Wow - Have never seen the voting site so packed

[Scott Donley]

The Donald never came to visit.



Peace -Bill

He was here twice, once on the east side and once on the west side, not for fund raising.

[Eric Commarato]

My voting poll was packed down here in Mississippi...

[Jim Laumann]

I live in a rural area, our polling place is the township hall, similar to a 1 room school. Most elections, it the judges and 2-3 people. Last night wow - I voted at 6pm, and there were 20+ cars in the lot, and 20-30 people inside.

You'd have thought there was a sign somewhere that said "free beer" (I looked - just to be sure).

My total time in the hall was about 15 minutes.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Went for the morning swim from 5:30 to 8:00 am and cruised past the polling place on the way home to see how crowded it was.
Didn't look bad at all, so, we went home to drop off the wet swim suits and towels nd ran back to vote.
Quick in and out - no lines at all.

I believe they divided up the polling places a few years back and we now have about 10 places to vote where a few years ago we only had one.

[Mike Null]

We went about 10:30. Long line--maybe an hour and a half wait or so. The election people very kindly took note of our canes and obvious need for them and moved us to the front of the line. I wasn't comfortable with that so next year we'll use an early ballot.

[Greg Peterson]

Voter turnout nationally was at a twenty year low.

[Todd Willhoit]

Voter turnout nationally was at a twenty year low.

Some sources indicate otherwise.
http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout

[Jim Becker]

Rural voting was up, but down for some other constituencies.

[Greg Peterson]

Some sources indicate otherwise.
http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout

Your source clearly indicates a steep decline in voter participation over 2008, and matches closely to 1996.

Turnout was high in swing states, but outside of these areas enthusiasm was muted.

[Brian Elfert]

I expected long lines at the polling place at 7 am because most people in the city I live in don't work in the city. Most drive 25 miles or more for work. I didn't end up going until 7 pm and there was no line at all. There were more election workers than voters.

The people who drew up the precincts in my city must have been drunk when they did the work. The precincts are all sorts of screwy shapes. If I was drawing them up I would just make squares or rectangles the right sizes so each had the same number of people in them. Most of the polling places are within 1/2 mile of each other. I had to drive by one polling place to get to my polling place.

[Jim Becker]

Brian, the irregular voting district boundaries are that way by design...but we cannot discuss that further here because it dips into the political.

[Todd Willhoit]

Your source clearly indicates a steep decline in voter participation over 2008, and matches closely to 1996.

Are you looking at "voters" or eligible voters?

[Curt Harms]

Are you looking at "voters" or eligible voters?

I think it depended on the areas/groups. Groups that turned out in large numbers for Obama were less enthusiastic about Clinton. Trump equalled or exceeded Romney or McCain. Pendulums do swing. And they may swing again in 4 years. I did the absentee route this year but SWMBO voted during mid morning and said there were more people there than she'd seen since 1995 when we moved here.

[Todd Willhoit]

Your source clearly indicates a steep decline in voter participation over 2008, and matches closely to 1996.

Maybe you didn't read paragraph on the link:
"Voter turnout rates presented here show the much-lamented decline in voter participation is an artifact of poor measurement. In the past, turnout rates were calculated by dividing the number of votes by what is called the "voting-age population," which consists of everyone age 18 and older residing in the United States (the yellow line to the right). This includes persons ineligible to vote -- mainly non-citizens and ineligible felons -- and excludes overseas eligible voters. When turnout rates are calculated for those eligible to vote, or the voting-eligible population, a new pattern of turnout emerges, which exhibits no decline since 1972 (the green line to the right). Indeed, turnout rates appear to have been restored to their earlier high levels as of 2008."

[Jim Laumann]

Brian, the irregular voting district boundaries are that way by design...but we cannot discuss that further here because it dips into the political.

From a long ago Civics class.....that is called "Gerrymandering", and dates back to 1812, with then Mass. Gov. Elbridge Gerry.