Went over to the county seat today, since I was out that way on other business, and took part in early voting. The line was surprisingly long, but even more surprising was its demographic composition. This county is nearly ninety percent white and about eight-and-a-half percent black, but fully half of the folks who showed up to vote while I was in line were black.
My guess is that any slippage in Democratic voters' enthusiasm won't be coming from the black community this year. Now, of course I don't know how these ladies and gentlemen were voting, and am merely assuming based on the historic record that most of them were probably Obama voters. Still, assuming that record holds, the President can count on a surprisingly strong showing in this part of rural Georgia.
I've seen where the DNC is asking Democrat voters to show up for early voting, but some analysis is saying that they're basically cannibalizing their likely voters that would have just turned out on Tuesday in order to get good early voter numbers. I don't know how true that is, but it seems plausible enough. Those who are motivated to show for early voting probably weren't likely to skip voting this year anyway.
ReplyDeleteEarly voting is going strong in this very small, quite red county. We have about 15,000 registered voters, of whom about 600 are early voting every day. I'm hoping that will make for manageable election day traffic despite the high turnout normally associated with a presidential election year. Our little precinct (one of six, but smaller than the rest as we're off on our own tiny peninsula) has only about 1,000 registered voters, two or three voting machines, and four poll workers counting the judge and the alternate judge. The polling place is about 25 feet square max.
ReplyDeleteI read earlier this week that Dems are getting their reliable voters out for early voting while Reps are targeting their less reliable ones. It will be interesting to see if the numbers bear that out on election day.
I voted on the first day of early voting in Plano. As sociable as I am, I have no idea of how liberal or conservative the voting population here is; although from discussions with the polling station attendants in 2010 and last week about photo IDs for voters, I assess them as conservative.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, the line to vote on that first day was quite large--there were two or three people there, and of the four voting booths, half were occupied.
No UN interlopers in evidence; they may be holding their interferences for voting day itself. Too bad; I was looking forward to a confrontation. Maybe I'll go down on election day and stand next to one or two of them.
Eric Hines
In this little city 30 miles NW of Milwaukee, the electorate is 80++% Conservative.
ReplyDeleteEarly-voted today, arrived at 11:30, spent 45 minutes. There were never less than 30 people in line for all the time I was there.
I will vote on Nov 6th in Jacksonville NC. All the fellow Republican Marines I serve with are doing the same. I guess we just prefer to stick with the established traditions of our republic. I think a lot of Romney's base will do the same. FWIW, I predict a huge victory for Romney.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I'm still debating whether I will vote or not. I certainly won't be voting for Robamney. No one worth voting for in my local house race. I guess I have to figure out how to look at the 10ish state constitutional amendments on the ballot.
ReplyDeleteJoel,
ReplyDeleteI'm all for tradition. I'd love to see us go back to a paper ballot -- with a signature matched to one on file -- so that recounts could be official. Of course, that's really traditional: the secret ballot has been common since the mid-19th century.
Failing that, a simple paper ballot would still be an improvement. These machines, I have no idea if they record the vote or not. There's no evidence once the card pops out of what is done with the data, or if it was really even stored.
BB1:
Lately I've not had much use for the Presidential candidates of either party, but the VPs are sometimes good. Biden is my favorite part of the current administration. Ryan seems like an earnest, decent kid for someone who has spent his entire career in Congress. Palin was a strong candidate in 2008, I thought: a much better candidate in fact than she was allowed to be in image.
I've read the cannibalizing line too, and to me, this seems to confirm it. Grim identifies them in the post as not surprising supporters of O (though they could be good Christians who are motivated to vote against taxpayer supported abortion and for religious freedom- there are some of those). I guess we'll find out in a few days.
ReplyDeleteI voted last week and the line was pretty long. One of the regional county clerks said last night that early voting surged, then tapered off to less than 2010. However, what caught my eye is that one county in this area, mostly minorities of all sorts (African-American, Hispanic, Laotian, Somali, Vietnamese, Burmese, Thai, you name it) early voting was down 35% from 2010 and 2008. I wonder if people don't want to vote for Romney out of conviction, but their wallets don't support the POTUS, so they are staying home.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1