to me it is like going back to that time. Open racism was common. A mixed marriage was between a Catholic and Protestant. The players have changed, perhaps now one could say it's Hispanics and Muslims who are under attack, rather than Blacks and Jews. Same dance, different tune. Remember, Kennedy was a controversial candidate in 1960 because he was Catholic - was his allegiance really to the Vatican? Two steps forward, one step back, is often how progress is made.

I was in 7th grade during the 1960 election. I remember seeing 'Kennedy Quarters', where someone took a standard 25¢ coin and painted a red cardinal's cap with nail polish on George Washington's profile. It looked a little like Pope John the 23rd.