Election Day pregame show (live)

Posted at 5:03 PM on November 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The bloggers are blogging, the reporters are reporting, the Twitterers are tweeting. Welcome to Election Day. I've got nothing on the agenda but a desire to browse and chat and maybe you do, too, so join in and let's see what we can cobble together to keep us entertained until the big game starts around 6.

update 3:11 p.m. - I couldn't embed this in the live blog (chat, whatever), but here's Allen Hill of St. Louis Park describing what happened when he went to vote today and found he, too, had been thrown off the voting rolls.

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Comments (14)

Any thoughts on news organizations trying to call the results early? There have been reports that CBS may try to call a preliminary winner by 7:00 p.m. Could there be another debacle as there was in 2000 when many of the news organizations made the wrong call? (I hope that this election will not be anywhere near as disastrous as the 2000 election.)

Posted by Jess | November 4, 2008 1:58 PM

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Jess, in the spirit of unfettered prognostication on election day, I predict that the media will be somewhat conservative in calling states early tonight.

Another hurdle I've seen pointed out elsewhere: if voter turnout swamps the polls, they will not necessarily close at the appointed time. In this state, and many others, voters who are in line when the polls close still get to vote. So some states we're expecting to get early in the evening (VA, I'm looking at you) might have delays.

Of course, I'm also told that many northern VA precincts have already surpassed 70% turnout. Wow.

Posted by bsimon | November 4, 2008 2:18 PM

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the media have been calling it wrong for years - the photo of Harry Truman holding the paper "Dewey Defeats Truman" is the most famous.

I would be more worried about the major media outlets "calling it" before the polls close on the west coast. Besides, they "call it" before all or even most of the votes are counted. Check out the next time CBS is announcing X electoral votes from Minnesota (with a little note that there's only 27% of the votes tallied).

They ought to (ethically, if not legally) wait until either a certain percentage of the votes are counted (not really practical) or until the polls close in Pacific Time. Not to dis' HI or AK. I've heard it argued that this influences the turn-out in the West, if the media think it's tipped in one person's favor. Obama's ahead by 50 electoral votes, and the McCain supporters don't show. Only to discover the difference was really 5, and they could have tipped it. Now, it's their own fault if they don't vote, but it also causes unnecessary civil strife.

Posted by Elizabeth T | November 4, 2008 2:18 PM

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As much as I want to know the results, I hope it is not called early. Give everyone a chance to get their votes in without needless influence by which side might or might not be winning.

Posted by Cameron | November 4, 2008 3:20 PM

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I was glad I voted absentee. I made it easier for others going on election day and it was really easy to do. Maybe Minnesota officials will wake up next year and allow real early voting instead of having to vote "absentee". I really see this as a benefit to those who have a hard time getting to the polls.

I know my normal polling place is not easily handicap accessible. I witnessed an elderly couple easily making it into city hall to vote and there were no crowds and everyone was helping them get in the door and to the polling room.

Just think with early voting we could get 90% participation in Minnesota.

Posted by bigalmn | November 4, 2008 3:21 PM

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Or it could be like the state of Washington, where all of the ballots are mail-in. Only two counties (King and Pierce) still have polling places, which is where most of the problems four years ago occurred (and some are occurring today).

Posted by boB Sinclair | November 4, 2008 3:33 PM

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I'm not sure if early voting is a great idea or not. I do see the potential positive sides: easier to vote if job takes you out of town on election day, accesibility for elderly or diabled, etc.

However, in states where pepole have the ability to vote over a week before the actual election day, they risk casting a vote without all of the information (Bush's drunk driving arrest came out only 5 days prior to the election, which causd some to withhold a vote for him; Bachmann's controversial comments leading to a close race when prior to that there was no real contest).

Maybe in the end the possible benefits (increased voter turnout) do outweigh the possible setbacks.

Posted by Jess | November 4, 2008 3:35 PM

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CONGRATULATIONS to those voters who claim to be afraid of higher taxes, spreading the wealth, socialism, blah, blah, blah. You voters may now consider yourselves as A LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR (Which I believe is a fifth grade education.) You are the target of the McCain/Palin pitch, and they've apparently hit a BULLSEYE!

Posted by Jim Kennedy | November 4, 2008 3:41 PM

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@Jess: Most voters I know have had their minds firmly made up for many weeks, if not months. Short of something that might disqualify a candidate outright, nothing popping up in the last week is likely to make a difference to most such firmly decided voters.

So, while I see your point, I have to believe that the benefit of making voting easier for the majority of people by having polls open for a week would seriously outweigh any potential for a small number of people to change their minds based on last minute information.

Posted by Jennifer | November 4, 2008 3:45 PM

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"However, in states where pepole have the ability to vote over a week before the actual election day, they risk casting a vote without all of the information"

We do that today. For instance, the McCain campaign released Gov Palin's medical records today. Is there something in there we should know about? I didn't hear anything before going to vote this morning - but by tomorrow who knows what they'll find?

Point being: having an arbitrary day when everyone has to vote doesn't necessarily give us all the relevant information we should have.

None of us know what tomorrow will bring.

Posted by bsimon | November 4, 2008 4:06 PM

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I like going to vote on the first tuesday after the first monday. I also didn't make up my mind on President until I got in the car to go to the poll this morning, so I might be a little weird.

Posted by Brian Hanf | November 4, 2008 4:31 PM

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Jess,

Washington is absolutely NOT a mail-in state!

A recent AP story, reprinted in dozens of newspapers, got that fact completely wrong. They haven't yet issued a retraction.

Reference

Posted by Corrector | November 4, 2008 4:44 PM

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Correction to "Corrector"

I actually didn't say that. It was in a post by "boB Sinclair"

Posted by Jess | November 4, 2008 4:48 PM

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If people were following our conversation about China today and are interested in more information about my time here, or just about China in general, I am keeping a podcast. You can subscribe to it at http://feeds.feedburner.com/aural-fixation or through the iTunes store.

Thanks for letting me join the conversation Bob!

Posted by Greg Boone | November 4, 2008 5:15 PM

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