From commenter duchessofkitty:
Hello Professor, Everyone,
As you may already know by now, Early Voting for the General Election began today in TX at 8 a.m.
I arrived to my local early polling precinct at 8:35 a.m. with my little girl, had my address checked by corroborating the voting records electronically with my driver’s license, and was assigned an electronic booth. I was done before 8:45. I set my vote in stone, giving The One and Joe Biden the biggest Go-to-Hell. Ever.
The parking lot was FULL. I didn’t think there were going to be so many people stopping by to cast their vote before leaving for work in this part of Harris County (Houston and a couple of nearby towns), but there were.
In particular, I saw a woman in her fifties leaving with her husband just as I was taking my child out of our minivan. Her smile gave it all away. I guess they all had the same attitude as mine: we wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Here’s proof of what I did. You won’t see it in this picture, but I also cast my vote for Ted Cruz, for the U.S. Senate.
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There you go! Election is over. Romney wins! No reason for me to go to all the effort. Goin’ fishin’!
“MITTMENTUM”
DONT YOU DARE SHIRK YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO GIVE OBAMA THE LANDSLIDE DEFEAT HE RICHLY DESERVES. Go Fishing AFTER you vote 🙂
Go DuchessofKitty 😀
No early voting here in PA, just absentee. I know I should send it in but I really really really want to pull the lever in person.
This sounds ugly, but I’m hoping the northeast and upper Midwest have a historic blizzard on election day that paralyzes the major cities.
I’m doing my part to make sure Montgomery County, PA goes RED. I’m voting for Tom Smith as well.
And I’ve converted a few former Obama voters too!
Lotta that goin’ around.
I expect it to become a pandemic!
Yeesh, this is kind of disturbing. I would have thought recording your vote would be illegal. If not, it should be. Being able to record your vote makes it possible to prove how you voted (this pic really doesn’t, but it’s still disturbing). Being able to prove how you voted means you can sell it (or be extorted for it). No likes.
Anybody can state for whom he or she voted. Choosing to prove it by showing one’s ballot is protected political speech just like uttering the words, “I voted for the village idiot, Barack Obama.”
In some states it is illegal to photograph a ballot that has been marked.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/charlie-mahtesian/2012/05/dont-tweet-your-ballot-124612.html
I don’t disbelieve that duchess voted for Romney, but this just shows that she selected him. I live in Texas, Harris county too, and that machine allows you to go back at any point and change your selection. After you hit “Vote” it is locked in, but you can’t get back to this screen.
Congratulations duchess!
I also voted a few days ago.
Me, too, in California. Romney/Ryan, and Elizabeth Emken. Absentee. Two of us.
Very similar here in Tennessee. Even though we are about as red as it gets, people are voting to make the point as loudly as possible.
First day of early voting in Nevada was a Chick-fil-A moment. Line at was wrapped around the building, parking lot was full. Windshield assessment of crowd was that they were not standing in line to vote for Obama. Crowd was mostly older and middle age husbands and wives, with their kids. It was a hopeful signs. I hope Nevada makes amends for sending Harry Reid back to DC.
@hurdurf: And how are you going to enforce a recording ban? Putting cameras in the voting booth? Confiscating your phone? Forcing you to disclose your Facebook password? Photography is a First Amendment right, and any laws banning it in Government property or settings must meet much stronger public interest tests than you suggest. If you want to document how you voted, that’s your choice. If you want to record your vote for illegal purposes, you are creating a trail to your felony. Be my guest.
Well for one, you could prosecute those who post cell phone pictures of themselves actually committing the crime.
Seriously, though, however well intentioned, I have heard that it is illegal to do that. If so, I would not post it in public…so be careful. It may be Texas, where the vote is (hopefully) assured, but we need every vote in every state to count.
In Wisconsin, it is illegal:
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/fox_cities/illegal-to-post-pictures-of-ballot
Isn’t Wisconsin the state that lets you vote if you walk up, unregistered, the day of the election and have somebody vouch for you? And yet they prohibit posting a photo of your ballot? Is it me or does the world make less sense than it used to?
Yeah. It’s MY damn ballot. If I want to photograph it in the privacy of my little voting booth, who the hell cares?
Oh, wait… that’s why we have bureaucracy.
“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy!”
Thank you, Trooper.
You know, now I’m getting upset. The State would be willing to punish me for something as innocent as this, and maybe even deny my rights as a citizen…
… yet the same State may be very willing to ignore rampant voter and ballot fraud by individuals or organizations under the excuse that doing so and secure the integrity of the vote will, ahem, “disenfranchise minorities.”
And I’m speaking as a “disenfranchised minority” myself.
I voted at 8:10 this morning at my local library here in TX. Wish I had thought of taking a photo of the ballot. Feels good to have voted, don’t it?
No hanging chad in sight!
Duchess, I hope you didn’t make a boo-boo, rendering your ballot an “overvote.”
If you elect to vote straight ‘pub party, as you did, then vote for RR, might it not be construed an overvote and cause your ballot to not get counted, or were there ballot instructions directing you to do it that way?
I voted last week. Paper ballot run through a scanner. The people working at the courthouse made everyone check to make sure the “total votes” on the machine changed before you were counted as having voted.
This year, NM eliminated the straight ticket option. Now, you actually have to read the ballot and choose who you will vote for (or against). I imagine that’s going to cause a lot of confusion in my bluest of blue county. I doubt if most of the people voting here have actually ever read a ballot.
You must live in Albuquerque, Santa Fe or Taos. 🙂
Professor & Duchess — it may be wise to remove the photo. According to the Texas Secretary of State’s memo dated Oct 29, 2010:
Then, if the Professor decides so, he can do it. I don’t mind that.
That memo specifically applies to “poll watchers”. (added) Here is a write up on Texas law, and it doesn’t look like duchessofkitty did anything wrong, http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/texas-documenting-your-vote. Nonetheless, I’ve removed the photo anyway.
Professor, the whole thing makes no sense.
Is the State that willing to go after an individual citizen for having shown that he/she exercised his/her rights? If that’s the case, then this country is in a huge mess.
As I said to Trooper above,
It is a stupid law (but there is no constitutional provision prohibiting stupid laws). I admire your stance and hope many other Texans join you in quiet civil disobedience.
It would also be nice if voters could legally photograph attempts at vote fraud, so that the fraudsters would know that “the eyes of Texas are upon you.”
Texas state law specifically states that use of a cell phone or other recording device within 100ft of a polling location is illegal. here is the law:
Sec. 61.014. USE OF CERTAIN DEVICES. (a) A person may not use a wireless communication device within 100 feet of a voting station.
(b) A person may not use any mechanical or electronic means of recording images or sound within 100 feet of a voting station.
(c) The presiding judge may require a person who violates this section to turn off the device or to leave the polling place.
(d) This section does not apply to:
(1) an election officer in conducting the officer’s official duties;
(2) the use of election equipment necessary for the conduct of the election; or
(3) a person who is employed at the location in which a polling place is located while the person is acting in the course of the person’s employment.
Early voting starts this Saturday in Florida. Hubby gets in from a trip Saturday night and we’re voting Sunday (three children too). All for you know who! Let’s vote this mistake out of office.
I also live in Texas and my polling place was incredibly crowded today. Plus, I noticed that voters had the same contented smiles reported by duchessofkitty.
Texas is a conservative state and will clearly go for Romney, but that isn’t stopping our voters from enjoying every minute of this election.
Ted Cruz gave an incredible at the rally in Conroe on Sunday afternoon. He ended it by reading William B. Travis’ letter of appeal for help from the besieged Alamo. In the context of what we’re facing today and in the future, Travis’ words ring even truer today. When Ted read that final passage, “If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country —– Victory or Death,” I felt my eyes growing misty.
Like Travis, Lamar, Burnet, Houston and all their fellow Texians in rebellion, we today are poised at a similar crossroads of history. I just pray we have the same kind of courage when it counts…
Ted Cruz is an amazing man and will be an even more amazing Senator.
I know Ted Cruz will be a great Senator. I saw him speak last July at that rally at The Woodlands – the one with Sarah Palin. He’s the real deal.
Disclaimer – My family tends to be a bit irreverent when it comes to the subject of death and have no problem joking about it….
My whole family has been sending each other text messages reminding them to vote today, because they might have a wreck or something later. My mother (72) called her uncle (88) and offered to give him a ride to early voting because she noticed he coughed a couple of times during Mass yesterday.
I guess there is some rationale: if photography were allowed, that could make it easier for corrupt agents to try to influence voters by money or threats.
I was really excited about voting so I wanted to take a pic. I had my phone in my pocket and thought about taking a pic of my ballot but decided not to. Looks like I made a good choice. I saw a lot of what I presumed to be Romney voters lined up. We all know TX will be a red state but I think it’s good to get the popular vote total up.