We're in Kingsport and we went to the civic auditorium to vote today. In the parking lot was a large contingency of Shipley supporters. There was a smaller group supporting Nathan Vaughn.

After voting I shook Nathan Vaughn's hand and wished him luck. He was a very personable guy and easy to talk to.

The Shipley crowd had a life size cut out of McCain which I didn't see until after I snubbed them. I wish I had been nicer. It would have made a good Halloween decoration.

Went at around 2:30 PM to the Blount Co. courthouse early voting location on Wednesday. There were about five people in line ahead of me, and the approx. ten machines were all in use.

Things were moving along, and it didn't take long at all to get to a machine, maybe five minutes. It took longer to vote, and we don't even have the complicated amendment questions they have in Knox. I was very careful to dial in the right choices, and reviewed my ballot twice very carefully before hitting the "cast ballot" button.

The other people voting were mostly elderly. No drama or hassles or problems at all. The poll worker who checked me in said she lives nearby and knows several of our neighbors on our street. She was very nice, as the poll workers usually are.

As we were leaving we asked how many people had voted. They said about 800 as of around 2:30PM. That's a pretty big number for the first day at one location in Blount Co. But I found out later that Lamar Alexander had been there earlier in the day to cast his vote, so that probably drew a lot of supporters.

When we left we noticed the only signs were for Lamar Alexander. So we went by the Democratic HQ which is just around the block and picked up some Obama and Tuke signs and planted them.

We went to another early voting location to put out an Obama sign, and I got yelled at by a cranky old Republican woman who said I couldn't do that. She went in to complain and the poll worker said the sign was outside the boundary so no problem.

Roane County is using the paper ballot and optical reader. I like it. Mrs. Creek and I walked in to the Courthouse, signed in, and voted in five minutes total.

Got my sticker and wore it to the Randy Newman concert.

Update: AS predicted, my Obama kit came today. Got a cool Obama/Biden yard sign, a t-shirt, several buttons, and an Obama magnet. We should see them pop up like mushrooms from now until the election.

Today I early voted at the Knox County Downtown West/Bearden location. This year the voting center is located in a much smaller store space than last time I voted there. The registration tables and voting machines are crammed much more tightly together.

This might be an issue with high voter traffic. Fortunately, that wasn't the case this afternoon. They had eight or more sign-in stations running, and I only had to wait in a one-person line. There wasn't any waiting for voter booths.

For president, I cast my vote for a Muslim socialist terrorist--because I hate America. /sarcasm

It will be interesting to monitor early voting turnout. High local turnout might portend high nationwide voter turnout, which, if due to voter angst, presumably favors the Democratic party.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Voted at the County Clerk's main office adjacent to the Howard School Building in Nashville. They had about 8 people doing intake. No line and empty Votronic machines at about 9:15 a.m., about a dozen other people helping in the polls.

There was a light rain this morning, so I figured that would keep the sign-wavers at a minimum.

____________________________

the distance between black & white is much further than i would like until now i never noticed that fascism has many disguises -d. boon, 1981

Voted @ the Knox County Courthouse about 3 yesterday.No line but every machine in use..the election folks were very nice..& things were moving smoothly.Good turn out @ the Courthouse.

One wag wanted to know where he could vote to recall UT football coach Phil Fulmer.

Saw Mackay & gave him a thumbs up.

Then went to the Obama rally @ the downtown HQs & marched to the Courthouse with a whole bunch of people going to vote.

Hung out @ the HQ's for the open house Fun time had by all.

Talked to Kevin Berry,Sylvia & Harold Woods,Wade Till,Bill Hotz,Madeline Rogero,Mark Harmon,Mac Simpson,Zac the president of the UT dems,Wimmer & his way cool little feller & Gloria who is doing a bang up job.Plus I met a bunch of people for the first time.I was at the Courthouse when Armstrong stopped by.

Then I met a fellow that played db for old Young High...class of '62.

Told me a story about playing against Cleveland High & all everything qb Steve Sloan(lead Bama to the '65 National Championship.)

The old db allowed that he thought he had read a play perfect.Knew for sure Sloan had handed off to the fullback & he hit that Cleveland fullback as hard as he could hit him.The trouble was the fullback didnt have the ball.Sloan had pulled the pefect fake & hit a fellow with a pass streaking to the goal line where he shoulda been.

Cleveland beat Young,all those years ago,25-0 after a scoreless first half.

Then went to the World Grotto on Market Square & watched the debate with the Obama gang.The room was packed.

And at the World Grotto..like at the HQs met a whole bunch more people for the first time & ended up rapping about politics with some of my new found friends till clock struck midnight.

And thats the way I spent the day I voted to make history.

We went at about 2:30 to the local Anderson Co. location and voted. No lines at all, the people working the polls were friendly, and we voted on paper ballots which we then fed into the counting machine. For all the good it does in TN., our little part is done.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

I got to the new Ball Camp facility on Middlebrook Pike this morning about ten minutes before opening time and there were eight in line already.

We were chatting about how convenient this new location is for the Karns/Ball Camp area when an old gentleman in a Lamar-red plaid flannel shirt came up to the back of the line.

"I got here at 8:30 and went back home. I just gotta vote in this 'un," he said.

For some reason the chat stopped and I thought, "I do too, old darlin'. I do too."

The whole thing was fast. I teased the poll workers about how loudly they asked voters to confirm their birthdays. They laughed about how they would really be in trouble if they had to confirm weight.

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There is a slide show on Flickr dedicated to the Early Vote 2008. So far there are photos from 36 members.

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Our registrations had not yet been processed by Knox County but true to the info R got from Greg Mackay we were able to vote today. The workers simply called in and it was only five minutes before we were in the system and sent off to vote. If you have not yet gotten your new registration card, don't wait until election day to vote!

One thing that was not pleasing was that after you select all your choices and are on the page to confirm it read... "Electors for BAR"

BAR? I had to stop and think, ok.. Barack...
The other half saw his and thought.. BAR. Bob Barr? That is not who he was voting for!

He asked for assistance and got plenty of attention but no real satisfaction. With all the problems surrounding any of these voting machines it would have been really nice had it said Obama instead of BAR.

I voted about 5:30 this afternoon at the South Knoxville early voting site. There was only one person voting when I came it, but five or six when I left, among them three guys carrying babies. Workers said traffic was pretty steady.

The spouse voted yesterday at the Courthouse. He was there on Friday afternoon at 5:30. It was pouring rain. He thought he would be the only person there, and was surprised to see a steady stream of people. The workers said it had been like that ever since they opened up.

Yeah, the BAR thing is pretty confusing. The spouse said if he hadn't read about it in the paper he would have panicked.

The workers were helpful - almost too helpful. I kind of had to shoo away the nice lady who was giving me way more instruction than I needed on how to use the machines.

For the record, I voted yes on charter amendments 3 and 4. I hope Rikki will still speak to me.

I find it interesting that I had a McCain/Palin sign up in my front yard last weekend and when I returned from being gone this week, an Obama/Biden sign was there and the McCain/Palin sign removed. On private property no less. I find that very interesting indeed since I have early voted and it was not for Obama either but what I find most puzzling is who is going to come onto my private property and remove one sign while posting the opposite. I wonder about it but I did return the sign to the Blount County Democratic HQ and then was even more interested to find that one has to pay for those Obama/Biden signs in order to even get one. Just very interesting to me that such a thing would happen, and like I said, on private property no less. Ashame that whoever did it would not wait for me to be home and catch them doing it.

I voted at the Ball Camp / Middlebrook Pike location, noticed mostly Republican signs, the few Tuke signs I saw had been pushed over, and no Obama signs.

During the maybe 5 minutes it took me to go though the process they had two Twenty-somethings leave the voting booth and the poll workers clapped and shouted "First time voter!" ~ Bob Aubin
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"Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work." ~ Barack Obama

We early voted Saturday at Downtown West about 2:30pm. As I parked, I realized the Obama stickers on the car dashboard probably weren't legal within the 100' mark. Fortunately the front of the car sat outside the boundary and the tailend within. I considered walking around to see how many cars were fudging on the rule but didn't think it worth the effort.

Cathy and I brought our son, Tommy, as a first time voter and the poll workers showed the same enthusiasm that bobaubin mentioned.

All in all, this was the fastest I have ever cast my vote. We were in and out almost faster than it took me to sign the paperwork. Early voting FTW!

Doug McCaughan
(link...)

Being a Marylander, early voting isn't an option for me, and I'm not looking forward to the lines at the polls. I'm planning to get there about 30 minutes before they open, with a book to read, and go to work afterward (fortunately, I work less than ten minutes from my polling place.)

My partner lives in Northern Virginia, and he was allowed to vote absentee, because he lives in one county and works in another. Its a good thing, too -- he had surgery this weekend, and might not feel up to going out to vote next week.

I voted friday 10-24-08 at New Harvest Park and was disturbed to have to sign a piece of paper that said something to the effect of, "If you apply to vote early and are not authorized to do so you can be fined 3000 dolars and charged with a felony."

What would a first time voter, unfamiliar with the process think when asked to sign such a statement?
It felt like voter intimidation to me, and at least one poll worker agreed with me.

Mr. Mackay, what is the origin of this statement? Who came up with it? Why is it deemed necessary?

Thanks

-Sugarfatpie (AKA Alex Pulsipher)

"X-Rays are a hoax."-Lord Kelvin

I had to sign a form in Blount Co. Don't recall any warning, but I didn't read the fine print. I think it just basically verified my address, precinct etc. and that I was who I said I was.

I always take my voter registration card, so that was the ID I used. They didn't ask for anything else. Not sure what they ask for if you don't have that. My understanding is that no ID is required except the first time you vote and only then if you didn't register in person.

(I'm sure Greg Mackay is lounging around without much to do, so hopefully he can stop by and answer some of these questions!)

They did something different this time, though. They had you put your signed form in an envelope on the front of the machine you voted on. That seemed strange to me.

I voted today at the Emory Vally Center at Oak Ridge today.

I got there around 12:05. I was asked to vote for a entire new city council but since I live in Oliver Springs, I couldn't vote for that.

I saw quite a few Obama stickers in the parking lot, more than I expected. I think at the time I entered, there were more Obama stickers, but when I left, I would have to say there were more McCain stickers.

I got in line, and counted about 17 people in front of me. The line was moving along at a pretty good pace. I think I waited about 15 mins to actually present my Drivers license to vote. No one asked, but it seemed to move things along. I noticed that everyone had a id of some sort.

I expect that every one thought that you had to have one.

Voting was on a paper ballot. Mine was pretty simple as there were no propositions to vote for, just folks running for office.

I voted the Dem ticket. Voting was easy as you just marked an :x: into the box of who you were voting for. I then placed the pink privacy paper on top of my ballot and took it to the electronic reader. I pushed it into the reader and a screen told me my ballot had been read and counted. That was pretty much it.

All in all, it took about 30 mins. from start to finish.

The line was steady at all times of about 15-20 folks waiting. I counted about 45 in all while I was there...I heard the poll workers say that turn was very good and steady. No huge lines, but no slack time either...there was always someone in a booth...

I went by the Habitat store on the way home. I got a used stereo receiver for my downstairs game room DVD/cd player...I gotta have tunes for my D&D game.....

No Matter Where you go, There you Are!!!!

BUMP for all you folks who are voting today. Report your experience, or any shenanigans here.

I voted earlier, but my Son voted today. (gosh, Its just weird typing that)

He voted at the Norwood district in Anderson Co.

No real lines. And he voted very easily and on a electronic machine, unlike myself that voted on a paper ballot and was optically scanned.

Corwin said it was easy and had no problems. He did have his voting card with me, which seemed to really speed things up.

All in all he was in and out in about Ten minutes.

No Matter Where you go, There you Are!!!!

I was standing at the code machine right after 11am when the poll worker checked the vote count at Rockford School in Blount County. They had already had 260 voters, and there were at least 20 more in line behind me. That's pretty amazing for Rockford. I rarely see a line there longer than four or five people when I vote (almost always around 10-11am).

They only have 4 eSlate machines, which is about 20 voters per hour per machine, so they were going more or less full out. (It took me around 90 seconds to vote, and most folks easily needed twice as long.)

I stopped by the Karns Middle School around midday to make a few pictures of the lunch time crowd. In the forty-five minutes I was there, there were maybe half a dozen voters.

There was a lady admonishing passers by to vote 'no' on the charter amendments as she sat in a lawn chair listening to Limbaugh on the radio of her Lincoln Town Car.

She talked about low-information voters and about what a 'smart man' Rush is. He was informing the world that the polls were crazy and McCain is winning this thing and that, by the way, Black Panthers are presently intimidating McCain voters somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I didn't make any pictures. Bill Dunn was there but who wants to see Bill Dunn?

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Being in Maryland, I don't have the option of early voting, though approving it was one of the ballot questions today.

I got to my polling place at about 6:25 AM, 35 minutes early. There were, according to one gentleman's count, 55 people ahead of me.

Contrast that with when I voted at the same place in 2004. I got there at 6:45 AM, and there were about fifteen people ahead of me.

The polls opened at 7:00 AM, and was out by 7:20 or so. As I left, I'd guesstimate there were somewhere between 100-150 people waiting.

Maryland is pretty much a lock for Obama. My House member is Steny Hoyer, the Majority Whip, and he was only facing token opposition. Neither of my Senators are up for reelection this year.

The big issues in Maryland are ballot questions. There's a hard-fought referendum on allowing slot machines in Maryland; I voted against it. We're also voting on allowing early voting statewide; I voted for that. My county (Prince Georges) has a referendum on increasing the tax on cell phone service (from 8% to 11%).. I voted for that, with the logic that if I'm not going to let them fund the schools with slot machines, I'll vote for the cell phone tax. Anyway, the constant robo-calls from the groups opposing it pissed me off.

The nicest thing I saw was an African-American couple that had been in line since 5:30, with their little boy. I can't be sure, of course, but my guess was they said, "we're voting to elect the first African-American President, and we want you here with us."

Parking at my polling place bites. There was a lady with a heart condition who had to walk two blocks to get there; I thought she was about to collapse. Fortunately, some friends of hers were saving a place near the front of the line, so she didn't have to wait too long.