Voting in Person on Tuesday

2020 election: plenty of space

Foster City tore down its Recreational Center in the month before today's election. The timing was unfortunate, in that the spacious Rec Center was Foster City's sole in-person voting location. (The City began planning the $66 million construction project in 2017.)

Signs directed us to a room in City Hall, next to the fire station. The room was packed with voting booths; about half were occupied.

A volunteer asked me to "register"--she quickly corrected the phrase to "check in"--and I filled out a form with my name, residential address, and date of birth.

Another lady checked the information against her computer (no identification was requested), and directed me to an empty station.

I made my selections on the touchscreen, printed out the ballot, and dropped it into the box. The whole process took half an hour.

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have minded taking another minute to show a picture ID, but California is unlikely to reinstate that requirement in my lifetime.