Election day open thread
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LIVEBLOG: US election voting and results
Despite the record turnout in early voting, most of American hasn't voted yet. All that changes today as polls open on the east coast and the deluge begins. Check here for your state's poll hours.
Obama's in the lead, 32 to 15, courteous of 12am polls in New Hampshire, though this lead is expected to change.
Already voted? Voting today? Post your experience here.
Need help getting through the day? Check out the International Society of Super Villians' Election Day Survival Guide.
Despite the record turnout in early voting, most of American hasn't voted yet. All that changes today as polls open on the east coast and the deluge begins. Check here for your state's poll hours.
Obama's in the lead, 32 to 15, courteous of 12am polls in New Hampshire, though this lead is expected to change.
Already voted? Voting today? Post your experience here.
Need help getting through the day? Check out the International Society of Super Villians' Election Day Survival Guide.
Posted by brandonb at 5:43 AM on November 4th 2008
I'll try voting sometime in the morning, after the "squeeze it in before work" rush.
I think Texas is going to be a lot closer than anyone thinks it will. I'm in the ROTC at Texas A&M, arguably the most conservative public university in the nation, and despite being the only true liberal in my dorm (the left leaning moderates get called liberal, which I guess they are in comparison to the rest of them) I've had a bunch of people come up to me in private and tell me they secretly voted for Obama. Most of them said Palin was what changed their mind.
I'm going back in the evening, and will wait however long it takes, but my mind is a little boggled right now. My county has had 80% turnout in recent years. They're predicting 85% this year. Our elections board is pretty hardcore and is confident this will go well. Yet their server was crashed by traffic last night and I'm hearing lines started at 5 or 5:30 AM. I think we'll be ok here, but it is scary to think what other areas are in for if we are seeing these hiccups in a well-organized system here.
Hannah, I am hearing about secret Obama support in TN and MO, too. I've stopped worrying about the Bradley effect and am predicting a reverse Bradley. My dad thinks TN will go blue. I'm not that optimistic, but I've never heard talk like this before, not even from lifelong Democrats.
I probably canceled out my own vote a good 60 times over, though, since I registered a good 100+ of the freshmen and sophomores in my unit to vote, and most will likely vote republican.
I think Texas is going to be a lot closer than anyone thinks it will. I'm in the ROTC at Texas A&M, arguably the most conservative public university in the nation, and despite being the only true liberal in my dorm (the left leaning moderates get called liberal, which I guess they are in comparison to the rest of them) I've had a bunch of people come up to me in private and tell me they secretly voted for Obama. Most of them said Palin was what changed their mind.
And I've been wearing my Obama shirt around campus and not one person has said anything bad about it. This boggles me. On the other hand, I've had dozens of people give me a thumbs up or tell me they like it. This is in College Station, Texas, which was the site of such lovely conservative shows of intolerance as this(which was actually soundly disapproved of, according to the mail section of the campus newspaper).
This is crazy. I can't wait for tonight.
Seriously, folks, on behalf of the rest of the world, please don't blow this. KTHXBY.
That there's good work. Seriously.
Spent the hour talking to the nice woman behind me, who's been voting at that precinct for 35 years and she's never seen it so crowded. Even better, once we got to the front of line, she started talking to some of volunteers whom had been there since she started voting and they had never seen it so crowded. We may be in for a long night after all.
We almost made the news due to a precious 7 year old named Francis. All the Diebold voting machines were in a raw, with various wires and power strips going out of the back of each one. Francis was very interested in this and wanted to know where all these wires went, so she started climbing around behind the machines, which her harried father quickly noticed before she started doing something. And yes, she would have pushing and pulling on things, judging by the number of flowers, weeds and mushrooms she pulled outta the ground while we were watching in line outside.
Glad I voted in person, got to see a few neighbors, discovered ones I didn't know about and generally it reenforced our decision to live in this neighborhood.
I stood in line for about 25 minutes at the end of the before-work rush, between a mid-40-ish black family man (two teenagers and a baby) and a 30-ish white single woman. They were former neighbors so I was privy to their conversation while we waited.The man had voted for Romney in the primaries, the woman had voted for Huckabee. Both were voting for McCain today. The woman told the man how much she missed his family as neighbors because the new neighbors were so loud she'd already complained to the property manager and had resorted to banging on the wall when they turned their music up. She also told me whoever gets elected will have to deal with decreasing popularity at the end of their first term, "just like poor Bush did."
Then I went to Starbucks & got me some free coffee. The parking lot at my polling place was full of cars with McCain stickers. The Starbucks parking lot was full of cars with Obama stickers.
We've had the vote-by-mail system since I was able to vote, so I've never been in a voting booth in an official capacity in my life. If I keep living in Oregon, that may be a lifelong thing.
Oregon isn't anything like in play for the Presidential vote, so there'll probably be no real drama for us by the time the polls close. And it looks like Gordon Smith is finally getting the boot from the Senate. The only real questions are whether (a) any of Bill Sizemore's latest round of bullshit will get traction and (b) whether Kevin Mannix's latest Tough On Crime orgasm -- or its watered down lesser-of-two-evils legislative foil -- will get passed.
That latter one is an interesting microcosm of Oregon ballot measure politics, really; Willamette Week makes an argument for voting for 57 (the aforementioned lesser) on the grounds that preventing 61 from getting implemented is more important than rejecting the premise of either. I can appreciate the game theoretical jaunt, but I can't really endorse their recommendation.
I get to vote against Kerry again in this election (though I'm sure he'll be reelected).
For evidence of the smoothness of vote-by-mail: Oregon has to have about the lowest "incidents per capita". And in Washington almost all of the incidents are polling place related.
I can't beleive I'm agreeing with Gov. Palin on anything, but there it is.
Vice Presidential candidates are a bit different though. If she should win, she would be the #2 member of her party. Wouldn't kill her to at least try to GOTV.
I'm pretty sure she's just being Mavericky with this one.
Nobody has to tell anybody who or what they voted for. The idea that such a disclosure is compulsory is a bad one. As far as that goes, I'm a little annoyed with the "what, she won't TELL?!" flavor of that bit of news.
But the elements in play here, as I understand them, that make it more complicated than that:
- Palin's recent "first amendment rights" bullshit makes her seem less like a privacy-defending citizen on such matters than a deluded whiner;
- That Palin has remained evasive about her support-or-not for Stevens, and that that continues past his conviction (the trial leading up to which not having been concluded yet being an implied factor in her decision-making in previous dodges) has folks interested, specifically, in her position on his candidacy, not just in happening to know how she voted
- The folksy Oh Gosh Dontcha Know tone of her response more or less undermines the otherwise potentially admirable notion of privacy she's ostensibly espousing. Drop the act, lady; they're reporters, not fucking kindergartners.
Exit polls? Here's 10 reasons to ignore them.
How do the networks know when to call a state? They're gonna think real careful.
Mavericky!
A bottle of Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio, with a smooth Australian cheddar and Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits.
I wish I had this.
Indiana is too close to call, Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina too early to call
Already closed: IN VA GA FL
Still open: OH NC PA MO
The numbers appear biased, but I think smaller communities may report faster due to smaller population, & I also think "urban vs. rural" is more accurate than "blue vs. red."
(Oh, Obama had a 7 point lead in VA in polling beforehand. Still, yeah, ballsy or drunk.)
Redeem yourself Flo, this is your chance!
Anyone know who this apparent third party candidate is?
And you know I tried to avoid coverage till March.
MSNBC called PA for Obama.
FUCKING PA REPRESENT!
Frankly, though, I think they're a little overeager. Right now I'm watching the CBC, until I can switch over to PBS.
The ceeb has Neil MacDonald, Norm's brother.
<small>Yeah, my boss has been warned I'll be hungover tomorrow regardless of results.</small>
NH closed 72 minutes ago, & was strongly for Obama anyway - by 13 points.
TX had an 11 point lean towards McCain, so that's surprising - cities first?
Also, the race doesn't seem like a nail biter, despite the too close to call races. Feels almost like the aftermath of a good day.
* Why you should ignore exit polls
* election scorecard from evstrength.com, in turn drawing numbers from electoral-vote.com
No, I don't know what that means, but I'll take it.
Got a little verklempt. Just a little.
Yeah, it looked like it was made by a retarded Willy Wonka on crack who was having a bad day. What the hell do they do in that state?
538.com is a network now?
My racist uncle in Tennessee prayed and prayed and said God told him to vote for Obama.
This is just... surreal!
Don't break my heart again Flo.
It's fascinating, though -- the sense of a dead man walking. He knows his time is done (mind you, it was done on 9/10, too).
Can't wait to see Lieberman.
Am using this link for results
http://election.cbsnews.com/election2008/
Anyone got a better one?
results this minute:
Obama
Electoral Votes 102
Popular Vote 50%
9,670,325
McCAIN
Electoral Votes 54
Popular Vote 50%
9,665,013
In case anyone's curious, there's also a London MeFi meetup with a live cam and chat. My computer doesn't let me chat there. drat. and it's slow internationally anyway. but it's fun to take a peek at the London MeFi crowd all listening to the election results. It's late there, 2am, so I think a few have already hit the hay.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mefi-london-live
Sends hugs and smiles from Hell's Kitchen, NYC
Lines for voting were 3 blocks long this morning, took 1 1/2 hours. In my life I've never seen or heard of anything like that in NYC. I waited till afternoon. Intensely upbeat feeling here. Everybody talking on their cellphones, "Did you vote?"
They're starting to come in.
hugs all around
MSNBC is noting that Virginia and Florida are closer than projected, which is probably making Obama nervous. So far the results are mostly looking like 2004, with a small flip by McCain, one of the Dakota's I think
THis is so thrilling!!
What a difference from previous elections. So many sources - I am in contact with friends at different ends of the country. Too much for my ADD brain.
Maybe they should have had a backup plan.
I have the C-Span live feed open from the park - this is just awesome.
Currently Electoral count at 200 v 85, Obama. If he wins Florida's 27 EV, then it's over with California's 55 EV.
My wife said the same thing. Beschloss bought Sarah Palin's used tanning bed.
They can't get him to 270, even giving him NM and LA. That's...game?
Party headquarters isn't exactly party central.
Wow.
More like denial central.
Electoral Votes 199
Popular Vote 50%
21,304,436
McCAIN
Electoral Votes 124
Popular Vote 49%
20,873,280
Obama
Electoral Votes 206
McCAIN
Electoral Votes 135
the 10:06 graphic rules.
And the South Dakota abortion ban Failed!!!
Ask for Cathy the next time you go to Ann Sather's, and tell her Luke sent you!
I found the London video stream, thanks!
But I was REALLY disappointed that he didn't poke her with a stick.
GnnnGGGnnGnnnnnNNNNnnGGGGnnnNNN!!!
Yeah, CNN reported that a while ago. AZ results are starting to come in--so far McCain is ahead, but the precincts counted are Maricopa and Yuma counties. CNN's exit polls are showing AZ dead even. God, how I'd love McCain to lose his home state!
Fox called Nebraska for Mopey. It would be a real surprise if Hopey won there.
It's right, it's very right. I want a landslide! I want political capital!! I want a mandate!!!
Any zombie strippers?
My boss is two years old and would be very upset if I came in tomorrow and had to explain that nap time was going to have to last ALL DAY.
Two year olds don't understand democracy. They are fascist dictators.
Two year olds don't understand democracy. They are fascist dictators.
Hmmm...I guess two year-olds can't be threatened with military school, huh?
When our son was about eight months old, my wife and I both got the stomach flu one day. We spent the day lying on the floor while our son crawled over us. So it can be done....
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
*leaps across room, catches projectile*
Is it better to know and regret, than to never know at all?
Conceding before they call AZ for Obama?
And there we are, ladies and gentlemen -- a more perfect Union.
People screaming out the windows here in Hell's Kitchen, helicopters circling overhead, neighbors opening their doors shaking hands, everybody getting and making calls. HE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm going out to dance in the street!
I like CSPAN's crowd shots better though.
Senator Obama Will Win Presidency
The New York Times projects that Barack Hussein Obama will be
elected the 44th president of the United States, sweeping
away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease.
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na
I'm with you on both counts.
Special significance... wonder if he's going to get a dig in.
Last time I heard these McCain fans chanting U-S-A they were drowning out protestors who snuck into the RNC. Now they use it on themselves when John can't control the hecklers.
They're doing it to avoid confusion with all the write-in votes for Barack Ralph Obama.
I wish we saw more of this John McCain over the past few years.
Not to dis Obama, but Howard Dean is the fucking man.
I can't even convince my boss to let me re-write an existing and complex piece of software from scratch. Obama and Dean just said, fuck it: we can do it faster and better if we give all these smart people with good ideas a blank slate and let 'em rip.
It really is a new day, revolution, morning in America. Finally.
The next president.
I'm going to go to sleep dreaming of that wonderful first family and their new puppy. Oh man, this is a beautiful night.
There were many calls to name Obama Lincoln's successor, but I've remained hesitant. Tonight, he became the needed bookend to Lincoln's work. What he does with it remains to be seen, but the opportunity and vision is there.
America has seized an opportunity tonight, one that is worthy of the promise of the nation, and of her people. I hope that she sees it through, and grabs hold of her progressive spirit that has lain dormant for too long.
What happens now is up to him. I'm proud of him, but do not envy him. Yet, the possibility is there, and that is an achievement in itself.
Needed to Win: 270 | Electoral Votes Remaining: 29
WinnerObama
Electoral Votes 349
Popular Vote 52%
58,392,961
McCAIN
Electoral Votes 160
Popular Vote 47%
52,785,219
Incredible celebration here in NYC. Watched the Obama acceptance speech with friends, tears pouring down our cheeks. What an historic day.