Tell me about living in the US

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about living in the US

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Grand Prize Winner posted:

I think this is a thing in low-population states. People did this to me when I lived in Idaho and it took me a long time to figure out that they weren't looking to beg from me, rob me, or sell me something.

I used to enjoy playing "Who's not from here" at school by starting conversations about college football with strangers. Everybody not from the South would look like a deer in the headlights.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2017 04:05

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 23:18

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Namarrgon posted:

How does voting work? Like, the physical aspects, the gritty details. How many voting offices are there? Are there really these long queus? How do the ballots look? How do you fill them in?

In Florida once the ballot is finalized you get a letter n the mail from your county supervisor of elections containing a sample ballot and instructions on where and how to vote.

Your voting location is usually the nearest large room to wherever you live. For me it was the community center for a little neighborhood about a mile from my apartment. Churches and schools are also common locations.

You show up to your assigned location, wait in line (never mute than 15 minutes in my experience) and then get handed a ballot and a sharpee and directed to a booth. Every county I've voted in just used a big piece of card with the candidates/issues on it and yes/no bubbles next to each that you fill in. Once you finish filling out the ballot you drop it in a box and leave. Whole thing takes maybe half an hour, less if there aren't too many dumbass constitutional antecedents to vote on.

Florida allows voting by mail for anyone who wants to. For that you get a ballot about 2 weeks before voting day that you either return by mail or drop off at an elections office.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 18:12

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Namarrgon posted:

In the light of the (obviously false) voter fraud claims; is their any measure that ensures you can only vote once? We get mailed a physical voter card about a month in advance with your name, which has to correspond with your id when you show up, and you don't get the card back.

We have a voter ID card/number that gets checked. I assume they put it into some kind of system and would notice if you voted twice but I don't really know tbh.

There is definitely voter fraud here though. Every year some local politician gets caught trying to cheat, and a lot of carpetbagging yankee snowbird assholes vote in 2 states.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 18:34

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Tiggum posted:

So what's the deal with voting on issues? What sort of stuff do you vote on? Who determines what goes to a public vote, and how is it decided? What sort of power do those votes carry (like, are they absolutely binding or more like opinion polls?) How often do you vote on that kind of stuff?

Here in Florida we can amend our state constitution by initiative. An amendment requires 60% of the voters to pass, and they have more or less immediate effects depending on how they are worded. Some are strictly binding, and some are more of the "do direct the legislature to form a committee to investigate the possibility of..." variety. We will also have local stuff like local tax issues, county/town charter revisions, etc. That stuff is on the ballot during most if not all elections, but the big pushes for amendments almost always coincide with federal elections since people tend not to vote in the state/local only elections.

Tiggum posted:

And on the subject of voting, you vote for a bunch of different positions, right? Like, you vote for the guy who gets to run the local police force, and who gets to be a judge and a bunch of other stuff? What positions are actually voted on in that way? What are their campaigns like? Or do they mostly just rely on party affiliation?

In November I voted for US President, US Senate, US House, Florida Senate, Florida House, four state constitutional amendments, state and local judges*, County Council, Sheriff, Mayor, school board, a smattering of municipal posts, and a bunch of municipal stuff like revisions to the town charter.

Local races vary pretty wildly in how contested they are. There's a lot of getting out and shaking hands around here. The local guys really pound the pavement and do a ton of events because party affiliation doesn't seem to matter that much. Sheriff was more or less uncontested here because the incumbent Republican had the support of both local parties so his only competition was some local crazy guy. Mayor and a few of the county seats were pretty tight elections though.

* - In Florida judges are appointed for a term and at the end of it we get to vote on whether they should be retained. They are almost always retained.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 04:50

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Tiggum posted:

What sort of tax issues are you voting on? What's a town charter?

Millage rate (local property tax), municipal gas/food/tourism taxes, toll rates on local bridges or whatnot, how much of X tax should go to Y department or agency, that sort of thing. Basically whatever the municipal government decides (or is required) to throw to a popular vote. When a popular vote is optional local and state legislatures often utilize it as a way to avoid being blamed for whatever the outcome is.

Tiggum posted:

Are federal, state and local elections always at the same time?

Mostly yes, but it's not a requirement. It's just easier to get people to vote for everything all at once. When the state/county/city holds an off-election the turnout is usually incredibly low.

Tiggum posted:

What does a school board do?

The school board administers the local school system. It's usually county-based around here but a few of the larger cities have their own school board and some of the smaller counties have multi-county boards. They are regulated by the state and federal Departments of Education but operate more or less autonomously to set local educational policy.

Tiggum posted:

What municipal posts? The impression I get is that Americans basically elect every government employee right down to the garbage men, but that's presumably not actually the case.

We elect a shitload of positions at the municipal level. Tax/property assessor, Supervisor of Elections, justice of the peace in some areas, right on down to whatever your head garbage man is called in some towns. Not a ton of standardization really.

Tiggum posted:

Is that just for high-profile positions, or is there full-on campaigning for pretty much everything? Like, if judges are almost always voted to stay as you say, do they bother campaigning or do they just assume that they'll be fine if they didn't have any bad publicity?

Around here judges don't really campaign. You might see a few signs, but their retention rate is like 98% so it isn't a big deal for them. Everybody else campaigns if they're running opposed though, and sometimes even if they aren't. And local elections can get nasty.

Tiggum posted:

Is there any kind of standardisation to this, or does each state make up their own rules?

Each state is more or less allowed to come up with whatever they want so long as it doesn't violate federal constitutional rights. There is a little standardization as each state sort of settles on what works best and that isn't terribly different across the country in most cases. However you see things like the role of Sheriff that are very different between the Northeast and the South and West.

And then you have Louisiana. Which has a totally different state government and legal system from the other 49 states because it's all based on Code civil des Fran�ais rather than on English Common Law like the rest of the country.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 12:57

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about living in the US