It’s primary day in Indiana and North Carolina. Whatever your preference*, get out and vote. It’s good to get in the habit. Here in Lafayette, turn out seemed strong. Until today, I had never waited in line to vote in an Indiana primary. I waited for 3 or 4 minutes at 6:45 a.m. this morning.
*When I typed that, I recalled Mike Kole, Libertarian, and his practice of going to the polling place, signing the book, and leaving because the primary is stacked in favor of just Republicans and Democrats. That made me think of the Blues Brothers scene:
Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western.
I suppose primaries are kind of like that for any third party.
My footnote kind of ate up the initial post here. Still, get out and vote.
Update
The Lafayette Journal & Courier is doing an election day notebook. As of about 2:45 p.m., about 30,000 people had voted in Tippecanoe County’s primary. I don’t know what the record is/was for the county, but according to the J&C, 1996 had about 22,500 and that was the highest primary turnout from then to now.
I voted. Turnout was typical in Leo / Cedarville (just north of Fort Wayne) where I vote. But what really shocked me was that at least 50% of the poll workers were youth! Usually, it’s just retirees and the elderly and the 1 stray politico who took the day off. I was duly impressed, and I think it shows how much the next generation of voters are getting into politics, thanks to Obama.
45 minutes. I’d do it again.
Say what you will about Dan Quayle (and much has been said) I love his Election Day tradition. Whenever his name was on the ballot, he would vote in the morning and then go straght to the dentist, figuring that teh day could only get better after that.
Yeah, when Dan Quayle was on the ballot it ruined my day too.
Turn out in Johnson County was surprisingly light this morning – maybe I just missed the morning rush. Not surprisingly in this heavily Republican area, not a single Obama or Clinton sign.
Yeah lemming, I’m sure you would do it again, but thankfully we have a voter ID law that stops you from doing that! (JOKE!)
I’m not voting today because I am not a member of any party, and I won’t lie & say that I am. I voted for the Republicans in the last presidential election, and I can’t yet promise that I will vote for the Democratic candidate. If it is HRC, I won’t.
So, in order to keep from lying, I can’t vote in the first primary in years that actually matters, in terms of choosing the president.
Since when is the primary a promise you’ll vote for that party’s candidate?
I figure I’m voting either for Obama (if he makes it) or the Libertarian come November. Hence, to give me a chance to vote Obama in November, I voted Obama today. That was the only Democratic vote I cast on the ballot (90% of which was blank anyway).
I did abstain from the governor’s race because, frankly, I’m not voting for either of them come November.
Joe said:
Since Indiana Code 3-10-1-6, covered on this website here.
Actually, it doesn’t say that I have to vote for the POTUS candidate, but I do either have voted for mostly D last time or promise to this time. I can’t promise that, and I won’t pretend to. I know they can’t enforce it, but I wouldn’t feel right about doing it.
I didn’t have to wait. But then again we have three precincts voting in the same building. For 8:20 in the morning I thought the place was pretty busy. Every machine was full and people were coming in after me.
And we finally have electronic digital voting machines-ah, the simple pleasures! In the past we had paper ballots and one machine was democrat and one was republican. Now you can vote on either machine; they set the ballot to your “preference.”
The law is unenforceable and is moot anyway unless you’re challenged (any reports of any voters being challenged?).
I did not get challenged for switching to a democratic ticket today. And since the last general election was local and the republican party is the “change” party in my town; I did not vote for hardly a democratic candidate in the last election.
One interesting point that came up on my political chat surfing was that college students,and many younger people in general,don’t use landline phones and since polling is not possible to a cell phone,how are their voting preferences taken into account?
I’ve heard the “doesn’t account for cell phones” rationale for not trusting polling since 2004, I think. I’m not convinced that the popularity of cell phones among young people make polls any less reliable than they have been for years.
A couple more interesting facts about Indiana gleaned from politcial chat, which might be good for Obama. He has done well in the previous primaries which were open, allowing independants,Republicans and Democrats to vote according to their choice. Also ,for a relatively small state, Indiana has an inordinately large number of colleges and universities,which have been Obama-friendly.Hope I’m not redundant.
My church is a polling place. I have seen lines twelve persons long a few times today. There seem to be more people passing through here than at a general election.
I voted in my first primary ever(been voting since 1983). Never wanted to have to pick a party. Knowing I will be voting for a Dem in the fall I figured I would pick one in the primary.
Our location NE side of Indy was busy but we had no wait. Many coworkers had to wait 60 minutes and more.
d
I was out at one of the Vote Centers here in Tippecanoe County today (The Outpost Catering on old 231). There was a steady stream from 9-10 AM – 9 machines running, people waiting about 5-10 mins total. I’d say it was harder getting out of the parking lot than it was to vote today. Most people were really happy about the regional sites, except one guy from Romney.
There were 11,000 ballots cast BEFORE 6 AM today in a county that usually has only 13,000 for a primary. They bumped up their projections to 42,000 or nearly 3 times the normal number for the primary. So, I am sure SOME sites are probably swamped.
I am heading back out soon to take a tour of the votes sites to see for myself.
I voted at the Outpost as well. The entrance/exit is kind of screwy. That big concrete square is placed at an angle that’s kind of confusing to me.
I just got back from voting. I work second shift so it’s only natural I do stuff later than everyone else.
Pretty quiet, though that may be because of the time.
awesome!!!
(Edited to embed long URL – Doug)
Interesting to see what final turnout will be.
(Edited to embed long URL. — Doug)
When I went to my inner-city Indy polling place at 11:00am I was voter 259 (so sayeth the scanner – we use paper ballots). The guy behind the desk said that exceeds the typical total for the day for most *presidential* elections.
Where I vote, there’s usually only one voter at a time there. Today there were three (turnout tripled!).
Such are the pleasures of a small town.
“Please show me your ID, Dr. Bailey.” Ummm, but you just ID’d me by sight, right? OK, I’ll play by the rules. But we are the type of precinct that everyone knows everyone else.
I did have to run home and grab an Obama sign from the yard to go put up at my polling place.
I love the stories of high turnout, and think it could mean Obama winning in a shocker. But I thought the same way about Ohio in O4.
The Politico had a commentary about a Richmond letter to the editor. The letter was complaining about the muslim antichrist Obama and his pastor. I only wish Verna Cohee had lived for her well-deserved (certainly not for the content of her letters, but for the sheer volume) moment in the national spotlight. I’m shocked that despite the void her death left, in the wacky letters dept. Richmond is still representin’.
Joe, so is the law about registering bikes with the police in my town. It is stupid, almost no one does it, and it is never enforced. Yet I still do it.
Don’t take it like I never have or will break the law. I *try* not to, though. Regardless of the fact that I won’t be challanged, I’ll know I’m breaking the rather stupid law, and I try not to do that.
I did that this morning: walked in, signed the book, and left. It was the most satisfying way I could have voted, given the slates available to me. Nice to know I’m thought of!
In my Hamilton County precinct, there were no lines whatsoever. Shortest wait I have ever had to “vote”. It’s a Republican dominated set of precincts that vote at Fishers Town Hall, and they apparently felt no need to turn out. The General Election will be a different story.
I did see several people who had claimed (I take them at their word) to have voted in teh ast election who were not in teh official system. It will be inetersting to see teh flotsam and jetsom tomorow.
Wait – you mean I can’t vote twice??!! Awwwww…
I ran into two (sets of) neighbors at my normally empty polling place at 10am this morning. I was voter 115, which was higher than the total at 4pm in 2006. The polling place across from the playground I took the kids to this afternoon was out of (Democratic) ballots at 4pm. So it’s safe to say turnout was pretty darn high here in Porter County.
Oh yeah, and the (Illinois transplant) neighbor I saw at 10am came over this afternoon for a beer, he was shocked that he couldn’t buy till the polls close (ugh, what a silly law). Might have to make THAT an election day tradition. ;)
Mike Kole said:
I think this is something to explore. What is the makeup of all the Dem voters turning out for the primary? Are they all people who vote in the General Election but rarely in the primary? How many of them are people who don’t typically vote at all? I have to think there is a significant number in the second group. The “energized” Democratic competition, even prolonged as it is, may really help the Dems if true while the “coasting” might hold the Repubs back.
It will be interesting to crunch the numbers after the General Election. The Dems have a base of around 21-24% in Hamilton County, as judging by returns in the GEs in the countywide races in the past 10 years or so.
In Lake county we got to use new electronic machines that had the candidates names digitized and everything. Although the digital names were harder to read than the old paper ballots, but at least we didn’t have the embarrassment of running out of ballots on top of our late vote reporting.