I'm hoping that by running over to the polling place before the lunch crowd hits (11:30 am-ish), I'll avoid the worst of the line. When I did that in 2006, there was no one there, so I was in and out in 10 minutes.
'The Girl in Question'
Natter 61*
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
There was a line in the morning at my polling place in '04 so I imagine there will be one this year. I'm going to go before work and then go to the New System Bakery for a treat to (I hope!) celebrate the New System!
It will be a big deal if NYC ever switches off the KaChunk machines - according to my now ex-govt working friends - the voting machines are controlled at least somewhat by organized crime and it's a racket.
They'll probably just get the contracts for whatever the new machines are too. Changes in windows, restaurants, vending machines, trash collection, strip bars, road construction, etc. never seem to slow them down much.
I have a civics question: Why do Americans have to register to vote? Why can't the gov't say, use tax rolls to create a base list of people eligible to vote? Why is the onus on the voter to prove eligibility? Wouldn't that take the politics out of voter registration?
Why can't the gov't say, use tax rolls to create a base list of people eligible to vote?
The baseline answer to this is that the federal gov't doesn't organize the elections, the states do. So we register by proving residence (and age) in the state in which we're living, not by proving we pay taxes, own land, etc.
Not everyone has to file? Some people that pay taxes can't vote?
Also, we have no national identity card, which would probably solve a number problems like this. Still don't get that.
What did they do in the bad old days, when only white male landowners could vote?
Probably had to show your deed/claim thing.
Yeah, the years I was 18 and 19, I was eligible to vote, but didn't make any money that I paid taxes on. Plus, with college students, some vote in the state where the college is, and some vote in the state where their parents live, and either one is legal. As long as you only vote in one or the other, not both, of course.
Has everyone seen this? These kids are awesome. [link]
When I registered to vote in NC, my drivers license was from NM, my car was registered in NC and my mailing address was a private post office box not run by the USPS that I lost every summer. It occurs to me that this might so not work in some states these days...