Regardless of how the actual elections shake out…. it's going to be fascinating to see how many people actually end up voting…and how important early voting ends up being in the total tally.
We should really think about having a 4 day weekend as a national holiday, with the polls open everywhere for the same exact period of time regardless of timezone. Saturday morning to till Weds morning. Kill the whole concept of instant exit polling. And encourage people to spend a few days getting together and talking about the election.
-jef
Here in Austria I've never waited for more than 5 minutes…
I think more people in the US would vote if it was something you can do while going to the groceries or something and you don't have to plan your whole day around that event.
yeh, in previous elections I'd been out in 10-15 minutes… I think it speaks to how concerned a lot of people are about how bad things have been under Bush.
I said the exact same thing about Australia… then Jaime pointed out the obvious fact that since voting is compulsary in Australia, they can have a pretty good idea how many people in any given area are going to be voting and plan accordingly. Maybe that's not true in Austria though.
Also, well done mihmo!
voting lines
I voted there, too! My wife and I got there at 6:50am and the line was already around the corner and down Winslow (the building is on the corner of College and Winslow). The polls didn't open until 7:00am. We waited an hour. By the time we were done, the line was twice as long. Assuming the exif data is correct, looks like you took those pictures at 9:00am. That's pretty wild that the line was that long for that long.
You must live really close by. I think I remember sitting next to you at one of the talks at FUDCon in Boston this year. I work at PCF on Miro and was there to get more involved with Fedora packaging of Miro.
Anyhow, congrats for voting!
— Will Kahn-Greene
Regardless of how the actual elections shake out…. it's going to be fascinating to see how many people actually end up voting…and how important early voting ends up being in the total tally.
We should really think about having a 4 day weekend as a national holiday, with the polls open everywhere for the same exact period of time regardless of timezone. Saturday morning to till Weds morning. Kill the whole concept of instant exit polling. And encourage people to spend a few days getting together and talking about the election.
-jef
Here in Austria I've never waited for more than 5 minutes…
I think more people in the US would vote if it was something you can do while going to the groceries or something and you don't have to plan your whole day around that event.
None of the poll workers had ever seen a line this long, ever.
oh, nice to hear that 🙂
yeh, in previous elections I'd been out in 10-15 minutes… I think it speaks to how concerned a lot of people are about how bad things have been under Bush.
I said the exact same thing about Australia… then Jaime pointed out the obvious fact that since voting is compulsary in Australia, they can have a pretty good idea how many people in any given area are going to be voting and plan accordingly. Maybe that's not true in Austria though.
Also, well done mihmo!
10 minute wait in Westerlo at 7:15 AM!!!
If I was in the next ward over, my wait would have been 10 minutes 🙁
voting lines
I voted there, too! My wife and I got there at 6:50am and the line was already around the corner and down Winslow (the building is on the corner of College and Winslow). The polls didn't open until 7:00am. We waited an hour. By the time we were done, the line was twice as long. Assuming the exif data is correct, looks like you took those pictures at 9:00am. That's pretty wild that the line was that long for that long.
You must live really close by. I think I remember sitting next to you at one of the talks at FUDCon in Boston this year. I work at PCF on Miro and was there to get more involved with Fedora packaging of Miro.
Anyhow, congrats for voting!
— Will Kahn-Greene
And I thought people have to stay so much in line to vote only in precarious democracies like here where I live…