Yeah, I had to vote in my state elections on Saturday (Queensland. Spoiler: Anna Palaszczuk won a third term); and that's done on a preferential voting system; or ranking if you prefer.

The upside is that everyone's vote counts; the downside is that you have to vote for everyone, including Nazis. First preference obs gets the most weighting; 6th preference, the least.

On my slip of paper I had six choices. Green always go top in my voting- because again, every vote counts and minor parties benefit- but it did mean Pauline Hansen's One Nation (no prizes for guessing their political affiliations) was my 6th choice.

 

So I live about a minute's walk from a polling station, but when I went there today I find out it was closed. Well this being California I'm sure it was nothing nefarious, and just COVID-related. I looked up another polling place on my phone, and there was one at my local library. So I drove there, and there was a line, made to look longer by the fact that people were distancing. There weren't that many people, but good lord did that line move slowly. I think I was there at least 40 minutes...maybe an hour? Normally when I vote the place is completely empty and I'm in and out in 5-10 minutes.

 

Also in California and the voting box was in an empty parking lot (dropped it off around 10 pm).

 

What state are you in?

 

Dismay

 

This is why I took my ballot in to a voting center where I was leaving it indoors. I would've dropped it off at an indoor location, but they don't have those. Not sure if that's a COVID thing or a "LA county is getting dumb about elections" thing.

 

Missouri. Deep red in Presidential

 

8 points is not all that much. Polls aren't always accurate. Voting for Bernie at this point is not making a statement.

 

I mostly voted for establishment Democrats because that's all that was available. For our state legislature though, there was no Republican on the ballot, and it was a Democrat in a very safe seat against an independent candidate with what looked like progressive leanings. So for my preliminary choice, I wrote down the progressive candidate as who I was going to vote for. Later on I decided to google her to find out a bit more, and it turned up her very bare-bones, shoestring website with a very scathing invective against her more centrist opponent...but also some harsh words for leftists as well. I was taken aback by her style, but after giving it some thought I decided I'd vote for her anyway. Our politics needs some of this.

 

It's making a statement that I don't vote for people who commit sexual assault.

 

Well I wish the rest of the democratic party felt that way but here we are.

 

In retrospect, I wish the original post had asked people what state they're voting from, because writing in Bernie or voting Jo Jorgensen means something different in California than it does in, say, Pennsylvania or Florida.


Anyway, I voted Biden and went Democrat all the way down ticket; I early voted a week and a half ago in suburban Columbia, SC--a city where the suburbs are a by and large blue pocket in a very red state but where the downtown/urban area is not only liberal but in some spaces legitimately progressive as well.

There were a few races where Republicans were running unopposed, and I did not give them a vote. Because I got an absentee ballot early, I saw the names of some school board candidates I'd never heard of, so I researched them thoroughly and voted for the two whose platforms I liked most. (I felt slightly awkward when I arrived at the early voting precinct and received some helpful advice from a man near the line and met his friendly wife--the latter of whom it turns out was the candidate who was a super close #3 on my list of school board candidates I almost voted for. Whoops. )

In 2016, I had voted for Jill Stein and Green/Democrat down ballot. (Interestingly there were a few candidates back then on the ballot representing both parties simultaneously.) I did this because I lived in a solid red "safe" state and didn't want to give my vote to warmonger Hillary Clinton. I also didn't realistically expect Trump to win the damned thing. After the results that night, even though I knew rationally that my third party vote in a state that was very definitely not in play didn't affect the outcome, I still felt very bad and guilty about it--as though I hadn't done my part to stop a proto-fascistic regime. (And then there was the fact that, of all people, I had to go and vote for a quack like Jill Stein--ugh.)

So this time around I've voted for Joe Biden. I wanted Bernie (for whom I voted in the primary this year and four years ago). And if Biden does win tonight, rest assured he will hear from me about foreign policy, Medicare-for-all, etc., etc. Not that this will do any good, mind you, but as a progressive living in a deep red state, I'm rather used to that.

 

Still a bloody shame Kanye didn’t win

 

I think him and Bloomberg were the two “basically as bad as trump” candidates

 

**** Kanye

 

Thank you for keeping this thread open. I'm still trying to make up my mind.