U.S. Election Day Tuesday

[Twins' Mom]

Good morning! Election day in the U.S. - Get out and vote, if you haven't already!

[Twins' Mom]

I have already voted - we are close to the county election office where we live now, so I stopped off a couple of weeks ago and voted early.

I have a busy day going otherwise - work, a luncheon/event for temple, and need to continue with temple projects that have a deadline next week. I hate making decisions. I'm taking leftover pizza for lunch so I don't have to go out if it's still raining. (See how scattered I still am? If I have to go to a luncheon event at lunchtime, I don't need to take my lunch, right? )

I walked ddogs in the rain already; they didn't seem to mind too much and at least they got their fresh air and a little exercise.

To the shower, and out of here....

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Happy Voting Day!

There's something to celebrate for everyone since it will end the phone calls from the polling companies and the robo-calls to those in swing states. Oh, and you'll get regular commercials on tv for while!

I'm up. It will be a rough day for me today. Had a mini meltdown last night thinking about it (dh saw it coming before I did which means he's getting more attuned to my moods.) Managed to get control of my emotions and finished up the task at hand rather than hand it over to dh, who offered to take over for me.

We both woke up unexpectedly at 4 a.m. today. Turns out there was a mini earthquake then. That didn't register with us consciously, but it did wake us up. I got back to sleep fine and am now up and at it.

I need to figure out what travel arrangements to make. The memorial service on Sunday is right at my nap time and there's a reception following. The only way I'm sure to have a place to nap that day is to be away two nights and I don't want to do that. Otherwise, we'll arrive before 2 (the earliest you can check into most hotels) but if we come in the night before, we'll have to check out at noon so I'll be without a bed to nap in and it is too cold to nap in the car now. So it is either a 2 night stay or we see if I can get enough rest by using the chaise-lounge option for the car seat. It is a 4.5 hour drive plus border crossing time so we'll probably leave around 9 a.m. I could try reclining from just after the border to Ithaca (about 2.5 hours if we cross at the interstate highway.)

Hopefully it isn't Homecoming Weekend at Cornell this weekend and we'll be able to get a hotel in Ithaca.

[OKay]

Good Morning!

I was up a couple times during the night with LO and ended up sleeping an hour later than normal. I'll postpone everything except essential until later in the day. This morning I'll drop LO at school then go to my "sparkly washcloth" doc appt.

Our voting place only has about 300 people, so if we don't all try to vote at the same time it should be quick. It is only about 1/2 mile off my typical path, so I'll keep driving by during the day and wait until there are minimum cars. I'm tempted to wait until LO gets out of school so he can go vote with me and see the process (he has been several times before).

[blessedw2]

good morning dtwins and dkathyrn - hope you feel better this morning. wow on mini earthquake

[Twins' Mom]

DD will be home at some point today to vote. I had a meeting scheduled for tonight at temple, and have postponed it until next week - in part because of the big issue that needs resolution by next week, but also because VP admin will be back in town next week and also dd home tonight.

I am also going by the vet this a.m. to p/u dMacs meds, tho I won't start those until tonight.

[Lynlee]

hoping you all have an uneventful election day and get to vote for whoever you support most and or despise least.
Spoken by somewhere in the land where compulsory voting is touted as being a defender of our democracy - though those from overseas tell me thats the most undemocratic thing they could imagine.
Where voting "informal" is how some reserve the right not to vote for anyone - and informal votes are counted along with the candidates to be published in the press.

Twas Melbourne cup day today. I felt rather hohum about that too i admit.


Admitting I never did write thankyous, That I got my dds baptised after I was separated. That I finally agreed to move away from inlaws in response to being annoyed by the comment that it had been a whole week between visits to inlaws w dbaby ? maybe 6 mths. That there have been times I avoided visits to parents celebration/holiday dinners - and I still need choose between my children or mother /siblings for christmas. Mostly I go with my children..

need polish myself up ready for bed. out in morning. home to put the race on tv. one load of washing done today. walked 3k slowly. headachy tonight.


hope dMac is doing better soon Twins.

[helia]

Yes, no matter who we're voting for, I think all US citizens can agree that it will be good that the phone calls, flyers, propaganda, etc. will finally come to an end. We don't watch TV, so we are blessedly ignorant of those ads at least. We have encouraged ds to vote, but he is saying he doesn't know enough about the issues to vote, but for him to feel he knows enough means he'd need to read a couple research papers on each issue. We told him to at least vote on the local proposals; it is pretty easy to get up to speed on those. Twins, you might know, but I think Univ. students who are voting for the first time have to vote at their home polling place, which means a lot of Univ. students who are registered and eligible to vote can't vote, like ds' roommate from Connecticut. He can't go home just to vote. Maybe I got that law wrong, though.

DH is off to vote before heading to meetings at work.

Girls don't have school today b/c the schools are used as polling places. They say the teachers have meetings too, so it is a day set aside for whatever the teachers need to do in their meetings -- maybe extra training or something. Schools were not closed on election day here in the past; I remember taking my kids to the middle school, which is used as a polling place, and seeing the signs all over the schoolyard and people walking in to vote. Are schools closed anywhere else for this reason?

In terms of errands today: I am meeting dfriend at 10 a.m. at her house to walk. Later today, Dd14 has her oboe lesson at 4:45 and it is my turn to take dd17 on a dinner date tonight. I also need to get to the polling place, but it is in our neighborhood, not far. I think dh is going to call me to let me know if it is busy now or not.

I'm also still playing catch up after I spent yesterday making phone calls re: my now possibly stolen SSN and then Hebrew translation work. I did get to the groc. store, to Hebrew class, and dh and I did have coffee together.

We're back to gray skies here. bleh. But I'm sipping tea and will shower soon.

[Twins' Mom]

Helia, in our state at least, the first time voting has to be by "personal appearance" only if one registered to vote by mail. Dd did register by mail so she has to vote via personal appearance, although she could have come home for the early voting window that started Oct 17 and voted by personal appearance then. I think that any voting she does after this can be through absentee ballot by mail.

I don't think any schools are used for voting in this county. Usually churches or civic buildings (town hall in the last area we lived in.)

[Harriet]

Dd14 and I will leave to vote in a few minutes. And Twins Mom and helia, you'll be interested to know our polling place has always been a nearby elementary school ever since it was built in 1924. Her nearby middle school is also a polling place. We are trying to avoid the rush times that end at 8:30 and begin again at 11:00. I always take a child with me to vote whenever possible and have had that idea supported in the book I've been reading.

Dd is off school today because of a required teacher workday between quarters, so it's nice to be able to pick and choose a time that's not too busy. Does the school system also choose this day because it is easier in the use of the buildings? If so, they don't mention it. I know last year and the one before (much smaller elections) that we approached the school for student drop off right alongside many political supporters carrying signs and waving, and I even introduced dd to some of her town commissioners on that sidewalk.

Lynlee, I did not know that about compulsory voting and looked it up. I guess you can get used to something if you've been doing it since (speaking of the same year!) 1924, though - hardly a new idea for Australia. You might be interested in this - in our newspaper features section (comics, puzzles, etc.) there is always an advice column and in the past few years here in my regional paper it has been "Ask Amy" by Amy Dickinson. Her headline Monday was "The Freedom to Not Vote Is Hers" answering a US reader upset because an acquaintance talked a lot about politics to the point of bothering others but did not actually vote. The reader wanted permission from Amy to be angry and criticize the acquaintance, but Amy said she couldn't give that permission, because (in US) it would fall into the category of restricting or suppressing freedom to say the acquaintance didn't have the right NOT to vote as much as she had the right TO vote. Anyway, an interesting discussion, made the more interesting because it was about the same time (only 3.5 years before?) Australia adopted compulsory voting that women's right to vote became the law in the US, and I believe Australia had already beaten the US to that milestone by quite a few years.

End History Discussion.