With less than two weeks left until the election, I'd like to go over some voting information with everyone.
First off, to verify that you are registered to vote (and that you know where to show up to vote), you should visit the state election board's Polling Place Locator. You will need to enter your last name, birthdate, and zipcode, and it will show your voter ID number. Click on that to see the address of your polling place, and what voting districts you are in. I highly suggest everyone do this! Polling places change from time to time. Also, make note of your precinct number from this page. You'll need it for the next step.
Next, I suggest you take a look at your ballot now. This will allow you to figure out now, while you aren't under time pressures and surrounded by impatient people, what you need to mark where. Also, there may be some people or things on there you don't know about yet. Better to find out now while you can still educate yourself.
To do this, visit the website for your county election board. In Tulsa county you would go to http://www.tulsacounty.org/Nov42008Ballot.asp. This page has a table mapping the last three digits of precinct numbers to actual pictures of your ballot. Scroll down the page and look for yours.
For each precinct there are two links; one for the ballot for the State and County general election, and one for the City of Tulsa ballot. When you go, I believe they may actually be printed on opposite sides of the same ballot, so make sure to check the back side of your ballot!
The City of Tulsa ballot appears to only have a couple of propositions on it. please do take the time to educate yourself on them, but they are outside of the scope of this campaign. What we care about is the State and County general election ballot.
When you click on that ballot, what you should see is three columns of candidates. Next to each candidate you will see a horizontal arrow pointing to the left, with a big gap in the middle, like in the picture to the right. To select a candidate, you fill in the gap in the arrow next to his or her name. 
What I would suggest is that you look for all the grey boxes on your ballot that contain headings. On mine they are labeled PRESIDENTIAL, STATE OFFICERS, CONGRESSIONAL OFFICERS, and LEGISLATIVE AND COUNTY OFFICERS. Under each of those headings will be a box labeled STRAIGHT PARTY VOTING. My suggestion is that you fill in the arrow next to DEMOCRATIC in each of these. You don't have to make any other selections on this side of this ballot if you do that. (In fact, I'd suggest you don't. It might confuse the machines).The result should look something like what you see to the right.
If you vote straight party like this, you do not need to vote for individual candidates as well. Simply fill out those four headings, and you are done!
Now if you have philosophical problems with voting straight-party, I understand. I've often myself avoided that out of principle, even though everybody I voted for was a Democrat. However, this is the easy way to fill out your ballot and be done with it. Otherwise you will need to read the ballot carefully, and make a selection in every box *except* the straight-party voting boxes. There are lots of variants to the ballots so I can't give direction from here.
Tomorrow I'll try to go over early voting in Oklahoma.
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