It never ends . . .

[Lilavati]

Ever vote at a school? At least half the times I've voted its been at a school . . . many of the rest were at community centers.

Well, in at least one place, the school is objecting because of safety concerns.

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/voters-in-the-school-thats-not-safe/

Because there has never been once incident of a voter molesting a child at the school where they were voting. Therefore, we have to make sure it doesn't happen . . . !

/facepalm

 

[lizzybeth727]

Crazy.

I voted at a school once. But the voting booths were in a portable classroom situated away from the main building. I figured that made it less disruptive to the school. We did still have to get on campus, though.

 

[release the hounds]

I have voted at a number of schools. Currently we vote at a church, i wonder how that hasn't sparked the ire from somebody yet.

 

[Miakoda]

I vote at our local community elementary school. However, voting is always at nights or on weekends in their common area.

 

[eddieq]

My current polling place is at the local senior center, but I used to vote at a school and our area does use two of the local elementary schools as a polling place. However, the schools are closed on election day, so there really isn't a security concern, unless those evil voters are going to leave behind booby traps for when their innocent victims return.

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say that raising security concerns around polling places in schools is a precursor to making a full background check necessary when registering to vote (at the voter's expense, of course). That way, only the "desirables" are permitted to register.

As for polling places in a church, I've always wondered when people will raise a huge stink about that. If it has happened, I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it.

 

[Lilavati]

As far as I know, no one ever has raised a stink about it. When I did Election Protection in '08 some of the voting was in a church . . which didn't bother me any, but I did wonder.

Its possible that it was litigated long ago, and a court decided it was ok on the grounds that churches are often the largest "public" buildings around, and no one has really bothered to challenge it since.

Edit: I know they were in the church at that location because it was the only place that could hold the sort of lines they were anticipating indoors. They didn't want people to have to stand in out in the cold and rain, so they set things up so the line wove around the pews in the church, down a flight of stairs and into the attached building next door, which was some sort of civic center.

It worked really well, actually.

 

[Beanie]

My grade school was (I think still is) a polling place. They were always set up in the front hallway near the gym. It was definitely disruptive on election day while we were going to lunch (the gym doubled as the cafeteria during lunch hour) or gym class, and I'm sure we were disruptive to people trying to vote too.
The school has been majorly remodeled now, so I'm not sure how it is anymore. They had to send people who were supposed to vote there to another polling place this past local election because of the construction.
Never had the schools closed on election day. My district never closed school for anything though, barring the one time a pipe burst and half the school was flooded. Closing the school on that day would make more sense than OMG CAN'T VOTE HERE though.

I always vote at a church, the church my family went to when I was younger. Across the street from the grade school, actually.


ETA: I will say that a few years ago, at the church, somebody turned down a hallway, walked all the way through the church, went into the room where all the volunteers had stashed their coats and purses and stuff and stole a bunch of wallets. So the "BUT THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE AROUND, NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN" comments on that journal are not quite true.

 

[Renee750il]

When I was a kid the schools were polling places and we got out of school for the day, mainly because of the traffic. :thumbsupsmileyanim:

 

[LindaJD]

We vote at the elementary schools in my town and they are always closed on voting days.

 

[GipsyQueen]

I vote at the kindergarten around the corner. It's not a problem because election days are always on a sunday.

 

[Kat09Tails]

pretty sure most of our state is vote by mail now