US Politics: Voting Tales and Victory Ales

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

Can you explain what this means to non-gamblers? I read it like "O has a 1 in 5 chance of winning, or if you bet $1 you will get $5 if O wins" and that make no sense to me (I can't even come up with what the Romney numbers mean)

A $5 bet only pays out $1 if Obama wins, while a $1 bet pays out $4 if Romney wins (I think).

[Maithanet]

Can you explain what this means to non-gamblers? I read it like "O has a 1 in 5 chance of winning, or if you bet $1 you will get $5 if O wins" and that make no sense to me (I can't even come up with what the Romney numbers mean)

I think it's backwards of that. If you bet 5$ on Obama, you'll get 1$ back (in addition to the 5$ you bet). Whereas for Romney, you can get $4 on a $1 bet. That means betting on Obama will pay off relatively little, whereas a Romney bet would pay off quite handsomely should he actually win.

[Reposado]

A $5 bet only pays out $1 if Obama wins, while a $1 bet pays out $4 if Romney wins (I think).

that is the correct interpretation. bet 5 on obama to win 1

if you put ten dollars on obama, you win 2, and get your ten back

if you put ten on romney, you win 40 and get your ten back

the public hates making bets with odds like this so i'd be surprised if offshore books aren't cleaning up on this election. the majority of the action they get will be on romney. since they are continuing to raise it, they are verrrry confident of an obama victory.

[Guest Raidne]

@Raidne -> You didn't vote early? I'm actually amazed by how easy it was in DC.

Not for a purely symbolic gesture, no. Like to go the day of then. But seriously, there was no real motivation on my part either way. Not like there's a voting representative or Senator to vote for. I'm looking forward to not being a DC resident in the next election.

[Fez]

Not for a purely symbolic gesture, no. Like to go the day of then. But seriously, there was no real motivation on my part either way. Not like there's a voting representative or Senator to vote for. I'm looking forward to not being a DC resident in the next election.

If you're the reason Obama gets 89.9992% of the vote in DC instead of an even 90%, some people will be very cross with you. Its all about the optics! Optics!

:P

ETA: By the way, for those curious here are some pictures of the lines in DC and NoVA

[Fragile Bird]

FB - I am in DC. It will go Obama by about 90%. I tried very hard to move to VA before the election - didn't happen. I'm home sick today - think I may have walking pneumonia. My friends waited in line over an hour and a half for early voting last weekend. I'm staying home; Obama will win without me.

That is totally excusable - I have only used advance polls once or twice in my life, because the polling station is literally 50 yards from my house. We never plan to get sick, and there have been lots of times I've been too sick to leave the house, they just never coincided with an election. :)

But more important - do you need to see a doctor? Pneumonia kills. Seriously, get antibiotics if you need them.

[Opisthokont]

This! I have voted in seven national elections in Sweden and have never had to wait more than five minutes. A one hour long line anywhere would make national news and be considered a major screwup.

I've seen lines outside polling stations in Sweden. Not of voters of course, but of party volunteers trying to shove their ballots into your hands.

[Procrastimancer]

It is my day off, but I got up at 6 am and headed over to the polling place because I'd much rather get it done early. There was a plethora of signs leading the way in and no line to speak of, but it turns out that there are two polling places on the same street and I was at the wrong one. Two buildings down, I encountered three signs in front of the door and an hour-long wait because, according to one volunteer, registration and the ID requirement were creating a horrible bottleneck.

I'm from Kansas and so my votes are probably going to be washed away in a red flood, but I got out there and voted anyway.

[Lupigis]

I've seen lines outside polling stations in Sweden. Not of voters of course, but of party volunteers trying to shove their ballots into your hands.

Yeah, but that's a different problem, to do with legislation rather than organisation/resource allocation.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

I think it's backwards of that. If you bet 5$ on Obama, you'll get 1$ back (in addition to the 5$ you bet). Whereas for Romney, you can get $4 on a $1 bet. That means betting on Obama will pay off relatively little, whereas a Romney bet would pay off quite handsomely should he actually win.

that is the correct interpretation. bet 5 on obama to win 1 if you put ten dollars on obama, you win 2, and get your ten back if you put ten on romney, you win 40 and get your ten back the public hates making bets with odds like this so i'd be surprised if offshore books aren't cleaning up on this election. the majority of the action they get will be on romney. since they are continuing to raise it, they are verrrry confident of an obama victory.

Thanks:)

That is good news then :)

[Kalbear]

This thread makes me love Washington state sooooiooo much.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

That is good news then :)

Not if you are Pakistani.

[Fez]

Chrysler continues its transformation over the past two weeks to being my favorite auto company (although I'm happy to stick with my Toyota for now):

The car company that attacked Mitt Romney for falsely claiming it was moving operations overseas is going a step further, ostensibly for President Obama.

Chrysler's vice president of design, Ralph Gilles, tweeted Tuesday that the company gave its entire work force the day off to vote. "Let's Go!" he wrote.

Those Romney ads must've really pissed their management off.

[Jaime L]

ETA: By the way, for those curious here are some pictures of the lines in DC and NoVA

Hopefully this remains a story because it's the exception, not the rule.

Anecdotally speaking, I voted about a half hour after polls opened in the heart of Denver. There was a line going about 15 deep when I got in, but it moved fast, and took me 25 minutes from when I entered to when I exited. Was exceedingly well run and organized by the volunteers.

Would really hope my experience is the norm for something so fundamentally important and not what we've seen in Florida or the pictures Fez linked.

[awesome possum]

Just went to the new polling precinct and it was much better. More booths, in and out in less than 10 minutes.

My vote for Obama matters very little in Indiana this year, but I was glad to vote against Richard Mourdock and also vote to for Justice Stephen David to be removed from the bench, in part due to his claim that there is absolutely no reason to prevent a police officer from unlawfully entering your home.

[Mya Stone]

Bran and I just voted. Took all of 7 minutes. Yay Massachusetts.

[Sci-2]

How Today’s Election Could Make History For LGBT Equality

Also wondering how many shennigans Repubs will pull before the end of today, intimidating minorities out of voting with varied scare tactics. Of course, I've already decided all the bullshit Repubs pulled means I won't consider Romney my president if he does cheat his way to victory.

[drawkcabi]

I didn't get my absentee ballot until yesteday. Maryland law says that as long as the baloot is post-marked by election day (November 6th - I double then triple checked) it would be accepted.

So my mother, my father, and I all got our ballots to the post office this morning.

I also informed my mother about the marriage equality question and we both voted for it.

[Guest Raidne]

That is totally excusable - I have only used advance polls once or twice in my life, because the polling station is literally 50 yards from my house. We never plan to get sick, and there have been lots of times I've been too sick to leave the house, they just never coincided with an election. :)

But more important - do you need to see a doctor? Pneumonia kills. Seriously, get antibiotics if you need them.

I don't mean to make it sound like my excuse. I mean that I'd probably have to be feeling great with nothing pressing at work or anywhere else to bother. It's the 90% and the nothing other than the Presidential election that I care about to vote for that really makes the difference.

[buy one get one free]

My voting story I posted about on FB:

This was weird and had I been a bit more ornery and civic minded I would have raised a bigger stink, but I just wanted to get to work after standing in line for 40 minutes. Anyway, at the school cafeteria where I voted, there were these rinky dink tall tables that were surrounded on 3 sides where each person would go to vote on a paper ballot. It provided minimal privacy, but okay, I can deal with

that. What I DIDN'T like was that a young woman was in the area with a camera on a very tall tripod taking pictures of not only the folks in line waiting to vote, but she was positioned behind the voting tables where she could easily get pictures of the ballots. When I quasi complained and questioned it to the people who were registering me in, they said they questioned it to and was told that she was only taking pictures of feet. :| They didn't even know if she was from the local newspaper or not. They said they were too busy doing their jobs to pursue the issue.

So, yeah, that shit ain't right.