Problems with early voting this morning in TX

[silverlib]

1. I just opened my new voter registration card this morning, and low and behold I had a little type written note inside informing me on my new polling place....AT SOMEONE'S HOUSE in my neighborhood. I live in a 'cookie cutter' neighborhood. The houses are on small lots and every third or fourth one is the same house plan (none of which are mansions). Where will people park? Will they get frustrated and drive away? I appreciate that these residents have stepped up to the plate to make sure there are enough places to vote with the redistricting, but the fact that there was a need to do so is disgraceful for this state.

2. So I go to Home Depot (yuck) to early vote. The nice man tells me that there are three pages for my ballot and that when I complete voting on page 1, the machine will automatically take me to page 2, BUT, WHEN I COMPLETE VOTING ON PAGE 2, IT WILL NOT TAKE ME TO PAGE 3. I will have to hit the NEXT button at the bottom of the machine to continue. What's with that? How many people won't know? What if people aren't told? What if the elderly get confused?

These scenarios really horrify me.

[VelmaD]

1. Call the Travis County Dem headquarters...

at 477-7500 and tell them what happened.

Also call the Travis County Clerk at 238-8683 and tell them.

[MikeG]

2. My suggestion is move to another state, then vote.

[GOPisEvil]

3. Your polling place is at someone's HOUSE?!?!

:wtf:

[VelmaD]

4. Not any weirder than mine being in a church.

:eyes:

[Intelsucks]

5. Mine too.

n/t

[GOPisEvil]

6. Churches are at least (on their face) public buildings.

Meaning, for the most part, anyone can just walk in...even if there are operating hours.

Someone's house is not a public building.

So, I think it's MUCH weirder. Hell, I voted in a mall...

[Skittles]

7. in Whitesboro mine was at Don's Barbeque

:D

[GOPisEvil]

8. Gimme a Democratic ballot and a chopped brisket sammich!

:D

[Skittles]

22. LOL, that's pretty much what Tom and I did

hey, I just got back from early voting - went to the library. DIEBOLD MACHINES. They gave me a sticker saying MY VOTE COUNTED. Yeah, sure it will. :(

[efhmc]

21. Yum and still a public location.

[Richardo]

17. I voted at a residence a couple of times when I lived in Cullyfornia...

...and I prefer that to voting in a church or parish hall with Right to Life banners all over the place. :eyes:

[efhmc]

9. Everything about this election is weird. I had to call and track down

my 2 daughters and sil's registration because they have not received cards and 1 has to early vote because she will be out of state next week. Well, I held forever and the young sounding woman that helped me was cheery and nice and gave me lots of information but she said that they have record numbers of new voters but great numbers of card that have not been received because of redistricting. I, of course, had to give a small "I hate Republicans speech". She listened and said she had been hearing a lot of grumbling. She did not go further but I thought it was a good sign.

[GOPisEvil]

10. Record numbers of new voters...I like the sound of that.

:-)

[silverlib]

14. Me too!!!

[Intelsucks]

15. I'll be 35 next week, and I'm kind of a "new voter". Shame on me!

:spank:

[VelmaD]

12. I'm calling bullshit on blaming redistricting...

just because my district changed doesn't mean my address changed. Sounds like a huge cop out to me.

[efhmc]

19. I so agree and many who did not get their cards probably think they

are not registered so they won't vote. The young woman said that if my folks did not get their cards by the end of March to give them a call because they were going to start up a database of those names and issue duplicate cards. So how many people did not get their cards before the primary??

[silverlib]

11. Got an answer to question 2 (someone's house)

I called 854-4996 (election headquarters) and was told my precinct is soooo small that there are no public buildings in the precinct. My concerns about parking and handicap access will be answered, along with the problems regarding the machines and the three page ballot will be addressed by a return phone call.

I told the nice lady that I could probably thank the Texas Republican Party for voting in someone's garage (yes, it is a garage) and she said that I was entirely accurate in that assumption.

Won't be ordering any bar-b-que with this vote.

What if someone needs to use the bathroom?

[GOPisEvil]

13. No public buildings in the precinct?

Goodness...one more time :wtf:

[efhmc]

20. Just how much liablity is this person opening him/herself up to by

allowing voting in a private location? Also, I never heard of a precinct that did not contain at least a fire station. What kind of craziness is this? In Lampasas County, several of the smaller(population wise) precincts vote in the same location. None of this makes a bit of sense.

[silverlib]

16. Got my returned call with answers to follow

1. Once again, absolutely no public buildings in my precinct. So, I offered to help the people who have opened up their garage for voting. And this election official did tell me that I could thank the Texas Republicans, too. I wasn't sure if the precinct lines were drawn with the redistricting, or if that was done at a different level. She assured me that the same politicians that drew the district lines also drew the precinct lines.

2. Huge problem. They had not been informed and will get on it immediately (last day of early voting). She was extremely concerned that the machines needed to work properly by next week. Since the referendums were on page three, it will be interesting to see how many people did not vote on the referendums in early voting. Of course, we will never know if it was due to this problem. Right now, hopefully, the only machines having problems are all the machines at Home Depot on Brodie.

[GOPisEvil]

18. That's just sad...how many people wouldn't even know if there was

a problem? Most people would not have paid attention.

So, now what? If those ballots have a problem, what? Are those ballots valid now? Do they have to be re-done? What?

:grr:

What the hell was wrong with the optical scanners? NOTHING!

[efhmc]

23. EVERYTHING repukes get their hands on ends up screwed up.

[Richardo]

24. ...ends up screwed up for someone else, that is.

Usually works out perfectly for THEM. :mad: