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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMy Florida poll watching experience - the MAGA mens' fear is real!
As many of you know, I live in a small rural, ruby red FL county that is predominantly, but not entirely, retirees. I'm one of the founders of our Democratic Women's Club chapter and am active in the local Democratic party.
This is my 3rd election cycle volunteering as a poll watcher for the Democratic Party.
Maybe because I've been reading so much about it and was more attuned to it. Maybe it's happened each time and I didn't notice, but on a busy afternoon of early voting, I saw several couples, where the man seemed to be really focused on the woman's vote.
Once a person gets their ballot and goes to a "booth," which is really a table with sides, their vote is their own. The booths are set very closely together, but you are not allowed to converse with the other voter, or check what they are doing. The precinct clerk and one other poll worker monitor, as they can, and will tell people, politely, that they can't talk.
Yesterday, in walks a couple in their 30s, I'd guess. The greeter directs them to station 4 and 5 to get checked in, right next to each other. The man seemed nonplussed that they weren't being processed together and kept looking, just a few inches to his right, like he had to be checking on his wife pulling out her ID. I noticed it right away.
The worker announced the wife as a first time voter. We all cheered (it's a sweet custom). The couple got their ballots and proceeded to 2 booths near where I was watching.
Husband, who is quite tall, immediately started looking over the top of the booths to watch his wife fill out her ballot, talking to her all the way. Clerk could not see this from where she was.
I got up, walked to the clerk (the only person I can talk to in the polling place) and told her that the couple was talking. She thanked me and went to tell them they couldn't do that.
Husband accused her of spying on his ballot! She assured him she was not, he grumbled, they cast their ballots and left.
Clerk thanked me again and told me what the guy said. I told her I thought the whole thing was creepy. She nodded in agreement.
I witnessed a few other instances of couples talking and the men being kind of watchful, but nothing as egregious as the first.
I do think MAGA men are spooked.

StarryNite
(11,471 posts)Disgusting.
LAS14
(15,123 posts)Not because the husband wants to control her, but because he suspected he needed to.
Aviation Pro
(14,153 posts)

Intractable
(959 posts)When you don't know what you are doing, it's easy to think your neighbor knows more.
LiberalFighter
(53,544 posts)Arranged differently probably most effective.
Instead of all facing the same way in a row. First one facing North. Next one South and repeat. And they can be nearly side by side. That way even if they were looking at the one next to them it would be difficult to know they voted.
carpetbagger
(5,213 posts)EarnestPutz
(2,843 posts)Jack Valentino
(1,753 posts)Makes me feel dirty. I regret that we ever shared a bed.
Some years ago I found her Facebook page--- where she had reposted racist bumperstickers
about President Obama....
(She acted as a good Democrat when she was with me--- even worked for Bill Clinton's primary campaign in '92---
but her father was over-fond of the N-word...)
bdamomma
(67,853 posts)I am woman hear me ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, in this case secretly.
chia
(2,523 posts)Clouds Passing
(4,257 posts)mcar
(44,372 posts)need to be farther apart, at the very least. But they needed all the booths they could squeeze in.
Clouds Passing
(4,257 posts)sdfernando
(5,644 posts)not booth 4 & 5, but booth 4 & 7...that should be enough distance to stop the creepy overlook.
Native
(6,999 posts)if you step back from the writing surface just a few inches, you can easily see the other person's ballot. the woman next to me looked at mine. you would have to lean in and over your ballot to block it. the side panels are a joke.
Clouds Passing
(4,257 posts)Sky Jewels
(9,002 posts)trying to keep the patriarchy going. Fuck them!
brer cat
(26,886 posts)mcar
(44,372 posts)Our SOE does a great job. She's a Republican but sane.
HagathaCrispy
(154 posts)All I could think about is what place on Earth could be this horrible? It has to be North Florida or The Villages
mcar
(44,372 posts)When we moved here in 1992, it was all Democratic. Over time, it got redder and redder.
Still, we have strong Democratic groups here - as does The Villages.
HagathaCrispy
(154 posts)Must be all the racist old Yankees polluting Florida now that weren't there 30 years ago
mcar
(44,372 posts)And yet, my T*ump loving neighbors would give me the shirts off their backs - and I'd do the same for them.
I will never understand.
radical noodle
(9,807 posts)I think some of them are clueless racists by being "bring back the good old days" trump voters. They think of trump as some sort of benevolent boss man.
I'm seeing a lot less trump signs this time and actually seeing Harris/Walz t-shirts, signs, and bumper stickers which gives me a little hope.
Mariana
(15,478 posts)Linda ladeewolf
(818 posts)My husband and I planned our votes together. We discussed the Missouri Supreme Court judges, the amendments and wrote down two copy’s of the way we were voting. So we could remember. We sat side by side to cast our votes and occasionally would ask each other what we thought. The way the amendments are written is sometimes confusing. So we discuss it quietly. We always have done this. I didn’t know you could get in trouble for it. We are both very liberal democrats.
mcar
(44,372 posts)but voted by mail.
If you talked it over ahead of time, you shouldn't have to talk while you're casting your vote.
Look, I get it. A lot of people come in to vote and have no idea about judges, amendments, etc on the ballot. But if you did your homework and had a sample ballot to work from, you are doing it right.
Maybe it's different in MO, but in FL, you can't talk to each other while you are voting.
slightlv
(5,254 posts)Straight democratic ticket and then research on what (should be) non-partisan offices and any amendments, etc. I download a sample ballot from our county and then proceed to fill it out as I do my research. After doing that, DH, grandson, and I talk it over to see if there are any disagreements. After all that's hashed out, I make copies for each of them and we take them into our polling booth with each of us. On some of these judgeships, etc., it's a lot of work to suss out whether and how much of their ideology they bring into the office with them, whether they're a D or an R, etc. This is where talking it over among ourselves prior to voting really helps all of us. By the time we vote, we feel good about the ballot we're casting.
Have never consciously thought about it before now, but DH and I have always sat a distance away from each other when we voted. It's not that we're going to try to control one or the other, it just seemed the "proper" thing to do. Don't ask me why... we've just never considered any other way! (LOL)
NH Ethylene
(31,076 posts)It was fun, but only because we are in complete agreement, and it wouldn't be a big deal if we differed (on the small things anyway; I wouldn't even be married to someone who would vote for Trump}.
Whatthe_Firetruck
(607 posts)...but has no tolerance for the research. Since we agree on the issues. I look everything and everyone up and fill out my ballot. Then he marks his the same.
This time, there was a race with two republicans, I thought about not voting for the race, but we decided to split it. Each of us voted for a different one to cancel them out.
Linda ladeewolf
(818 posts)But since my eyes need an operation, my DH has started doing some of it. I can write it down, but have to write big.
Evolve Dammit
(20,440 posts)MLAA
(19,065 posts)Demobrat
(10,103 posts)I wonder how many of these creeps insist on filling out the little woman’s ballot for her.
erronis
(18,713 posts)If you can't trust your wife (or husband or partner) to do the right thing, then your relationship is already rotting.
Aviation Pro
(14,153 posts)Pick it up Dade Democrats.
mcar
(44,372 posts)Shades of '22.
Joinfortmill
(17,710 posts)TomSlick
(12,282 posts)She will ask me my opinion about judicial races only because I know the candidates and she does not. Otherwise, my opinions are neither sought nor welcome. Fortunately, her politics are dependably liberal Democratic.
Yavin4
(37,182 posts)Just to make sure that everything is okay.
Metaphorical
(2,393 posts)We usually vote by mail, with my wife acting as our research coach. We do not look at one another's ballots, but do discuss the pros and cons of various candidates and positions, and usually (but not always) tend to vote in sync with one another. The cat(s) officiate, typically by sitting on the voter's guide when we most need it.
Jmb 4 Harris-Walz
(1,081 posts)the ones that have curtains, I think they are higher too.
mcar
(44,372 posts)LeftInTX
(32,761 posts)I've been married 39 years. And his work used to check that we (husband and wife) voted in bond elections etc.
mcar
(44,372 posts)was how many couples came in to vote and one or the other, usually the woman, would say "we're together" when the greeter directed them to a separate check in sites.
SO and I have been married nearly 40 years. I was describing this to him when I got home and he started laughing. Like we have to be attached at the hip for everything? How did these people function at different jobs before they retired?
vercetti2021
(10,443 posts)Then again I never plan on getting married nor would I have a relationship with a MAGAt. I wish these women would divorce these losers.
iemanja
(55,761 posts)and I'd never let someone like that near my life.
iemanja
(55,761 posts)Disgusting.
mcar
(44,372 posts)Prior to that, it'd been a standard poll watch. The workers are so good - friendly, helpful, well trained.
In a few cases, voters' registrations had lapsed - which I thought was a "no, you can't vote" situation here. But the workers did their magic and made it possible for those folks to vote.
Whatever we say about FL Legislature and their suppression tactics, I saw none of them in my early voting spot yesterday.
ecstatic
(34,703 posts)That's great for transparency but not great if you have a hovering, controlling partner.
mcar
(44,372 posts)Here, the voter feeds their completed ballot into the scanner. The scanner shows that the ballot has been counted.
ecstatic
(34,703 posts)or you're not sure what to do with it, there's time and opportunity for others to see what's on the paper.
mcar
(44,372 posts)with their ballot in it. Most of them put it in the folder as they are in line to cast their vote.
But the folder is 8.5" x 11". The ballot is longer. So votes can be seen if one is looking.
paleotn
(20,215 posts)They're about to have their whiny, pansy asses handed to them.
mcar
(44,372 posts)
elleng
(139,056 posts)louslobbs
(3,416 posts)SupportSanity
(1,326 posts)Brainfodder
(7,181 posts)Found our mail in ballots later and shredded them, zero fraud here.
poozwah
(303 posts)in as little as 18 years, the white race will become the minority as the brown races will overtake them. white males, the despots in that demographic, are becoming more and more frightened as white privilege becomes more and more slight privilege until it disappears completely. the irony is that white greed will be the instrument of their descendancy as they have invited more and more brown skinned people into this nation in an effort to keep labor costs low. karma is bitch slapping these alpha assholes and that is a good thing.
3catwoman3
(26,460 posts)...for anyone to spy on anyone else.