how was voting?

[cos]

Since it's election day, and there are several contested races around here and a couple of them write-in / sticker campaigns, I'm curious to hear people's voting anecdotes/stories. How were things at the polls?

I'm volunteering for Carl Sciortino all day today; I occasionally get a quiet moment to check LJ :)

Comments

[ron_newman]

(reposted from this earlier thread today)

Here's something that happened to me at the Dilboy VFW polling place in Ward 6:

I printed out my own Concannon sticker at home, but was having trouble getting it to completely stick to the ballot. I asked the election worker what to do, and she said "Oh, do you want an O'Donovan sticker? We have those here."

I'm pretty sure that was not legal. I just now called the city Election Department and reported it.

Wow, that's unbeliavable

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

That seems totally irregular to me.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

After voting at the Firestation here in Teele I asked for one of those "I voted" stickers. The election worker refused to answer my question. I think she heard "sticker" and got scared. She called over a supervisor who made me repeat my question. The supervisor gave me the sticker I wanted!

[georgy.livejournal.com]

I was volunteering for Carl Sciortino at the Winter Hill firehouse, holding a sign and handing out stickers. I asked one gentleman, "Sir, are you voting today?" and he said "Not for him!"

He then asked me, "Where are you from, Connecticut?" I replied, "I live right over there, actually," gesturing down Grant Street.

"Yeah, right!" he said. "I could show you my license!" I retorted. He sort of grumbled then went and grabbed a Bob Trane sign and stood on the other side of Broadway.

It really pissed me off.

[jovianconsensus.livejournal.com]

Well I have a MA license but truth be told, I am from Connecticut. Some say you're not from Somerville unless you were born here, so licenses don't count.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

You should have countered; the Traniac has supporters all over the city - maybe the guy didn't live in the district!

[marphod.livejournal.com]

Voted in Medford; everything was going fine until I was at the second table, where they checked off that you voted, where the election worker took my ballot OUT of the privacy sleeve and looked at it.

I'm fairly certain that's a no-no.

[ron_newman]

If you haven't done so already, please phone the Medford election department and report this.

[antimony.livejournal.com]

You had privacy sleeves?

My ward just has us feed the machine ourselves. No sleeves, though perhaps you could get one if you asked.

Do they have to count off returned Dem vs Rep ballots?

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

I was volunteering for Carl earlier today as well (and will be again this evening). I was sign holding and handing out stickers at Somerville 7-1.

That is Bob Trane's home ward so I expected a mixed reception. But I got a lot of positive feedback from voters. Lots of people waving the stickers they already had and saying they were voting for Carl.

When I got there at 7ish there were no Trane folks at all. One guy showed up across the street around 8:30 a little before I left. As I was leaving I said hello and commented I had been wondering when the Trane people were going to arrive. I had expected him to say he was at another location or something, but instead I got a gruff response about how they have people "everywhere."

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Bob Trane's people are WATCHING YOU!

Seriously, I had to go back at lunch to vote, and I walked by easily a dozen Sciortino volunteers and one sad sack holding a Trane sign. Trane was out in force on Teele this morning, I didn't see his people there, though.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

okay, i know that sciortino really wants people who need a sticker to have a sticker, but jesus christ, there were two carl doorknob hangers on my porch (i will charitably assume that they fell off the storm door handle) this morning when i left around 830am.

when i came home again around 1pm, there was YET ANOTHER carl doorknob tag on my front door.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

The phrase "full court press" is something Sciortino seems to take seriously.

[upsidown.livejournal.com]

I voted at the Lowell Street Fire station, and it was pretty uneventful, although the guy directing traffic away from the construction right outside the polling place was (jokingly) asking people whom they'd voted for, and then I got stopped by Channel 7 outside the tunnel to Beacon Street and asked about what I thought about a recent attack on a female jogger there. So I guess it was somewhat eventful after all!

I saw 2 news vans near the underpass

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

just off Star Market. Around 6:30PM this evening. No idea what they were doing. Just waiting for another attack? Waiting to spot the white male attacker???

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

My voting experience was just fine, over at the Dilboy Post, around 9am. Interestingly, there were no volunteers for any campaign in evidence.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

I voted in Ward six this morning, and it was very quiet about 7:45. There was no line and in the five minutes I was there, maybe three other voters came in. Outside of Ward seven, it's just not that exciting.

[ron_newman]

The Sciortino district also covers part of ward 4.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Didn't see any campaigners at any of the College Ave locations at 9ish.

[ron_newman]

No campaigners at Dilboy VFW around 10:30. Not much to campaign for, though -- Capuano, Provost, and Jehlen are all uncontested.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

At the Engine 7 fire station, all was well when I voted, although I was surprised there was nobody around holding signs (at 8:30am).

[ron_newman]

Ward 5? Not much to get excited about over there, either.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

As a personal inside joke, I stopped this morning and voted. There was 1 name on my ballot and he was unopposed. It didn't take much time.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I admit, in one of the races, all of the candidates left me unenthused.

So I voted for Alfred E. Neumann, in that race.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Ward 7 and it went smoothly. Took longer to walk there and back than it did to vote.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

I saw a morose-looking person outside of Davis Square T holding a Kerry sign over his/her face. Very random.

Here in Ward 7 (where I work, but don't live), Carl has volunteers out in force. It's really quite impressive how many people he's mobilized.

Random recommendation request

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

I voted. Not much to tell. It was pretty quiet there, and I was mostly following the recommendations of friends.

Question for Cos:
Suppose I want to invest five or six hundred dollars in regime change in the United States. How would you recommend that I divide up my donations? My default is to donate to the Democratic Party and let them sort it out, but I'm open to persuasion as long as it doesn't get *too* complicated.

I'd be interested in specific recommendations as well as recommendations as to selection algorithms (including sources to use for research) on what to do.

Re: Random recommendation request

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Spend the money on morphine and enjoy yourself. Salvation lies within.

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

McCabe was out shaking hands in front of the Medford Senior Center at 7:30. (Medford 8-1). One sign-carrier each for Donato, Caralis, and McCabe.

I walked by the VFM on Mystic on my way to pick up my rental car today, and that was much more hotly contested - about half a dozen each for Trane and Sciortino. And there were still about half a dozen for Trane when I came by this afternoon, though Sciortino was down to three or so.

[cos]

I was at the VFW on Mystic several times today (I did a lot of shuttling of volunteers around), and numbers of people definitely fluctuated. I bet in the midafternoon we had more people doing door to door than at the polling place.

What happens after voting ends?

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I assume somebody brings the optical machine counters to a central location for the totals and the ballots are stored somewhere else (for backup). But who does that exactly? Any way of tampering along the way? What safeguards are in place?

Re: What happens after voting ends?

[ron_newman]

The count is done separately at each polling station, not centrally. At least that has been past practice.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

Went to vote at the fire station near Lowell St. after work, and found one lone Sean O'Donovan sign-holder. "Is this the same Sean O'Donovan who's an alderman?" "Yes!" "Oh, good..." Yes, I took a sticker, and yes, I used it. :-) Overall, it was very quiet--I was the only voter there, and the nice ladies at the sign-in table were joking about how few people from my street they have at that polling place (I live on the "wrong side of the tracks", and the rest of the street votes at the Brown School). Very friendly, very laid-back, no complaints here...

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

There was actually a LINE (one person in front of me). I vote late morning, so that was a first.

[antimony.livejournal.com]

Completely uneventful, except I think I misspelled Concannon (not sure I got the right number of n's) as I forgot to take the piece of paper I'd written the name & address down on. An O'Donovan guy (the only campaigner at my polling place at 7am) handed me a sticker on my way past the perimeter of the area that they could campaign in.

There were a bunch of people there and voting -- seemed to be hopping, and there weren't any hotly contested races. Which was nice to see. (I'm in Garballey's district.)

[cos]

Since they count write-ins by hand, your vote for Concannon should count since it'd be obvious who you meant.

I assume you took a Democratic ballot, then? (That's the race Buonomo is the incumbent in)

Sean O'Donovan's publicized plan had been, IIRC, to run for the Working Families nomination. I think his votes ended up getting split between Democratic and Working Families because some voters did one and some did the other.