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Long line in Roslindale
By adamg on Wed, 11/02/2016 - 9:29pm
Jeffrey Kilburn shows us the line all the way down Cummins Highway this afternoon as people waited to vote at the Roslindale Community Center.
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Comments
Yet again - illegal signage abounds
Drove by during evening rush - many signs way too close to the poll, for just about everyone and everything on the ballot. And advocates clearly sloganeering right on the steps of the community center to people in line.
Cops...just standing around.
If I hadn't had multiple errands to get done and a teen with finals tomorrow to get home to study, I would have stopped and let the poll workers know about it. In the past I have found them fairly responsive to complaints of this sort, if stated politely. Often they send someone out right away to either shoo sign holders back, or to take them down if unattended.
Do the campaign sign laws apply to early-voting locations?
Serious question -- I have no idea if they do or don't.
Define "polling place"
These signs are on the street. I imagine the actually polling machines are inside the building. This picture doesn't seem to be evidence of a violation....
If this were an Election Day polling place ...
these signs would be illegal because they are within 150 feet of the polling place. It's not clear whether that rule applies to an early voting location. Election Day legal summary
(I see nothing about this in the posted Early voting procedures)
I think the rule applies ...
To the entrance of the polling place, not the actual little bank-table things where you vote.
Grow up, people
The 150 ft rule might be perfectly reasonable for a polling place at some suburban high school where everyone parks in the parking lot and goes down the direct path to the polling entrance.
But, law or no law, it makes no sense for signs or campaign people to be forced almost a block away while people walk to the polls from every direction.
One might claim that the law should be modified for urban locations but until that happens (if ever), the current practice is entirely reasonable as long as there is a reasonable path for voters to enter without physical contact.
Baloney
The law is meant to do exactly that - force signs and campaigns and deliberate influencers away from polling places. Citizens deserve to be left alone, not pressured, not bullied, not brayed at - as they approach the polls.
yea
if only we were as strict re: abortion clinics
Yeah, baloney
I don't believe that the writers of that law had "some suburban high school " in mind, nor is it sensible to make the distinctions markkk wants.
the law is relative to the *entrance* of the polling station.
So no, it doesn't matter where the machines are.
Distance?
At St Nectarios they moved the actual voting location deeper into the building so people could legally congest around the doorway. Maybe that's similar here? I am assuming the voting was in the basement which is 100' from the front doors maybe?
Dupe delete
delete
Any one find out how long it took for them to get in to vote?
Has anyone heard how long it took from end of like to voting at the Muni? I wonder how far back the line stretched. I went to West Roxbury Branch Library on Saturday. I was way up Mt. Vernon St but it only took an hour and 1/2 to get my ballot. It was a nice day too. I found out from people who drove by at various times that the line was that long from 12 until 6. I assume they had a end of the line person.
An hour
According to one report on Keep Roslindale Quirky on Facebook.
2 hours, start to finish
I got in line at 2:30 and walked out of the building at 4:25. Subtract about 15 minutes for the actual voting process.
Took Me
an hour and 40 minutes to vote here yesterday.
Irony
It took about 50 minutes earlier this week at BFIT.
But these longer wait times are a bit of a problem. Most of my desire to vote early was to avoid the massive lines I expect on election day - yet it seems most people are in lines just as long for early voting...
So we're getting a more convenient time & location (sometimes), but its not necessarily being a time saver.
Where's the food carts?
I voted at Boston City Hall about 6:15, and there was also a long line, about an hour and a half, stretching across the plaza and around the building.
I kept hoping for a hot dog cart and street performers! A huge captive audience, and I'd have happily spent all my $$ on hot dogs and lemonade.
The Boston Cheese Cellar...
On Birch st. In Roslindale Square offered free cups of tea to patient voters waiting in the long line. Your choices were either English Breakfast or Green tea. I voted for Green.
The voting process at City
The voting process at City Hall was an embarrassing mess when I went at 2PM yesterday. Different people kept telling me and others we had to go to different places and get something from someone else and then get in a line that looked more like a huge group of people standing in no particular order. I don't have time for a damn riddle that takes 90 minutes when I'm on my lunch break, so I had to leave.
How can they not have their shit together for something so important that they've already been doing there for 2 weeks?
Blessing or curse?
I cringe each time I see one of the now-ubiquitous 'long lines for early voting' stories and the requisite photo of said line...it makes me wonder how many voters read such a story and decide to skip the hassle. Maybe it's my small-town perspective, since in my precinct there were four or five voters when I voted early and no line at all.
I do see how the stories might also excite voters who see what looks like a large turnout and who then are more likely to vote, so maybe it balances out.
Long line last night at Waltham City Hall too
Hubby and I waited for 1:20 (estimate from poll worker was 30-40 minutes). Got my ballot at 7:58 PM.
It sounded like the line got long around 6 PM, but mostly it was a lack of poll workers to check people in. They also weren't great at the alphabet. I'll probably try to volunteer next year, to see if that helps anything.
I might be new to Massachusetts, but it seems like the lines here are way, way longer than I'm accustomed to. And since people seem upset by this, my suggestion would be to go to the Washington State model. Everyone votes by mail. If you don't want to use a stamp, there are dropoff locations all over for weeks before Election Day.
It's our first time doing early voting
I suspect elections officials underestimated the demand.
Murph's running.....?
About time we got someone new to take on the system. Murph for "Whatever 2016"!