STUDIO EIGHT ELECTION PARTY!!

[Lightning Rod]

My First Election Party

I was a young idealist in 1964, and a Young Republican. Yes, this is slightly embarrassing for Lightning Rod to admit, but there it is. I was a Young Republican. In fact, I was the chairman of the Taylor County Teen Aged Republicans. I was young and foolish, what can I say? We live and learn.

It was the Goldwater-Johnson election. The whole crew of campaign workers had gathered at my girlfriend's house to watch the results come in. My girlfriend at the time happened to be Billie Sol Estes' daughter. I think he was still in Federal Prison at the time, but his house was nice. It sat on the shore of Lake Ft. Phantom in Abilene, Tex.

We took the noses off of Groucho Marx fake glasses and made Barry Goldwater glasses as party favors. It was a real bummer of a night though. As the sad results came over the television (Billie Sol could afford a color TV, a novelty at the time) we somehow found the liquor cabinet.

Some girl that I barely knew ended up vomiting in my lap. Don't ask me why her head was in my lap. Johnson won in the greatest landslide in history.

I'm hoping that this will be a more cheerful election night, a cause for celebration.

Bring your own bottle and smokes and let's watch the results of the election of 2008 at Studio Eight.

(just don't vomit in my lap)

[Doreen Peri]

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/nov4

Vote!

[Doreen Peri]

Don't vote? One vote doesn't count?

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[silent woman]

DIXVILLE NOTCH, New Hampshire (CNN)

eary results Obama wins big,16 votes to 5, ist time the town went democrat in forty or fifty years.

[Dave The Dov]

Oh my he certainly had a background. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Sol_Estes
_________________
our economy

[stilltrucking]

did they mention about the witness that was found shot five times by a riffle and the grand jury ruled it a suicide? Texas juries, you got to love them.


I don't know I am sitting here haunting all the news sites for election returns, I will try not to get nauseous on you clay.

[YABYUM]

we voted.
though no matter the outcome, we are scared.
if he wins we change.
if he wins, we change.
so we voted for him.

this is it.
i am beyond elated that i get to this.
tomorrow, our country decides to pick him.

he will be given power to assert his agenda. we voted for him.

we voted for him because we listened, read, and payed attention to his debate strategy and full commander in chief agend-eye.

my friends......i was in canada last election. i lost hope in us when i saw he won.

vote for him, ok?

vote for him because you have knowledge of him.
his ideals.
his fortitude.
his conviction to come across convicted.

i will be working until this time tomorrow.

i will come home to my girls, full on aware that everything just changed.

[Doreen Peri]

I voted.

For Obama, of course.

Yay!

[panta rhei]

can someone tell me what the queue-issue at the polling stations is always about?

why do americans have to stand in such long lines when they want to vote - where is the problem, or what makes it take so long? in elections here, we walk in, show our passport, checkmark, throw the ballot into the box, walk out again... it's a minute thing.

what is different over there??

[Doreen Peri]

Hi panta...

I guess it depends on the population in your particular voting area.

I vote at an elementary school right down the street from me. The lines have never been very long for any election since I've lived here (15 years) but still takes a little longer than what you described.

I got there today at about 7:30am. The polls opened at 6am. There are approximately 50 people in a line that led down the hallway but not long enough to go outside.

Inside, they had 4 tables set up which were designated for last names of the alphabet. (A - H, I- M etc.. that type of thing). At each station, there were two volunteers, one to check the roster, one to check your ID.

There were about 10-15 people in the line which included P (for me!). When I got up to the front, I showed them my ID, they checked my name, and I got into another line which led to the polling booths. There were about 30 people in that line.

There were approximately 6 or 7 voting booths where you voted by paper. Basically the booths are just so people can't look over your shoulder. (There was another electronic booth with a line of people also.... maybe 20 or so.... you could choose whether you wanted to vote using paper or electronic). Anyway, I chose paper.

After I voted, I slipped the ballot into a bin for the ballots.

Sounds very similar to what you do over there.

All in all, I was there for about 45 min.... maybe an hour.

Seems to me that the length of the lines depends on the population in the community, how many voting booths they have and how many volunteers they have to check IDs and rosters.

Hope this helps.

[panta rhei]

thanks, doreen. yeah, what you write sounds similar to how things work over here. an hour of waiting & voting time may happen to people voting in a city and during the "rush hour" as well (in our small community, you usually just walk in, say hi (they know who you are anyway), checkmark, and walk out again).

i asked because during every american election, we keep hearing reports about people standing in lines for hours, sometimes all day long, when they go voting - and i keep wondering why (there are explanations for that pheneomenon, like the absence of a central registering system for instance, but it still doesn't make much sense)...

[Lightning Rod]

my mother has had several strokes
and she also has a parkinson-like disease
she can barely talk, but she tries, sounds like tourette's
and her motor functions are all over the place
she walks like a marionette. But she's still there.

Yesterday she came to my room a dozen times
she has been watching wall to wall CNN
"I CAN'T stand it!" she says
(she thinks that there is a chance that Obama might lose)

"We are taking you to vote tomorrow, mom, don't worry"

But I am worried. My mom's motor coordination is terrible. She can't operate a mouse on a computer. She can barely walk. I'm worried that she won't be able to work the voting machine. They won't let anyone accompany her behind the curtain, some American prejudice about 'secret ballots'.

It will make her feel better to go and vote though. Even if she fucks it up and votes for McCain for dogcatcher it won't matter because we are in Texas.

[Arcadia]

just don't vomit in my lap, ok...! but it´s quite possible I leave some crumbs!

great campaing!, good to know that people in one of the biggest democracies (or something like that) in the world, are in the mood to go to vote in more massive way!

here the vote goes to an envelope that goes to a box (that some years ago went to the river -wait, it was an isolated story, I didn´t hear of that happening again... but in the last elections there were problems of delay an lack of votes mostly in Buenos Aires). The place for go to vote are schools and at least in my city, there aren´t usually long lines. There are a president and a vicepresident for each mesa plus fiscales of all the parties involved in the elections.

[Doreen Peri]

When do we start getting news? Report what you know here!

I'm feeling like the night before christmas.... I really want to hear good news!

As IF it's going to get me a job, straighten out my health, fix the plummeting value of my house, stop all wars forever, and all that.

sighhh

I guess I need to believe in something!

[Lightning Rod]

"the whole thing started at three o'clock fast
it was all over by a quarter past."--B.Dylan

I'm waiting for the first polls to close. My prediction is that it will all be over by the time the Virginia returns come in.