Saturday, November 03, 2012

Aventura Early Voting Yesterday. By Geniusofdespair

I stopped at 3 early voting locations yesterday, only in Aventura did I NOT make it out of the car.

You have to understand Aventura, most of the city has no parking on the streets AT ALL. You can't even pay to park. I wanted to stop by the City Hall location and here is what happened.
The Aventura Government Center had no parking the sign advised to go to the park to park.

This is as close as I could get to the voting location in Aventura yesterday (see voters waiting in line top right of photo). There is a big plaza up there.

This is a line of cars waiting for a parking space to open up.

As instructed I went to the park. This is Founders Park entrance.  There was no directions there,  I just happened to know where it is. The top sign would have scared me enough. Geez you go to vote and you get videotaped. Anyway, the green sign said the lot was full, and it was. I had just come from the government center that lot was full and and I  also did go to the South parking lot.  All were filled. So there was no parking at about 1:30 yesterday, the time I finally got my ass in gear.  I went to 2 other  early voting locations and found parking within 5 minutes.
In contrast, here is how they accommodated people at the North Dade Regional Library. They opened up the front lawn of the library to help voters, not hinder them. The North Dade Regional Library had a 5 hour wait at  7:25am this morning.  They also have seating inside the library for the elderly. I took a video yesterday at this location.

8 comments:

Geniusofdespair said...

On another Aventura post a reader said Aventura residents could take the shuttle bus. The schedules for that bus are strange. You could be looking at a few more hours to go 1 mile. If you want to take the shuttle it runs every hour. There are 5 routes. The problem is the Government Center is not on ALL routes so you have to transfer. What if you miss a bus and have to wait an hour for a transfer? Macy's and Publix are on all routes (where you would transfer). Government center appears to be on only one.
If you went from the Condo Coronado to Macy's on the bus it takes 44 minutes. Coronado is a half mile from Macy's.

Anonymous said...

I voted at the Coral Gables Library and was harassed by a Mitt Romney campaigner. When I told her I was not interested she told me I was not "for" America and continued to harass me, until I was able to step over the line. Is this legal? Doesn't seem right ...

Japolina said...

The lines today (Saturday) at Aventura are worse. I can't believe it.

Anonymous said...

Early voting isn't a "right". I'm so sick of the wining on this already. It's sad, yes. The lines are too long, yes. In the alternative, vote on voting day like in the not so distant past. And, I think both parties are to blame for the current early voting mess by Dem's busing in voters to crowd the already long lines, then complain of "disenfranchisement" and the GOP for a ridiculously long ballot!

Anonymous said...

It is the last day of early voting, it is a beautiful day, and wait times are long as expected. Bring foods, drinks, umbrellas and chairs. And enjoy friends and neighbors, meet new people, network with others, market your business or products, arrange deals, network with others, and maybe get a hook-up for a date. It is a major community social event that won't happen again for another four years.

The data as of yesterday reveals that 196,687 persons have voted early so far. North Dade Regional Library remains the county's top performer (13,932), followed by 2) West Dade Reg. Library (12,749); 3)West Kendall Reg. Library (12,084); 4)Coral Gables Lib. (11,606); 5)Stephen Clark Center (11,513).

In terms of absentee ballots, as of Nov.1, 167,232 ballots or 59% of those mailed out had been mailed back in. There are still 3 more days for them to come in.

So we have 196,687 early voters plus 167,232 absentee voters yeilding a total of 363,919 total voters so far. Given a total of 1,281,368 registered voters, that means that 28% of the people who can vote, have voted. Assuming 2% for early voting today and for more ballots to be mailed in, that would mean that 70% of the county's remaining registered voters can vote on election day.

Victoria said...

We have early voting and it is just as important a voting form as any other. Get over it, it might be new but it is here to stay and it should not be abused. The reader is right about the legislature putting the entire wording of all the amendments on the ballot when others must reduce them to 65 words or less. Shame on the legislature.

Anonymous said...

The reason the ballot is so long is because two thirds of it is in other languages.

One needs to understand English to become a citizen. The ballot should only be in English.

Anonymous said...

Voting today, parked at the Mall and walked 2 blocks.