Early Voting and the South Florida Lifestyle
First American Civics for the Brittish that I confused with my twitters yesterday: First American Civics for the British that I confused with my twitters yesterday:
Election Day in the US is Tuesday, November 4th. However in 35 states you could go and vote early. This was done in an attempt to encourage voters with possible registration problems to present themselves with time to get it all sorted.
It also - in states like Florida - was done to prevent what is bound to be some overcrowding. Because voting precincts are determined by 1) the number of homes in the area and 2) by the average number of voters (persons above the age 18) per home. They then use a people mover algorithm to determine if that many people can use x number of machines in the time allotted.
This obviously is VERY prone to error to begin with. It has been worse because in Florida (and nationwide) they KNOW the number of multiple families per home has gone up since the last census. They KNOW they don't have the right number to plug into their already faulty equation. So they encouraged early voting and absentee ballots.
In FL, you could also assign proxies - people authorised to go get a ballot, bring it to you, fill out and bring back.
Both campaigns have urged voters to vote early. The Obama campaign has also been sending out volunteers to areas with historically poor voter turn out. These areas are largely registered Democrat but don't vote.
In FL, the voter turnout for the primaries was at an all time high. So in addition to the Republican and Democrat campaigns, the local voting offices have been blitzing the media with information on how to vote early. They have been reporting 3 hour waits since they opened the doors.
I had intended to wait until Tuesday. Because early voting was not at the local precincts but at 3 locations for the entire county. So of course it was crowded. But then I hurt my knee last week and screwed up work. I can't afford to risk being massively late on Tuesday. My boss is cool but come on...
I had misheard that they were extending the hours on Sat and Sun to 7-7. I woke up on Sun to find out that no, the Governor had proposed expanding the hours, but there was no time to get volunteers and reassign staff. So the polls didn't open until 10. So I get there at 10. The line was out the door, down the building, around the library, across the grass and wrapping around City Hall.
I get at the end of the line and there is much "Holy Hell" and "um... we DO get to vote, right?" going on.
Now here's the thing. We're in Florida.
We are people who go through hurricanes and even if you aren't hit, afterwards, there's a line you go stand in all day. There just is. And on the years when there isn't a hurricane, we willingly go to Miami to stand in a line. We hold the Guinness Book for the World's Largest Conga Line. Brazil's tried twice to beat it but can't get it stable enough to secure the count. We KNOW lines. We know lines that will take all day. Hell. We know lines that will take multiple days.
So this is not quite as daunting to us as it might be to you. Plus? We're in Florida. It's gorgeous outside.
And the line is moving in spurts. This was the only concern. We all know how to measure time by how fast we're walking. This move 20 feet and stop for 10min was disconcerting. If they had done it as a conga line, it would have been MUCH faster.
At 11 my group's past City hall and onto the grass facing the library. This is where it becomes apparent that SOME TIME WILL BE SPENT HERE. Because we're beginning to realize that the library is not square. And even if it was, it's an hour away and an hour per side...
The polls were manned by excellent staff and volunteers. They kept bringing around water and I'm fairly certain got the cops to break into the library to give us access to the bathrooms. But they are Floridians. They are just as stumped as we are by the hurry-up and wait motion and have no clue how long to tell us. So they give us what they can. The line is 4 times as long as it was yesterday, and people were waiting 2 hours yesterday. But that was because they take so long inside, so we're going to bring around sample ballots. Fill them out NOW so you know what to vote inside.
Oh and take a ticket.
Why? Is there a raffle?
No. The ticket is to prove you got into line before 4pm. So even if the polls close at 4. You still get to vote.
It's 11:30 and they feel the need to start this precaution now. Oh. Crap.
Some wimps leave. Most of us just start introducing ourselves to people around us. Hi, my name is Kat. I can be identified by the glasses and blue shirt. When I come back from the bathroom with a blank look, please wave me over.
Also identified - people who simply cannot stand that long. I had my knee. Lady behind me had a bad ankle. We? Go to the corners, sit down and wait for the line to catch up. This is not cutting. This is logistics. We periodically do our due diligence and stand in line to relieve the line standers for smoking and bathroom breaks.
The cops had walked the line and basically told people there will be no cutting. And if you've got relatives or others in your group waiting, to get them here now. This was ignored between 12 and 1 as we'd actually leave, get in our cars, go get lunch and come back into line. The cops were smart enough to shrug that off.
Only one guy seemed intent on cutting. After the third time of "oh I thought that's where I was" bullshit, the cops made him leave. They then walked the line and told us "Don't be a dick." So apparently it's not just Eric Kripke.
Thank god I waited until the iPod was fully charged. And my phone has Twitter alerts turned on. At 1:30 it's obvious that the ticket to get you in after 4 was not a joke. But you see here's the thing.
We're Floridians. The Line Cannot Win. The Line must not be allowed to win. We are the people who, simply by refusing to leave the line, got FEMA to actually do it's job and give us supplies. This is a voting booth! There's free water, no assholes, a good cause and good weather...
... at 2:30 a cloud began moving towards us and we all slowly came to the collective realization that it is FL in the hurricane season and it WILL rain for 15 minutes in the afternoon. People start announcing to the world in general that going inside to get out of the rain DOES NOT COUNT AS LEAVING THE LINE.
Sure enough, when the rain starts, we all go to the nearest sheltered nook, pass the umbrellas to the people in front and wait 15 minutes. The rain stops.
We all get back into line. A couple of people are not where they started. An awesome woman who is tiny gets in their face and whispers at them. They go to where they started. Miami Subs Hush Puppies appear out of nowhere and I get one. They get passed down.
It's 3:30 and we've made it to the corner of the library hall. This is where the line started yesterday and the wait was 2 hours. The line has picked up because the sample ballot thing seems to be working.
And boy. Did we have a ballot. First of all, when you got in, because they didn't know what precinct you were, they had to id you. Then they give you a barcode and sent you back to a printer to spit out the ballot for your precinct. Then you take that ballot and go fill it out like a scantron. It was the size of a newspaper, double sided, 4 pages.
Because not only is it the presidential election, there are 8 proposed amendments to the state constitution and 12 county proposals, but then the city had a couple of things to choose too.
And these selections were all laid out in English, Spanish and Creole.
Which is amazing because FL passed a law several years ago that pompously declared English to be the official language of the state. The hospitals have been ignoring it ever since but this is the first time I've seen a state department acknowledge that the "population served" must be done so in several languages.
So it was taking a loooong time to vote.
Then when you're done filling out the scantron, you take your ballot to the machine. And you put your ballot in. It reads the card and errors out if you didn't vote on something or if you filled out two bubbles for one question.
Then you FINALLY get your little "I voted early!" sticker. YAY! FREEBIES!!!!
I got two. I'm gonna bronze the one.
I got in line at 10a. I got in my car at 5:03.