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Report from Woodland Hills, California [Los Angeles County]

I posted this on the general thread as well but thought it would be of interest to people who might only be following this one.

I voted in my largely Democratic precinct, getting in at 7:05am. There were about 30 people in line ahead of me, and about five voting machines. It took about 23 minutes for me to vote straight republican and against all propositions that involved raising taxes or spending money.

There were no poll watchers or literature distributors around. No talk about politics at all.

We are now using ink voting instead of chads. In my opinion, it's much easier to determine whether you're pushing out a chad versus inking the space accurately. You also have to make sure the ink has dried before processing the ballot, or the ink will smudge, creating overvotes. One precinct worker suggested they make a hair dryer available next time, and everyone chuckled.

I checked my ballot and found that I had not fully filled in the slot for George W Bush, so I put it back into the machine and re-did it. I think it's very possible that ANY voting mechanism would have given problems in Florida's 2000 election.

I noticed that at the beginning of the election season a lot of Kerry/Edwards lawn signs went up, and very few Bush/Cheney signs. But in the last week or so I've noticed the same numbers of Kerry/Edwards but more Bush/Cheney joining them, both on cars and lawns. This might indicate increasing support for Bush, or it might be that Bush isn't as well organized around here.

It looks to me from the reports that the heavy enthusiasm for voting is on the Bush side, not the Kerry, despite all the widely-publicised hatred of Bush. I fully expect Bush to win the popular vote. Now let's see how he does in Florida and Ohio.

D

Well done. Complacency by the DUmmies will be their doom.

The poll watchers here in Riverside County do not get to the polls until about 10 am, after orientation. They do not stay at the polls but make a circuit of all the polls in the area continuously, checking on pre-decided criteria which is not disseminated until today.Pitbully is our poll watcher here and will post updates beginning at 10 am.

I'm in Pacific Palisades (near Santa Monica) and voted absentee last week. I'll ask about the lines when I pick up my son from school but in the last week or so, the number of Bush/Cheney signs have multiplied in our very sKerry neighborhood. It used to be about 15-1 Kerry but now it's about 5-1 so while I won't hold my breath about taking California, I do think it will be very close.