PSA: Absentee voters who thought they were too late still have a chance!

I've just found out that you can apparently fax absentee ballots instead of mailing them. This may come too late for some of you, but if you got your absentee ballot too late to mail it in and you can't make it to the polls in person, you've still got time to fax it in; call your registrar's office to get the number.

Spread the word, please. I've heard of way too many people in this election not getting their ballots in time.

PSA, for those requesting provisional ballots

I should've mentioned this a while ago, but I'll do it now in case there are still people reading this who haven't voted yet.

If you're planning to vote a paper ballot, ask for it before you sign the register. Otherwise they have to go back and cross your name off and scribble little notes on it and shit so the count doesn't get messed up--or at least here in California they do. Be nice to your poll workers and don't make them do that. They'll have a tough enough time today as it is.

One of no doubt many (albeit miniature, in this case) election day nightmares

Okay, now I wish I hadn't waited till late in the day to vote. One of the women at my polling place thought I wasn't allowed to get a new paper ballot when I mis-marked the old one. When I told her I was pretty sure I was, one of her fellow poll workers looked it up and told her I was right, but I shudder to think how many people came through that day and were forced to cast mis-marked paper ballots.

*scribbles letter to registrar's office*

A much more major election nightmare

Bloody fuck! I've just realized there was a much bigger fuckup at the polls. When you vote a paper ballot, you're not supposed to sign the register, as I mentioned earlier. When I voted today, they had me sign. I'd said "I'm not supposed to sign, right?" but they said I was, and figuring that there might have been a change in procedure, or else that it was a slight messup on their part but not likely to do anything more than annoy the vote-counters, I didn't argue. It wasn't until I got home that the implications of it hit me.

When you vote a regular ballot, there's no way to trace it. The only proof they have that you voted is your signature on the roster. That's why you're only supposed to sign the roster if you voted a regular ballot. Provisional ballots go in those little envelopes so that they can make sure you didn't vote somewhere else as well before they take them out and count them; if your signature appears in any roster anywhere, that means you voted and that means your provisional ballot won't be counted.

By making me sign the roster, they've nullified my vote. Not just mine, but those of every other voter who was on the rolls at that precinct but voted a paper ballot anyway.

I called the registrar's office as soon as I realized this. Fortunately, because of their other screwup I'd taken note of the precinct number; the fellow there, agreeing that this was a Bad Thing, told me he'd pass this on to the troubleshooters and that they might get back to me. If they don't, I won't be able to find out if my vote, specifically, got counted until it's far too late to do any good, though I might be able to find out how the situation in general was resolved.

Cross your fingers, folks. I'm gonna be royally pissed if they don't find a way to fix this.