Who did you vote for in the U.S. Presidential Election?

[flere-imsaho]

Poll to follow.

With early voting underway, I thought it might be fun to start recording how we all ended up voting. We'll have to rely on the honor system for people to not participate in the poll if they didn't (or can't) vote.

Additional commentary on how voting went for you this year (long lines, challenges, bad machines, difficult paper ballots, etc...) would be great as well.

[Kodos]

Oh sure. Steal my FOFC tracking poll's thunder!

[flere-imsaho]

:p

[molson]

Shit that's a lot of candidates.

Only 5 on the ballot in Idaho.

I'm still undecided.

[sterlingice]

Seriously, there's a Boston Tea Party?

SI

[molson]

Seriously, there's a Boston Tea Party?

SI

I think they're Libertarians too hard core for the Libertarian Party

"The Boston Tea Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose."

[JeeberD]

There were only three parties listed on my ballot...Repub, Dem, and Lib.

It was very quick and easy for me. Was in and out in about 15 minutes, had the the choice of paper ballot or electronic voting, and I went electronic. Read the directions over really quickly, and it was very easy to understand and use.

[lordscarlet]

I need to figure out what third party candidates are on the D.C. ballot.

[gottimd]

How do you just randomly form a party and get on the ticket? Can I be put on the ticket as the "Imaginary Party" and its me and my couch cushion?

Do you need a certain amount of signatures on a petition or something?

[lordscarlet]

How do you just randomly form a party and get on the ticket? Can I be put on the ticket as the "Imaginary Party" and its me and my couch cushion?

Do you need a certain amount of signatures on a petition or something?

I know that at Screen on the Green this summer (the original Superman, fwiw) there was a guy going around asking for signatures to petition for Ralph Nader to be on the D.C. ballot. For what its worth, I signed it. Not because of any support for Nader, but because I think there should be more than two choices.

[Lathum]

just my .02 but I think an "I didnt vote" option would make this poll more interesting.

[cartman]

How do you just randomly form a party and get on the ticket? Can I be put on the ticket as the "Imaginary Party" and its me and my couch cushion?

Do you need a certain amount of signatures on a petition or something?

Each state has their own requirements to get on the ballot. That's why you don't see all of the tickets listed above on all ballots.

Some states are easier than others. Some states require you to pay a fee and register even if you just want to be a write-in candidate.

[JeeberD]

just my .02 but I think an "I didnt vote" option would make this poll more interesting.

If flere wants me to do so, I'll add that on...

[Lathum]

If flere wants me to do so, I'll add that on...

lets take a poll abouut it!

[GrantDawg]

If you are not voting the Trout party, then blame yourself for four more years of troutless government!

[flere-imsaho]

If flere wants me to do so, I'll add that on...

That's a good idea - go for it! :D

[flere-imsaho]

Shit that's a lot of candidates.

Yep. Of course not all are on every state's ballot. For simplicity's sake I just listed the ones I found on wikipedia's article on the election.

[JeeberD]

That's a good idea - go for it! :D

Done

[lordscarlet]

We have:

McCain/Palin
Obama/Biden
Nader/Gonzalez
McKinney/Clemente (labeled as "Statehood Green", rather than "Green")

[GrantDawg]

We have:

McCain/Palin
Obama/Biden
Nader/Gonzalez
McKinney/Clemente (labeled as "Statehood Green", rather than "Green")


"Statehood Green." *cough..suck-ups..cough*

[flere-imsaho]

Trout Part is neck-and-neck with McCain/Palin.

[GrantDawg]

Trout Part is neck-and-neck with McCain/Palin.


Trout's a better option.

[st.cronin]

Carol Miller For Congress - About Carol Miller (http://www.carolmillercongress.com/about/index.html)

[gottimd]

Carol Miller For Congress - About Carol Miller (http://www.carolmillercongress.com/about/index.html)

She's a looker!

[Greyroofoo]

I didn't know there were so many socialist parties.

They should be aware that they probably that they are diluting the socialist vote.

[lordscarlet]

"Statehood Green." *cough..suck-ups..cough*

Indeed. :) I noted that for the benefit of others making of me/DC.

It is particularly annoying because there is a "Statehood Green" party, but this is the "Green" candidate. I don't follow either, but I doubt the Green party campaigns on a platform of DC statehood. :) (which we have established I am not campaigning for and I'm not trying to derail this thread with talk of it)

I missed the September primaries, so all of the selections have pretty much been made for me. I didn't hit up the Presidential Primary, though.

[Pumpy Tudors]

She's a looker!
Yeah, I would tear her up.

[Lorena]

I voted for Pumpy's cousin Tanya

[Anthony]

i voted for Pumpy's balls and Cringer's wife's boobies as the VP.

[fantom1979]

I didn't know there were so many socialist parties.

They should be aware that they probably that they are diluting the socialist vote.

Obama is going to be pissed :)

[cartman]

It's Eugene V. Debs all over again!

[Buccaneer]

Nice job on the Trout ticket - taking our two most extremists. I can't imagine what FOFC discussions would have been like the past few months if they had been here.

[Lathum]

this poll confirms what I have been thinking for a while. McCain is gonna get killed

[JediKooter]

I think flere is trying to secretly sway the voting towards Obama/Biden. If you notice, that's the only ticket that has it's font in italics... ;)

[Kodos]

You realize that just shows what YOU voted for, right? ;)

[JediKooter]

Sonofa.........

Can I get my "New to teh interwebs" badge?

[Anthony]

Sonofa.........

Can I get my "New to teh interwebs" badge?

In other news, Clay Aiken is gay apparently.

http://agentsmithfiles.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/clayaiken.jpg

[ColtCrazy]

I'm shocked someone hasn't started a Jedi ticket yet.

[Lorena]

i voted for Pumpy's balls and Cringer's wife's boobies as the VP.

Hah, you edited your post, how cute.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Where the hell is Webb and his damn reds?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Any word on what the margin of error is on the FOFC polling thread? I'd probably put the over/under at +/- 15%.

[sterlingice]

Any word on what the margin of error is on the FOFC polling thread? I'd probably put the over/under at +/- 15%.

I don't think you can accurately make one because the poll is self-selecting. In "the real world", polls are based on the assumption that you are choosing people at random and that's why they're not bad as predictors.

Now, getting into the wayback machine and remembering my statistics class in college, I'll toss out the theory behind polls and why they're decently accurate but how you have outliers and all that. If you choose people blindly and choose a decently large enough sample, you'll get pretty accurate results- typically, something like +-3% and a 95% confidence interval is pretty much standard.

But there are a couple of "definitions" there to explain- one, large enough is actually kindof small, 3% MOE only takes about 1000 people. And then you hear the usual rhetoric of "well, it's just 1000 people- there are millions of voters; it's not accurate". Well, yes and no- an illustration and then a definition below show why that line of reasoning can be true but is usually just denial by whoever said it. If they're randomly chosen, then that thousand people can usually predict how the larger group will vote. It's kindof like, if you flip a coin 100 times, you know the odds are 50/50 but you won't get 50/50 every time you flip a coin 100 times. However, you'll get close to it almost every time.

And these ideas of "close to it" and "almost every time" are what polls are based on. The idea of a poll is not to correctly guess the percentage as that would take an insanely large sample size. Again, the issue of "you're just polling 1000 people to get the votes of millions". However, what something like 1050 random votes get you are a 95% chance to be within +-3 points of the result. That's not a bad statistical game- you can be really close (within 3 points) all but 5% of the time.

That other 5% of the time, tho, your sample is pretty badly not representative and is inaccurate- those are your outliers. Perhaps you randomly called a majority of GOP members when you're polling San Francisco or the only group of farmers in Kansas who vote Democrat. It can happen. However, with all the other polls out there in the Presidential race, you can see those pretty quickly because it looks different than the others.

In Presidential polls, things can be a bit skewed because pollsters have decided it's more accurate to weigh some groups more than others (i.e. they'll call 35% Dem, 30% GOP, and 35% Indep since that is what the registered voting makeup is). That makes it less random but more of an "educated guess", I guess. And, while one firm may be Dem leaning and another GOP leaning, and that may bias them slightly, what they really want is to be the most accurate so they can get the more lucrative contract next election.

SI

[Passacaglia]

How can people say "I didn't vote" at this point, since election day hasn't happened yet? Are they not registered, are they planning to change their answer when they do vote, or is this poll only supposed to be for early voters?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

How can people say "I didn't vote" at this point, since election day hasn't happened yet? Are they not registered, are they planning to change their answer when they do vote, or is this poll only supposed to be for early voters?

My assumption is that they are not registered and/or they already know they aren't going to vote no matter what happens.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just to be clear SI, I had no idea that anyone would bother going into that much detail over the sampling error margin of a message board poll. But kudos to you anyway. :D

[Subby]

My assumption is that they are not registered and/or they already know they aren't going to vote no matter what happens.
They hate America.

[sterlingice]

Just to be clear SI, I had no idea that anyone would bother going into that much detail over the sampling error margin of a message board poll. But kudos to you anyway. :D

Actually, I figured it needed to be pointed out since I've seen the "it's a poll, it's not accurate" post quite a few times in the McCain/Obama thread. And that drives me nuts- not it's not always accurate, but it is accurate a lot more often than not. Hell, I used to think that way, then had to work through the damn proofs that show otherwise ;)

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

They hate America.

No, they just want to have the ability to bitch about everything when something goes wrong in politics while deflecting blame since they didn't vote for any of the politicians making the decision. :)

[GrantDawg]

They hate America.


No, no, no. If they hated America, they'd vote Democrat. Get it straight. :D

[Passacaglia]

I doubt the Colonel/Bigglesworth ticket draws as much support nationally.

I guess that means the margin of error is 11.76%.

[fantom1979]

In Presidential polls, things can be a bit skewed because pollsters have decided it's more accurate to weigh some groups more than others (i.e. they'll call 40% Dem, 35% GOP, and 35% Indep since that is what the registered voting makeup is).
SI

The fact that the pollsters can't count to 100% makes me believe that all of this is bullcrap. ;)

[Kodos]

A vote for Obama is a vote for Osama!

[fantom1979]

A vote for McCain is a vote for Palin ;)

[Kodos]

Re-elect Mayor Red Thomas, progress is his middle name.

[fantom1979]

Re-elect Mayor Red Thomas, progress is his middle name.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/bttf/images/1/1b/RedThomas.png

[sterlingice]

The fact that the pollsters can't count to 100% makes me believe that all of this is bullcrap. ;)

Whoops. Corrected ;)

SI

[sterlingice]

Re-elect Mayor Red Thomas, progress is his middle name.

I think Goldie Wilson ran on a similar platform ;)

SI

[M GO BLUE!!!]

She's a looker!

Where is here picture? All I see is a photo of Ben Franklin.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

"The Boston Tea Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose."

The size of that sentence could be reduced by about 1/2.

[sterlingice]

Where is here picture? All I see is a photo of Ben Franklin.

Well, maybe he goes in for pasty, pudgy, and dead for 200 years ;)

SI

[ISiddiqui]

I guess that means the margin of error is 11.76%.

No, it's 17.76%, you unamerican!!!

[Pumpy Tudors]

How can people say "I didn't vote" at this point, since election day hasn't happened yet? Are they not registered, are they planning to change their answer when they do vote, or is this poll only supposed to be for early voters?
I don't want to make a big deal out of this (been there, done that), but I already know I'm not going to vote.

[Subby]

Way to perpetuate the stereotype about people with kickass mustaches.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Way to perpetuate the stereotype about people with kickass mustaches.
Ron Glass didn't vote when he was my age, and I'm just carrying on the tradition.

[GrantDawg]

Ron Glass didn't vote when he was my age, and I'm just carrying on the tradition.


No way! A Ron Glass reference! I so wanted to be him, except, well, white.


http://www.nndb.com/people/542/000046404/rg_barneymiller_02_70.jpg

[Racer]

I voted yesterday. I think I counted 16 people in line in front of me.

[cartman]

I went to do early voting tonight, but the wait was 2 1/2 hours at 7pm. I'll try again tomorrow, earlier in the day.

[Greyroofoo]

I <3 absentee ballots.

[flere-imsaho]

I've just cancelled all of my team's meetings on the 4th so that no one has to worry about standing for a long time in a line.

Well, cancelled is the wrong word. Rescheduled them to other days.

[SackAttack]

Voted yesterday.

Wisconsin law allows folks to go down to the County Clerk Recorder's office, register, and vote by absentee ballot the same day.

I was one of three people actually IN the office when I went, although some had just left and some were entering as I left.

I was the only one under the age of 50. If early voting really is favoring Obama, McCain might be screwed.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Didn't see a "experiences while voting" thread, so I figure this one is as good a place as any. Just got back from "advance voting", took about 45 minutes give or take. With the exception of one lady who was dropping off her mailed out copy of an absentee ballot, it seems pretty safe to believe my wife & I may very well have cast the only two McCain votes during the entire time. Let's just say that the demographics appeared to lean strongly toward Obama today. But among other things it's a college town, so that isn't exactly surprising.

A couple of thoughts of a more random nature also
-- voting on the touch screens always make me a little nostalgic for the old lever machines. And I think we discussed a few years ago that I think I'm in a minority that never voted on a paper ballot at any time. Always had the lever machines or the touch screens.
-- The thing I absolutely hate about the change to the electronic system is the absence of privacy when voting. I grew up with the walk-in machines, where you pulled a lever & the curtain closed completely behind you so you could vote in private. Now, there's only a small plastic shield maybe a foot taller than the touchscreen AND to make matters worse, the poll worker who collected the little data cards after you voted had a clear view of two of the machines (seated almost directly behind them, basically looking over your shoulder as you voted). That's just wrong.

[Big Fo]

-- The thing I absolutely hate about the change to the electronic system is the absence of privacy when voting. I grew up with the walk-in machines, where you pulled a lever & the curtain closed completely behind you so you could vote in private. Now, there's only a small plastic shield maybe a foot taller than the touchscreen AND to make matters worse, the poll worker who collected the little data cards after you voted had a clear view of two of the machines (seated almost directly behind them, basically looking over your shoulder as you voted). That's just wrong.

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. In my voting location we have touch screens but they are in small cubicle like areas where you are totally out of sight from the people around you and the volunteers are pretty far way on the other side of the room.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. In my voting location we have touch screens but they are in small cubicle like areas where you are totally out of sight from the people around you and the volunteers are pretty far way on the other side of the room.

That sounds like what I saw the first year (albeit in a different county) or two of touchscreen voting here. But that sanctity has slowly gotten less & less each year & today was just ... disturbing. The poll worker was less than two steps from me with a direct line of sight, and that's how the room was arranged (i.e. she wasn't just wandering around or anything, that's where she was stationed).

edit to add: Another quirky something today that I don't recall ever seeing anything like before. Right next to the counter where you handed over your paperwork to have your registration verified, get your card for the machine, etc., was this little display of knicknacks & stuff. Patriotic themed stuff, a couple of Uncle Sam figurines, a flag, etc. Also in the decorative display were four little stuffed animals with white fur & red and blue stars dotting them: a pair of elephants & a pair of donkeys. Now far be it from me to turn into Mister Politically Correct but ... isn't that sort of prejudicial toward the two major parties? And subtly disenfranchising of the Libs, the Greens, etc?

[lordscarlet]

Paper and no. 2 pencils for us! And there's not a whole lot of privacy for filling them out, either.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I went to vote this morning. I got in line and shouted "I WANT TO VOTE FOR MY COUSIN TANYA!" They asked me what party she was with, and I shouted "I'M NOT EVEN REGISTERED!" They asked me to leave and I shouted "THIS IS AMERICA! I DON'T NEED TO WEAR PANTS!"

So I'm posting from a pretty swanky holding cell right now...

[gkb]

I went to vote this morning. I got in line and shouted "I WANT TO VOTE FOR MY COUSIN TANYA!" They asked me what party she was with, and I shouted "I'M NOT EVEN REGISTERED!" They asked me to leave and I shouted "THIS IS AMERICA! I DON'T NEED TO WEAR PANTS!"

So I'm posting from a pretty swanky holding cell right now...

God I've missed you.

I'm not wearing pants either.

[Izulde]

Mailed in my absentee ballot this morning.

[larrymcg421]

I went and voted today in Dekalb. Got in line at 630am and voted at 830am. I voted for Obama/Martin/Jones.

Unfortunately, Jones doesn't have a shot since it's an R+19 district.

[Galaril]

Obama is going to be pissed :)

Yeah cause he is a huge socialist, marxist pinko since he wants to help people:rolleyes:

[molson]

Yeah cause he is a huge socialist, marxist pinko since he wants to help people:rolleyes:

With the exception of that half-brother in Kenya and his aunt in the Boston projects. Everyone else though.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Yeah cause he is a huge socialist, marxist pinko since he wants to help people to other people's money.

Fixed that for you.

[Capital]

McCain...not really a vote for McCain but a vote against Obama.

[Galaril]

Fixed that for you.

Definitely recommend people keep clinging to their guns, religion and add money to that now as well. It has worked up to know from the looks of the country. I think this arguement about taking peoples money to give to others is like when baseball fans complain about a baseball team owner over spending a player.As long as ticket prices don't go up becasue of it who gives a fuck how much Steinbrenner pays. So in the same vain I am talking with my brother who is a blue collar guy and nothing wrong with that. He is arguing about Obama wants to spread the wealth and take it from richer people to poorer. So, I am saying "why do you care, since the last time I checked you aren't even remotely rich and may actually benefit from this." My point is Joe ther plumber is complaining but not Bill Gates. YMMV.

[Autumn]

Paper and permanent marker for me. There were a few other people voting early at the same time, but no line. The only wait was because we had our 2 year old with us and he wouldn't let us vote at the same time. "Me vote, me vote, me vote."

We had absolutely no privacy, just folding tables set up. I mean it was empty enough we didn't need to sit near people, but someone could just watch you filling out the slip. Kind of weird.

Not too sustainable -- there was only one town-wide race, and only one person running for it. So there was an entire legal sized ballot form printed out on special paper just so you could mark off this one guy, or not. That seemed rather bureaucratically stupid.

[mrsimperless]

Went and voted early today at the City-County building in downtown Indy. 2 1/2 hour wait, but I'm leaving the country tomorrow so well worth it.

[Raiders Army]

Starbucks Shared Planet (http://www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet/news.aspx)

If you vote, Starbucks buys your coffee

On November 4, 2008, Starbucks will give voters a free tall brewed coffee at participating U.S. stores. This initiative kicks off with a 60-second ad during the final pre-election edition of Saturday Night Live on NBC this Saturday.

After voting, voters must go to a Starbucks store, where they’ll be given a tall (12 oz) cup of brewed coffee at no charge (limit one per customer).

This is an extension of Starbucks commitment to community through Starbucks™ Shared Planet™. It lets us immediately support customers who care about the same things we do and who want to make a difference. This idea has also come up a number of times on MyStarbucksIdea.com our on-line forum for sharing customer and partner (employee) ideas.

[flere-imsaho]

Clever.

[Alan T]

Went in to vote this morning before work along with evidently everyone else in my precinct :) The lines were longer than anyone has ever remembered, which likely means a ton of Obama votes because of the area I live in being radical liberal. The voting part once in was quick though as we only had 3 proposition questions and only three races that even had any kind of contest in them. (President, US. Senate and State Senate). I ended up voting Libertarian, Democrat and Republican for the three. (Kind of interesting seeing I am the only person here who voted Libertarian though, talk about minority minority!) :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Went in to vote this morning before work along with evidently everyone else in my precinct :) The lines were longer than anyone has ever remembered, which likely means a ton of Obama votes because of the area I live in being radical liberal. The voting part once in was quick though as we only had 3 proposition questions and only three races that even had any kind of contest in them. (President, US. Senate and State Senate). I ended up voting Libertarian, Democrat and Republican for the three. (Kind of interesting seeing I am the only person here who voted Libertarian though, talk about minority minority!) :)

I think we're going to see a lot of lines early on for this election. There's a lot of suggestions that the polls will be very busy all day. A lot of people in Missouri are reportedly taking that to heart and heading over to the polls early to make sure they get in to vote.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Starbucks Shared Planet (http://www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet/news.aspx)

Not in Georgia they won't. Turns out the deal (and several similar ones from other businesses) is illegal under state law for both the giver and the recipient.
They can give away whatever, you just can't limit the offer to those who voted.

[terpkristin]

I voted this morning. Got there at 6:39 a.m., this was the line: Voting Line, 6:39 a.m. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/terpkristin/3001928299/)

Finished at 7:27 a.m.

/tk

[Alan T]

Based on the 15-20 minutes that the Obamas have been in the polling botth live on msnbc so far, I sure hope that Chicago has a 10 page ballot of various votes. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Based on the 15-20 minutes that the Obamas have been in the polling botth live on msnbc so far, I sure hope that Chicago has a 10 page ballot of various votes. :)

He likely has a hanging chad.

You think the voters in line behind him are bitching? :D

[Kodos]

Voted for Obama and voted no on amending the Connecticut constitution to ban gay marriage. There was a little traffic coming in, but once inside, it was a well-oiled machine with paper ballots.

[JPhillips]

No line here. There are some benefits to living in a small town I guess.

[Cork]

Got to the polling place at 6:50 am and was done voting by 7:15 am. The paper ballot process was smooth as silk.

I voted for Obama, another democrat, a republican and all of the uncontested candidates which outnumbered those in an actual race.

-Cork

[Subby]

Got to the polling place at 5:30am. Was 50th or so in line. Probably 200+ when they opened at 6am. Got through in about 15 minutes once the doors were opened. Paper ballots (after years of electronic voting). Went split ticket - Obama (D) for Prez, Warner (D) for Senator, Wolf (R) for Congress. Voted yes on a bond initiative for parks and open space. Kind of regretting the last vote.

[Fighter of Foo]

edit to add: Another quirky something today that I don't recall ever seeing anything like before. Right next to the counter where you handed over your paperwork to have your registration verified, get your card for the machine, etc., was this little display of knicknacks & stuff. Patriotic themed stuff, a couple of Uncle Sam figurines, a flag, etc. Also in the decorative display were four little stuffed animals with white fur & red and blue stars dotting them: a pair of elephants & a pair of donkeys. Now far be it from me to turn into Mister Politically Correct but ... isn't that sort of prejudicial toward the two major parties? And subtly disenfranchising of the Libs, the Greens, etc?

Hijack:

Third parties have to worry about actual disenfranchisement more than anything subtle.

In Texas, the Lib party was the only one to meet the Texas state election board's deadline for submitting a candidate, as required by law. Both the dems and Repubs missed it. No reason other than they didn't do it. The board then announced that, in fact, Obama and McCain's names would appear on the ballot.

The Lib party sued, saying that it's written very clearly you have to submit your candidates by date X. The court dismissed it without giving any reason whatsoever.

Next door in LA, the Lib party missed the deadline to file, because the election office was closed due to a hurricane. When the Libs came back the next week to file the response was, sorry, you missed it.

America: Hypocrisy in Action

[VPI97]

Parked at the polling place at 9:01, out the door and finished at 9:06. Smooth sailing.

[flere-imsaho]

No issues for me in suburban Chicagoland. The poll workers said they had a line when they opened at 6:00, but by the time I showed up at 7:00 there were maybe 2 people ahead of me.

I will say, though, that it was more busy than at the same time in 2004, when there was no one in line and several voting stations were open. It's also a beautiful day in Chicagoland today, so I think we're going to see not only a huge turnout at the polls, but a huge turnout downtown for the Obama rally tonight.

Based on the 15-20 minutes that the Obamas have been in the polling botth live on msnbc so far, I sure hope that Chicago has a 10 page ballot of various votes. :)

Nope. We only had two ballot measures, but somewhere along the lines of 20-30 judges to vote on. That's what takes (or took me) the bulk of the time on the ballot.

[miked]

Showed up at 8:30 or so, no line, in and out in 10 minutes. Held my nose and voted for Obama. In GA, only 3 on the ballot so I didn't feel like writing in McKinney ;)

Came down in the end to who I think will move the country forward. I've seen nothing from McPalin that would suggest they are prepared to much, except make stupid health care legislation and bailout stupid homeowners. I'm not convinced Obama can do 20% of what he proposes, but hey, at least he's proposing things rather than sitting back and sniping everything. Negative campaigning FTL.

Edit: Voted for Jim Martin too which almost caused me to vomit, but I would have voted for my left nut over Saxby. I can't wait until Sonny is up for re-election.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I didn't feel like writing in McKinney ;)

Who was actually one of nine recognized write-in candidates for President on the Georgia ballot. Oddly enough, only three candidates went through the process to be recognized for Vice-President.

[flere-imsaho]

Who was actually one of nine recognized write-in candidates for President on the Georgia ballot. Oddly enough, only three candidates went through the process to be recognized for Vice-President.

We had 6 on the Illinois ballot, including one guy without a VP or a party. Must be a bored millionaire who scrounged up the signatures to get on the ballot.

I can't remember exactly but I think besides the Big Two, we had Green, Nader, Barr, Constitution and this other guy.

[flere-imsaho]

Really good write-up on fivethirtyeight.com about Why You Should Not Believe Exit Polls (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/ten-reasons-why-you-should-ignore-exit.html):

1. Exit polls have a much larger intrinsic margin for error than regular polls. This is because of what are known as cluster sampling techniques. Exit polls are not conducted at all precincts, but only at some fraction thereof. Although these precincts are selected at random and are supposed to be reflective of their states as a whole, this introduces another opportunity for error to occur (say, for instance, that a particular precinct has been canvassed especially heavily by one of the campaigns). This makes the margins for error somewhere between 50-90% higher than they would be for comparable telephone surveys.

2. Exit polls have consistently overstated the Democratic share of the vote. Many of you will recall this happening in 2004, when leaked exit polls suggested that John Kerry would have a much better day than he actually had. But this phenomenon was hardly unique to 2004. In 2000, for instance, exit polls had Al Gore winning states like Alabama and Georgia (!). If you go back and watch The War Room, you'll find George Stephanopolous and James Carville gloating over exit polls showing Bill Clinton winning states like Indiana and Texas, which of course he did not win.

3. Exit polls were particularly bad in this year's primaries. They overstated Barack Obama's performance by an average of about 7 points.

4. Exit polls challenge the definition of a random sample. Although the exit polls have theoretically established procedures to collect a random sample -- essentially, having the interviewer approach every nth person who leaves the polling place -- in practice this is hard to execute at a busy polling place, particularly when the pollster may be standing many yards away from the polling place itself because of electioneering laws.

5. Democrats may be more likely to participate in exit polls. Related to items #1 and #4 above, Scott Rasmussen has found that Democrats supporters are more likely to agree to participate in exit polls, probably because they are more enthusiastic about this election.

6. Exit polls may have problems calibrating results from early voting. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, exit polls will attempt account for people who voted before election day in most (although not all) states by means of a random telephone sample of such voters. However, this requires the polling firms to guess at the ratio of early voters to regular ones, and sometimes they do not guess correctly. In Florida in 2000, for instance, there was a significant underestimation of the absentee vote, which that year was a substantially Republican vote, leading to an overestimation of Al Gore's share of the vote, and contributing to the infamous miscall of the state.

7. Exit polls may also miss late voters. By "late" voters I mean persons who come to their polling place in the last couple of hours of the day, after the exit polls are out of the field. Although there is no clear consensus about which types of voters tend to vote later rather than earlier, this adds another way in which the sample may be nonrandom, particularly in precincts with long lines or extended voting hours.

8. "Leaked" exit poll results may not be the genuine article. Sometimes, sources like Matt Drudge and Jim Geraghty have gotten their hands on the actual exit polls collected by the network pools. At other times, they may be reporting data from "first-wave" exit polls, which contain extremely small sample sizes and are not calibrated for their demographics. And at other places on the Internet (though likely not from Gergahty and Drudge, who actually have reasonably good track records), you may see numbers that are completely fabricated.

9. A high-turnout election may make demographic weighting difficult. Just as regular, telephone polls are having difficulty this cycle estimating turnout demographics -- will younger voters and minorities show up in greater numbers? -- the same challenges await exit pollsters. Remember, an exit poll is not a definitive record of what happened at the polling place; it is at best a random sampling.

10. You'll know the actual results soon enough anyway. Have patience, my friends, and consider yourselves lucky: in France, it is illegal to conduct a poll of any kind within 48 hours of the election. But exit polls are really more trouble than they're worth, at least as a predictive tool. An independent panel created by CNN in the wake of the Florida disaster in 2000 recommended that the network completely ignore exit polls when calling particular states. I suggest that you do the same.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I showed up at my polling station at 7:05 this morning, about 5 minutes after the polls officially opened. I had to wait for an hour and a half in line, but I came prepared for with my iPod and Blackberry, so it wasn't too bad. I was the 144th person to vote in my precinct.

I can't believe we're still using scantron machines to vote. That's crazy.

Other than the usual stuff, it was particularly nice to vote in favor of Proposition 2 here in Michigan. Prop 2 allows for stem cell research in Michigan. Not only am I happy to vote in favor of such research, but I am particularly happy to vote against those who oppose it. Over the last few months there have been non-stop TV ads against this proposition using the tag line: "2 Goes 2 Far." I understand that some people are against stem cell research for religious reasons. I don't agree with them, but I udnerstand it. These ads, however, didn't make any of those types of arguments. Instead, they jam packed with ridiculousness claiming that stem cell research would lead to corporations harvesting embroys, human cloning, and human-animal hybrids. (Personally, I like the idea of cloning and human-animal hybrids, but that's beside the point.) I really hope this thing passes.

[Buccaneer]

Just voted after dropping my son off at school (since the polling place is right there). There were only 10-12 people in front of me but the line went slow because they were checking and re-checking IDs. Three election judges plus two very official-looking vote monitors (whatever they were called). I made the mistake of wanting to do touch-screen but we only had one machine and it was taking about 8-15 minutes per person. I went back to the table and got a paper ballot instead and it only took less than 5 minutes to fill in the bubbles since I already had my cheat-sheet after reviewing all of the initiatives last night. Tonight I'l explain to my son why the local initiatives are far more important and that we should not put our faith in the federal government.

[Tigercat]

Ugh, went right after the polls opened, no parking spots, 2 hour and 15 minute wait. Everywhere else I have lived and voted (Kentucky, Louisiana) had more voting machines than my precinct today. And yet my precinct today serves the largest number of people. Go figure.

[rjolley]

My wife and I got at the polls at 7:15. Stood on line for about an hour an a half. We get to the front and one of the two machines they're using to check that you're registered breaks down. We finally get past that bottleneck and voting takes about 2 minutes.

My wife commented the lines were never this long when she voted before. She also thought we'd be out of there in an hour. I figured somewhere closer to 2.

The thing that really pisses me off? Only two people with machines to validate voter id cards, but around 14 actual voting machines. My wife wondered why they had to check the registry and shouldn't the voter registration card be enough. My answer was to combat voter fraud. Another thing, why weren't there 4 or 5 machines with a backup of a printed out list. When we left, there was one person checking registrations, and it was taking her 30 seconds or so to do so. That's a lot of pissed people in line.

Also, the way they had the voting machines set up wasn't the best. You could easily look over the very low partition to see someone else's screen (maybe it's because I'm taller than the average person by a bit, but I don't think so). You could also see from anyplace in the room if you situated yourself correctly. Just glancing around the room while in line, I could see a few screens. If I really cared enough about how they voted, I could tell.

[Crim]

Hijack:

Third parties have to worry about actual disenfranchisement more than anything subtle.

In Texas, the Lib party was the only one to meet the Texas state election board's deadline for submitting a candidate, as required by law. Both the dems and Repubs missed it. No reason other than they didn't do it. The board then announced that, in fact, Obama and McCain's names would appear on the ballot.

The Lib party sued, saying that it's written very clearly you have to submit your candidates by date X. The court dismissed it without giving any reason whatsoever.

Next door in LA, the Lib party missed the deadline to file, because the election office was closed due to a hurricane. When the Libs came back the next week to file the response was, sorry, you missed it.

America: Hypocrisy in Action

That's really an interesting story. I wonder if the Texas judge's ruling could have been based on some sort of will of the people type argument? I'm totally uneducated in this sort of thing, but I could see as a judge in that circumstance, the good of the people of Texas not being served by ruling against the Reps and Dems.

[Klinglerware]

Really good write-up on fivethirtyeight.com about Why You Should Not Believe Exit Polls (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/ten-reasons-why-you-should-ignore-exit.html):

Yes, there certainly are significant issues surrounding sample selection and execution of the national election poll. But, as I've stated in the past, exit polls are useful tools whose primary purpose, believe it or not, is not to project election races, but to assess the underlying demographics and opinion and how it relates to behavior. This type of data is not collected elsewhere in such a comprehensive way.

Exit polls are only a minor input in the statistical models used in election night projection. Actual vote (both sampled precinct and raw vote) always has had more importance in the models.

One thing I definitely would agree with--do not believe an exit poll number you see before 6pm. Those are likely to be incomplete and unweighted (if not outright false).

[miked]

Instead, they jam packed with ridiculousness claiming that stem cell research would lead to corporations harvesting embroys, human cloning, and human-animal hybrids. (Personally, I like the idea of cloning and human-animal hybrids, but that's beside the point.) I really hope this thing passes.

Manimal FTW!

Better yet, beware Manbearpig.

[Alan T]

Heh.. MSNBC when showing live Palin voting, they panned down while she was in the booth I assume to show that she was dressed very casually (in jeans and such).. unintentional I assume, they just leave the camera sitting on her butt for a good 30-45 seconds before realizing that they may want to show a different camera angle on national tv.

[Crim]

lol

[sterlingice]

I was #248 and my wife #249 at our polling place in Richmond. It was an elementary school in the suburbs but relatively painless since we waited until almost 10 to vote. Had the electronic voting machines that I'm not at all a fan of.

Was in and out in under 20 minutes but they said that was the slowest they had seen it all day. Then again, our ballot was pretty limited: P/VP, Senate, House and that's it. A big change from in Kansas where you voted on judges, city commissioners, county commissioners, ballot measures, etc.

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Heh.. MSNBC when showing live Palin voting, they panned down while she was in the booth I assume to show that she was dressed very casually (in jeans and such).. unintentional I assume, they just leave the camera sitting on her butt for a good 30-45 seconds before realizing that they may want to show a different camera angle on national tv.

Nothing wrong with showing off her assets. :D

[Honolulu_Blue]

Manimal FTW!

Better yet, beware Manbearpig.

Stop it! I'm being super cereal, you guys! I'm really really cereal!

[NoSkillz]

I'm Canadian and we have great fishing up here...easy decision.

[KWhit]

I early voted, but my wife is an election official and I ran by to see her this morning. There was no line at all. In fact, there was only one person voting at all. Weird.

I guess early voting was a really big hit.

[Sun Tzu]

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee257/pip246/napoleon_dynamite.jpg

[BrianD]

My voting process took 22 minutes from the time I left my house to the time I returned to it. I enjoy small-town mid-day voting.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I think the early morning panic voting has subsided. I spoke with a friend on the election board and he said that after the initial rush this morning in Missouri, most polling places are reporting no waiting time. They expect waiting over lunch and in the evening, but nothing more than what occurred in the previous two presidential elections.

[rjolley]

Yeah, that was my feeling while I was in line. If I'd waited until 10:30 or so, there wouldn't be any line at all.

[I. J. Reilly]

Question for everyone else who has electronic voting machines, was there a straight party line option on yours? Here in Texas it was the first option; you could select Dem, Rep or Lib and have it fill in that candidate for every race. For some reason this really bothers me, as most of the down ticket races are going to be decided by voters who have never even seen either candidates name. I know a lot of people vote strictly based on party affiliation, but doesn’t it seem wrong that it is being so strongly encouraged by the structure of the ballot?

Anyway, it struck me as strange, but this is my first election outside of Oregon where they only use mail in ballots.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Question for everyone else who has electronic voting machines, was there a straight party line option on yours?

There used to be one in Georgia but AFAIK it went away completely several elections prior to the introduction of electronic machines (we had a lot of places with mechanical machines from at least the 60's into the 90's).

IIRC, there was at least one election cycle where the option covered every race except President & that created enough problems that it was bounced entirely.

In some ways I'd like to see it put back, would probably save some time in the voting process.

edit to add: Here's an article (from a notorious liberal hack) talking about the subject from 2001, references the option being removed sometime in the 90's.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/082901/opi_0829010040.shtml

[Fighter of Foo]

That's really an interesting story. I wonder if the Texas judge's ruling could have been based on some sort of will of the people type argument? I'm totally uneducated in this sort of thing, but I could see as a judge in that circumstance, the good of the people of Texas not being served by ruling against the Reps and Dems.

Sadly, no :(


THE FOLLOWING PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS IS DENIED:
08-0761 IN RE BOB BARR, WAYNE ALLEN ROOT, AND THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF TEXAS (link (http://www.nolanchart.com/article4987.html))

That's the whole response.


Here (http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/30608414.html)'s the Louisiana story.

[spleen1015]

I did vote this morning, but I did not place a vote for President. Neither one of the options earned my vote.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I did vote this morning, but I did not place a vote for President. Neither one of the options earned my vote.
YOU'RE KILLING AMERICA

[lordscarlet]

Our line was MUCH longer than in 2004. It was wrapped around 2 sides of a city block. Having said that, it went pretty smoothly. I was there about 50 minutes. I did save a lot of time because my last name started with a letter between "I" and "S". I would imagine I bypassed at least 100 people.

[lordscarlet]

Dola: I voted across the board. A Republican, some Democrats, some (Statehood) Green and a Libertarian.

[muns]

Hour and 30 mins around me here in Baltimore to vote, and with the rain coming down now, some people are just walking away

[BrianD]

Question for everyone else who has electronic voting machines, was there a straight party line option on yours? Here in Texas it was the first option; you could select Dem, Rep or Lib and have it fill in that candidate for every race. For some reason this really bothers me, as most of the down ticket races are going to be decided by voters who have never even seen either candidates name. I know a lot of people vote strictly based on party affiliation, but doesn’t it seem wrong that it is being so strongly encouraged by the structure of the ballot?

Anyway, it struck me as strange, but this is my first election outside of Oregon where they only use mail in ballots.

Wisconsin paper ballots are laid out the same way. The first option is to vote straight party. If you bypass that line, you can vote each race individually.

[Alan T]

I am suprised that Massachusetts doesn't have a straight party vote on their ballots. Everyone i know (including my wife) pretty much vote all Democrats. I guess that is different out in western Massachusetts, but I don't get out that way very often.

[lungs]

At my voting precinct, it was me and only one other person voting. I was number 171 to cast my vote.

My neighbor did show up as I was walking out the door. All in all, my total voting time was probably less than 3 minutes.

[kcchief19]

2 hours, 15 minutes for me this morning, and the line was three hours plus when I left. Finished voting at 10:30 and was the 910th vote on my ballot box, and there was at least one other ballot box.

Mizzou BB-Fan: Do you vote at Pleasant Valley Baptist? That's my precinct. The A-D and E-H lines were atrocious but if your last name started with I-L or T-Z you could get through in about 10 minutes. Clay County really needs to split this precinct -- it's the fast growing precinct in the county and they haven't split it the the seven years I've lived in it. Dividing the alphabet evenly based on voters and not just letters would be nice too.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

2 hours, 15 minutes for me this morning, and the line was three hours plus when I left. Finished voting at 10:30 and was the 910th vote on my ballot box, and there was at least one other ballot box.

Mizzou BB-Fan: Do you vote at Pleasant Valley Baptist? That's my precinct. The A-D and E-H lines were atrocious but if your last name started with I-L or T-Z you could get through in about 10 minutes. Clay County really needs to split this precinct -- it's the fast growing precinct in the county and they haven't split it the the seven years I've lived in it. Dividing the alphabet evenly based on voters and not just letters would be nice too.

Is that on Church Road? If so, then I think it is the same place. Last name starts with an L.

[NoMyths]

Just got back from voting in North Charleston -- waited in line for three hours. The surprising part was that I didn't see anyone leave the line, either in the ones ahead (that had been waiting for the same period) or the ones behind.

[GrantDawg]

I early voted, but my wife is an election official and I ran by to see her this morning. There was no line at all. In fact, there was only one person voting at all. Weird.

I guess early voting was a really big hit.


Yup. Our counties had over a third of registered voters cast early, with over 50% in my voting district already having voted. I walked in, voted, walked out. There were probably 8 people voting, and about 18 machines.

[gstelmack]

Exit polls are only a minor input in the statistical models used in election night projection. Actual vote (both sampled precinct and raw vote) always has had more importance in the models.

That's a load of crock, given that they traditionally project long before any actual vote counts are available...

10 minutes to vote at my precinct at around 2:15 PM tonight.

[Klinglerware]

That's a load of crock, given that they traditionally project long before any actual vote counts are available...

10 minutes to vote at my precinct at around 2:15 PM tonight.

Actually, I used to work as a statistical analyst at the provider (albeit at a junior level) back in the day. It's been awhile, but I doubt that the system has changed significantly.

Anyway, in early calls, actual vote coming from randomly sampled precincts are more important to the models (the operation, via talks with local election officials, ensures that this precinct data is available). Even then, it would take a fairly significant spread to call a race based on vote sample+exit poll alone.

Yes, exit polls are incorporated in the models. In some cases, yes they will be a primary determinant of a call--but typically only in races where there is a huge spread in the expected direction, and if the data collection looks complete. But in closer races, their importance decreases as actual vote becomes available.

[CamEdwards]

No waiting at my polling place in southwestern Fairfax County around 2 p.m. this afternoon. My wife had to wait about ten minutes to cast her vote at 10:30 this morning.

[Mustang]

No wait at our polling station at 1:15. I waited with our daughter while my wife voted and then we switched.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Big time delay looming on vote counts from major Atlanta metro county (Gwinnett) due to problems with absentee ballots making them unreadable by machine. 19,000 of them being copied by hand one by one onto new forms in order to get them counted.
Gwinnett faulty ballots taking time to transfer | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/gwinnett/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/04/gwinnett_vote_transfer.html)

Now maybe I'm just stupid but ... wouldn't it make about as much sense just to count them from the originals instead of making duplicates to be read by machine?

[lordscarlet]

Big time delay looming on vote counts from major Atlanta metro county (Gwinnett) due to problems with absentee ballots making them unreadable by machine. 19,000 of them being copied by hand one by one onto new forms in order to get them counted.
Gwinnett faulty ballots taking time to transfer | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/gwinnett/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/04/gwinnett_vote_transfer.html)

Now maybe I'm just stupid but ... wouldn't it make about as much sense just to count them from the originals instead of making duplicates to be read by machine?

Now why would they do something sensible like that?

[Cringer]

The wife and I just got back from voting. There was a wait, but it wasn't because of a line to vote. My polling place is an elementary school, and the wife delayed us long enough that we got there right when 300 cars were trying to get into the school parking lot to pick up their kids. Saw some nice MILFs though so I will let it go. Holy crap were there some good MILFs! I wish the moms of the kids on my soccer team were that hot.

Back on topic. I hadn't decided what I would do for President until I got there. It was Obama or Barr, yes I know two very different ways to go but that is how I am. It came down to the fact I just don't like Barr enough even if I really did want to vote Libertarian. So I voted for Obama.

The rest I was then very surprised and happy. I knew of a couple Lib candidates but didn't know there was one for just about every race. So I went straight Lib Party the rest of the way until I hit the purely local stuff where it was Dem or Rep. In those cases it was anti-incumbent usually.

My big dilemma was picking our 449th State Distric Judge, where the choices were a guy who just got his 2nd DUI and a guy who used to be the city attorney for the city I live in and is not a guy I want in office. I hate guys who get DUI's but I voted for that guy.

[Buccaneer]

My wife and I got into an argument because I was pissed that she called my vote for president "wasted". I told her my vote was probably more thoughtful than most people's votes because they based their votes on superficialities. She's not talking to me. Women. Whatever.

[GrantDawg]

My wife and I got into an argument because I was pissed that she called my vote for president "wasted". I told her my vote was probably more thoughtful than most people's votes because they based their votes on superficialities. She's not talking to me. Women. Whatever.

Who'd she want you to vote for? McKinney?

[Galaxy]

Back on topic. I hadn't decided what I would do for President until I got there. It was Obama or Barr, yes I know two very different ways to go but that is how I am. It came down to the fact I just don't like Barr enough even if I really did want to vote Libertarian. So I voted for Obama.

The rest I was then very surprised and happy. I knew of a couple Lib candidates but didn't know there was one for just about every race. So I went straight Lib Party the rest of the way until I hit the purely local stuff where it was Dem or Rep. In those cases it was anti-incumbent usually.



Does the Lib party focus on the congressional/Senate races? Barr got my vote. I like some of his ideas (Fair Tax is one example) I don't like either of the two major candidates enough. Plus, I figured one more vote always helps in the long run for the party.

[Buccaneer]

Who'd she want you to vote for? McKinney?

She used the words "have to choose from one of the big two". That was offensive to me.

[Buccaneer]

Does the Lib party focus on the congressional/Senate races?

They should. Actually, they should start at the grassroots level, like state houses and work their way up - instead of trying to make a splash at the top. Actually, with many states having to submit balanced budgets or to ask voters for tax increases, there are a lot of libertarian-style mindsets/governments in action. Something has to chip away at the traditional two-party machines and their laws to reduce fairness and choices.

[Karlifornia]

I showed up to my polling place at about 3 PM my time. There were only three polling stations (all pen and paper ballots...no machines). There was no wait time at all.

I voted for Obama, no on prop 8, no on requiring parental notification for abortion, and yes on giving chickens more space.

[Buccaneer]

From cnn

Voters expect higher taxes, polls show

Oh goodie.

[JonInMiddleGA]

They should. Actually, they should start at the grassroots level, like state houses and work their way up - instead of trying to make a splash at the top.

Well I'll be ... you finally said something about the Libs/3rd parties that I can agree with.

[ISiddiqui]

Bucc: It's like she's never met you.

[Buccaneer]

Bucc: It's like she's never met you.

Heh. She gets defensive easily. Just like certain people around here. :)

[Galaxy]

They should. Actually, they should start at the grassroots level, like state houses and work their way up - instead of trying to make a splash at the top. Actually, with many states having to submit balanced budgets or to ask voters for tax increases, there are a lot of libertarian-style mindsets/governments in action. Something has to chip away at the traditional two-party machines and their laws to reduce fairness and choices.

I would think they would gain a lot more power if they can get at least a sizable minority in the house and Senate.

[GrantDawg]

They should. Actually, they should start at the grassroots level, like state houses and work their way up - instead of trying to make a splash at the top. Actually, with many states having to submit balanced budgets or to ask voters for tax increases, there are a lot of libertarian-style mindsets/governments in action. Something has to chip away at the traditional two-party machines and their laws to reduce fairness and choices.


You are seeing it here. I had several Libs on the ballot for local/state.

[Galaxy]

You are seeing it here. I had several Libs on the ballot for local/state.

Nice.

[Alan T]

You are seeing it here. I had several Libs on the ballot for local/state.

I only had two libertarians to choose from on my ballot. President (whom I voted for) and US. Senate (whom I did not vote for because he was the worst joke of a candidate hands down of any that was on the ballot today).

[Buccaneer]

I don't get it. Rove calls 338-200 a "landslide" and Clinton96's 379-159 was a "rout". What the hell do you call those 500+ victories like Reagan84?

[GrantDawg]

I only had two libertarians to choose from on my ballot. President (whom I voted for) and US. Senate (whom I did not vote for because he was the worst joke of a candidate hands down of any that was on the ballot today).


I had Pres, Senate, Public Service Comm, a couple of district things, and a school board cadidate.

[Neon_Chaos]

I don't get it. Rove calls 338-200 a "landslide" and Clinton96's 379-159 was a "rout". What the hell do you call those 500+ victories like Reagan84?

A bitchslap?

[Cringer]

You are seeing it here. I had several Libs on the ballot for local/state.

We had Libs for every major race, like I said. That is better then in 2004 where I think there were maybe three. I am pretty happy about it.

What I left out was that my wife, without even talking about it with her really before, went my way on all of the races and went with all Libs where possible except President. Kind of funny since I know she would have voted Nader if he were on the Texas ballot. I told her she should have wrote him in, but she said she couldn't do it and had to vote for Obama because she wanted to do what she could to keep Palin from being VP.

[lighthousekeeper]

well just back from the polls and voted for the first time in my life, despite the fact that im 33. i was shocked how i was able to just go up and vote without providing any form of ID. seems too easy.

[digamma]

I got to my polling place at 5:30 Pacific, thinking I needed to leave work early to weather the line. No line. Was done in less than 5 minutes. This was somewhat surprising because I live in a fairly diverse area of LA in terms of sexual preference. I expected Prop 8 to have the polling place swarming. Oh well...time for pizza and beer.

[JonInMiddleGA]

re: Lib Party & Georgia -- I wonder, maybe Bucc or somebody will know for sure.
Isn't the 28% mark being posted by the (L) in the Georgia PSC race the highwater mark for them in the state?

For the curious, the D's didn't field a candidate so it was either the R incumbent, the L challenger, or skip it.

[lordscarlet]

We had one Lib, for "Senator". We had several Statehood Green candidates.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Wait... I thought Democrats were supposed to vote on Wednesday...


ABC News: Students Receive Misleading Information on Election Day (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=6182271&page=1)

[molson]

I went with Bob Barr. Can't stand Obama, couldn't bring myself to vote a Republican for the highest office with how fucked up that party is. So Barr made sense.

[ISiddiqui]

I don't get it. Rove calls 338-200 a "landslide" and Clinton96's 379-159 was a "rout". What the hell do you call those 500+ victories like Reagan84?

I thought that 350+ was considered a landslide.

[st.cronin]

I voted around 4pm yesterday, there was no line. Voted McCain for Pres; abstained from the Senate vote; and voted Carol Miller (Independent) for Congress. Voted GOP for state government offices, voted no for the tax increase proposals, and yes for the various bond issuances. There were also a bunch of constitutional amendments on the ballot, mostly procedural stuff like when the school board meets and how the Lt. Gov gets appointed in certain situations... I voted for the ones that seemed sensible, voted against the ones that seemed tricky or hard to understand.

I heard on the radio last night that Hispanic voters in New Mexico polled @ 68% for Obama, which I find shocking - that right there is where McCain lost, at least in this state (imo).

[MylesKnight]

Nader got 2 on FOFC?? Sweet.