Voting in Democratic New York City today
 

my scanner issue is a more general issue here in NYC - there was no real election in NYC today - it is election show, just like the TSA. We've always known losing paper ballots would result in this.



Who needs the Russians when we have ELECTION BOARDS to steal our elections!



http://gothamist.com/2018/11/06/midt...18.php#photo-1

Ohthosedemocrats

A famous golfer once said, “I’ll never understand people in the woods complaining about the trees.” In other words, if you don’t want a tree in your way, don’t hit your golf ball into the woods.

If live in New York, expect to be surrounded by Democrats.
If you live in California, expect to be taxed and regulated to death.

I’ve never experienced voting problems. I’ve seen a machine go down, but the other eleven were working and a replacement was on the way. My wife and I always early vote......in and out in about five minutes time.

early voting ftw

Every time I see you Americans complain about voting machines or something along those lines I can't decide whether to feel sorry or just smile smugly.

it’s okay to do both...

how do you aussies vote?

Well, I'm too young to, but I have a good idea of it.

Elections are always on Saturdays here - the state election is on the last one in November every four years (this year is one), the federal one can happen at pretty much any time but is usually every three years.

Voting's compulsory if you're over 18, and we make it easy to do so - voting centres are always at schools.

You go to the roll and get your name ticked off (once you've done that, you can go home without getting fined), then you go into a booth with two sheets of paper:
*one is for the lower house; you have to number every candidate from most to least preferred
*one is for the upper house; you can either number six boxes above a line for your preferred parties or as many as you like below the line for your preferred candidates.

It seems to work.

ah

so on election saturday all businesses close so that people can go vote? or no?

here it’s done on a tuesday which basically guarantees working people are busy as fuck.

fortunately there is such thing now as early voting, voting by mail, and absentee voting.

so there really is no need to go on a tuesday. people just do it out of habit or something. their funeral...

as for ballots, it makes sense to have them scanned by machines because they can be very complex

here in my state we vote for federal house and senate (lower/upper), although only one senate seat is being contested, but we’re also voting for state governors as well as other statewide positions (attorney genral, public regulation commission seats, and state legislature seats) county positions, ballot initiatives (e.g. bonds for libraries or schoolbuses) etc etc. also,bla bla bla etc. state senate is in 2 years they have longer terms.

so you’d need like 30 pieces of paper if you did it individually

so instead you fill up one complicated ballot which then gets scanned just like the SATs or some other large-scale exam.

only if there are disputes these are recounted/ hand-counted

I don't think businesses would close, but I think if you asked your boss 'hey, I'm just going out to vote, be back in half an hour' they wouldn't mind. And early voting exists too, for if you have a job on that day.

some people got really creative during their last elections:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/annamendoza/ballots-of-fun


In Netherlands it's more or less similar, except that you vote only one candidate and there's sometimes like 20 parties to choose from (and for each party there's a number of candidates, let's say between 5 and 20). Voting is in schools or elderly homes or whatever nearby community centre. But since recent times also on the larger train stations, so that you can e.g. vote on your way to work.
Voting over here is not compulsory, so the percentage of people voting is always quite low. We still use paper forms, because the machines appeared to be too fraudulent (or for some other reason we switched back to paper, can't recall)

Voting theater. The close votes are ridiculous.

hahahahaaaa...

some of the instagrams are missing but the remaining are still great

I forgot to tell you all about the best part of Australian elections: the #democracysausage.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm...

looks tasty...

im hungry now