Posted on 10/24/2016 7:48:38 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
(Note: I posted this on another thread about early voting in Florida but I think it needs a thread of its own.)
Okay, I am now back from early voting at the Broward Country Library Tamarac Branch and I have some SHOCKING news.....
First of all I did NOT vote. Actually, as you shall see, this is GOOD news. The reason why I did NOT vote is that the line was BY FAR the largest I have ever seen it for early voting at this location. It was so large that it went thru the library and snaked out almost to the back door. I estimated the wait time to be around 2 hours. Maybe longer.
I have early voted at this same location several times before and the lines were NEVER close to being this long. In off year elections, the wait time is always zero to less than 5 minutes. In presidential elections, always less than 15 to 20 minutes. I didn't feel like waiting a couple of hours on that looooooong line especially since I didn't bring my cellphone headphones to listen to internet radio while waiting.
An elections official told me there were few people in the line when it opened at 7 A.M. and for about the first half hour so tomorrow I will be there at 7 to vote.
The GOOD NEWS is that any first time voting millennial who is sort of for Hillary will be bummed out waiting for over an hour on that looooooong line. I actually didn't spot anybody on that line that would even fit into that age group. Imagine the shock of a first time voter millennial seeing that line and realizing he/she would have to invest a couple hours waiting.
Well, tomorrow I will be there right at opening time at 7 AM to vote. But just in case, I will be bringing my headphones.
Votes Race mix as of Sunday:
2016: 65% white, 27% black
2012: 58% white, 36% black (same time now)
Republicans and Democrats are both down in early voting in NC but Independents are up HUGE (+30% and heavily white and good mix of male %)
I stand (although I’m actually sitting as I type this reply) corrected. ;)
After having to deal with a population of whiners today, you would not be flowers and sunshine either.
Just because Clinton supporters aren’t putting signs in their yards doesn’t mean they won’t show up or won’t set aside their gripes with her to stop Trump. Yes, we have the enthusiasm gap, but they have supporter population density, money and machinery. And thanks to early voting, they now have time to run up their numbers by all legal and illegal means necessary.
I lived for four years in the Washington, DC suburbs which tended to vote democrat by a 70/30 margin, but even in the bluest of the blue areas like that there can be found conservative enclaves that vote as "red" as rural Texas...
I lived for 36 years in Fairfax County inside the Beltway. I was active in GOP politics. I witnessed the delcine of the GOP in NoVA beginning with Kerry winning Fairfax County in 2004, the first time a Dem did that in 40 years. Immigration, the migration of liberals into the area as part of the Beltway bandits, and increased federal employment has made the area solid blue. Conservative "enclaves" are virtually non-existent. The 10th district in VA will probably go blue this time. Comstock refused to endorse Trump and is an amnesty supporter. Good riddance.
FYI: One-third of Fairfax County is now foreign-born.
I’ve lived down here since 1991.
Broward County used to be a huge retirement population that would commit suicide before voting against FDR’s party. Lauderhill/Inverarry, Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood were prime senior areas.
Over time the population has shifted to a younger demo with Caucasian families and as a move-up location for Hispanic and Haitian immigrants from Dade County.
The Caucasian enclaves include Coral Springs, Parkland, Weston and the like while the move-up areas are mostly Pembroke Pines and now Hollywood. It has a very large Black population (Haitians are not African-Americans).
Before Hurricane Matthew, Hillary no-showed an event in Hollywood, not because of her health (she spoke in Ft. Pierce the next day) but because only 8 people showed up at the office event she was going to speak to.
When you look at those numbers and you realize that Haitians are a close knit community that fully understands how the Clinton foundation ripped them off you can easily see a swing of about 10,000 - 20,000 in that county alone, which could almost HALVE the Obama winning margin from 2012.
The key question here is those suburban Moms in Coral Springs, Parkland, etc. A number are transplants but it’s also a much larger number of actual home-grown Floridians too. It’s easy to make fun of how few have grown up here but that is now in the past as many of my friends are local born and raised.
We tend to forget that Florida now has a larger population than New York so don’t make assumptions about this voting surge on either side of the equation. We’ll see soon enough.
I think that’s pretty much what I said.
Long lines for #earlyvoting at the Clerk of Courts office in Sarasota. Candidate Alex Miller greets voters.— Katherine Ferrara (@katiejwriter) October 24, 2016
Agree completely. Was never a Romney fan but early voting killed his chances last go around. It’s only anecdotal evidence, but I can tell people here that I work with lots of women who aren’t huge Hillary fans but are standing in long lines to vote against Trump.
Just returned from voting in Citrus County, Florida, and clerks said it was the busiest they’ve seen for first day early voting. No long lines, but a steady parade of early voters. Most looked very happy -— whatever that may mean.
Look, high turnout in a dem stronghold is never a good thing. However, about the only positive spin (and hope) we can have is that these are the first wave of the die hard, pent up, can’t wait to vote, leftists, and that their numbers will dwindle each day. Therefore, no real inference should be taken from first day voting in tamarac. That is my hope.
Again, you had to be incredibly motivated to wait on the line I saw today.
Many of those people are probably voting at least once a day- Everyday- through election day.
Someone should set up a camera on the line and check for reoccurring voters.
Just stand in line wearing your Red MAGA Hat and matching Red Shirt and note the reactions.
That will tell you what direction the wind is blowing.
“Just returned from voting in Citrus County, Florida, and clerks said it was the busiest they’ve seen for first day early voting. No long lines, but a steady parade of early voters. Most looked very happy -— whatever that may mean.”
“Early voting tweet from Sarasota:
Long lines for #earlyvoting at the Clerk of Courts office in Sarasota. Candidate Alex Miller greets voters.— Katherine Ferrara (@katiejwriter) October 24, 2016
The point here is to look at the big picture. It also appears there’s BIG turnout in the above mentioned Republican counties as well. So turnout appears to be high everywhere on this first day of FL early voting.
It just would seem to me taking into account the enthusiasm gap that higher turnout overall benefits Trump acknowledging that many are indeed coming out to vote against him.
My opinion FWIW.
I completely agree. In fact, for that reason I have decided to delay my early voting until Thursday morning so I can get a better gauge of the vote since only really motivated voters will be waiting on that loooooong line today. I want to see just how long the line will be on Thursday. Also that is the day I will be going out armed with my coupon printouts (via several computers) and pick up 11.4 oz boxes of fish fillets for just 25 cents per box at Publix. You can see the deal plus the coupon printout links HERE.
Also Orange County a Democrat majority county:
“Just returned from Early Voting in East Orlando, just South of UCF (2nd largest college campus in the US). This polling place is in a very diverse area since much of surrounding area is students and working class families. When we vote here in 2012, the lines were better than 90 black folks with Church Vans in operation and huge coordination efforts happening. Today the lines were mixed with maybe 1/2 white, very few Millennials, 1/4 Hispanic and 1/4 black. In 2012 I was completely blown away with the demographics, today is was very very different. It was about a 45 minute wait.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3484238/posts
Not likely. They check drivers licenses and match it up against the voter rolls via computer.
Lookup SuperTramp- “Dreamer”.
If you think things happen the way they are supposed to. Not many places can even check ID anymore due to crooked judges.
All I know is when I vote here they check my driver’s license match it with their computer information so they know what ballot to give me. They have to do that because ballots differ depending on what precinct you live in and most likely if you are early voting you are also voting out of precinct so they have to do the check to print out the correct ballot.
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