I got this in email from Mike Joba, who reads the site:
On first glance it looks like it’s pretty useful. I don’t have a lot of time this morning to get into it too deeply. You may find something useful in there. I won’t be around much today. Too much to do at work, and then I’m going to go vote afterwards. I’ll see you all at the Coveritlive chat tonight.
Don’t forget, if you are a Fed, you can take up to two hours of paid time off that won’t count against your vacation bank to vote if your tour begins or ends within 3 hours of the polls opening or closing. Many states have similar policies. My wife, who works HR for the state of Oklahoma tried to explain their policy to me, and it just went over my head. Something about travel distance, time to poll closure, how many cousins have intermarried in your family and so on.
If you can, do some GOTV. This is my son’s first election, and he and a bunch of his friends are going to vote and then have a pizza party. He was telling me about it and how his girlfriend organized it, but I just got stuck on “when did you get a girlfriend? Who is this girl? What do her parents do?”
UPDATE: THIS from Tbogg is just fucking epic (which I know is a redundant phrase but there you are)– Help True The Vote!
It goes without saying that most of the True The Vote people are either angry shut-ins or frustrated recently divorced housewives who have yet to get any nibbles on their Hannidate profiles (shhh, don’t tell them) so maybe you could bring a little sunshine and excitement into their lives by reaching out and describing in exquisite and elaborate detail, stories of busloads of sombrero-wearing ai-yi-yi-ing Zapatistas being dropped off at Nathan Bedford Forrest Elementary where they shoved their way to the front of the line line and told the frightened poll workers that “they don’ need no steenkin’ ID” to vote.
This will probably happen and you should report it right away just in case!
And, fortunately for you, actual real live True The Vote operators are standing by RIGHT NOW toll free at 855-444-6100.
That is 855-444-6100.
arguingwithsignposts
Insert obligatory cracker 1ncest joke about nobody getting to vote.
El Cid
From the Onion, although, these days, it really might as well be just another news report.
danielx
Well, at least you have your priorities in order.
dimmic rat
3 hour wait here in Madison, Mississippi. Its the only part of the county with black people in it. OFA gave me the contact info for the federal observers in my area; I’ll call if I see any sketchy shit going down.
tamied
Went to my regular place of voting for 18 years and they couldn’t find my card. Once she located it, she said I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t scare you. I said not at all, I wasn’t leaving here until I voted.
Funny, this is the first time I showed ID, altho I didn’t need it, and this is the first time I had a problem.
Funny.
Jay in Oregon
Never lose sight of the important stuff. :)
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I’m a Fed but I get here so early and leave so early, it’s no big deal.
I get to vote in the second reddest county in Misery, me and my fellow 14.67 Dems will dutifully cast our votes for the Kenyan, Muslim Usurper (as well as the odious Blanche McCaskill but whatcha gonna do?) in this rurl, whites-only county of forced-birthers.
Misery is about one more election cycle away of formally joining the Neo Confederacy. What will be interesting to me will be the percentages Rmoney gets here in the Second Redest County in the State. Dubya got 76% of the vote in 04 and McCain “slipped” to just 72%.
geg6
Sooner, you are cracking me up with the son and the girlfriend. Don’t worry about it. She sounds like a wonderful girl, what with organizing her own little GOTV thing and all. Sooner son has good taste.
Bulworth
Just back from voting to re-elect the President and to approve teh gay marriage in Maryland.
jibeaux
Sheesh, sooner, no questions about the pizza? What if she’s the kind of girl who’s into really kinky toppings?
Ash Can
LOL re your son. I love the idea of them celebrating an election day (especially their first one!). Elections, especially the big national ones, are wonderful and tremendously important, and such a grand display of democracy is truly worth celebrating. I hope they have a great time, and continue to celebrate election days throughout the years.
aimai
250 people had voted by 8:30 AM at my local poll. The line was about 35 minutes and they were lined up at 7:00 am. Record turnout, apparently, in my blue state. I was poll watching and we were hammered (not drunk) with the people coming in trying to keep up. I go back in a few hours and do it all afternoon. Its a huuuge job and stressful. No Brown poll watchers at all but it really wouldn’t be worth their while here.
aimai
lafcolleen
Voted and my husband too. 2 more Obama votes in the tally (Illinois). Voted for Green candidate(s) for water reclamation district.
lafcolleen
Voted and my husband too. 2 more Obama votes in the tally (Illinois). Voted for Green candidate(s) for water reclamation district.
Dave
Southern Maine at 8:00 this morning and there was a steady stream of voters coming in and out of the community center. Along with a fair number of people registering to vote for the first time. Looks more like ’08 than ’10 to me.
Also, and somewhat off-topic, I am not as worried about Ohio as some, because the state Obama really needs is Virginia. If your tossups are CO, OH, VA, NC, NH and FL, and you split red and blue for the rest of the states like 08 (except Indiana), you have 259-191 Obama. Give him VA and he has 272 EVs. I think he’ll win more but it is good to see a scenario where Jon Husted’s ratfucking with the votes will not cost the President the election.
Bulworth
@aimai: MA? Please elect me some Elizabeth Warren
Zippity
Voted this morning in Moline (IL-17). In and out in 15 mins. Everyone in a good mood-about the same amount of people as in 2008. We have a paper ballot, use a sharpie to fill in ovals, and feed it into a machine. It started raining when I got back in my car. Hopefully, we can get rid of Bobby Schilling-who just sent out a misleading mailer implying he was a Democrat.
Villago Delenda Est
@El Cid:
Given the “truthiness” of the entire Rmoney organization, that’s flirting with Poe’s Law, right there.
JGabriel
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dimmic rat:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but doesn’t the fact that there’s a three hour wait in the only part of the county with black people in it already qualify as sketchy shit going down?
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EconWatcher
Long line at my precinct in Northern Virginia, even half an hour before the polls opened (good sign)!
George Allen, it was not so great knowing you, but I wish you the best in private law practice. Just don’t hang a decorative noose from the tree in front of your office this time, m’kay? Thanks and godspeed.
Marcopolo
Voted in an inner ring suburb of St Louis. One hour line that moved briskly. First time in memory I’ve actually voted on election day. Gonna be a much more relaxing day than four years ago when MO was in play & I was running a staging location & had oversight for twelve polling locations. Going to work some shifts for McCaskill after I grab breakfast.
gelfling545
My 14 year old granddaughter- You know I will be voting in the next presidential election.
Me- We’re DOOOOOMED.
I suppose it actually depends on whether the republicans have managed to repeal the women’s vote by then.
suzanne
Happy Election Day. I love you all (even eemom). This blog has brought so much richness to my life.
I’ll be voting approximately 6pm Mountain time, so late! I’ll join the chat from the line on my phone.
I got 99 problems…..
Mark S.
Your morning of Zen, brought to you by Peggy Noonan:
Tony Northwest Washington, D.C., where the Revolution begins.
beltane
The husband and I just got back from voting. No lines, no hassles, no teabaggers in sight. My husband is a newly minted US citizen so this was his first time voting. I will keep my fingers crossed that his first presidential election has a much batter outcome than mine (1988).
JGabriel
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suzanne:
But Mitt ain’t one?
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Jerzy Russian
I don’t have a TV, so where is a good place in the internets to stream some decent coverage (apart from this fine blog)?
JPL
@aimai: A friend is a poll watcher for Warren also. She was assigned from 7 to noon, I think. I am so envious since I live in GA and there is not a local candidate to support. I did vote against Price and cast my ballot for President Obama and that gave me some joy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mark S.:
The woman is delusional.
But we already knew that. It’s a testament to the decrepitness of the Village that she’s taken seriously by any of them.
Villago delenda est.
beltane
@Jerzy Russian: I wouldn’t miss DKos on a night like this for the world.
Raven
@JPL: I wrote in Charles Darwin over here.
R-Jud
@beltane:
Congratulations to your husband!
I voted absentee from the UK a few weeks ago. Trying to focus on getting my work done. It’s not really working, though.
NotMax
Every time I see Josh Mandel (running against Sherrod Brown in OH) on the TV, I flash back to the Pitt the Even Younger election episode of Blackadder.
Punchy
Considering he has a girlfriend, perhaps you misheard this ever so slightly….
shortstop
Seriously, people in 2012 ask their kids what their girlfriends’/boyfriends’ parents do?!
JPL
@Raven: who dat!
JGabriel
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Jerzy Russian:
Probably MSNBC.com, or CSPAN, or maybe Current.com. Also, Comedy Central has coverage at Indecision.com.
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DecidedFenceSitter
80 minutes in line in NoVA this morning just to get inside the school. The two state constitutional amendments on the ballot seem to be slowing things down.
JPL
@shortstop: My son’s SO, parents watch Fox TV and I thought it was important information to know.
beltane
@R-Jud: You might want to try for a nap since you’re not going to get much sleeping done tonight either.
forked tongue
I do believe Obama will probably win, so why do I feel so shaky, ill, and on the verge of tears since waking up???
dmsilev
Voted at about 7:30 this morning, and I was number 75 or so. I think there’s something like 750 or 800 registered voters in the precinct, so that’s not bad for first thing in the morning. And there was a long line as I was leaving. Not so much to get the ballots; that was going quickly, but to use the booths to fill them in. Damn Illinois voting with its 53 “Should this circuit court judge be retained?” ballot lines.
RaflW
Minnesota says that employers have to grant time off to vote and that it does not come from accrued leave. I really appreciate that – and got to tell a first-time voter about it on a GOTV call yesterday.
ant
@beltane:
yeah, kos aint what it used to be imo. but when they went down for a few hours the other day, I realized that they’re still relevant. All important news gets covered there.
i just dont send time in the comment section like i used to.
Gary
My wife and I voted a little after 7 a.m. this morning. Everything went smoothly, which was a relief after my minor freaking out at the end of last week at the prospect of several of our polling places being without power due to Sandy, which hit our small village of Ardsley, in Westchester County, NY, pretty hard (though it was minor compared to the coastal areas). I’m on our Village Board of Trustees and spent some time Friday trying to ensure that adequate back-up plans were in place in case the power did not come back on by today. However, by Sunday afternoon, the power had come back on in nearly all the village — including our polling places (and my house).
I voted the straight Democratic ticket, including for myself — which always feels nice — and for Obama, which felt great. I plan to build on that feeling now by making some GOTV calls.
IowaOldLady
It’s raining in my part of Iowa this morning (Bruce Braley’s district). I voted in September, but I was in a polling this morning around 8 am and there was a line of maybe half-a-dozen people.
Svensker
@forked tongue:
Ain’t it the truth. Couldn’t sleep at all last night…and put up an “I voted for the Christian!” post on FB to drive all my fundie family peeps (who assured me a few years ago that Mormonism was a cult and they’d never vote for a Mormon) crazy.
JGabriel
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JGabriel:
Whoop, screwed up the address. That should be IndecisionForever.com.
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freemark
My dad and I voted first thing here in PA. We were in line at 6:30.
One worrisome thing, my dad did not pick a party line vote. He picked Obama and when he went to the next page Tom Smith was already picked for him. What if he had just picked the President and moved on. Tom Smith would have gotten an automatic vote.
freelancer
@Mark S.:
The plural of my anecdotes are reality, and also ponies.
ETA:
JPL
@forked tongue: Yesterday was my day to be a nervous wreck but today I’m pretty calm. I plan on doing some shopping later and then reading until nine.
Jerzy Russian
@JGabriel:
Thanks for the tips. I was on the East Coast for the 2008 election, and went to an election party at a friend’s house. We tuned to the Daily Show after it was clear that Obama had it. It was funny as hell, and better than the network news shows.
@R-Jud: I was in Europe for the 2000 fiasco, and I remember going to bed at 5:00 am pissed. I hope you can get to sleep earlier than that.
Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
In 2008 Comedy Central had Stewart and Colbert anchoring their coverage, and one of the great moments in television took place at 8 PM PST, when Colbert broke character as the networks called the election. It was awesome.
HRA
Woke up at my usual early time with the usual jitters these past days much higher. What’s the cure?
G and I just got back from voting here in WNY close to the home of those always hopeful Bills. We walked right up to our assigned table where the little old lady who has been there forever had a bit of a tough time finding our very common surname which is first at the top of the page. We did not have to give any ID. That was it for our delay. G the R and I the D voted straight D. We bought some pies from the Altar and Rosary Society although they do not have any sign saying who they represent anymore and were home in 2 minutes.
Jitters are cured!
Relax Sooner -whatever will be, will be said by someone who went through it 6Xs.
joes527
@Mark S.: Both Silver and Wang have Florida the palest of pale blue this morning.
My prediction for Florida:
Fist fights, lawsuits, and no undisputed result – ever.
rlrr
@joes527:
Only if Florida makes a difference, which I’m hoping it doesn’t…
handsmile
Arrived at 7:45am at my new polling site in Astoria, NY. Hundreds of people were patiently queuing up in meandering lines throughout the school gymnasium. Delighted and somewhat surprised by this early turnout as there are no competitive races or ballot measures in New York City. Completed voting within 35 minutes and the lines were even longer, the room denser, when I departed.
As always, I find the ritual of the voting experience deeply moving. Registered as the 87th voter from my precinct and the scanning machine tabulated my ballot as the 127th entered. This was my first election in NYC with that technology. Previously it was a mechanical process: one flipped small metal switches next to one’s ballot choices and then pulled a heavy floor lever to submit the completed ballot. The deep grind of that lever pull made for an altogether more satisfying experience.
OT (apologies): R.I.P. Elliott Carter, a titan among composers of contemporary classical music and one of the greatest composers in American history. (And that’s all the bad news I care to consider today.)
Forward, Bronco Bama!
Soprano2
I live in Greene County in MO, it seems like the reddest county in the country to me. I voted this morning and there was no line, although I heard there was a long line across town where they consolidated several polling places into one.
Ben Grimm
I woke up at 4:15 from a dream that the republicans had ironed my sheets together, which I proceeded to lecture Sarah Palin about, and realized that I needed this election to be over as soon as possible.
Voted at about 7:00 – the precinct here in Tallahassee was very busy but orderly.
Schlemizel
Missus was 6th in line this AM. We live in in a very mixed, plurality white, suburb of Minneapolis. She said they opened the doors and had everyone come inside because it was dripping a little rain abut there were more people inside than the place could hold so it was pretty chaotic. They were expecting crowds though & had folding tables out in addition to the standard voting tables. They filled up quickly.
Gonna be a good night & I’ll be in bed on time with pleasant dreams of 4 more years for Obama
KXB
Voted in the NW suburbs of Chicago. I waited in line for about 15 minutes. I probably could have saved time going for the paper ballot. On our electronic machines, you have to vote, and then once the ballot is complete, you have to confirm your vote twice. Once on screen, and a second time on the paper printout. Only then is the ballot submitted.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@NotMax: Did you see the post on DKos where a bunch of Mandel’s cousins put out an ad denouncing him because one of his cousins, the second female U2 pilot, is a lesbian and he would not allow her to get married?
NotMax
Need a chuckle?
Clever
NotMax
Argh!! Wrong linkie. 4:45 a.m. here, cut me a break. :)
Try again. Need a chuckle?
Clever
var
Just saw a tweet that early voting down by 4.1% in Obama counties in OH but up 14% in McCain counties. Is that true?
RedKitten
@Svensker: That is HI-larious. I have a lot of friends who have wingnutty friends/relatives, and am begging them to do the same thing. It’s just too funny — before this election, those folks wouldn’t have trusted a Mormon as far as they could throw him. But now? Oh now he’s just a nice man, and Mormonism is really just another form of Christianity, doncha know?
John PM
@dmsilev: I always vote no on retaining the judges in Cook County because I know they are all going to be retained anyway.
catclub
@dimmic rat: My bit of southern Mississippi – 12 minutes wait. Saw people of more than one complexion.
shortstop
@dmsilev: Isn’t it excruciating? And there’s always some election judge who can’t keep up with the others…unfortunately, the one at my polling place was first in line: the name finder. After he kept insisting I wasn’t in the book, I finally reached over politely and found myself for him, which is probably a federal crime.
But all my “you old people get off my lawn!” bitching notwithstanding, I always love the act of voting.
redbeardjim
@KXB: Yeah, that’s how our machines work in my precinct as well (semirural central OH). Got in this morning after dropping off Elder Son at school, had about a 10-minute wait to vote.
KXB
@var: Just because someone tweets does not make it true. I can tweet that I had sex with a Playmate, does not make it true.
catclub
@JGabriel: “.. already qualify as sketchy shit going down?”
I think we both heard the same quote from Allen West.
May he be covered in boils and attract angry cats.
KXB
@Mark S.:
I like NW DC, but is about as representative of the city (or the country) as Michigan Avenue is of Chicago.
catclub
@var: There are two useful responses: 1.Important if true.
2. We shall see.
shortstop
@Mark S.: Vodka-soaked Peggy plays Truman’s itinerant chicken farmer. It had to come to this.’
gene108
Not much of line at my polling place around 9:30 am.
There was a bit of a gaggle of people in the L-Z section, when I lined up in the A-K section for my district to sign into vote.
I don’t know if the lady in the A-K section didn’t see me because of this or what, but a blond lady came in and said she didn’t know here district and got pointed to my table and the lady at the register let her sign in before me.
That was about it for weird.
There was a black lady, who knew here district but not her precinct and apparently her daughter misplaced the ballot they mail you in NJ, with the precinct and district on it.
She was heading down the to the BoE to find out where she should vote.
Otherwise relatively uneventful compared to stories from other states I read on the internets.
Kane
Earlier this morning on MSNBC, Tavis Smiley was criticizing the Obama campaign for being confident, and saying that you can only play the history card so many times.
That is one bitter man.
Phylllis
Voted first thing with the hubbie, then sent him off to work. There was a line of about thirty waiting for the doors to open, and a steady stream of folks coming in. Makes me happy to see folks exercising their right, and their civic duty.
I’ll be back out about 7:30 pm to get the results for the local paper. I look for Obama to win our little county in SC, like he did last time.
aimai
@Ben Grimm:
I have dreams like that all the time. Seriously. My unconcious is the same as my conscious (ness). Freaky.
aimai
Randy P
@Kane: What pissed him off? Did Obama turn down an interview request or something?
fuddmain
I voted last week. Doing the GOTV thing today in Orlando. Already hit 122 doors in an apartment complex. Taking a little break before I go out again.
Kane
@Randy P: I think it stems from Smiley not getting the VIP treatment that he thought he deserved after the 2008 election.
nastybrutishntall
via Wonkette, or KOS: Our computer overlords are on their way to electing us our first Android-American President. Though I feel like I will make an excellent battery for them, and I look forward to serving their eschatological agenda whilst dreaming my days away in a pod.
Jamey
Took me all of three minutes to vote–in NNJ, no less. On-hold time at the True the Vote hotline: 10 min and counting.
I hope this is being caused by BJers tying up the lines; that’d be sweet!
Ash Can
Voting has been accomplished and checked off of my to-do list for the day. :) The position of stay-at-home mom and housewife was never in my career plans in my younger days, but this is one of its real advantages: I can go to the neighborhood polling place after Bottle Rocket has gone to school, which puts me in the sweet spot of non-rush-hour voting. No lines, no wait, no muss, no fuss. Interestingly, very few campaign signs outside the polling place (and all for local races), and no ward-heelers handing out flyers.
@John PM: This is one area where the ChiTrib endorsements come in handy. The Trib compares a couple of polls of lawyers on judges — big ones, with a lot of participation on the part of bar-member lawyers throughout Cook County — and bases its recommendations on how the lawyers rate the judges. I worked in a law firm years ago, and know first-hand that when a preponderance of lawyers say that a certain judge rarely comes to the courtroom prepared for his/her cases, isn’t punctual or reliable, and/or can’t control his/her courtroom, it should be taken seriously. It makes for a much longer time in the voting booth, but it’s worth it.
Vlad
I’m pretty sure that there was a dead person voting at my precinct this morning, because he looked and smelled awful. Like someone poured an entire bottle of Aqua Velva on top of a boiled cabbage.
He was a Republican, though, so I guess that’s OK.
Ben Grimm
@aimai:
I think there’s something wrong with my brain.
Mnemosyne
We have a similar law here in California that applies to all workers — the head of our division’s HR department even sent out an e-mail yesterday reminding everyone about it.
liberal
@joes527:
I’m hoping Obama wins FL, so I can turn the TV off at that point, finish drinking my beer, and hit the hay.
les
Voted early, small but steady line in lovely Stilwell KS. After obummer, not a single fucking Dem candidate for any fucking office–congress, state legislature, county gov. Not fucking one. Well, it didn’t take long, anyway.
g
Voted at 8:30 this morning. My polling place was a rural real estate office. There were two cars in the parking lot and I got y ballot and went right into the booth. Our precinct went 90% for Obama in 2008.
Go Prop 30!
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@Mark S.: She’s fulla shee-it. Down here in (gasp!) Katherine Harris country Obama leads the signage by at least 2:1. Of course, I’m in Manatee County. I don’t dare go to Sarasota County because a dear GOP friend tells me there’s dead or alive signs with my picture on it all over.
Mart
In Missouri this year’s version of getting the wing-nuts out in force ballot petition (we have one every four years)is to kill state run insurance options and put a shiv in Obamacare before it starts. Probably certainly passes. Hope the idiots get to see a really great program working in Illinois, while Misery suffers. Because Freedom!!!
grandpa john
@Mark S.: Whats playing out for Nooner’s is what she missed on one of her bad hangover days.
The Obama campaign decided this year that instead of destroying forests and printing up signs that end up filling up land fills or being unsightly litter slowly decaying in yards and ditches, the would use the money for GOTV and do some things that would actually get people to go to the polls and vote.Sounds logical to me.
grandpa john
@Mark S.:
sounds like she hit the sauce earlier than usual this morning
Ruckus
@Vlad:
Like someone poured an entire bottle of Aqua Velva on top of a boiled cabbage.
I thought that is the normal smell for rethugs.
forked tongue
I called True the Vote and reported that I had seen some shady activity at my voting place: There were some black people among the poll workers.
The guy at the other end of the line said, and I swear: “That’s not a crime, sir.” I said, “It’s not?” He said “No, not in New York State.” (Pause for several beats) “Or in any other state for that matter.”
When I tried to keep him on the line he said “And how many times have you called today, Sir?” I think they may be getting a little touchy.
shortstop
@forked tongue: OMG, that is beyond hilarious.
forked tongue
Then shortly after I hung up, my phone got a call from a blocked number. When I said hello, somebody with an obviously disguised voice actually claimed to be a police officer looking into fraudulent phone calls. I have no idea how seriously he intended to pursue this since I just roared with laughter and said “That’s great, keep up the good work, you racist idiots” and hung up.
forked tongue
Shit, it was too much fun. I had to call back.
This was a lucky call, as I got a young woman who went through the time-consuming process of getting down all my made-up information, including a fictitious address in Lima, OHIO (Get it?) before even getting to my “complaint.”
I told her I had seen a well-dressed man standing in front of my polling place “and well, I don’t want to be racist or anything, but he was — black.” He was doing things like opening doors for little old ladies, smiling at children, etc., and I could tell he was up to something.
She asked whether there was anything else I had noticed that made me feel there was something illegal going on. I said “yes, but oh, you know that hold music you have on, that I had to listen to for several minutes? That’s Bobby McFerrin–you know he’s black, right?”
She didn’t know who Bobby McFerrin was. So getting back to the man I saw, was he doing anything untoward? “Well–his skin was black, if you know what I mean.”
After a while she tried to get off the phone and explained that there really wasn’t much they could do unless I had something more specific to report. I made clear my disappointment, said that I thought they were there to protect our vote but I guess they’re just a liberal front group after all. Click!!!