Today is Election Day.

[MineralMan]

Not everywhere, but there are elections being held all across the country. Is there one where you are. Will you vote?

Here in St. Paul, MN, we're electing city council members and school board members. There's also a measure on the ballot regarding the city's trash collection system.

Check for an election in your jurisdiction. Go and vote if one is being held, please.

[Bettie]

1. Already voted today

School board, city council, and Mayor. Of course, the mayor is running unopposed, I think his dad and grandfather were the mayor before him, but he's not a terrible guy.

[MineralMan]

3. Thank you for voting!

My wife and I will go at 10 AM.

[Bettie]

5. Took my 11 year old before school

all of my kids have accompanied me to vote, as an example that it is their responsibility as citizens to vote. In every election.

[MineralMan]

10. Perfect!

My parents did that with their three children, too. We grew up going to the polling place.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

22. My Dad took me to vote with him,

I was small enough to walk under the curtain, they handed out those small bottles of whiskey!

[Bettie]

27. My grandma always took me

with her. It is one of my better memories of being a kid.

We never got whiskey though!

[RandySF]

2. Voted early in city election.

[MineralMan]

4. Yay!

[NewJeffCT]

6. voted a little before 7am

in my town in Connecticut

[MineralMan]

7. Excellent!

There's a lot of talk about "the base." The base is made up of people who vote in every election. They are the real "base."

[Freddie]

8. Local stuff here

Judges, county coroner. Mayor of the small town we live right outside of so we can’t vote in that one. Will vote later today.

[MineralMan]

9. Every election matters. That's why I vote in every election I can.

[Freddie]

11. Me too

Plus the local Dem organization is holding a food drive at polling places. Bring a bag of stuff for the food bank while you vote.

[ismnotwasm]

12. Already did

We have the excretable Tim Eyman here in Seattle who rose from the dead with another asinine initiative that’s probably unconstitutional and will waste state time and money.

He’s an absolute pig. My husband is still proud of telling him to fuck off at a Democratic event. (My husband looks like a big biker type and I think Tim thought he found a friend. I don’t know why else he approach him)

[MineralMan]

13. Thanks for voting!

I think everyone should. Truly.

[femmocrat]

14. Local elections today in PA.

I always vote! I hope I persuaded my son to vote in VA in hopes of democrats winning the Legislature.

GOTV!!!

[MineralMan]

15. Good job!

[DeminPennswoods]

16. I voted in PA today, too

Mostly municipal, but there are two state superior court seats on the ballot. Dems can make more inroads into the state courts.

Also, the crime victims rights act amendment is on the ballot, but will not be counted pending appeal to the state supreme court on whether it passes constitution muster of being only one issue and/or too complex to be summarized in 75 words(limit for ballot questions).

[femmocrat]

17. Thanks.

I wasn’t too sure about that ballot initiative. It looked like a good idea, but I knew there were procedural issues with it.

[DeminPennswoods]

31. Voted No on it just in case the state supreme court

rules the ballot question is ok.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. The issues according to what I read

from the ACLU was that the measure would have introduced multiple changes to the State Constitution at once. I.e., the measure seeks to encompass the entirety of the different provisions of "Marsy's Law", lumped as one, into the State Constitution, where doing such is unconstitutional, and can technically only be done one provision at a time. Plus the ACLU felt that the way it was written, it would remove too many rights from the accused to the point where you may have innocent folks unable to challenge and immediately be considered "guilty".

I do know there was a stay on counting the results until the court decides the constitutional argument.

[Niagara]

18. I'm almost ready to do my civic duty today

I'm waiting to see if another person needs a ride to the polls before I head out.

[MineralMan]

21. Giving rides to the polling place is a great idea!

[helpisontheway]

19. We voted at 8am this morning in Virginia. It was my 18 yr old's first time voting..He was so excited

It was pretty busy this morning. Little blip with the machine. It was fine after they restarted it.

[lagomorph777]

30. In my VA precinct there's only one vapor-vote machine; paper is the main thing.

Or are you talking about the ballot scanner?

[helpisontheway]

39. Yes, I'm talking about the scanner. For some reason it was not working. It started

working immediately after the restart it.

[lagomorph777]

40. That shit makes me nervous.

I hope it's an innocent and inconsequential malfunction.

[MineralMan]

20. Done. We went at 10 AM. We were voter number 62 and 63.

[phylny]

23. I voted in Virginia!

[MineralMan]

24. We'll be watching

[spinbaby]

25. I voted in western PA

There was a statewide ballot initiative, but mostly local races for councilmen, coroner, school board, and such. I noticed a a candidate who perpetually runs for various offices, but never wins because everyone knows who he is.

[MineralMan]

26. Thanks!

[lagomorph777]

28. I'm voting tonight and dragging somebody along.

I can hardly wait!

[MineralMan]

29. Yay!

[Polybius]

33. There are places in the US where there are no elections or ballot initiatives?

In 25 years of voting, there was never an Election Day with noting here, however small.

[MineralMan]

34. Yes, I'm sure there are. I don't know what places,

but not everyone has an election today. In some places, all offices are decided in the even numbered years. In others, local elections are held in the odd-numbered years. It all depends on the state and even the local jurisdiction.

[Polybius]

36. I learn something new everyday

Sometimes I guess I take NYC for granted. There's always something, even small ones like DA or judges. This year with have "Rank choice voting" on the ballet.

[MineralMan]

37. St. Paul, MN used ranked choice voting for the City Council seats

this year. It has been used in the past, as well. It still confuses people, though. It works just fine, but many people are not quite sure how to mark their ballots. Some ballots come in with votes for the same person on each round. Other people fill out every round with a different person. As many times as it has been explained, people still don't understand how it works, so that interferes with voting, in my opinion.

It's still becoming a standard method, though.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. I voted here in Philly this morning

and included my rant about that here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12655911

[lpbk2713]

38. It was strictly a city election for me, nothing else.

When I walked in two of the lady precinct workers greeted me with "thank you for voting today" from across the room. I answered back with "it's my job". They seemed to like that. Both of them hooted and hollered. There was one other voter in the room. He gave me a sourpuss look. Guess who I thought was the (R) in the room.

[MineralMan]

41. Our election workers were glad to see us.

Of course, one of them is a neighbor across the street from us who we know well. We've been here for 15 years, and we're easy to recognize, so the others probably remembered our faces, too.

There were four voters in the room while we were there, at 10 AM, which is more than usual for an odd-year election. That's a good thing. Why? Because there's a controversial referendum on the ballot having to do with how trash is collected in St. Paul, MN. It has divided the voters remarkably, given that however the vote goes, the method will remain the same. But, some people are so pissed off about the changes that were made that they want to vote NO on something having to do with it. I'd explain the issues, but you'd be snoring after the first sentence. It's complicated and silly.

It's sort of silly, really, but it's getting people to the polling place, so that's a good thing.

In the City Council race for our district, there are six candidates, and the vote is on a ranked choice ballot. The two most likely candidates to win are young Hmong women. They've had people knocking on doors and leafleting for at least two months now. We have a yard sign in our lawn supporting one of them. She's the only one who came in person to our house, and seems to know the issues and agree with our positions, so we voted for her. The other Hmong woman is also nice and would be fine, too, so we voted for her on the second choice ballot area. One of them will win tonight an it will be fine.

The school board, as usual has us voting for three candidates, out of nine who are running. Fortunately, the local DFL party unit endorsed three. I have no idea where any of the candidates stand, but we voted for the DFL party endorsed group. Again, where we are, two of the three are Hmong and the other endorsed candidate is a black woman.

It's a strong Democratic city, so everything will work out OK.

[lpbk2713]

42. It's good to see cultural diversity in your city.

That's something to be proud of.