People in California vote in houses?!

[dsc]

I was listening to All Things Considered on the radio today and was astonished to hear that people were voting in houses. At first I figured it was new to this election or at least post Columbine but they had a lady on who let people vote in her house for sevearal years. Any Californians who can explain this. I was flabbergasted.

[revree]

1. Yeah, some folks put up their garages as Election polling places...

although for this election they moved a lot to bigger locations like schools...expecting big turnout I guess.

[neuvocat]

2. I voted in a lady's garage once.

Go figure.

[Dookus]

3. yup....

it's done quite often in the cities. The concentration of people is just so high that there aren't enough public buildings to handle them all.

I think it's a really nice tradition. I voted in people's garages when I lived in SF.

[Stevendsmith]

4. I voted in a garage today

N/T

[Sequoia]

5. oh yes

I've done it in Santa Monica years ago. Later on it was a dry cleaning place. Kinda funny, but you know...fun!

[reachout]

6. Image

[Perky]

7. Yes it is true.

I have lived out here for three years...... My guess is that the origins of the practice are quite old.... But because of the lack of public buildings in Large metro areas neither Schools or Firestations are adequate to handle the sheer numbers.

first year we voted in a house down the street. Last year and this year in a Convent a few blocks away. and there is a fire Department and a public Rec facil;ity within walking distance.

[Athletic Grrl]

20. Amazingly enough

I've NEVER voted in a public building. I now vote in the rec room of a high rise condo. I've voted in the exercise room of the local senior housing complex as well as many a garage in Oakland, Alameda, Albany and Bezerkeley.

My dad works the polls at his church. I'll ask around, but I don't think the schools are common polling places around here.

[pstokely]

8. that happened on King of the Hill

is that legal in TX?

[Terwilliger]

9. My current polling place is a garage

why is this such an astounding notion? :shrug:

[dsc]

13. I just can't imagine opening my house to the public like that

maybe it is my sloppyiness, or my habit of leaving reading material about, but I just was amazed. I have voted in Cleveland, Chicago, Mississippi, and rural Ohio and have never voted in anything but a public building.

[Terwilliger]

17. skeletons in the basement?

Yeah...I don't think I ever voted in a house before California either.

[kutastha]

10. Oh yes

Growing up, my house was always used for voting, and my mom still does it - not this time around though. I'd always be the one setting up those infernal voting booths, and putting in the desk lamps to boot. It always made voting easy though. Roll out of bed, stumble downstairs, get some coffee and vote in my pjs!

The person whose house it's at gets something like $100, and any helpers get $25, I think.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. Always have...

as long I remember. Went into my first polling place back in '63 -- my grandma was a poll worker. It was a garage down the block. I now vote in a garage UP the block. It's great -- very convenient.

[karlschneider]

12. I never voted in CA but have voted in houses in other states, and schools,

churches, fire stations, libraries and ...uh I guess that's it...
;-)

[trivimp]

14. Been done that way for years n years

I've voted in garages many times. I can remember, back as a preschooler, going into the booth with my mom in a converted-garage polling place in Pacific Palisades, for the *cough* '68 prez election.

(This wasn't the ritzy section of PacPal that they are showing on the news in Ahh-null's voting photo-op, but the more modest "alphabet streets", if anyone knows the area (or cares.))

I think that some areas of sprawling bedroom communities (like PacPal) just plain don't have enough public areas that can be used as polling places. The local schools and/or churches sometimes get put to use; for the rest, people open up their homes. There it is.

[slackmaster]

15. Yes, my usual place is someone's back patio

We walk in through their garage. It feels very warm and friendly for a voting place, and it's a half block from my own home.

[Scairp]

16. My polling place is the local police station

Best clean out my purse before I go vote today.:hippie:

[Demobrat]

18. The last time I voted was in somebody's garage.

There were only two voting "booths" so I ended up using some guy's back to mark my ballot on.

[dofus]

19. I've voted in schools, churches,

and I swear, a bar once. That was in Phoenix, AZ. Maybe it was the time I voted at the American Legion post, which was a bar or in a bar.

[Room101]

21. My polling place is a house

The booths are in the garage.

[Pastiche423]

22. For twenty years

I voted in a garage. It was two blocks from where I lived, so parking (in SF) was no problem.

Now, I vote in my apartment. ;-)

[Art_from_Ark]

23. Questions about garage voting

The only place I've voted is Arkansas, where the polls are in churches, as well as schools, city hall, and other public places. I even worked as a poll volunteer on a couple of occasions, and helped take the locked ballot box to the county courthouse where the votes were counted.

So my question is

Who takes the ballots to the counting place, and how is it guaranteed that the votes will not be tampered with while they are at the garage or on their way to the counting place?

[slackmaster]

25. Dual control

Poll workers are sworn to do their duty, and the ballots are never under the control of less than two people at any given time.

[abbyhoffman]

24. Yes

I alwas have had my voting place in someones house infact my polling place today was in the Jefferson Airplane House on Fulton st in SF I think Jerry Garcia lived there too.