What exactly are you guys voting for?

When you say that you are voting on regional issues, does that mean by-laws etc? Why would they complicate such an important occasion with issues other than the presidency. Tomorrow is my birthday and they couldn't have picked a better day for the election. I am a US politics junkie. MUCH more interesting than Canada's but I struggle to understand it all. I am so excited and so is my 18 yr old daughter. She is coming home from university so we can eat Chinese food and watch the proceedings. She and I are on opposite sides of the aisle so it should be interesting!
 
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How is that happening? And how do you know this? Here in NJ I have to be registered, show my ID and voting card, they look up my name in a big book and I sign my name and then I vote. How are these people doing it?
 
They showed a reporter interviewing a guy asking why he voted twice. He hemmed and hawed around and had no explanation. Also, we have people who are registered to vote in two states since we are a big second home area here. You dont have to UNregister in one state to register in another state. They have caught several people voting in both states already. The system is a mess. It will take awhile to get a true count if it can even be done, which I seriously doubt.
 
Uh, lemme think. I had to make a cheat-sheet to remember it all.

-President & VP
-US senator
-US representative (i.e., two congresscritters)
-State councillor, this is like a cabinet of advisors, only for our state governor
-State & representative senator in general court, which are basically members of the state legislature
-State register of probate. Don't ask me why this is even an electable office, it has to do with running the bureaucracy of family & probate courts. Mostly they act as an administrator and occasional mediator. Their primary function appears to be collecting court fees and making fancy websites.
-A couple of counties, not mine, are also voting for Clerk of Courts, Register of Deeds, assistant dog catcher or something similar. Really minor gov't jobs that probably don't need to be elected offices, which more sensible states long ago made into hired positions.

Also we have three ballot questions here, which is basically when a bunch of people don't like something but can't get any elected officials to do anything about it--they get a petition signed by all their friends and neighbors to put it on the ballot, the idea being that a bunch of votes will demonstrate to the elected officials that they need to actually do work. So our ballot questions are:

1. Should we repeal the state income tax?
2. Should we make simple possession of less than an ounce of marijuana punishable by a fine + community service instead of the current punishment, which is, I don't know, death by firing squad or something. No, it's not that bad, I don't know what it is really though.
3. Should we ban dog racing?

They try to get all the voting done at once because if you do happen to be in a crummy district with inadequate voting systems, dragging people out to wait in line for several hours really is an imposition and will have bad turnout. Also, they can't afford to have ballots printed and distributed and counted, and set up polling stations and so forth all that often. It's expensive, plus most of the polling workers are volunteers, not paid, and they are basically shutting down the schools and churches and places for the day everywhere to be polling locations. Yes, I know, it's hard to believe that out of ALL the government spending to cut, they choose to cheap out on VOTING of all things. My suspicion is that the gov't would prefer we didn't vote at all, but that's a rant for another day...
 
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I think that they combine these important issues with the presidential vote because they know that they will have a good voter turn out. If they are not voting for president alot of people don't vote at all.

As for the lines, I am glad I did an absentee(sp?) ballot. I wasn't sure I would be able to get away to vote.
 
If I wanted to vote twice, I could. I'm going to vote in the election here, but my voter registration in CA will not become invalid until I fail to vote in a general election. Anyone want to buy me a plane ticket?
 
Rosalind, I'm in MA too and plan to vote No, Yes, Yes on the ballot questions.

We use the "connect the arrow" method. Beside each name on the ballot (and beside yes/no on the questions) is an arrow with a gap in the middle of the line like this: -- -->

Using a black felt pen (provided at the polls), you fill in the arrow beside your choice for each office and each ballot question: ------>

The ballots are read and counted by an optical scanner.

Pretty idiot- and tamper-proof.
 

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