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We Finally Voted


Razors Edge

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Went for a morning hike yesterday, and when we drove by the early voting location, there was almost no line and parking right in front, so we grabbed our masks and got in line.

It was relatively short in total but still close to 45 mins from parking to leaving.

While waiting in line, our US senator - Mark Warner - dropped by and we chatted with him a bit. "Afternoon wine" was his answer to how he was coping these days in the Senate :)  He said his colleagues - both sides - are ready for a "breather" and a return to normalcy.  He also spent quite a bit of time chatting with the Trump representative.  They both had a friend in common, and when the Trump guy asked Warner if he knew him, Warner was like, "he was my best man at my wedding", and when asked when was the last time you saw him, Warner was like, "Wednesday." They then talked a while about the mutual friend.  Quite amiable. 

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11 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Went for a morning hike yesterday, and when we drove by the early voting location, there was almost no line and parking right in front, so we grabbed our masks and got in line.

It was relatively short in total but still close to 45 mins from parking to leaving.

While waiting in line, our US senator - Mark Warner - dropped by and we chatted with him a bit. "Afternoon wine" was his answer to how he was coping these days in the Senate :)  He said his colleagues - both sides - are ready for a "breather" and a return to normalcy.  He also spent quite a bit of time chatting with the Trump representative.  They both had a friend in common, and when the Trump guy asked Warner if he knew him, Warner was like, "he was my best man at my wedding", and when asked when was the last time you saw him, Warner was like, "Wednesday." They then talked a while about the mutual friend.  Quite amiable. 

You only voted once?

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4 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I think ours is too.  Now, my county...that is another story. 

My guess is the other guys are the ones who will be doing the fraud, obstruction, intimidation, and disenfranchising.  That's common banana republic stuff and sadly in character these days :(

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I don't understand the lines :dontknow: if you can vote anytime, why are there lines? Is the line on election day 8 hours? Seriously I'm curious. The reason I vote absentee is because I can drop it off at city hall and there is no one there. Literally, except the few people working.

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19 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

No need in my state.  We're pretty decided, so it would be poor form to rub it in any more than necessary.

Unfortunately, we are considered a toss-up State...so have to add to the force to prove them wrong with a solid, un-contestable statement.

Early voting starts today with 20 sites in my county, that also serve as official drop-off points for mail in vs Post Office. I usually do early voting but always avoid day 1 rush as later days typically have 3 or 4 people occupying 10 available machines. In and out quickly.

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5 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

I'm not letting anyone screw around with my mail in.  I'll be voting in person on election day.

That is fine...but why chance it? Anything can happen on election day. Remember, I wasn't planning on breaking collarbone and spending the day in the ER last a week ago. Consider an in-person early  voting site and ask which are within a normal shopping loop. While my county has 20 early voting locations, 5 are within 5 miles depending on which way I leave my house, and all 5 are within a Home Depot/Best Buy run. HINT: Don't go day 1 of early voting which experience the rush and news headlines.  

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1 hour ago, Tizeye said:

That is fine...but why chance it? Anything can happen on election day. Remember, I wasn't planning on breaking collarbone and spending the day in the ER last a week ago. Consider an in-person early  voting site and ask which are within a normal shopping loop. While my county has 20 early voting locations, 5 are within 5 miles depending on which way I leave my house, and all 5 are within a Home Depot/Best Buy run. HINT: Don't go day 1 of early voting which experience the rush and news headlines.  

We do not have early voting or universal mail in.  You have to ask for and give a reason for an early mail in ballot.

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2 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

I don't understand the lines :dontknow: if you can vote anytime, why are there lines? Is the line on election day 8 hours? Seriously I'm curious. The reason I vote absentee is because I can drop it off at city hall and there is no one there. Literally, except the few people working.

Two things - higher turn-out in general and in some places, particularly poorer areas, reduced voting sites.

A third unique one to this year is the COVID protocols in place.  I think that was the biggest factor of our wait.  Everything just moves a bit slower as poll workers are being extra careful and moving that much slower and greater distancing between the voting "boxes" (where you fill in your scantron ballot).  Greater distance = fewer tables = slower throughput.

Where I am, there are ALWAYS lines on election day itself - mostly at the prime time hours (pre-work, lunch, and after-work until closing), but we are hitting the "let's get this over with" group coupled with local early voting sites just opened last week.  So, the early bird surge was probably a couple weeks ago, but only at the county HQ. Then, the next was last week's local sites (only another dozen sites for the county), which should abate and then go away as early voting stops a bit before election day. Then, of course, regular election day surge.

I'd also add in that the lines are outside, so we've had sunny (but cool) days the past week for the most part, so if the weather holds, folks will be out, but if it turns rainy/cold, that likely goes down.  Only about a dozen voters are allowed inside at a time to reduce the COVID spread.

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Just now, Dirtyhip said:

My husband is so knotty.  We were filling out our ballots and he says "Oh, NO!  I accidentally bubbled <insert candidate that DH does not support>"

I gasped and stared at him with wide eyes.  He laughed and then says "Just kidding."

:angry:

I wrote in bikeman for prez :)  

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Breaking News - First day early voting.

Computers down. Supervisor of Elections states were not hacked, just malfunction/site overload.

To me, that is all the more reason to not wait until election day where the same could happen and back lines up. That is actually a variation of prior years voting campaigns - ironically popularized by the group fighting it today. "Vote absentee/early and pray for bad weather reducing turnout on election day."

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2 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

I don't understand the lines :dontknow: if you can vote anytime, why are there lines? Is the line on election day 8 hours? Seriously I'm curious. The reason I vote absentee is because I can drop it off at city hall and there is no one there. Literally, except the few people working.

In 2016 by Oct 21, 4 million people had voted early. In 2020, more than 27 million have voted already. 

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Just now, dennis said:

In 2016 by Oct 21, 4 million people had voted early. In 2020, more than 27 million have voted already. 

Well my city is small. There are ≈14,000 people over 18 yo.  I dropped my primary & general ballot off at the clerk's office w/ no one there :) I don't get the lines, but some things are not meant for me to get.

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4 minutes ago, dennis said:

In 2016 by Oct 21, 4 million people had voted early. In 2020, more than 27 million have voted already. 

I'm of the age (grew up with computers and tech) that I am flabbergasted that our voting systems are still lagging the simplest, fastest, most traceable, and most secure processes to get voting done.  I get that higher turnout is a perceived negative for some parties, but in the long run, it makes the country far stronger to have folks meeting and working in the middle for common goals.

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3 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

Well my city is small. There are ≈14,000 people over 18 yo.

THAT'S NOT A CITY :angry:

:D

I can't imagine just having 14k adults in my area.  But you might also be a geographically compressed area, so your density is actually not as low as 14k would suggest.

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5 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

THAT'S NOT A CITY :angry:

:D

I can't imagine just having 14k adults in my area.  But you might also be a geographically compressed area, so your density is actually not as low as 14k would suggest.

Just over 7 square miles of land, and according to wiki our density is 2,500 peeps / square mile

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18 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

Well my city is small. There are ≈14,000 people over 18 yo.  I dropped my primary & general ballot off at the clerk's office w/ no one there :) I don't get the lines, but some things are not meant for me to get.

We have a similar situation here. The county has just 25,000 residents and not all are permanent residents. The county is geographically huge though. For some people getting to a polling place is a long drive. We can vote early at the county building or drop a ballot in the box there. You can mail it in too, but that is risky here. Our mail routes through SLC so it is very slow.

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9 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

Just over 7 square miles of land, and according to wiki our density is 2,500 peeps / square mile

Yeah, that's relatively dense and small.  I still think of that few people as a town or even a neighborhood.  We're larger and denser, but unincorporated.

image.png.ba8250d7805e4a13b38afd989c35f60c.png

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According to the most recent Honeoye Falls New York demographics data available from the United States Census Bureau released in the American Community Survey in December of 2019, Honeoye Falls  has a population of 2,742 which is the second most populous of all the places in the greater Honeoye Falls region. The city with the highest population in the area is Avon with a population of 3,261.   The overall median age for all people in the greater region is an overall median age of all people of 41.2 which is in the mid range.  About 27 % of the people who live here are less than 20 years old.

 

 
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Just now, Razors Edge said:

I think we were a pasture or a wooded area in 1855.  Still pastures & farms 100 years later.

I read up on the history of mine city, pretty interesting, however I find local history very interesting. Lot of homes and buildings are still here now that were here in late1800s, or early 1900s. Pretty damn cool IMO. And reading the history of street names is neat. The movers & shakers of the day...or land owners :D

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4 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

I read up on the history of mine city, pretty interesting, however I find local history very interesting. Lot of homes and buildings are still here now that were here in late1800s, or early 1900s. Pretty damn cool IMO. And reading the history of street names is neat. The movers & shakers of the day...or land owners :D

Yeah, we have a "history of Reston", and it is basically a bunch of farming families, but then in the mid-20th, it starts becoming pulled into the suburbs and eventually is the mid-suburbs.  A few big land-owners with names on the "classic" roads, but eventually parceled out into developments of homes and businesses.

Still, I get a chuckle out of village vs town vs city nomenclature.  If there are no real "rules" on whether somewhere is a city or not, it is just a goofy distinction. The "City of Razorlandia - population 2"!

image.png.e63f042fc9292cce7e229ec9ad8af227.png

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26 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

 

Still, I get a chuckle out of village vs town vs city nomenclature.  If there are no real "rules" on whether somewhere is a city or not, it is just a goofy distinction. The "City of Razorlandia - population 2"!

 

My wife was born in Miami, living in the suburb of Hialeah. Actual home about 3 miles north of Miami International Airport...straight down LeJeune RD (E 8th Ave) that borders the airport and over a couple blocks.)

Her birth certificate states "Type of Area" "Rural" :scratchhead:

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1 minute ago, maddmaxx said:

Youse guys were 200 years late.  This town was incorporated in 1698.  

In 2005 the town was named by CNN's Money Magazine as the 57th best place to live in the US.  That event was the high water point of the towns history and is still celebrated each year at the 57 fest.  :whistle:

Drats! @Old No. 7 is whipping our butts (in your 2005 survey)!

image.png.956f1ece1019d307f52a0e524d728483.png

We hit #7 in 2012 (and are on there every so often):

image.thumb.png.a8dcd992f1767cc7dc556d1043cc6a52.png

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