Share Your Voting Experiences With HuffPost

So just how good -- or bad-- was your own experience voting? Did you feel like the line was so long you were actually voting in the 2012 primary? Did the poll workers know what were they doing? Or did it feel like it was all being run by FEMA? What about the balloting itself? Any faint whiffs of a new Hurricane Chad? Any butterflies in your tummy? Or worse, was the ballot itself as dizzying as the wing pattern of a Monarch? If you used an electronic voting machine, how did that work? Slam, bam, thank you ma'am and here's your receipt? Or was it more like pulling the handle on an unfathomable slot machine? What was the environment in and around the polling place? Lots of energy and buzz? and hostile or friendly mobs on the street corner?

Please share your stories with the Huffington Post using this Survey Monkey form. We're going to pick out the best voting tales and share them with the entire HuffPost community.

Comments

[wecan]

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
From a sparsely populated area in southeastern Illinois
I voted mid morning, I headed off to my local polling place ten miles away. Through back roads flanked by fields in transition. My polling place is at the fire station. Pull into the parking lot there is a line of cars parked behind each other along a fence to my left. To my right is a huge farming combine. What if there is a fire? How will the truck get out? Pull up to a spot in front of the polling room door. In the parking lot there are a few people standing and talking with each other. Walk in and see a line of seated women. I"m asked to sit down and the process begins. I hand my voter ID to the first women. She remarks happily that I"m ready. I reply that I"ve had some time to be...

[Harrier]

Voted in Long Beach, CA-No problem at all

[BWonka]

Today, this 61 yr. old white Veteran drove four Democrats to the polls to vote. For one, it was his first vote - at age 44!

I have not been this involved since the 60s. It was like being brought back to life. I am standing so tall today. I am so happy for our country and its future.

[thisone]

Hope over fear. Unity over division. Love over hate.

God Bless Our Country.

[newleaf]

Voting in Oregon, by mail, life couldn't be better. They mail out a voter information guide before you get the mail ballot, so you have plenty of time to research the issues. You circle your choices and mail that baby back in! I didn't have to miss work! Much better than when I lived in Kansas, and I remember standing in line for two hours holding a baby, or the time I waited two hours and had to listen to a big fat redneck blustering on about how he couldn't find anyone admitting to voting for Clinton - well you bet I was, but I didn't bother to get in an argument with the cretin. I don't miss the elderly, slightly deaf volunteers shouting out my name and address. But I digress.......mail voting is the way to go.

[dukeitout]

In Nevada, where I live, the polls opened about 10 days ago. I arrived at the voting booths, voted, and was out after about 5 minutes. I resented not having anything to complain about.

[InspiredbyObama]

My voting experience wasn't bad!

6:10am I was on line to vote, the line was literally wrapped around the polling site, there were a lot of ppl on line. I voted at 8am and I went home to catch a nap, so I can be up ALL night watching the results!

[GrainOSand]

I came, I voted, I smiled. In Illinois all is well with the voting process. The staff was pleasant. I had a conversation while standing in line with a fellow voter that was uplifting and heart warming. I have family all over America, and today we brought collective pain to McCain and collective affirmation to Obama and all down ticket Democrats (I am not a Democrat and many in my family are not either). I cannot know the outcome, but I feel good that everything I could do to help change the direction of this country I did.

[napanoch]

Today when I went to vote in Little Italy, NYC, it was a full house of the newly arrived young white upper middle class professionals (one black in that crowd) and old time neighborhood folks like me. As usual the Italian ladies I've seen there for years as well as the local Chinese ladies were manning the polls. I looked back in the line and there was what looked like an older homeless black man or one of the men who lives in the few SRO hotels that still exist on the Bowery., very skinny and not looking well. He clutched a paper in his hands and tears were coming out of his eyes. He was spotted by a Chinese poll worker and brought ahead of the line. They gave him a chair and the one of the Italian women asked if he needed water or some food. He said no. All the time a small trickle of tears. The women took him into the booth and helped him to vote. I didn't see him leave but wondered what it must be like for him. His face will be what I remember about casting my vote for Obama.

As I walked home there was one canvasser at the end of the block, a chinese woman, handing out fliers in Chinese with big block letters at the top that spelled OBAMA.

He is bringing out the best in us.

It does feel like a change is gonna come.

[DragonMama]

I was bullied by the precinct supervisor for photographing my husband voting while holding our 1yr old son (yes, I have reported it to Our Vote, the local BoE and the Sec of State's office already as well as the local Obama campaign office). Our polls close in 17 minutes. I am going back out there to make sure that anyone who might be in line knows that they have the right to vote as long as they are in line at 7:30 (I'm in Ohio, inner-ring suburb of Cleveland), and I'm bringing blankets and folding chairs just in case, plus I have some fruit and apple cider in the car in case it's needed to feed hungry waiting people.

Your particular story brought tears to my eyes. My husband is Chinese-American (naturalized) and grew up just north of NYC. Such gentleness and understanding between ethnic groups was not his consistant experience growing up.

[azureca]

wow, good for you for taking the time to do that. and yes, it's so heartening to see how obama's candidacy is bringing out the best in everyone!

[TaylorRae]

My vote was easy. I was able to wait until the morning rush hour lines were gone and I didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes. At 9:30 am I was number 216.

I checked at 5 pm and out of 750+ registered voters, almost 600 people had voted. People were streaming in and out of the polling place and there was lots of energy and enthusiasm.

When I cast my vote this morning I felt a chill - this was a part of what could be one of the most significant moments in our country's history. Only a few hours to determine if, in fact, we see our country move forward in a way that hasn't happened in a long time... if we see a defining moment.

[mustaffa]

Voter from Maine...
All I can say is that it felt like Christmas! Everything felt smooth and comfortable. Even the weather was warm and sunny, lobster boats poking around the harbor, ferries gliding noiselessly, Even an occasional sail boat, still in the water, reminding me of summer.
My next door neighbor was smiling at me while handing me the ballot. He knew my name, all he had to do was to mark if off.
The machine scanned it with no trouble and it was over, a bit too quickly for such a momentous event.
My head is still it the clouds....
What a release!
Tonight, I will be able to say, Obama, our President.
Life is good!
I

[bryang78]

North Lima, OH


I was never informed about what precinct i was supposed to be voting in and my girlfriend and I ended up standing in the wrongline for about an hour. lol Not too long of a wait but this area doesnt have very many people so according to population the turnout was pretty good and that was at 10:00 this morning

[Wardo]

Montgomeryville PA:

I arrived at the polling center at 6:30 am, polls open at 7. I was the 125th person in line with the queue stretching in back of me as far as the eye could see. Within 25 minutes of the polls opening I had cast my vote for Barack Obama.

[RacoonMama]

My town has 12 precincts of about 1000 voters each.When I voted at 2:00 this afternoon the counter on the machine showed that 750 people in my precinct had already voted -lines were short workers were professional and there were 3 times as many Obama supporters than Mccain supporters waving signs outside. My daughter cast her first vote and we hugged and cried!
Came back home and got on line where there's a raging war of words going on in the local papers e-forum - lots of Republicans proclaiming a vote for Obama means the end of the world etc.
Trying to be a voice of reason and logic till the end -maybe one of those right wing-nuts hasn't voted yet and I can change their minds!

[DragonMama]

If you get this before your polls close, try pointing out to them that the rest of the world sees our polls saying Obama leads by a wide margin, over 50% pretty consistantly nationally at least. What are they going to think of our "democracy" and ability to "build a democracy in Iraq" if McCain wins?

Here's a video (poorly made, it's of me and the baby woke up right when I was trying to film it) if it might help: http://youtube.com/user/OHDragonMama

[autochrome]

I voted in West Hollywood California. The line was longer than I've ever seen it. Enthusiasm for Obama and disdain for Proposition 8 (ban gay marriage in CA) were likely drivers. When I got to the registration desk I was told my registration was "inactive" in spite of the fact that I'd voted in the primary and every major election from the same address for 6 years.

I wasn't caught entirely off guard. I'd been told by phone 3 weeks ago (calling for polling place) that I'd been listed inactive because of returned mail. At that time I was also told the registration had been corrected. Thankfully it was just a matter of holding up my right hand and pledging that I was who I said I was. No provisional ballot. I voted normally.