In Cincinnati at least - maybe all of Ohio? - we use paper ballots, which are then tabulated by machines. Which means if there is a dispute over the tabulations, there could be a manual recount. Not that this would be fun, but I do appreciate the paper trail for this reason.

CaBil! ::tacklehug::

Voted in half an hour. We were nice and busy but very efficient.

Had do to an affidavit ballot because I wasn't on the roll. It happened in the last election too, but I had move recently and assumed that was why.

Over at the affidavit ballot table the poll worker was downright snippy when I got my papers (ballot and affidavit envelope). I filled them out and when I came back the snippy worker was being downright nasty to the elderly black woman in front of me. "Just put the ballot in and seal it! Just put it THERE!" Reallllly condescending, sarcastic "duh" voice.

The woman ahead of me was very calm and said "I know this needs to be done a certain way and I'm just trying to make sure correctly. That's why I asked you."

"Well I TOLD you"

Several of us in line objected. Everyone stayed polite about it. She continued to be AMAZINGLY rude to all of us.

I went and found a supervisor and told him what happened. Adding that it really may well BE that the woman is exhausted and needs a break. He said that, yes, she'd been up since three and he'd send someone over to relieve her right away.

In a happy ending, I ran into the woman who'd been ahead of me in line and told her it had been dealt with -- she was in the process of making a complaint herself. She was getting pretty worn out (standing around even for half an hour with a cane and getting snarled at will do that to you when you're seventyish and have a pacemaker) and was happy that she could go right home.

Dude, Poll worker, you do NOT get like that with anybody, much less elderly people, much less elderly black people. Sheesh. I would like to point out that she was rude as hell to several of us, regardless of race or age, etc. but come ON, there is history here, people. Watch your manners.

Snagging free wifi in Brisbane.

You're in Australia!

On one trip home from Philly, I shared the flight with an Aussie who'd been living 15 years in Colorado, with no visible sign of it having affected him in any way. Sample conversation with one of the flight attendants, while somewhere over the South Pacific:

"Hey mate, could you get us another Vic Bitter?"
"I'm sorry sir, there's none left. You drank them all!"
"That's it then, stop the plane! I'm getting out!"

I'm reasonably sure they were both joking.

I don't like the fact that we don't have a paper trail here, particularly because the voter machines can theoretically print out the ballot. I'd rather have copies tucked away somewhere, so we could have a real recount.

It looks like it's going to be a really big turnout. As usual, we're having polling places that run out of supplies. It seems that happens every election and they learn nothing from it.

nothing to learn. it is intentional.

We do not get a paper ballot print out here either and I trust NO ONE! I hates it.

People here in the office were talking about touch screen machines refusing to take Romney votes, but I cannot imagine that happening in Texas and anything other than the voting machine being taken out back and shot. Apparently they had no visual proof, it was some woman calling in on a reght wing talk radio show last week. I walked away shaking my head at them.

Hey Trudy, hello. How are you doing?

I had to wait a few minutes for a booth, but the whole thing did not take long. I was #63 in my precinct to vote - the other precinct at the polling station looked busier, I think it must be bigger.

According to the media, Virginia doesn't have paper ballots. But most of us were offered paper ballots today. One of my cowworkers said that his polling place wasn't offering them, and he overheard one electoral worker telling another the reasons for that.

The part that caught his ear was "It's a shame, because the paper ballots are faster to count than the computer ballots."

Australia is nice so far They ran out of the Shiraz I'd settled on after trying several others. Impromptu wine flights? But with less class? We had to pass the time somehow and were of like minds.