The post below made me wonder if your schools were closed today? I work in an elementary school and it is a polling place. We were NOT closed for voting! It's an open design school with no walls. The kids were told to be quiet today so as not to disturb voting (same with any other voting day) and the teachers parked down the street so the parking lot would be accessible to voters. I just read that some schools are closed elsewhere for voting?? Maybe we are just very trusting of strangers. I hate that our school is a polling place though because it seems like a safety concern and it's just a pain on those days. Most polling places around here (like my own) are in churches though. So...is your polling place in a school? Does the school close for voting?
Re: s/o schools closed for elections...
For some reason this is hilarious to me! I had no idea that was allowed. I guess if you sign up with the election board, a polling place can be anywhere! I know our school district gets paid to keep our school a polling place.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Schools were not closed here. I did not vote in a school, but there are schools in the area that are used as polling places. There were discussions in the past year or so about whether or not poll workers would be required to have background checks.
I voted in a credit union.
That seems silly. The three poll workers (who are usually elderly) probably don't present as big of a safety concern as the hundreds of voters.
Just saying.
When I was a kid we had school despite our elementary school being a polling place. It was kind of cool, actually, seeing so many people lining up to vote. Here/now the schools are closed on Election Day.
I see ppl's garages on movies but think it's weird it actually happens. I guess I wouldn't want a lot of strangers pulling up to my house all day.
Our polling place is at the court house. However, several yrs ago it was in an elementary school and it was closed.
I was just asking my mom about that the other day. She used to teach elementary school in OH, and she said they started closing schools on election day after 9/11 for safety - there were bomb threats called in and such.
The county I live in uses a lot of schools for voting, and the teachers all have a workday so the kids aren't affected. I voted in an elementary school yesterday and the massively long line snaked through most of the first floor, around the kindergarten classrooms and special ed and other special services offices. I can't imagine keeping a group of 24 kindergarteners safe and on task with thousands of strangers peering in their classroom windows, hovering in front of their lockers, and generally in the way as they move from classroom to anywhere else.
I voted in my local elementary school, the school was closed but they were having some special event for a few of the kids. When I was in school, they closed for elections so people could vote. The day before the election, they would normally set up the voting machines and we would have our own mock election. I thought it was a blast! I've never voted anywhere except a school.