My local precinct in Loudoun County, Virginia was crowded this morning. I arrived at the polls at 9:30 am to find a long line of voters. I noticed on the election worker’s number sheet that over a 1000 voters had already voted at my precinct and many more were in line. I was in line for about 15 minutes before being able to get my ballot. If my precinct is indicative of the turnout in the rest of Loudoun County, Macaca Allen might be in serious trouble.
A Webb volunteer outside handed me a sample ballot. Interestingly, there was no Allen volunteer outside. I have to wonder if Allen was caught flat-footed by the Webb challenge and whether the much vaunted Republican ground game might not have taken the field. If Allen has conceded Northern Virginia or if he has not been able to organize, then he might be heading home to his dude ranch soon.
This year, there was one touch screen machine at the precinct and the rest were optical scanned ballots. You were given a choice of "paper or touch screen" – I chose touch screen just for the experience.
After waiting in yet another line for 20 minutes to get to the much coveted touch screen machine, I faced off against the Diebold voting appliance. This was my first experience with the world of e-voting. I can see how people can get confused by these things. It claimed that my selected candidate would have a red "X" next to his name – but in reality, there was a black box next to the selected name (on closer examination, the black box revealed itself to be very dark red with a faint "X" in the middle).
The screens on the Diebold machine were very slow to update, so that it took over 5 minutes for me to get my ballot filled in. It did give me a confirmation screen at the end of the process with the correct candidates filled in. I held my breath and pressed the screen button to submit my ballot and out popped the card to signal that I had exercised my civic duty. No paper record of the vote, just a faith in the programmers and testers at Diebold. Our democracy at the mercy of a software program.
On the drive back from the polling station, I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show on NPR. Diane was reporting on voting problems in Alexandria (Northern Virginia and heavily Democratic) where older voters were having trouble because Jim Webb’s name was truncated on the electronic voting machines.
So, Virginia is voting today. My experience is that turnout is heavy in Northern Virginia. That bodes well for Jim Webb. Now comes the hard part – counting the ballots.
Well, as you know. South of the Rappahannock River, is red country. I voted in the little raritan clb/post office here like I have for more than 7 years. There was a line, but not huge.
What surprised me was, the amount of yuppy voters like myself, who were clearly voting for Webb.
It will be an interesting night.
I has been votin in tennessee all day! I jez vote and vote, changin my name ever time jez like Bob Corker told me ta….I thank these machines what got th’ fancy screens is jez grate! I has been able ta vote more than last time even! My arm dont git as sore….
UNfortunately Corker’s camapign would not use my slogan fer them—-it is a winner!
“Bob Corker- The WHITE man fer the job”
I likkke it!
Dems stay home…YA caint beat us! We got Jesus on our side, and he knows th’ codes to th’ computers…
JB\:d/
Jesus can’t save your souls in Missouri or Virginia. I’m enjoying watching Mehlman and Gillespie trying to spin the election results >:)
Oooooooohhh! Just two more seats for the senates – pleeeeaaaaase. I slept badly all night getting up and checking CNN for results – and I am not even a US citizen. Now, its about 2:30 a.m. in Virginia, it looks like Webb has made it. I will save my congratulations for later, because I think that Burns is going to lose and the Senate majority depends on Virginia. So, there is so much at stake, the Republicans will surely go for a recount if there is the slightest chance for success. Even if it’s only for stalling the process. I keep my fingers crossed!
The good news is that Webb has extended his lead to about 8K after Fairfax county and Arlington County absentee ballots were counted. Richmond is yet to come in – probably not enought to put them over the 11k needed to force the GOP to pay for the recount.
Better news is that the last time Virginia did a recount, the vote total changed by 27 votes.
Still waiting on Montana.
Well, congratulations!:d From what I hear, the Dems have won both Virginia and Montana. Now it depends on whether the losers will force a recount…
I dont think anyone has conceded defeat in VA. It is a razor thin margin in the Senate and would be a dead heat if Webb gets in. After reading about no paper receipt in the VA balloting I was like, shit, I hope this one is not a contested race, and it might be.
In Illinois, it was slick, and, I might add, after you confirmed your selections a PAPER RECEIPT was viewable as it scrolled your choices past you and you left the booth.
Best of luck to the honorable Jim Webb
Heathlander and odanny, it was closer than I thought. I predicted Webb by about 35,000 votes. It looks like Webb by about 7200 votes. Allen could ask for a state paid recount if he wanted. However, the word is that Allen will concede tomorrow since there is slim chance that a recount can make up a margin of 7000 votes.
The last recount in Virginia only moved the vote by 27 ballots. So, the recount will not change the result much. They use optical scanners mostly and some touch screen here.
Lol, I did not even vote. VOTE OR DIE! get it?
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Nancy7585@mail.com
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Now, as the results are in, I can an will congratulate you personally for your work and enthusiasm and the American People for its strong sense of democracy and liberty.
I am deeply impressed at how you folks sensed the threat to your democracy and reacted the way only democratic societies do. You voted them out of the offices, they so shamelessly abused. It is about accountability after all.
This leaves cleaning up to do and reinstoring all your basic rights, such as habeas corpus, and that is going to be hard work. They won’t give in that easily, because they have to protect themselves from accountability. But in the end justice will prevail.
:d:d
doro, it looked pretty bleak for a while there. I think if this election had not gone the Democrats way, Mr. Bush would have taken it as another “mandate” to run amok.
As you said, this is just the beginning. There remains a lot to do. Starting with restoring civil liberties at home, and rebounding from the atriciously low image of the United States abroad. That image will not be restored until there is an equitable resolution in Iraq and ultimately in Palestine.
Sadly, I am not sure if the plight of the Palestinians will be resolved in my lifetime 🙁
As for me, I’ll keep on writing as long as people keep on reading and commenting.
Now, all eyes on Iraq…
Damn am I glad that the American people feel like I do. It’s good to know that the only way to right this country is to limit Republican power. And the voters across America made me proud to be an American for the first time in what seems like years. Weird. I knew it was out there but thoroughly buried by the MSM.
Mash, count me in as a regular. I will definitely continue reading and eventually commenting here.
And don’t be too pessimistic about the palestinian plight. Remember the Berlin wall? I grew up in a Germany that was divided into two states on the frontline between two opposing saber-rattling superpowers. We had US WMD’s on our soil, the natural target for Soviet WMD’s in case of conflict, and the GDR had Soviet WMD’s on their soil as natural target for US WMD’s. And there was a wall separating our former capital which was built in the year I was born and continued to exist through my childhood, adolescence, time at University until I started my first job and beyond that.
Now, my children will learn from this out of history books, which makes me feel old 🙁
Given the outrageous attack in Beit Hanoun, it is hard to see, that things will get better. But they will and you will still be around. And your daughter may one day ask you about it, and when you tell her, that this was in your lifetime she’ll say “But dad, you’re that ancient?”:)