I live in a small town in Arkansas with a population of about 4,000. My polling place is a Baptist Church on the main street that runs through town. It has been a bit of a culture shock voting here as I was used to the Boston system of voting machines with levers and frenzied campaigning happening on the way into the polling place.
No campaigning is allowed within 100 feet of the entrance and on my way in to vote there was not one candidate sign in sight. Where I vote in Arkansas uses paper ballots. It is slipped into a cardboard sheath and then handed to the voter. One then goes to a table that is littered with pencils, sits down, and darkens the appropriate selection. The ballot is then placed back into the sheath and walked over to a box where it is inserted into a slot, the paper ballot is pushed out and the sheath is handed to an attendant.
They do appear to be testing an electronic voting system and so random voters were assigned to vote in that way.
I happened to go midafternoon when there was just a trickle of voters and so was in and out of there in 5 minutes. We also have pretty severe thunderstorms rolling through the area so turnout in this region may be lower than expected.
And so now the waiting begins. Arkansas has been pretty much neglected by all but Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee so it will be interesting to see whether their efforts will pay off in this state.
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Comments: 12
John - well there certainly is a good chance Arkansas will go that way.
Lynn - I agree - I prefer to vote on more neutral ground.
How are you??? Haven't seen you in a while. Gosh, your hair is nice and long now! Still wet, you don't hairdry? You got curls! You shouldn't dry 'em straight. I like it curly! How are the kids... I see your son more than the girls. Your grandkids are soooo cute, I see them in school sometimes.
Oh, you wanna vote?
Hehehe... ok."
That's how I am greeted at the polling place, a place that was newly built for the use of our county. Way out in a country road, with farms and an odd factory or two. Like a basic meeting/ club place, anybody can ask to use it when not scheduled for something like today's voting activity. With a nice open area with several banquet tables and chairs, a modern kitchen, and bathrooms, it is handy.
I was not even asked to show my card or driving license. Everybody knows everybody in our district.
No advertising, no campaigning near the polling places. Just a bunch of cars and trucks in the parking lot.
A highly Democratic-populated area, it's the height of insult here to be called a "Damn Republican".
Most important question I have is: for whom did you vote????? I voted for Hillary