The Slacktiverse

I voted Green Party for every race in which a Green candidate was on my ballot, then Democratic for all the others except insurance commissioner (the fuck is that woman doing on the ballot anyway, she should not have survived the Democratic primary after the job she's done, she wouldn't have if it hadn't been a four-way race), which meant blank line for insurance commissioner and for state senate (no even vaguely progressive candidate there). And then I got exit polled. :)

I wouldn't have voted Green if I lived in a less blue state, but this state's blue enough that my voting otherwise couldn't hurt Obama and my voting Obama wouldn't help him.

I was worried I wouldn't be able to upload my absentee ballot in time because I've been sick, but I was finally better enough to go to town to do it today. (Not having a printer means a trip to town when I want to print something). So I ended up voting after all. Only cost me $2, which is better than 2004, which cost me $35 and I'm still bitter about that experience.

I registered later than I should have, but despite it being a red state, my ballot was e-mailed to me in a timely fashion (in start contrast from 2004, when I applied early and they mailed it so late I had to overnight the ballot).

I'm now happily watching http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results

I really hate that they call states so early. Show us which way the state is leaning, fine. But Vermont has 0% reporting and they've already called it. Sure in all likelihood Vermont has been called correctly for Obama, but it still bothers me. Indiana's been called with 7% reporting even though Romney's only winning by 57%.

In principle, I don't like strategic voting and think people should vote for the best candidate regardless of party. In practice, I voted strategically this election. I would have voted differently if just following who I thought was the best candidate, but polls were reporting that my state might be only light red, and my conscience would bother me if my vote were one of the reasons my state stayed red.

I love the fact that I've never had to do strategic voting, and never will. I can always vote for (the person I perceive to be) the best candidate, and never feel that my vote has been wasted. But I will sing the praises of PR-STV all day if you let me, so I'll shut up now.

TRiG.

I voted similarly to Ellie: One independent, one dem in a race that was between two dems, and the rest Green. I do like living somewhere where I have the luxury to vote third party and not worry that it's handing the election to the Repubs.

Our candidates for the House were a libertarian, a democrat, and a green. How I wish the entire country were like that...

No issues with the voting machines or attempts at intimidation or anything like that.

I like how they called my city for Obama with 0% of the results in.

And you know, they're absolutely right to do so.

I have to say, I did vote all Democrat this time. As a federal employee in clean energy, Obama's administration has both made my job significantly better and forwarded a lot of issues I strongly believe in. Although he's done a lot of things I disagree with, I do actually believe in him still as president. (Writing a million press releases starting with "the Obama Administration did..." probably strengthened that a bit on a psychological level.) Also, both of our Democrats in the Senate and House are extremely liberal and strongly support issues I believe in. We did have a Green party candidate running for the House, but I like sending the message that our region will support a long-standing very liberal Congressmember.

In a slightly less partisan angle, I was also very proud to vote for marriage equality and allowing children of illegal immigrants to have state tuition for in-state schools. Because equality and education are good things for everyone.

I didn't have any problems voting except having to wait an hour. At least the line was inside this year.

My state is in no danger of anything other than going to a Democrat, so I have the luxury of voting my conscience, rather than strategically for the lesser of two evils. So I voted for the candidates that best suit my preferences.

The state itself is mainly vote-by-mail, so while we had a few polling places, most of our votes are not subject to intimidation in person. The lines at the few spots that were in-person were fairly long, according to reports, but not likely to be the daylong affairs in states where the establishment has a vested interest in having as few voters voting as possible.

At this point, the polls excepting in Alaska and Hawaii have closed, so the projections for the country that involve...wait a second, they just called the country! Apparently, it's four more years.

Dang, silveradapt beat me to it.

Ahem.

Woooo!

(Though honestly I'm more excited by Warren's win.)

No I am sorry none of you get to be as excited about Warren as me. (Well, unless you are in MA and knocked on at least 110 doors or equivalent. Then maybe.)

I had to vote with a provisional ballot. No idea what the frell got messed up with my registration. I am really pissed about it.

I was tempted to vote Green but I really like Obama and think he is a great president and really wanted to endorse his administration. Felt good to do so...but who knows if my ballot will even be counted. Grrr.

And I am fired up to move forward. Who do we have on the bench for 2014? Let's get the House back!!!

Also, this election was all about me doing things that terrify me. I started and helped run a primary campaign in college, but I had never phonebanked or knocked on doors. Did both those things and they were not, in fact, The Worst Thing In The World (h/t to Cliff Pervocracy). This is a Good Thing for my future as a political operative, but even more so for my job skills and confidence.

If Obama loses Virginia and Florida that will mean my predictions were exactly correct. That's kind of creepy.

At this point I am basically only staying up to see what happens with gay marriage in Maryland.

And that lady in Maine whose opponent tried for attack her for playing WoW won.
Colleen Lachowicz. Who, like many of us, lives in the 21st century.

And gay marriage appears to have passed in MD! All in all, a pretty darn good election night.

Upon winning a seat in the Maine State Senate, Colleen Lachowicz posted the Final Fantasy IV Victory Theme to her Facebook timeline.

Colleen Lachowicz thereby wins the entire night, and I'm going to bed.

As an outsider, the thing that strikes me as really bizarre is voting machines. Never mind the electronic ones, which are so blatantly insecure (and remove any possibility of a recount) that anyone who even suggests using one is probably guilty of fraud; even your basic lever-pull ones don't seem to offer any real advantage over a clear pencil mark on a piece of paper.

I realise the American electorate is far larger than the British, but that shouldn't need to affect the low-level voting - we just get lots of volunteers to do the counting (usually equal numbers from each major party's staff, so they can look over each other's shoulders) and have a neutral Electoral Commission to resolve anything at a higher level.

I haven't immediately been able to find numbers about polling places - in the UK, living in urban areas, I've never been further than ten minutes' walk away from my local one (they usually take over parts of schools for the day). I understand that it's a bit more work to get to one even in urban parts of the USA?

Marriage Equality was legalized in Maine.

Washington looks to be on track to pass their marriage equality - it's held a steady 3% lead as returns come in.

Minnesota's constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality failed. (State law prohibits marriage equality still)

And, voters on my state, normally reliably liberal, passed an initiative that subjects any decision involving taxes our fees to the tyranny of the superminority. The voters here have been paying these initiatives almost every time they appear on the ballot...only to have them be suspended by the Legislature because the initiatives prevent the functioning of government. Which them leads to more initiatives being passed and subsequently suspended. I'm hoping that the voters recognize the pattern at some point and elect not to pass the initiative they know will just be suspended anyway, and choose to find some other method of trying to check the Legislature.

The big surprise for me, at the moment, is that Puerto Rico voted to pursue statehood.