If you encounter any problems or unusual experiences at the polls today, or simply have observations about turnout or GOTV, please report them in this thread.
And PLEASE stay on topic. I will delete intentionally off-topic comments and deliberate trolling.
frist!
(hehehe… delete this, Goldy)
It’s outside Washington, but at least it’s on topic: DNC Chair Ken Mehlman doesn’t believe in using electronic voting machines.
Hey GOTV workers for McGavick, and Reichert.
I am sure as soon as you are done trying to get retarded morons to vote for lying, pathetic traitors, you are going to enlist right?
GoArmy.com
Since you believe in the GOP so much, of course you will feel it would be your duty to get killed cleaning up Bush’s nightmare after trying to politicize a war from the very beginning.
R.I.P.
above expected turnout in Virginia
Poll Report–In wards 7, 19, 51 in Philly, PA, the crowds are going wild. Inside several voting locations, individuals have poured white out onto the polling books and the poll workers are allowing voters to go into the polls and vote without first registering. Several individuals are on hand demanding that voters vote straight Democrat.
RNC lawyers have headed to the scene of the incidents, which are occurring in mostly hispanic precinct locations. The District Attorney has also been contacted.
More from the ground: Reports of voter intimidation by son-in-law of Philadelphia City Commissioner in 19th Ward. Carlos Mantos is not allowing Republican poll watchers with valid poll-watching certificates monitor polling places.
Aaah- Democrats- defenders of freedom-yeah- right!
John 425 at 5 (uless re-numbered due to deletions):
I seriously doubt it.
Sounds too much like Rove’s rumor-mongering, which would be obediently reported by Drudge and Limbaugh. Adding the “hispanic” element to it is classic Rove – trying to get out the Republican vote by creating fear of a takeover by “little brown people”. Also, loudly yelling about out allegations of “outragious Democratic voter fraud” to drown out the much quieter questions by voters in other states who mysteriously find out that their voter registrations were cancelled weeks ago while they were serving in Iraq (as happened in Ohio 2004).
Goldy, either you are a homophobic asshole or something else is going on. I just read your “Male-fucking” comment in a post below. Coupled with your fascination with Luke Esser’s body hair and sexuality methinks you doth protest a bit too much about not being gay — including your fantasy about “pretending” to be gay to attract chicks. C’mon, Andrew Sullivan is actually a successful blogger. Being honest about yourself will only enhance your credibility while your creepy fascination with gay sex scandals just makes the rest of us uncomfortable for you.
5 john425
Not credible. Got sources? I didn’t think so. Um, townhall.com and WorldNetDaily don’t count.
However, the FBI is investigating real voter intimidation by Republicans in Dem disticts of VA.
Until the GOP stops deliberately attacking people’s right to vote, I don’t think I’ll be listening to any lectures from right-wingers.
Some voting locations are being changed due to flooding. Check with your county’s auditor to confirm the location. The King County site has some updated information on its web page:
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/
Don’t trust unknown individuals telling you a poll is closed. This has been rumored to have happened in other parts of the country, in an attempt to direct voters away from Democratic precincts. Get your information from official sources.
Also, if you are mailing a ballot, remember that the flooding may keep the US Post Office from making all pickups as indicated on the mailboxes. If you are going to mail your ballot today, take it to the post office and watch as they postmark it with today’s date.
Interesting – Pierce County is offering to send ballots by e-mail, which are then completed and mailed back to them.
http://www.piercecountywa.org/.....status.htm
Terra-ists love us for our voter suppresion.
Here’s an on-topic post… just a small thing, and favors neither party, but in my polling place, inside the “booth” where one fills out the optical scan ballot, there was a voter instruction placard. The first thing on that placard was an instruction to pick a party and vote only for members of that party. Obviously, this was leftover from the primary, but if anyone actually took that to heart, I guess they wouldn’t split their ticket!
Vote Democrat!!! Sincerely, Osama bin Landin
Dear Democrat Mooooooooooslims, “guvment” employee parasites, union hacks, Daddy Love, GBS, JDB, and welfare losers, If it is raining, you can vote on Wednesday!!! Relax and vote when the weather is better!!!! Illegals CANNOT VOTE!!! Border Patrol will be at EVERY poll to arrest you and bus you ass back to Mexico!!!! Democrat Felons will be arrested at the polls and your drugs and weapons will be taken. Finally, NY Jews “double” voting in NY and Miami will be “boxcarred”!!!! Best regards, JCH
@ 15
A co worker of mine was telling me about voting. He started off complaining about the pick a party and then asked where the initiatives were on the ballot. I said something was wrong and suggested he go back to the auditors office. It wasn’t until an hour later before the light went off and I realized he had sent in his primary ballot. Sure enough he did. His wife retrieved the general ballots from the trash and they are voting. Even though I am sure he voted for Doc Hastings, I couldn’t just not tell him right? LOL. No way. Democracy is too important!
We’ll be dealing with all you KKK types at the polls. Dems are positioned to take down any right wing racist like JCH and his klan who oppose American’s right to vote.
12 – Interesting – Pierce County is offering to send ballots by e-mail, which are then completed and mailed back to them.
I have already sent in five of these. They work great. Do not forget to make sure the various signatures match the mail-in registration….We want your vote to count!
Real story: I got a call from the wife of a straight ticket GOP husband this am. “Tom is really sorry he voted for George Bush twice. He said, this administration is criminal. He is voting all Democrat. Everyone we talk to has said: the GOP lied; they continue to lie. They sent our children to die and they lied to us…”
Better than Fitzmas, Cocktober, and Blovember suprise put together. VOTE!
all I have to say about vote fraud is.
ACORN
ACORN: Typical Democrat voter fraud!!!!!!!!!!
All polls must close on time except black Democrat polls which will stay open until the election count is “correct” [see King County]. hehe, JCH
tattle-tale central goldy? where were you during the governor’s [s]election?……….
Ghost, I’ve been meaning to ask you what you think of Republican robocall tactics that leave people thinking that they’re Democrats, and how you manage to square your Biblical beliefs with your allegiance to a political party that bears false witness?
don joe….another of goldy’s alter egoes?…….my “biblical” beliefs? now that is funny……
‘christmasghost’ refers to the classic dicken’s tale.you don’t read much do you? that’s a rhetorical question if you are a lefty.
and as for the calls…personally i like them alot better than having to deal with an annoying person. you can just hang up [i know you guys are slow…but come on …YOU CAN JUST HANG UP]
as for bearing false witness…since i am not into that whole religion as my life thing….i prefer to call it lying. why do you think i am voting republican? it’s the dhimmicrats that are the double dealers and liars.if i ever had any doubts [which i didn’t] that fiasco in the the crappy state of washington over the governor’s race surely convinced me.
The Ghost is a Liar.
She is one of the biggest thumpers on the board.
But blind ignorance, even when the leaders are all proven to be hypocritical liars, she continues to think she is IN the party of Values.
Ghastly,
“you can just hang up”
Apparently you haven’t heard the part where the robocalls keep calling back until the recipient listents to the whole message.
As for Biblical beliefs, I recal you saying in other threads that you consider yourself Christian, though it’s entirely possible I have you confused with another wingnut–you all sound the same and exude the same inane stupidity.
Regarding the last Governor’s election, please explain how your belief in a “stolen” election manages to persist in light of the fact that Republicans had their shot at proving such in a court of law and failed miserably? Are you, like other wingnuts around here have even proudly proclaimed, given “observing” only those facts that support your pre-conceived notions while completely ignoring facts that contradict those notions?
and as for the calls…personally i like them alot better than having to deal with an annoying person. you can just hang up [i know you guys are slow…but come on …YOU CAN JUST HANG UP]
Commentby christmasghost— 11/7/06@ 12:46 pm
And hang up, and hang up, and hang up, and hang up…
Apparently, the RNC really wants you to hear their message, so they have called some voters up to twenty-one times, always “accidentally” forgetting to preface their call with the FCC required disclosure telling the listener who is originating the call.
From the Barrington Courier-Review:
“Rozanne Ronen, a Barrington resident, got the call — “Hi. I’m calling with information about Melissa Bean …”
Then she got the call again and again and 18 more times, making for a total of about 21 calls since October 24.
http://tinyurl.com/ycq5x4
Of course, I can always take your advice and hang up, and hang up, and hang up, and hang up…
A poll worker on Fox Island WA 26th LD has been giving advise to voters, missinforming them about “the death tax”
The Pierce County aduitor is looking into it
7 HorsesassH*le
You guys think accusations of homosexuality are so potent. But tell me this: Why is it always the repressed homo-hating Republican shitheads who turn out to be meth-snorting ass-bangers?
Oops. Off-topic.
Yea, funny how the Republicans keep repeating the lie about how “the Democrats stole the 2004 Governor’s election”.
They had a hand re-count (the most reliable count of all). It showed Greguire won. Then the Republicans sued in court to oveturn the election. They picked a stalwart Republican county to file the lawsuit. In effect, this means they picked the judge (there were only two judges in the county). Although the judges are non-partison positions, both judges were known to be Republicans.
Despite this, the Republicans couldn’t prove their case. Although the vote was extremely close, the number of errors were statistically very small, and the Republicans couldn’t prove it affected the outcome. In fact, considering felons who voted, the only ones they could prove voted for a particular candidate voted Republican.
Yet they will continue to sell the lie. I guess they believe Hitlers claim, that if you tell a big enough lie constantly, over and over again, enough people will believe it to be true to accomplish your purposes.
(Goldie, feel free to delete this as not being relevant, but if you do so, please also delete the prior post on the same subject).
Says a blogger from New Hampshire:
I think we’ll see that here too.
In vote-by-mail Oregon, 84 percent of registered Oregonians voted this year.
Please don’t flame me. This is an honest inquiry. I experienced an “irregularity” today when I voted in King county. I filled out my paper ballot and then went over to the machine that tallies the ballot. The actual slot where you are supposed to place the ballot was taped over. The poll workder told me it was broken and that I just needed to place the ballot in a box on the side.
She also told me that someone had been called and it would be repaired.
I’d like to report this in case there are any odd reports in my precinct. Who should I report it to?
33 – I’ve been involved with a non-profit, where I set up a computer/mailing system to keep track of their mailing and contributor lists. After every mailing, we get lots of “undeliverables” back from the post office. Some were for people know that the address was a good one. I even got some back which were sent to my own address (I added my own address so I could track the time it took between mailing and delivery).
Using postcards to confirm the validity of a voter’s address would probably result in a very high error rate.
Hey Holdy, how’s that deleting the trolls coming along? It is really starting to smell in here!!!
It seems that voters in Virginia, Ohio, and N. Mexico are receiving calls intended to confuse Democratic voters by telling them their polling location had changed, or intimidate them by saying that their registration was illegal and they would be criminally charged if they showed up and attempted to vote.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....hes07.html
In Kentucky, a poll worker was charged with assault when he physically threw a voter out of the polling place when the voter refused to vote as the polling worker instructed. The polling worker had insisted that the voter had to vote in the judicial races, but the voter said he didn’t want to. There was no indication in the news reports as to party affiliation of either person.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....sault.html
36 rhp6033
You mean a “very high rate of fraudulent Democratic registered voters, probably illegal immigrants and other suspicious non-whites,” don’t you?
# 35: I would start by calling the King County Auditor’s office, and reporting what appeared to be a problem at the precinct. Beyond that, perhaps a call to Sam Reed’s office – he can check to see if there is a pattern. It seems like a fair method of checks and balances, since the King County Auditor’s office is appointed by a Democrat, and the Washington State office is an elected position held by a Republican.
Then there’s Maryland, where the GOP playbook says
(1) Recruit homeless men in Philadelphia;
(2) Bus them into Maryland;
(3) Arrange for the Republican governor’s wife to greet them upon their arrival;
(4) Outfit them in hats and T-shirts for the governor’s re-election campaign;
(5) Have them pass out flyers in heavily Democratic areas that erroneously identify the GOP candidates for governor and U.S. senator as “Democrats.”
A HREF=”http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2006/11/election-fixing-charges-fly-in-utah.html”>From AP via CNN:
Daggett County has registered 947 voters for Tuesday’s election. According to the most recent Census figures, that’s four more than the county’s population in 2005.
A spokesman for Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says complaints of vote-stuffing in the county are being investigated. Democrats suspect County Clerk Vickie McKee is letting outsiders swell the Daggett County registration rolls to give Republicans an advantage. The Democrats also say the father of a Republican deputy running for sheriff has 14 adults registered at his household. McKee hasn’t responded to messages from The Associated Press.
39: Sure, including lots of “snow birds” spending their winters in Arizona, and returning home in the summers to visit their grand-kids! (Those temporary absense people play hell with mailing lists).
Messed up the link. Here it is again.
Here’s another from the Denver Post:
CHAOS: Problems worsen, Dems seek voting extension
By George Merritt and Jeffrey Leib
Denver Post Staff Writer
On a day already rife with computer glitches, long lines, and legal appeals to extend voting in Denver, provisional ballots are now running out at some Denver voting centers.
Westerly Creek, 8800 E. 28th Ave., ran out of provision ballots before noon, and as of 2 p.m., still had none. Voters who were seeking shorter lines arrived, and quickly the line grew to more than a hundred people long.
FairVoteColorado.org reported provisional ballot shortages at numerous other sites as well, including Glenarm Recreation Center, Park Hill Methodist, Manual High School, and Montbello Recreation Center.
Widespread computer problems were reported, some shutting down entire voting centers, but the problems appeared to ease after 2 p.m.
Democratic party leaders are in court this afternoon, seeking a two-hour extension for voting in Denver, because many were kept from casting their vote.
Party spokesman Brian Mason said the motion was in response to “the huge problems in Denver this morning.”
Democratic Party representatives came to Parkhill Methodist this afternoon to ask people standing in line if they would go downtown to testify in the court case seeking the extension.
Denver Election Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said there was no systemwide failures and that the delays were being caused by heavy voter turnout combined with “congestion” in the computer network used to confirm voter registeration. “it’s our application. It got overloaded,” Dillard said.
But voters experienced a wide range of problems, that began right when the polls opened at 7 a.m.
Officials at Manual High School said their computers had crashed three times today. They were running at 2:30, but more than 99 people were in line.
At lunch time, Denver voters waiting in line at the Botanic Gardens vote center were urged to go to Manual’s site because the wait at the Gardens might be at least another hour.
When Kim Smith, one of the relocated voters, arrived at Manual, she found a long line that crawled for at least an hour just to get to the door to the school.
Once she got just inside, election officials said the voting process was stopping because of computer problems.
When officials tried to form two lines out of the one stalled line, people started yelling because it put some voters ahead of others who had waited longer, said Smith, who lives in Washington Park.
Election officials did not know how to handle the crowd, Smith said. Shortly after 1 p.m., Denver Police arrived to calm restive voters.
Earlier, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper emerged from inside the Manual voting site and said This can’t happen again, recalled Smith, who finally voted around 1:30, nearly wo hours after she arrived at the Denver school.
Vaishali Patel, who lives in Denver s Capitol Hill neighborhood, arrived at her voting center near East Eight Avenue and Downing Street after 11 a.m. and was told the wait would be two hours. She was urged to go to the Botanic Gardens site.
There, officials told her the wait also would be two hours and she was urged to go the Manual.
Like Smith, she arrived at the Denver school a little before noon and endured nearly two hours of lines moving in fits and starts before she reached the voting booth.
I feel like I have to; I made it this far, Patel said, when she was about 20 people away from the booth.
As of 2:15 p.m., the line at the Botanic Gardens was just as long as it was this morning, snaking down the street to 11th Ave.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter waited an hour and a half to vote at the Washington Park Recreational Center this morning. When he arrived at about 7:45 a.m., there were more than 150 people in line ahead of him. Several people said they were frustrated by the long lines. Paul Barsa, a 35-year-old who said he works in accounting, said he was “grouchy” and wished that he waited until the afternoon to vote.
Ritter said, “I hope that people will be patient. It’s important for them to vote.”
The Denver Election Commission reported that problems began right at 7 a.m. as computer problems at the voter-check in stations bogged down, creating a bottleneck in the first hour of voting as a rush to the polls overloaded the system.
Power failures slowed voting at some locations, commission spokesman Dillard said.
Voting machines had backup power and weren’t affected, but laptop computers used to verify voter registration were knocked out, forcing workers to call the central office for the information, he said.
Mark Coles, a computer technician with the Denver Election Commission, said the election system had to be split onto three separate servers to handle the backlog.
“It’s just like traffic on (Interstate) 25,” Coles said. “It’s as if we are building two more I-25s right next to it” to ease the traffic congestion.
But the fix did not come in time to help some voters who hoped to vote before heading to work.
At Denver Botanic Gardens, a line several hundred voters long stretched out of the gates and down the block more than half way to 11th Avenue.
“We will not get to vote today,” said a frustrated Lauren Brockman as he left the Botanic Gardens.
He lined up at 6:45 a.m. hoping to beat the rush, only to stand in line for close to an hour before leaving.
But an hour wait was short, compared to some.
At Corona Presbyterian Church, voters were being told to expect about a two-hour wait as they snaked around the building.
“All my friends, I told them to vote between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.,” said Rob Weil the election judge supervisor at Corona. “But if it keeps being this slow, this line will stay.”
Several people left the line at Park Hill Methodist Church after they were told equipment was broken.
Lines of up to 300 people formed at some Denver polling places.
This is positively ridiculous, said 82-year-old Jack McCroskey, clutching his cane while waiting at the Washington Park polling place in southeast Denver. At 82, I don’t deserve to have to stand out here. What if it had been 10 degrees today?”
Johnson Recreation Center at 4809 Race St. in Denver reported all its voting machines were down at 1:15 p.m.. “I’m just waiting on my IT man to call me back,” said Nathan Martinez, the center’s election supervisor. Service was restored by 1:45 p.m. During that time his line grew from just a handful to over a hundred.
Augustana Lutheran, 5000 E Alameda Ave., also reported its machines out of service at 1:15 p.m., with no estimated time for repair. By 1:50 p.m., a secretary said the machines were working but wasn’t able to provide details.
As of 2 p.m., Tattered Cover Lodo’s voting line was about an hour long, and machines were working.
At the Athmar Recreation Center in southwest Denver, polling station manager Frank Lujan said the voting computer system was down twice today, once for about 30 minutes and once for about 45 minutes. As of 2 p.m., the system was running and voters report wait times of about 45 minutes.
“Any time you have new technology you have challenges,” Mayor John Hickenlooper said, at midday, just before the system began experiencing even wider outages. “We’ve got dozens of city employees out volunteering asking people if they want a lift to a vote center with a shorter line.” Hickenlooper conceded the situation “is not good.”
The problems weren’t limited to Denver. On the Post’s West Watch blog, Karen A. reported waiting two hours and 45 minutes in Parker at Southeast Christian Church. “Sometimes 10 of the 12 voting booths were unoccupied while voters were processed,” she said.
In Douglas County, where wait times at some places extended to three hours, the Republican Party had not yet decided whether to file an injuction to keep the polls open, said spokesman Bryant Adams.
At 1:30 p.m., Secretary of State Gigi Dennis released a statement saying that things were going smoothly, statewide, and saying that voters should not count on the Denver court extending voting hours.
“Please do not depend on polls being kept open late,” Dennis wrote. “If you are at the polls by 7 p.m. you will cast a ballot. All voters in line will be able to vote.”
She advised voters to be prepared for an after-work surge at the polls.
Hey, does anyone know if the minnow is working as a poll worker this year in Kentucky?
http://www.forbes.com/home/fee.....52243.html
Hey, the Republians have found a way that might let them win:
Pretend to be Democrats:
The ballots were distributed by people who said they arrived by buses this morning from Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Erik Markle, one of the people handing out literature for Ehrlich, who is seeking reelection, and Steele, the current lieutenant governor who is campaigning to replace retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D), said he was recruited at a homeless shelter in Philadelphia.ww.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110700740.html
Heavy turnout in my precinct.
Heavier turnout in our precinct. Overheard some pollworkers discussion of possible chicanery or just as likely incompetence so I reported it to a campaign field organizer. Next thing I knew I was on the horn with a lawyer.