an anecdotal report of voting in Ithaca
Nov. 4th, 2008 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI had not previously voted in a presidential election in Ithaca (I was still doing NJ absentee ballots in 2004), so it was interesting to see how they change the set-up at my local polling place from election to election. For example, in the primary, they had two booths set up the school lobby -- one for Democrats, one for Republicans -- and a line stretching down the hallway and around two corners. This time, they had three booths set up in the gym -- one each for districts V-1, V-2, and V-4 (V-3 is mostly up the hill, so they vote on the Cornell campus instead of down on the flat) -- each with its own registration table. And off in the corner they had a very complicated-looking contraption that was, I think, one of the newfangled machines that are meant to allow disabled people to vote without needing to bring someone else into the booth to reach up and flip the switches for them.
(Ithaca uses the 'pull the red lever right to close the curtains and prime the machine, flip the switches to vote, then pull the red lever left to register the vote and open the curtains' style of voting booth. It's a little old school, but I think they're less prone to breakdowns than the newer touch-screen machines, and they're also much less annoying than paper ballots.)
Anyway.
I arrived at 11:55am and was informed that I was the 419th person to vote in district V-1 (translated, that's district 1 of ward 5 of the City of Ithaca) -- and since turnout was roughly equal over all three districts represented at my polling place, that meant 1200-1300 people had already voted there. Before noon.
That level of turnout is simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating.
Ward 4 apparently had a local election for an alderperson, but all the other City wards had only five things to vote on: President, U.S. Representative, state senator, state assemblyperson, and one proposition. I'd checked the Tompkins County Board of Elections site last night, so I knew what the options were, but even if I hadn't, they had a lot of sample ballots available to look over, both at the door of the gym and at the registration tables.
I waited in line for about 5 minutes and then voted Obama/Biden for president and vice president; Hinchey for Congress; Tonello for state senate; Lifton for state assembly; and yes on proposition 1, which has two parts: one terminological edit, and one very minor fiddle about how veterans are assigned credits when they apply for certain types of civil service jobs. (I was a little unsure on the state senate race, since as far as I can tell our current state senator, George Winner, has been pretty innocuous... but what the hell, I'm a Democrat, change is good, and just possibly some new people may be able to start grappling constructively with New York's famously dysfunctional state government.)
After voting, I bought some snickerdoodles from the massive bake sale in the lobby, and then headed into town to get my work schedule for next week. I spoke briefly with PM and BW, both of whom voted this morning before opening the store. BW said that there were about ten people ahead of him in line when he arrived at his polling place at 5:50am; he was, I think, the 9th voter in his district. PM said she was number 23 or so, voting at about 6:30am. (They do not vote in the same district, btw.)
(Ithaca uses the 'pull the red lever right to close the curtains and prime the machine, flip the switches to vote, then pull the red lever left to register the vote and open the curtains' style of voting booth. It's a little old school, but I think they're less prone to breakdowns than the newer touch-screen machines, and they're also much less annoying than paper ballots.)
Anyway.
I arrived at 11:55am and was informed that I was the 419th person to vote in district V-1 (translated, that's district 1 of ward 5 of the City of Ithaca) -- and since turnout was roughly equal over all three districts represented at my polling place, that meant 1200-1300 people had already voted there. Before noon.
That level of turnout is simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating.
Ward 4 apparently had a local election for an alderperson, but all the other City wards had only five things to vote on: President, U.S. Representative, state senator, state assemblyperson, and one proposition. I'd checked the Tompkins County Board of Elections site last night, so I knew what the options were, but even if I hadn't, they had a lot of sample ballots available to look over, both at the door of the gym and at the registration tables.
I waited in line for about 5 minutes and then voted Obama/Biden for president and vice president; Hinchey for Congress; Tonello for state senate; Lifton for state assembly; and yes on proposition 1, which has two parts: one terminological edit, and one very minor fiddle about how veterans are assigned credits when they apply for certain types of civil service jobs. (I was a little unsure on the state senate race, since as far as I can tell our current state senator, George Winner, has been pretty innocuous... but what the hell, I'm a Democrat, change is good, and just possibly some new people may be able to start grappling constructively with New York's famously dysfunctional state government.)
After voting, I bought some snickerdoodles from the massive bake sale in the lobby, and then headed into town to get my work schedule for next week. I spoke briefly with PM and BW, both of whom voted this morning before opening the store. BW said that there were about ten people ahead of him in line when he arrived at his polling place at 5:50am; he was, I think, the 9th voter in his district. PM said she was number 23 or so, voting at about 6:30am. (They do not vote in the same district, btw.)
