Voting experience!

[Aunt Bea]

Just back from casting my vote.

I was number 136 with no lines and only a slight delay in finding my registration in the new online system. This is the first year without using the paper book system for each ward of the city and the young woman manning the controls punched in my name incorrectly the first few times.

I was surprised that they had us vote in the local elementary school gymnasium this year. I thought that they might relocate us to a less populated facility in an effort to minimize the chance of contamination and the cost of sanitizing/cleaning after election day.

 

[Aunt Bea]

What puzzles me is on a national election of federal employees why is it up to states to regulate voting?

The reason is almost as old as the nation.

https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-convention

 

[rgp]

Well, I just returned from voting, only one person ahead of me , about a one minute wait.

One thing I did notice , for the first time. All of the polling place volunteers this year [about eight] were young.

I'd say the oldest was 50? In the past they were very old. One year , one of them was sitting there on oxygen . Glad to see the torch being past.

 

[JimBob1952]

Just walked to the polling place with wife and daughter. No lines, pleasant people, whole thing took 5 minutes.

We went to an early voting station last week and there was a 2 hour wait, so we decided to tough it out on Election Day.

 

[Don M.]

We voted this morning.....in and out in just a few minutes, with No lines. There was a steady stream of people arriving and leaving, but the polling place was doing a great job of keeping things moving.

 

[debodun]

I went in person. The line was much longer than I expected being 10 am in a small village and taking into account mail-in ballots. I attribute that to social distancing regulations. Another hold-up was someone that signed in erroneously and the woman in front of me had moved and didn't register her new address. Took me just under half an hour between entering the building until I left.

 

[Pink Biz]

What puzzles me is on a national election of federal employees why is it up to states to regulate voting?

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30747.html

 

[AnnieA]

Took me about 10 minutes because I chose a time I knew would be slow. Visited with friends and family afterwards in the parking lot. All I talked with were depressed about the choices and had considered not voting.

 

[gennie]

The reason is almost as old as the nation.

https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-convention

Interesting article but it does not explain the justification for the 'winner-take-all aspect. That was a feature added by later politicians.

 

[Becky1951]

Well, I just returned from voting, only one person ahead of me , about a one minute wait.

One thing I did notice , for the first time. All of the polling place volunteers this year [about eight] were young.

I'd say the oldest was 50? In the past they were very old. One year , one of them was sitting there on oxygen . Glad to see the torch being past.

It may be that the elderly are at high risk during this time so that's why younger people.

 

[AnnieA]

What puzzles me is on a national election of federal employees why is it up to states to regulate voting?

There were state races and referendums on the ballot today as well. But to answer your question, the US isn't primarily a centralized, unitary system of government. We've constitutionally been a federation of states since 1787.