Just goes to show how easy he is to be manipulated. Of course Manafort is deeply involved with Putin so...

I voted today! Went to Martinez, which is the 'county seat' for my county (Contra Costa), and it was all very civilized. Interestingly there was a steady flow of folks coming through; seems like there are a lot of early voters.

5 pages to wade through (3 sheets, 2 were double-sided - at first I didn't realize they were double-sided!). Had to tear off the top of each page, and then put the 'resulting sheets' into an envelope, sign it, and then drop that into a box. I was expecting to feed my ballot into some machine, but it seems like early voting is a variation of mail-in voting, in that everything just ends up in an envelope for later processing.

So I voted for Hillary, and also for recreational Marijuana, and the abolition of the death penalty.

Was a server registered to the Trump Organization communicating with Russia’s Alfa Bank?

This is a rather esoteric analysis which is beyond my understanding (i.e. too hard for the public to understand) but it does seem like rather damning evidence of further ties between Trump and Russia.

Good job!

I was meant to vote this weekend and somehow it never happened. I'll go vote after work tomorrow. That's why I like early voting, you can be a major procrastinator and still not miss the deadline.

I think people do move to get coverage. I remember years ago when I was in California people who moved to Oregon to get coverage they couldn't get in California. With Obamacare maybe due to pre-existing issues maybe less for that reason, but premiums could be a factor. Of course if you make too much for Medicaid but cant afford premiums, a bit difficult to get coverage anyway.

As far as medical costs I had a friend recently who had operation in hospital, 2 hours, 2 hours rest. Total of four hours of which 2 hours just had nurse visit twice to check on. Over $20,000. I think is absolutely absurd hospitals are not regulated like utilities.

You probably drove right past my house

I was going to go down and vote sometime this week. Unfortunately, my husband gets a vote-by-mail ballot, as he's rarely home from work in time to vote on a weekday. He completed the ballot over the weekend, sealed it, put my name down as the person authorised to drop it off, and then post dated it to November 8th

Don't want anyone to have any reason to discard his ballot, since he marked all the right boxes, so I'll wait til the 8th to go myself.

How does that work? Mmmmkay, the plane is broken therefore my brain doesn't remember who I prefer for VP?

It does explain why Trump was holding his nose through the whole Pence nomination. He's still treating Pence like shit.

I presume you would vote at the same place as Steerpike? His description of early voting sounded a little too fussy anyway. Anytime I've ever early-voted it was with the same machines as on election day. I am living in a different county than the last time I voted though so we'll see if that's consistent.

Yep - it's only a couple of miles away and I figured it might be quicker than waiting til election day, given how much is on the ballot this year, but I did assume we'd be using the machines.

How do they store early voting ballots, I wonder?

I'm having some bad flashbacks to Bush/Gore. It seems like I remember them being stuck in boxes and storage closets --- overall very poorly managed.

It's pretty bizarre when you think about it

I've never given early voting much thought before, but having to vote early myself gives me reason to focus ... so, when you've voted early, it was using an an actual voting machine, whereas mine was definitely treated just like a postal ballot. In fact, I saw people coming in with the same envelopes and just dropping them off ... it was also listed as a ballot drop-off location:

So when do they start counting early / mail-in ballots? You hear the pundits talking about early voting 'trends' and 'results', suggesting they are actually counting (and announcing) results, but that sounds wrong, and I am guessing all that is speculation by pollsters perhaps doing 'exit polls' at the locations?

Yeah, that's how they did where I voted anyway --- with the machines. That's the thing about the federal system, things vary so much from state to state. The general model seems to be similar in most places ... early voting is generally done in municipal buildings and pretty much anybody in the county can go anywhere they want. On regular voting day (Nov 8th) you have to go to your assigned polling place. In a smaller county, they may both be the same place.

The 'drop off' is exactly what Wintersong was talking about re: her husband's ballot. I honestly never knew there was such a thing but there you go.


I don't believe they are permitted to start counting before election day. The 'trends' are based on the early voters' party affiliation --- assuming they vote for the party nominee.

We who live outside the US dont even get a proper ballot. Well for my voting county anyhow.

My voting county is San Diego, California and they email a copy of the ballot and a signature/ oath form.

Its a really odd in a way how informal it all is.

Wonder if they will ever trust the internet for voting for overseas folks. Would make things easier.