Do it

/ November 3, 2015

My polling place in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood is inside a Catholic Church on busy James Street.

The best place — heck, the only place — to park is out back, where location to cast our ballot doesn’t look like much.

Left of the Virgin Mary.

Left of the Virgin Mary.

Old school, red bricks, simple and to the point, this place is. Fortunately, my schedule gave me a few minutes to visit before lunch.

Listen up.

Listen up.

It always gives me a thrill when I walk inside the doors to exercise my right in our democracy. Yes, even in what may be considered an off-year, 12 months before the biggie, when the vote will decide who replaces President Obama in the White House here in the United States of America.

When I stepped into the big and public multi-purpose room, one of the wonderful volunteers asked me which district was mine. Somewhat with shame, I offered my street address and they looked it up for me. Ward Nine. I was offered a ballot and pointed to a privacy station, I could either stand or sit to fill it in by pen. Afterward, I slid it into a scanner, proper side up, and watched the screen to make sure that my votes in each race were counted. Done. I handed the outer sleeve back to a volunteer.

It felt good.

Hey, fellow Americans, have you voted yet? Will you vote today, and if not, why? What type of polling place and voting machines do they have where you live?

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40 thoughts on “Do it”

  3. My polling place is just off the elevator, turn left bro Mark. No parking problems at all for me, but the poor people who had to drive to get here sure had problems. We are still under construction and the parking lot is still roped off, so even the people living here don’t have a place to park. I’m so glad I don’t have that problem any more. I park next to my chest freezer in the living area, right beside my nest. So convenient.

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  4. I voted before I left Delaware since we had an early voting site next yo the BMV, Mark. I helped Mom fill out and complete her absentee ballot, too. I will have been here 9 days when I leave. Time well spent, as slways. I enjoy your sporting posts, Mark but never really have much new to ssy. I love the homey atmosphere uou add hare with your friends here. 🙂

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  5. No voting for me, but that’s because we have nothing to vote on. All state elections are synched up with the Presidential or midterm elections, and local elections are usually held in the Spring of odd years. Illinois doesn’t seem to do the proposition thing that most other states do, so we rarely have anything like that to vote on in the off kilter years like Ohio did today…

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  7. I love that feeling after voting. But I am sad right now. I have been sick since Sunday. I went to vote after work, all in all an hour out of my way because of traffic even though it was ONLY 4 or 5 miles one way. ANyway, I went to the WRONG place. 😦 I was so exhausted and feeling so bad I just went home instead of going to the right place. I’m ashamed….but sitting at home glad I’m not still trying to vote.

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  10. We vote at our local school (same one my kids attend). The school holds a barbecue, and cake and coffee sale for the day, and for the last election I manned the book stall. It was fun 🙂

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  11. My husband and I just voted. It’s a beautiful day, and we walked to the polling place–the firehouse–in our town. We have electronic machines. When you press the “Cast Your Vote” button, it makes a sound. We used to have the punch card machines.

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  12. We just had a Federal Election a few weeks ago and I voted. We use paper ballots. We also get a card in the mail a few weeks before hand telling us where to vote and what our polling station number is. Each voting site has about 6 -10 polling stations in it. I got lucky and walked right up, produced my card and licence, got a ballot and voted. Some were lined up. Canada has experimented with electronic voting as well but there are glitches. We’re working on it.

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  13. I always vote. We use the paper ballot counted by scanner. Indiana has been using that for a few years. We also can sell alcohol on Election day now.That was changed about 4 years ago.Who says we’re backwards?

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    • Yes, the paper ballot is a few years here now, too, Benson. I miss the sound and powerful feeling of the thump when you swung the arm over in the old voting machine, you know? I didn’t know about the no-alcohol rule!

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    • I did just now vote. I meant to go this morning, but things didn’t go as planned.
      I still feel weird about the paper ballots in Indiana. We always had levers before, and at Ft Stewart we had levers…I haven’t adjusted to the paper.
      I did NOT know we can now by alcohol on Election Day! How exciting! Maybe I’ll move away again and they’ll fix the no alcohol on Sunday business — haha! 😉

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      • You do know you can buy hooch on Sundays don’t you. It has been that way for a while. The only change is you can get carryout beer at the brewery. A bar can even stay open until 3 AM now. Now you’re just messin’ with me. Aren’t you?

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      • At bars and wineries, sure, but not liquor stores and not in groceries/markets. :/
        I maintain my wine supply, but sometimes I might just run out on a Sunday or need a different one for dinner, and then I get really angry I live with these stupid Blue Laws!

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      • OK. I see. You are like a million other Hoosiers PO’d about no carry out on Sundays. I can dig it. You just have to plan ahead or else just go to a bar. May I recommend Downtown Ollies? Far from home but cheap and so much fun.

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