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Election Day reports

Line to vote in Copley Square

The line to vote at the BPL in Copley Square shortly after 7. Photo by Catboston.

What are you seeing out there?

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Disorganization, split lines, people cutting, and overwhelmed poll workers at St Nectarios. Not sure why they thought the biggest election in years was a great time to redo the entire process.

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freedom in action.

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I saw some people getting out of line and leaving, though, presumably to go to work. Bummer. :-/

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Happy to report that St. Cecilia's was a long and orderly line this morning. No problems. About a 90 minute wait to vote starting at about 8AM.

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Roommate said this was the first time he ever stood in line in Chelsea.

Kinda wondering what it will be like when I head over there after rush hour.. (like 9-10am)

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How long was your wait and was it abbynormal?

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Virtually no line at my ward. A few other wards had some lines that were 5-10 people deep.

But my ward is a low voter turn out ward anyways.. I was pleasantly surprised that we've out voted than my ward did in the last election (163 @ 10:30 vs 120 @ 4pm last election)

Footnote: It's the Williams School in Chelsea where I vote.. actually I think its where everyone in town votes. Its the largest gym, that isn't Chelsea High School.

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Chelsea knows how to hold an election. They block off parking in front of the three polling locations, with barrels, so no cheating. AND, they mark off the 150 feet perimeter so no candidates can sneak a sign in.

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Early voters in Dorchester

Jed Hresko captured the line at St. Mark's School in Dorchester 20 minutes before the polls opened. He reports the first two ladies had been there since 6:30.

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At Agassiz School in JP, the line looked really long and stretched through many corridors of the school; however, it moved quickly and was well organized in the gym and took about 30 minutes or less in total.

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At Ward 11 Precinct 1, the long-time poll worker said they'd had more voters in the first 50 minutes than usually vote all day long. I couldn't get a glimpse of the ballot counter to discover the number of ballot cast, because the poll worker was so busy feeding early voting ballots in.

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In JP, the line was wrapped around and past Curley on Centre. Chose to continue driving and will leave work to stand in line this afternoon on the flip side.

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I saw the looong lines at the Curley a little after 8 when I was dropping my kid off there. I doubled back to the Mission Hill School/Muniz Academy in JP where I vote -- there was a short (~20 person) line for one of the four wards that vote there. No line for mine! I asked the cop when I was checking out about the line and he said there were over 200 people for my ward earlier, so I guess I lucked out and got a lull or just missed the morning rush. When I passed the Curley again on my bus into work the line was gone.

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No line outside the building at the Lyndon school. About 30 people outside at the WR Library. No line outside at Roche Community center. Maybe 50 people outside at Holy Name. No line at Putterham library.

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6:58am: Joined line
7:39am: Cast ballot
#272

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Swung by the Hemenway school in Readville at about 7:20. There were about a dozen people lined up outside the door, which means maybe 20 or so in line inside. Decent crowd, but not huge. Not as big as the 2013 mayoral election.

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Drove by the Hemenway again at 1:30, and no line outside.

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Big lines both outside the library and St Nectarios at 7:30-8.

Inside report was 1 hour to vote at St N this morning but ward dependent.

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Precinct 1 down to about 15 minutes door to door at St N in Rosi ~8:30am

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No wait at precinct 1 in Rosi / St Nec at 10am. Cop helping to guide folks in to the room for P1 - other precincts had a bit of a wait. Like a previous commenter, not sure why they're using this new cramped room this year.

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Took us about an hour. Really don't understand why they've set it up like that.

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Just a few people in line at 10:50.

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Got in line at St. Nectarios at 7:20 AM and didn't get out until 8:15. 55 minutes! The longest time i've ever waited by a long stretch. Apparently due to an event tonight in the function hall the polling locations were moved to cramped classrooms. Once inside the building there was no line for precinct 1, a short line for precinct 4 and a massive line for precinct 2.

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Line was long in Brighton near Cleveland Circle, but it's died down now. I got there at 7:15 and waited about an hour. The line was almost gone when I came out of the building though. First time I've ever had to wait longer than 10 minutes or so.

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Voted on Green Street in JP. When I arrived at 7:15 there were approximately 130 people in line (some kids were counting). I voted by about 8:00. The machine said #368, but I'm not sure whether that counts both sheets of the ballot, so maybe #184?

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Voted at Green Street around 9:00. No line...just five folks ahead of me to register. In and out quickly.

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In line on Beacon Hill

Jean Nagy captured the line of voters around 8:30 a.m.

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By 9:30 there was no line at that polling place. Zero wait.

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That's a fun filter. :D

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60 or so people in line at the Mary McCormack location at 6:45am. By the time I got to the door at 7:10 another 40 or so had queued up behind me.

I was # 54 and the place was jumpin'.
Grumpy BPD officer had to slow the line down, he was clearly not in the mood to move fast today.

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Got in line at 6:45, finished voting at 7:25. Got another report at 9:00 that it was now taking an hour. Line kept moving though, and things were fairly orderly inside at the polls.

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Voted around 6pm here. No line. In and out in about 5 minutes.

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In line in the West End

Kelly and Jeff reported a long line at the West End library around 8:20 a.m.

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Allston Village is about 20-30 minutes right now depending on precinct.

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Jackson Mann was a regular polling place. I live near Commonwealth Ave @ Allston Street and I vote at Another Course to College (sort of across from Brighton High, on Brighton Ave). I wonder how that's looking...

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Another Course to College was lined up almost to the intersection of Warren/Sparhawk and Cambridge at about 8:25 this morning. Probably much better now (hopefully).

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I went around 10am. Line was about 50 people, maybe more. The backup was only for one ward/precinct. One I learned mine, I was able to skip the line as it was not the one backed up. They should do a better job helping people who don't need to wait to cut the line.

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Walked right up to the 22-6 table at 12:20 PM.

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Lines out the door in Malden at Beebe school around 7:30, but mostly for a different precinct. We had a very short wait.

Saw a pink pig at the rotary in Powderhouse Square exhorting people to vote yes on Number 3.

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Proud voters in Dorchester

Jed Hresko reports this family came out of the St. Marks School in Dorchester beaming. "They wanted to make sure that their 'we voted' stickers were showing."

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Been voting there 9 years and waited in the longest line ever. Got in line at 7am with 200+ people ahead of me, took an hour to vote.

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Went to SB Library at 1:30 p.m. with about 10-12 other folks and voted immediately. Usually I vote before work and encounter the lines Bayview298 did, but this year had an early appointment elsewhere. So it seems lunch-break option was a good one.

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Voted in Ward 2, precinct 6 this morning. Got in line around 7:05 and voted around 7:35 -- was #105. Last time I waited in line was 2008 presidential. Also walked by Zelma Lacey House on my way to the T and the line there was about a block long.

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Voting Precinct 2 (Hosmer School) there were about 40 people in line right before the polls opened at 7. I got in line at 6:59 and was out the door with my sticker by 7:20.

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My polling station is a small elementary school in the neighborhood and I went in about 8:30-8:40. There was a person being handed their ballot as I approached the table, then got mine, voted and was out the door a couple of minutes later.

I had no need to stand in line for early voting when I knew I could coast through it today.

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Line out the door and down the block in Eastie, Sam Adams school around 7:10. NEVER seen more than 3 people in the polling place at a time, let alone a line. They let us fill out ballots on the steps of the stage while the cubicles were all occupied, so the line was fast, but growing.

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At the Cheverus School Apartment polling station I had to search around for a little booth to mark my ballot! First time for that.

Was 727 according to the counter, but that means that I was voter 363 1/2 because of the 2 pages. So, who knows.

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Got to the poll (Boston Baptist College) at 7:04; there were about 60-70 people in front of me and it took 1/2 hour. First time I remember waiting in a line like that there in the nearly 25 years we've been here. Hapy to see it.

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MY WIFE and I were among the first in line, by about 6:40am. After we finished voting, about 7:01, there were perhaps 85 people waiting in line (two precincts, so 50 in one line and 35 in another, more-or-less.) Definitely much longer lines than any I've seen in H2Otown since moving here in 1994.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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Joined the line at the Condon School in Southie at 7am this morning. Cast my ballot by 7:55am.

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Voting took ten minutes at 8am.

I was alarmed to see no lines.

I asked an election official about it. She told me when they opened at 7am the line was the longest she'd seen in 12 years of working at this precinct.

They could not see the end of the line when they opened. But they'd gotten everybody through by the time I arrived. Nice job!

The workers are stressed because they have to find time, during the day while the polls are open, to count all the early and absentee ballots, while simultaneously serving voters in line.

There was a dour looking "Election Observer" present.

It made me glad to be voting in a place where I didn't feel like anyone could actually intimidate me. I wish we lived in a country where everyone could vote without fear.

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About 20 minutes total in Quincy's Ward 5. But it's usually only a few minutes here. The poll worker said, "Wow, I thought everyone voted early!"

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Line only inside voting room.

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Don't forget to support your local school if it's your polling place today!

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I know its not Boston, but no line this morning at 10 at my Watertown polling place.

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Half an hour wait at Elm Hill/Seaver at 9:30am, where I haven't waited in line since the first Obama election. Optimistic crowd.

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in and out in 5 minutes at Boston Arts Academy

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No line at the Salemwood School in Malden! My husband and I were in and out in about 10 minutes around 8:15 this morning.

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That's pretty impressive! I voted there first thing this morning (I believe I was ballot #5) but there were a lot of people in line behind me. We got in line around 6:35 and I would guess there were 30-40 people behind us by 7:00.

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The lines would move so much faster if they handed out sample ballots for voters to fill out while waiting in line. Then when you get to the booth, you only need 2 minutes to copy your answers instead of 5 minutes to ponder whom to vote for as Register of Deeds.

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They passed around a sample ballot to people waiting in line at St. Cecilia in the Back Bay. Do people really not research the ballot questions before they vote?

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getting people to show up to the polls, now you're expecting them to know what exactly they're voting on?

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I like this idea, but it could create some confusion for people (elderly, non-native English speakers) about which is the real ballot and which is the sample. And there would also need to be a disposal process which could be pretty easy to implement. Shredders would be ideal, but I don't think people want those anywhere near paper ballots on election day!

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Slow moving lines in Elm Hill but small lines, felt like ~50 more or less.

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Near Maverick Square the line went out the door about 150 feet. Took about 20 minutes to get inside. It's crowded, but moving along. The usual volunteers look amazed and happy at the turnout. They've added a couple of extra people to help.

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One thing I noticed at my polling place today in Chelsea was many new faces of poll workers. The few stations I saw that it seemed to be an old poll person and a new young person (I almost wanna say the girl who took my street address was in training or very new). And this time lots of Latino's behind the stations, which was different from the primary in March and September. Glad to see younger folks, especially Latinos taking part in the democratic process by being poll workers. It really is a good thing.

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I joined the line at 7:20ish, voted around 8:05. Its the first time I've ever seen them split the line into two (Pcts 1 and 2 vote in the same room) so that sped it up a bit. It's also the first time I've ever waited more than, say, 10 minutes.

I think it's fantastic. Vote people!

I did see a grumpy old man grumbling about how this was "ridiculousness" so of course I thought of falling off a skateboard.

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Trump supporters

I got to Holy Name School in West Roxbury way too late for the ceremonial Official Violating of the 150-foot rule, but I did get to see several women going to vote in white pantsuits, a No on 2 guy trying to convince some Yes on 2 guys why they were wrong - and these two Trump supporters.

I talked a bit to the guy on the right. He said he's more convinced than ever that Trump will win today, not just because of all the swing state's he's taking, but because of all the vitriol that's been heaped on him in West Roxbury. He said people have yelled at him, given him the finger and spit on the ground near him - and that hate has helped convince him of victory.

He added he doesn't understand why West Roxbury, where most people are baptized Catholics, will probably go 60/40 for "an abortionist - that's her platform."

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I wonder, will people give him grief for wearing his US Post Office uniform pants while rallying for a Presidential candidate? Or does this only apply to Police Officers?

Honest question - not trolling (purposefully).

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Postal are covered under the Hatch act like any other federal employee. Questionable, because Hatch mostly covers campaigning/politicking in the course of your duties while representing the government, so I'm not sure if wearing the uniform counts. I'd err on the side of he probably shouldn't, and somebody higher up will likely us it as an excuse to yell at the regional director, but ultimately nothing will happen to him because union/it's just not that egregious.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939

Federal and D.C. employees:

May not engage in political activity while wearing an official uniform.

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But they do look similar.

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Two things:

1.) I complain every single election where they break the 150-foot rule. I was told flat out that they don't enforce the rule, which I pushed back on. I mean, there's a reason that rule is in place and, while I don't want to be that guy, we can't just go arbitrarily deciding which rules to enforce. More importantly...

2.) OMG, are we neighbors? Did you visit to cover the election or is this your polling place? If it's the latter, I feel like I live next to a celebrity. I'm not joking. This is way cooler than living next to the DA. I wonder if we've been elbow-checked by the same old ladies at Roche when the meat goes on sale?

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I am kind of hoping a Steve Murphy supporter asks me to vote for him on my way into the polls so I can ask them about his policy positions and wintering in Florida.

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Ask him when the monorail link between North Station and South Station is coming!

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No line at St Nec. Not a single person outside to give me pamphlets or otherwise press me to vote one way or another.

Due to a church event, the voting was all in the front rooms and hall so if anyone was handing out stuff in front, they would be in violation of the ignored election laws anyways.

Turnout way above 2016 which is interesting because I think most would agree Obama was more popular at that point than Clinton is now. The threat of a Romney presidency though vs a Trump one is night and day so I suspect that motivated turnout.

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Did you happen to run into any of the Register candidates at Holy Name? I didn't see Margherita, Joe, or Steve anywhere in any part of town. (Saw Joe's brother at West Roxbury Library.)

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...to voters in line by yesbetterboston.com in the South End. Regardless of your stance on the proposal, not cool and illegal. Reported.

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Isn't OK if you are so many feet away from the polling place? (Not defending them, just curious.)

BTW, people have been handing me pamphlets, stickers etc as I run "the gauntlet" into the polling place for as long as I have been in Boston.

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In the 60s and 70s and even 80s that gaggle of people clustered around polling places handing out "voting cards" as we used to call them, was commonplace. They were put up to it by local politicians. I am glad to see this annoying practice being cracked down on. It seems to have faded away to a large degree in recent years.

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I saw this too...also in the South End (same location). In my case, it was well within the permitted barrier. It was a poll worker who was also wearing a "Yes on 5" sticker inside the polling place and left "Yes on 5" stuff on a table by the front door.

Also, just because people have been doing it "forever" doesn't mean it's ok/legal.

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...when I was walking by.

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Voted at Hampton house on Northampton St. By 7:15am line was around corner well onto Washington St. Out of there in 1 hr 45 min. Remember it was about 2 hrs in 2012. Community Room always seems way too small for the amount of voters that move through there

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Oak Street in Chinatown

Thomas McManus shows us the line, which he says was about 35 minutes long when he got there - and even longer when he left.

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At 8:00 this morning, Washington Street in Brighton was backed up past the Euston Road bus shelter. The line was moving, though; I only stood in it for about half an hour.

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Walked in at 10:45a, walked out at 10:50a. Not sure what the lunch rush will be like, but I'm glad I waited out the pre-work rush hour.

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11:30 St George Emmonsdale St, no line in/out
West Rox Library, no line visible outside

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Julie's Learning Center in Southie, arrive at 8:36 am, left at 8:48 am. Quickest I've voted in an presidential election since 2004.

For all those complaining about long lines, if you voted in all the smaller elections and primaries during a 4-year cycle, maybe the gov't might make some changes to the polling process and be able to better identify trends/problems and how to fix them with long lines at the polls. But when it only happens every 4 years, it's tougher to sort it out. Get out and vote—not just today, but next Sept., and next Nov., and if there's any special elections to replace an official selected to the prez cabinet.

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through early voting - but blew it MASSIVELY (no pun intended). Why? Because early voting hours did not accommodate those of us who work from 9 to 5 (my town had early voting only during regular town hall business hours) and cannot take time off to get to the polls midday. The result, we had hugely long lines this morning before working hours, and we'll have hugely long lines tonight after working hours.

And this one falls directly on Mr. Galvin for not requiring all cities and towns to have uniform early voting hours that correspond to the normal polling hours on Election Day. So people like me who work all day for a living could actually take advantage of early voting.

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I voted on a Saturday.

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Weekend voting was not available in all towns.

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But that wouldn't be Galvin's fault.

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Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, and Arlington all had either some weeknight hours or at least one weekend day for early voting. Which town are you in that didn't?

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I waited about 5 minutes to vote at the Beethoven at about 10:30.

(That was longer than I've ever waited before.)

About 420 people had voted in my precinct, which is about twice as many as usual at that time.

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Did machine show 420?
Mine showed over 500 at 9am and I quested the volunteer. She reminded me to divided by 2 as it is counting for each page of ballot.

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You get 420 if you voted "yes" on Question 4.

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The machine showed about 840, counting the 2 pages for each ballot.

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At 11:35a I walked right in and was out the door in under 5 minutes. No line at all. Zero. Maybe a dozen or so people were already at the kiosks voting, but nobody waited in the 5 minutes I was there.

It was kinda disheartening. I wanted to suffer to use my right to vote. I wanted to struggle and fight, but I guess someone already did that for me.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible, from the Founding Fathers to the polling-place volunteers. Voting is the single most important thing I can do as an American citizens, and my biggest struggle today was getting there by bus.

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Harvard GSD. Showed up around 6:53 and found the doors locked. Someone let me in, was the 7th person in line. When the polls opened there were about 15 total in line.

Poll workers seemed abnormally incompetent. Seemed to be bickering with each other. I had to remind the worker who checked me in to actually check my name off after she handed me the ballot... going to be fun reconciling those numbers at the end of the day.

Was out the door by 7:07 am

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Just ran by the Police Station, The Roche Center and Holy Name. No lines at any of them right now.

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As the late Alphonse Capone said , " Vote Early and Often ."

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He still votes in every election, whether he needs to or not.

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locked away in his hidden vault.

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Ward 15, Precinct 1 at the Lilla Frederick School.

I went in to work late today after a night shift, so my wife and I voted about 10:45-11:00. Place was busy - I'd say busier than what I saw there in '08 or '12. Parking lot full, cars on curbs and out into the back field (which usually has been just poll workers).

At least four different precincts set up in the gym there.

Lucked out - we walked in, no line at the check-in desk (though they must've just checked-in several - most of the little cubicles were in use). The other precincts had short waits to check-in. By the time I was done, there were eight or ten people waiting to check-in at mine.

They seemed fully staffed, the accessibility reader was working correctly, and we had less than the usual amount of annoyance from people violating the 150 FT law.

When I fed my ballot first page into the scanner, it read 566, so I assume that means I was #283.

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http://m.imgur.com/Cbx4U7R

Apologies for the link...the proponents seem to be taking a page from the Brexit playbook ...

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No line at the Joyce Kilmer Lower School in West Roxbury around 1:00 pm today. Ward 20, Precinct 16.

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Specifically, the law about how you're supposed to keep your signs at least 150 feet away from the entrance to a polling place. He's certainly run for things often enough. But Kevin McCrea reports he kept finding Murphy signs placed right at polling-place entrances (along with No on 2 signs) . As an example, at Tremont and Worcester in the South End (that close-up sign on the right is from John Keith, who, like Murphy, wants to be our register of deeds).

Murphy sign
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The rules don't apply to them. It's beneath their intellectual superiority.

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Voted at Central Fire Station in Revere a little after 8:30 this morning. Only one person ahead of me at the check in table and plenty of empty booths to choose from.

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Also: no signs directing voters to the polls. Nice to be in and out, though! (I feel bad for the early voters who thought they'd be avoiding lines.)

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Arrived just after 5 and the joint was jumping but we still got through in less than 20 minutes including bake sale decision time.

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Don't vote on an empty stomach

Sign at the entrance to the polling place/bake sale at the Conley School in Roslindale.

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