The simple answer is cost.

I just got off the phone with Hillary Clinton. She was reminding me to vote today.

I voted a month ago and would wish that would somehow exempt me from the 10 phone calls recordings a day I was getting the final week of the election.

vr, Xei

Is it fraud if your wife fills out your absentee ballot and you do nothing more than sign it? That's what I did--err, didn't do.

I have voted absentee several times and never gotten one either.

They could mail you the sticker after they receive your ballot. I wonder if you included such a request and included a stamped envelope what would happen.

Personally I am so disappointed with both parties that I don't feel a part of either one and don't feel that I should be a part of their nominating system. I will vote in November.

It's hard to send just one sticker in the mail with an absentee ballot because you would have to have them all cut up separately from the sheet.

But then again, I'm no fun.

2- She's the only candidate who didn't (herself or by proxy) call me. Which is, I think, an example of voter disenfranchisement. I've filed a complaint with the FEC.

I voted for the first time this year. I tried voting in 2004 but I never got my absentee ballot in the mail and by then it was too late to register so I just sort of put it off but at least I managed to vote this year.

0 - I don't wear stickers. Maybe LAT could swing by and pick mine up, for you.

5 - I suppose the last paragraph of your comment could be considered nonpartisan, but my point is that I don't want political views voiced here. It's just to allow people to comment on the process or the results.

For all the people who've received phone calls from various candidates, did you receive these calls on your landline or your cell phone? I only have a cell phone and I haven't received a single phone call.

11. Landline.
vr, Xei

The woman in the cubicle next to me started a big kerfuffle at her polling place today. She forgot her wallet and the two over 80 year old women at the polling place got into a huge argument over whether or not an ID was required and the security guard had to be called in to seperate them. Then they found out that she was double registerd to vote at two seperate addresses. This made her decide to take November's election off and be a judge so that there could be someone under 70 there who might be competent.

I have just received calls on my landline. One from Ms. Clinton and a bunch of robocalls from my union telling me how to vote on a bunch of things. And I'm in AFSCME, so you can probably guess which way those suggestions lean.

For some reason I still enjoy going to the polling place and voting instead of using the much more convenient absentee ballot.

I'm still waiting for Scarlett Johansson to call me.

11- Neither, actually. Whenever a phone number is required for some form that I know is going to wind up with lots of irritating phone calls, I give my voicemail number. RingCentral emails me the messages. It's still a little irritating, but at least I never accidentally talk to these people. Though I maybe wouldn't have minded answering the one from Scarlett Johansson. She had her caller ID blocked, so I couldn't even return the call. Very sad.

13- I'm shocked to hear such things happen in your state. Do corpses have to present ID, now, or are they grandfathered in?

I haven't had a single phone call. I wonder if getting 11 phone calls from Hilary and various groups is worth 1 phone call from Scarlett Johansson.

16. I know, who would have thought that it would be possible to vote multiple times in Chicago?

One year my father (who is retired) volunteered to be an election officer. Thinking he would likely be one of the people who just handed out ballots or answered simple questions, he was surprised to find out that they were going to make him in charge of a polling place. It was his job to get trained on all the election rules, like how to handle spoiled ballots or what if someone just walked in and demanded to vote even though there name wasn't on the list. He had some good stories about some of the shennanigans that went on at the polling place. Many of the volunteers were poorly trained, or just too incompetent given the importance of their job. It's nice of people to volunteer their time, but it's scary to know that there must be a built in margin of error in election counts due to the ratio of the complexity of the voting/ballot rules to the competency of those securing the ballots at the polling stations. There is an enormous responsibility on these people, and for the most part there isn't a whole lot of integrity in the system, much of it is on the honor system. One would think with all the billions of dollars at stake, they should get better trained people/officials at the polling stations.

vr, Xei

I have received two phone calls from Scarlett, but my friend got one from Kanye. I kind of wish Kanye had given me a call.

I've gotten nothing but Obama calls. A local Obama office has called me 6 times. I also got a porch visit from two young women getting the Obama vote out.

When I went to my polling place this morning, I had e to wait in line for the first time. I think its going to be a good turnout.

No calls for me, but our land line is unlisted and there is no answering machine hooked up.
I feel kind of bad about the last local election. I meant to vote, but didn't realize they changed my polling place, so I just went home. Came to find out our city mayor vote came down to a tie, then two recounts. Whoops. My bad.

7 The FEC currently doesn't have a quorum, so don't expect any action on your complaint.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ohs22

Scarlett Johansson called me as well. How exciting!

I received two calls, both on my cell phone (I don't have a land line). Both were endorsing Obama. They were focused on 'Decline to State' voters, who are eligible to vote in the Democratic primary but not the Republican. I always liked how Californian 'Decline to State' voters were formerly allowed to vote in either primary. Approximately 20% of Californians are registered as 'Decline to State.' I've heard that number in years past, but it still sounds staggeringly high.

Scarlett Johannson didn't call me, but Bill Murray whispered something in my ear and I couldn't understand what it was, but I'm sure it was very meaningful.

If I got a call from ScarJo, I'd probably think it was a man.

I went to vote around 10:30am. No line, there was only one other voter there. Paper ballot this time, you have to use a pen to complete an arrow pointing to your choice. There's a machine you feed your ballot into and it sucks it in and says "Ding!" and increments the counter. I was the 89th person to vote at my polling station today. I got my "I voted" sticker, but didn't put it on. I'll offer it to my kids but if they don't want it, I'll give it to Jon.

27 - Thanks. I usually would wear it the day of the election, but perhaps there's something to be said for wearing it a week or two later.

Okay Scarlett Johannson phone call receivers, did you vote absentee or have you gone/are you going to the voting station to vote?

Out here in Massachusetts, we received a phone call from Hillary on Saturday; from our Representative on Sunday (inviting us to a Hillary event on Monday); and then today, from Jack Nicholson (encouraging us to vote for Hillary), and Bill Clinton ("on behalf of Hillary Clinton" - he did not say "my wife" which surprised me). I don't understand the connection that caused someone to think, "Let's have Jack Nicholson call voters in Massachusetts."

And that's it. I did not know Nicholson was backing Hillary, so his call was a surprise, one I think my wife enjoyed. I would have preferred a call from Scarlett Johansson.

All 4 calls came from the same number in the 703 area code, which also surprised me. Why not have them come from an in-state area code?

Time to resurrect a quote made during one of Pat Paulson's presidential runs:

"I've upped my standards, so up yours".

I went to my polling place. I was made to vote 'provisionally' because my name was not on the voting manifest, even though I received notification that I was registered to vote at that location. Whatever.

I've never received a call asking me to vote for someone in an election, either in California, Oregon, or Utah.

19 My wife is a poll manager today, and it is definitely important to have competent people there. In the past, as a mere poll worker, she's had to report poll managers who were campaigning for their party or candidate, and deal with workers who didn't know how to run the voting machines. She has to work from 6am until 9pm -- not an easy thing for most people.

The signs in California say "You are within 100 feet of a polling place. NO ELECTIONEERING."

I have never seen the word "electioneering" anyplace else.

34 Electioneering is a name of a Radiohead song from their "OK Computer" album. I think the consensus is that it's the worst song on the album.

Scarlett called me, which got me excited. Bradley Whitford called me too. I half expected him to ask me to vote for Santos instead of Vinnick.

My dad called me today. That's about it.

35
I won't play that song within 100 feet of a polling place.

Whats the verdict on wining the primary and getting all the delegates or splitting the delegates based on the vote?
If I understand it right the Democratic vote today in California splits the delegates while the Republican primary wins all of them. Is that true? And who decides these matters? Shouldn't we be allowed to vote on this matter? It seems extremely important.

What about racketeering? Do they allow that near polling places? Don't hear that one much anymore.

Darnit, Scarlett must not have my cell phone #! I neglected to tell her I'd canceled my land line. Confarnit!

Is this the first time California's had a state proposition in which its backers then said to vote no on it? Can't recall that happening before. Prop 91 is now irrelevant, apparently. The state could have gained some revenue by selling advertising in the space where prop 91 used to sit. What a wasted opportunity!

The Republicans are the only party that uses "winner take all." No Democratic primary is set up that way.

The parties set the rule for nominating candidates. If you don't like that, get a job on the Steering Committees of the DNC or RNC.

To be accurate, this is how the Republicans in CA are dividing up the delegates:

Tuesday 5 February 2008: 170 of 173 of California's delegates to the Republican National Convention are allocated to presidential contenders in today's California Presidential Primary.

* 159 district delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the primary results in each of the 53 congressional districts: each congressional district is assigned 3 National Convention delegates and the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in that district will receive all 3 of that district's National Convention delegates.
* 11 at-large delegates (10 base at-large delegates plus 1 bonus delegate) are to be allocated to the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in the primary statewide.

In addition, 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the California's Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position.

From:http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/CA-R.phtml

11
don't worry, they're working on it
(your cell# for spam that is)

13
Thank you for using the word "kerfuffle".
I love that word.

19
or that billions of dollars are spent ensuring that unqualified persons (insert descriptive/pejorative here)handle the ballots.

40-

racketeering is definitely out, as is domineering and pioneering. i'm not sure about imagineering, though.

43

I was just about to say...

I am new to primary voting. Do I get to vote for the Republican candidate AND the Democratic candidate, or just one? Plus if I were in one party and wanted to vote for the other party, is that allowed?

I could post how the Democrats are dividing up their delegates in California, but I think there may be a limit to how much people want to read.

http://tinyurl.com/yuw6dp

48 If you're a Dem, you vote in the Democrat primary; if you're registered GOP, you can only vote for a GOP candidate. If you're independent, you can vote for a Dem (have to request the ballot though); but can't vote for GOP. It's closed.

(Actually, that's just for California. Not 100% sure about other states.)

48
In California, independents can vote in the Democratic primary (or in the American Independent Party if that's your thing.), but they can't vote in the Republican primary.

Registered Democrats can only vote in the Democratic primary and registered Republicans can only vote in the Republican primary.

The laws vary from state to state.

And don't get me started on Louisiana.

Interesting. I hope this rule doesn't apply during the November election.

53- It doesn't. It's just for primaries, to discourage pernicious crossing over.

At my polling spot, there was a line for one party, but no line for the other. So, I finally discovered one benefit to my party allegiance, such as it is.

I have a brother who lives in Michigan and he voted in the Republican primary because the Democrats weren't giving out delegates there. In Michigan, you just show up at the polls and ask for whichever party's ballot you want.

The Corduroy party is very small but they have a tight knit group.

Our wale is extra fine.

55
Dare I ask who decides to hoard the delegates or to actually award them when people vote?

I wish we had a Bull Moose or Whig party. I'm bored with these two party names. I think it would drum up more interest if we used the Gang Of New York names. They were so colorful it almost made me want to join a gang and wear a shirt proclaiming my allegiance.

Just doing my part to help this downtrodden thread compete with the big boy Spring Training issue.

58- One of the contributers to the "bhsportsguy" entity, but I dare not say more. . .

The Democrats stripped Michigan and Florida of all their delegates because they moved their primaries up to a date that was too early.

Michigan and Florida will still have people going to the Democratic convention, but they don't get to vote. They just get to wear funny hats and go to parties.

The Republicans cut the delegations from both states in half.

The real question is, now that the parties have gotten a taste of how nice it is to have an election where Floridians are ignored, will they ever go back? The movement to sell Florida back to the Spaniards is gaining momentum.

I'm trying to abrograte the Adams-Onis Treaty.

62 We didn't buy it. 1819 they gave it to us in exchange for renouncing all claims to Texas.

61
How did we escape these democratic decrees from the DNC since we also moved our primary up from June to Feb?

62 I'm on board. And I have relatives who live there!

Here at Luton it's a three-cornered fight between Alan Jones--Sensible Party -- in the middle, Tarquin Fin-tim-lim-bim-whin-bim-lim- bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olè-Biscuitbarrel -- Silly Party -- and Kevin Phillips-Bong, the Slightly Silly candidate.

West Virginia results:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/05/super.main/index.html

If the Spaniards act now, we'll throw in West Virginia.

And Idaho!

Howard Dean (on television now) looks like he slept in his suit. Actually, it looks like somebody else slept in his suit.

65 I believe the parties were on-board with the primaries moved up to today, like California's. Florida and Michigan moved theirs up even earlier without the parties' agreement.

Wait, what are we getting back from Spain in exchange? Barcelona? The Balearic Islands? AC Milan? How about Pedro Almodovar and their best Paella recipe?

This is an addition by subtraction situation. If we get back a pair of ridiculously pointy, size 7 shoes, it's a win.

71 Pau Gasol?

72 Ah, good point. How about we just throw in Juan Pierre and we're done. He's named Juan, what more do they want! He'll be the life of the party over there in Spain. We'll give them that, prop. 91, Idaho, Florida and West Virginia, for the entire Gasol family, and we're done.

70
That's basically how it went down. Each party set up its own schedule of how it wanted its caucuses and primaries to play out.

Iowa has to be the first caucus under both parties' rules and New Hampshire has to be the first primary as well.

Michigan and Florida tried to jump the line. The parties didn't want states that big getting in front of the Super Tuesday crowd.

It was a big miscalculation by the governors of each state, Jennifer Granholm and Charlie Crist. (A Democrat and a Republican respectively.)

Florida, West Virginia, Idaho, and at least 400 Virginians.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23015871/

76 Same thing happened in some Texas counties.

CNN predicts Obama has "won" Georgia, as the polls indicated he would.

http://maps.google.com/decision2008

Live result tracking.

78 You also get random comments from random people all over the country (and world):

Some guy said:
Wolf Blitzer, the John Madden of TV Infographics: "Remember, the Democrats are blue and the Republicans are red."

Bill Richardson grew a beard.

Delegate scorecards:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#D

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#R

Obama shares at least one thing in common with Bill Clinton: neither of them know how much to cut out of a speech.

CBS has called California for McCain and Clinton.

NBC News has projected Clinton and McCain as the winners in California.

Apparently Mom is more influential in the Schwarzenegger household:

http://tinyurl.com/236b6f

I grew up with a Republican dad and a Democratic mom. We all became Democrats. If my father were still alive, he'd be a big McCain supporter. My mom would likely complain that she didn't like any of the Democrats.

I don't know if anyone's still reading this thread, but I didn't want to get too political in a Dodger thread. But I hadn't heard about this 'til just now:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/counteveryvote

Problems in LA with counting (literally and figuratively) decline-to-state ballots. Really disturbing imho.