Yep, I voted. First thing, before I went to work. I really enjoy it, so I never file absentee ballots. (Just once when I was in college.) I know it's not as fun & easy for everyone, but in my little suburbs I get to walk half a block to a home where senior volunteers have cleaned up & converted their garage into a polling place. A half-dozen portable polling stations are set up, and there's a small line of neighbors waiting to vote. I'm a moderate-liberal in a conservative town (my wife counted 12 Bush bumper stickers to 4 for Kerry--including ours--on our block), but everything is friendly.
California typically has a lot of ballot measures for the citizens to vote on, not just the major political candidates. After seeing all of the untrustworthy political ads for several weeks, my wife and I just read through the nonpartisan legislative analysis, as well as the impassioned arguments for and against (do all states provide this sort of packet? I think it's invaluable.) We talked it over and made up our own mind. Today at lunch I overheard young folks at another table talking about felons and DNA--undoubtedly a reference to one of the ballot measures. I know it's corny, but I really get a charge out of seeing all of these regular folks having water cooler discussions about the topics, and proudly wearing the "I voted" sticker. I'm just sorry mine blew away when I drove with the window open (still nice weather in California, you see!).
Regarding boardgames, I really wanted to play Mr. President before today. Actually, what I really want is to play a partnership game with my family over Thanksgiving. But no one will be in the mood if our candidate loses today. Go Kerry/Edwards! My family boardgaming is depending on it! :-) (That new parody-election game from Martin Wallace, Election USA, sounds like it might be worth a look, too.)
-Mark
P.S. This was the first year I put bumper stickers on the car, and a yard sign in the lawn. Kay, so someone spit on my wife's car near the sticker when she was shopping. Believe it or not, that was kind of exciting. I guess we're stirring up things a tiny bit. We've found a few more Democrats this way, and one muttered under her breath, "There are more of us than you think." :-)
I voted this morning! Zipped in and zipped out before the crowd. I didn't vote last Pres. election, so I'm hardly a "if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain" type person, but I don't see how most people can shrug of this election, regardless as to what side they may be on.
My state (New York) is a foregone conclusion, but I'd like see Kerry have a large margin on the popular vote so he has some leverage when the inevitable legal challenges to the electoral college come about.
By the way, we had the old lever-works-the-curtain style voting booth here Too bad, because I was all ready for a space-age computer screen.
Posted by: Mike Mayer at November 2, 2004 03:02 PMDefinitely better to play Mr. President (or Landslide or Candidate or Oswald B. Lord's Game of Politics...) than Election USA, at least based upon my experience. I found that too much of the humor fell flat, and there wasn't nearly enough game underneath to make up for it.
Posted by: Joe Huber at November 2, 2004 09:10 PMI voted Tuesday morning around 10:00AM and only had a 5 minute wait. My wife went an hour or so later and had no wait. I'm constantly amazed by the reports of long-lines and people waiting 1 or more hours to vote. Seems like a VERY simple solution: get more voting machines.
I'm also amazed that some states still use paper ballots or punch cards. We're in the 21st century, guys. Even Louisiana, one of the poorest states in the nation, has electronic voting booths in every precinct.
I'm also VERY happy that this election didn't drag on for months like the previous one. Yes, my candidate won, but regardless of who would have won, I wanted to see the decision made without resorting to legal battles.
At our Westbank Gamers session Wednesday night, we played both Election USA and Landslide.
Posted by: Greg J. Schloesser at November 5, 2004 12:31 PM