Voting is FASTER if you KNOW YOUR DISTRICT . . .

There was a line around the block at my polling station this morning, but alot of people were waiting to find out which table to go to. If you don't have your card or that thing the Board of Elections sent you in the mail two months ago, confirm your info at this state link BEFORE YOU GO VOTE!
Knowing your district could save you an hour today...

You're in Kings County.
https://voterlookup.elections.state.ny.us/voterSearch.aspx

Happy Election Day everyone!
:shock:

Here's an earlier thread with lots of vote info links

also, remember that in NY, you can't wear political stuff to the polls -- weird-ass law, if you ask me

so leave that bob barr bathing cap at home.

which district, there's like 8 of them

Bob Barr bathing cap

Thanks for this info - I had no idea about that law and I appreciate it. This group is the best.

I think the booths are labeled by Assembly district, not sure about the Election district but the website said to write down those two and bring them to the polls.

If you still have your mailer telling you where to vote, I recommend bringing it. I was almost turned away from voting b/c my district is split in to two parts and I was in the second part. In addition to my ID, I had to show them the "this is where you vote" mailer before it even occurred to them to check the book for the second part of the district.

Oh, and I also had to kick one of the volunteers out of the booth so I could vote in private. After she showed me how to set the bar, she was all "Okay, now pick who you want" and just stood there like I would actually vote with her in the booth. I had to tell her she could go now before she even budged an inch.

What a clusterfuck, but I'm glad I did it. And the wait wasn't terrible either.

useful guide for lower offices, judicial election, ballot propostion, etc.

http://gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20081027/200/2712

(thanks to Veggie Queen)

the line for ps80 was incredible this a.m.! i was 3/4 of the way down st. marks (almost to vanderbilt) at 8:45am, and when i finally voted and got out of the school at 10:15... the line was all the way down to vandy!

i'm ed 39 and ad 57... my line inside the school was shorter than i would have expected - some of the other districts were much longer lines to actually use the booth.

either way, i bought a rice krispy treat from a kid raising money for the school with a little flag that says, "yeah, i voted!" and when i went to starbucks for my free coffee they asked me for proof.... and i used the rice krispy treat.

EmmaViz - what site did you vote it? It would be good information for us to know if we did not vote yet.

Thanks, sweet tea.

I really wish they had little leaflets or handouts available at the polling stations that provide a brief executive summary of each of the positions of each of the candidates for lower office.

Maybe even if there was a website in which you could input your location, and it would give you a brief run down of the candidates for your particular district so that we can make a (somewhat) informed decision. If I don't know anything about a candidate or his/her opponent, I will not vote.

You need to know your assembly district and your election district in order to vote. There will be multiple election districts voting in one site, each at a separate machine, so its important that you have that information before you walk in the door. Most polling places have only one AD voting there, but some may have two or three, depending on the location. If you know your Assembly district (AD) and election district (ED) you can simply get on the line for your ED and have them look your name up in the book for you to sign. You do not need to bring the mailer with your printed information, although that is helpful as many of the poll workers don't really know what they are doing.

Maybe I'm too much of a fair play goody-goody, but I wasn't going to side-step 1000 people waiting in line. Yeah, there was a line to look up ED/AD, but I considered the line as a line to get in the school. Once inside, sure, make your way to your line, but it would be chaos if everyone barged in to the school just 'cause they know their ED/AD.

EmmaViz wrote: If you still have your mailer telling you where to vote, I recommend bringing it. I was almost turned away from voting b/c my district is split in to two parts and I was in the second part. In addition to my ID, I had to show them the "this is where you vote" mailer before it even occurred to them to check the book for the second part of the district.

Oh, and I also had to kick one of the volunteers out of the booth so I could vote in private. After she showed me how to set the bar, she was all "Okay, now pick who you want" and just stood there like I would actually vote with her in the booth. I had to tell her she could go now before she even budged an inch.

What a clusterfuck, but I'm glad I did it. And the wait wasn't terrible either.

The poll workers appear to be pretty overwhelmed. My daughter was told to go to the wrong district booth which turned out to be the "odd" numbered side of the street. Luckily the people at the booth knew this. I saw people at the booth trying to look someone up by his first name instead of his last name.

WhyFi wrote: Maybe I'm too much of a fair play goody-goody, but I wasn't going to side-step 1000 people waiting in line. Yeah, there was a line to look up ED/AD, but I considered the line as a line to get in the school. Once inside, sure, make your way to your line, but it would be chaos if everyone barged in to the school just 'cause they know their ED/AD.

I walked right past them. I didn't need to know what my district is and believe it or not, people like me actually cut down on the wait for those who don't know their district.

Brooklyn Heights PS 8 has no wait at all. I went at 3:30. I was in and out in under 10 minutes. VOTE!!!!

i was in and out of the brooklyn museum within 5 minutes too.

that law about not wearing anything political is in most states. i know it's in NJ and PA (i was judge of elections in both places). You also can't hold up signs or hand out info within x feet of the voting location.

seems according to this (pdf) that as of 2006 there are laws of that sort in 10 states.

still seems suspect as hell to me. first amendment, all that. but whatevs.

WhyFi wrote: Maybe I'm too much of a fair play goody-goody, but I wasn't going to side-step 1000 people waiting in line. Yeah, there was a line to look up ED/AD, but I considered the line as a line to get in the school. Once inside, sure, make your way to your line, but it would be chaos if everyone barged in to the school just 'cause they know their ED/AD.

wow, you are sooooo from Minnesota!
I stepped up, in the service of efficient voting. Nobody was waiting at my ED/AD table except three poll workers.

i think it's good. i had to remove someone once from my polling place because of that law in PA because they were decked out in candidate gear, handing out fliers while walking them into the voting booth. i've never seen someone wearing a tshirt or something asked to leave (although if my boss had walked in, i might have said something), but it's more for the small elections.

imagine you show up to vote for president, don't know anything about the other elections happening, and someone hands you a flier for one candidate for the judge position or something as you walk into the booth. chances are, unless you glance at something you hate, you'll vote for them.

that's not fair.

pitu wrote: I stepped up, in the service of efficient voting.

Yeah, I'm sure that you did it for the good of the others... :roll:

Whenever I am... unsure of whether my actions, as part of a group, are appropriate, I ask myself one question - "what would it look like if everyone in the same situation were to adopt this same action?" If that scenario ends in a clusterfuck, your actions surely aren't in the interest of anyone but yourself. At both PS 9 and PS 22, if everyone that knew their AD/ED had bypassed the line to get in to the school, and made their way straight to the line for their booth, it would have been pure chaos. As it was, there was very little room for maneuvering in either gymnasium; adding all of the line-jumpers would result in zero floorspace, individual lines extending out of the gym and school, and impasse at the bottle-necked doorways.