What was your voting experience today? Long lines or short? Friendly poll workers or surly? Anyone annoying you outside the polling place? We want to hear about it.
If you have a story to tell or a complaint to register, write Dan Abendschein, Associate Regional Editor of Patch in the San Gabriel Valley. Or post a comment below. We have a team of reporters and editors ready to check out issues, especially in the local Patch communities. And thanks for voting!
"Support for Kill List and NDAA make Obama and Romney Unfit for Office" http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/reawakening-liberty/2012/nov/2/support-kill-list-and-ndaa-make-obama-and-romney-u/
The only concern I had was a car parked by the polling place entrance doors that had a small Romney banner taped to the side and pro-life ads in the windows. I don't know the rules for cars parked there but it's not cool to endorse either candidate so close to the voting area. I was also asked to show my ID to sign in and get my ballot and I am not sure that this is legal in Califonia.
I also agree that folks who could be moved to change votes due to environmental and emotional cues make me wonder a bit but the pressure can be hard on folks to conform even if their vote is private. The emotional baggage and shame, guilt and more that some folks feel when in religious places they may have had a history with is (unfortunately) all too real. The truth is I wasn't even going to report this polling place issue if I hadn't been urged to, by of all people, a Romney supporter on a social media site. She said that if she saw Obama items present so close she'd have complained and that in fairness I should as well and that both sides should hold up the laws. Seemed fair and reasonable to me.
When I first moved to Altadena, my polling place was often in a private home - in the garage, perhaps, or the living room. It worked tolerably well, usually, unless turnout was very high. But over time, the requirements for the physical properties of polling places (access for those with disabilities, as an example),outstripped the ability of most homes to meet them. Polling places need to be either within or very close to the precincts that they serve. In precincts that are mainly residential, the only likely sites for a polling place under current requirements are going to be churches or schools. Not every precinct has a school in its territory, but most have churches, synagogues, meeting halls, or the like. In any event, schools tend to be occupied on Tuesdays in November. Since you voted at Trinity Lutheran, you clearly live in an area where there are commercial buildings that could meet the requirements for a polling place. But the owners of such buildings would be, at the least, ambivalent giving up their space for more than a day in return for the $25 the owner of a polling place gets for its use. Churches tend not to have a lot happening on Tuesdays, so they're not giving up very much by providing space that isn't being used anyhow.
My wife and I did not get our voter`s guide`s in the mail, as alway`s here in la crescenta, so we were stressed out when waiting for the big day. When we arrived and started to sign in, It sounded like a laker`s game or something close to it, there was a male volunteer, standing in front of the register table, speaking out loud, and , almost yelling, telling joke`s, being obnoxious , etc. the girls working the table, were not able to pay attention to anyone waiting in line, it was all about this clown, he was so loud, it was extremely difficult to think straight, Three people messed up their ballot`s, and had to do them over again, one being myself, I was a basket case for the most part. when trying to get another ballot, he got louder and louder, Ruined my entire voting experience, I will not go there again, unless they supervise that sort of activity, and not let it happen , look at what a mess we are all in now. 4 moer years !!