If anyone needs a ride to the polls in the Hampton Roads area, please let me know. A group of us will give any Republican a ride that needs it.
Thanks!
Schools are closed today because somany schools are polling stations. I think that is a shame, kids need to be exposed to the process at a young age so that the respect the importance of voting.
Virginia Beach
However, I saw something interesting I'd love some comment on.
I'm standing in line with about 40 other people. There is a mom and her 2 teenage daughters passing out sample ballots and pointing out to people that there are two lines -- 1 for A-K and 1 around the corner sorta for L-Z. They are kind and polite. No sign of anyone for the democratic side, but there was a table set up with sample ballots. Up walks this man in a dark blue suit with Kerry buttons on each lapel, a briefcase in one hand and a cell phone in the other. He announced, LOUDLY "I'm here to make sure there is no voter intimidation or disenfranchisement!" Everyone turned to look at him. There was NOTHING going on! The mother looked at him and said, "we are handing out sample ballots." One of the teenage girls said, "And pointing out there are 2 lines so that people don't stand in the wrong one and then have to go to the back when they get to the door." The suit GLARED at this girl of about 15 and said, "WHY ARE YOU DIRECTING VOTERS TO OTHER DOORS!!!" About that time, a man stepped forward and said, "Sir, if you will look up ahead, there are 2 doors marked A-K and L-Z. These ladies are just offering a courtesy to people." "Well then!! I will have to look into this because we simply CANNOT have voter disenfranchisement!"
He stalked inside and was still on his cell when I came in about 10 minutes later. I heard him say to whomever he was speaking, "Well, yeah, there was a slight problem with some Bush supporters, but I put them in their place....... Well you know how it is in these little towns....... I'll call you as soon as I see something wrong."
Those of us in line were just stunned and shocked beyond belief. The utter arrogance and outright lying! What is wrong with these people?!?!?
James City County/Williamsburg is seeing very heavy turnout. Very polite crowds, normal campaign folks outside but nothing untoward going on other than the Bush/Cheney signs at at least two polling places (Clara Byrd Baker E.S. and Jamestown H.S.) being stolen before sunrise.
I voted at 8 a.m. at a rural school in western Virginia. This year there were four voting machines available instead of the usual two, so a long wait in line was not a problem. Looks like a record turnout is shaping up here. My precinct usually goes Republican in a 3 to 2 proportion.
Go Bush/Cheney, Triplett (for Congress)!
Has anyone seen polls on the Virginia Congressional races?
Hey Mud, the Virginny thread's over here...has Mrs. Edwards started a riot near The Fan yet?
It was still kind of dark as I walked down the street to the Fairfax County Government Center and arrived at 6:30. I missed the sunrise while I waited in a long, orderly line for 90 minutes to vote on one of seven touch-screens.
The I.D. check table to receive a "voting pass" was divided into three lines, according to last initial. "A" through "G" (me!) moved briskly. "H" through "O" had a backlog of patient citizens.
Three people sporting "Democratic Poll Watcher" nametags with the ass -- I mean donkey -- symbol hovered over each I.D. checker, scrutinizing every action, checking and scrawling on pieces of paper in their hands.
There was another guy there with a nametag, and I guess he was a Republican poll watcher. He just seemed to be keeping an eye on the proceedings.
One of the election officers monitoring a voting machine was a former Marine.
Beautiful weather here; Election Day is never this warm. I love it. Maybe I'll wash my car today.
Chesapeake, large turnout and I vote in every election right down to the Council ones so I'm surprised.
Still say this election will be a landslide to Bush.
Hubby and I voted around noon. I had been to our precinct twice already this morning because it happens to be our elementary school, and we had parent/teacher conferences today. The lines were rather long every time I was there. When we put our punch cards into the machine on our way out the door, a person in line by us noticed the number of ballots cast was at 1200+. That was at noon. Hubby would remember the exact number. The woman remarked that it was the highest voter turnout at that precinct ever. (this was our first presidential election here.) A friend who has lived here all his life told us that he had never waited in line before today. A teacher at the school told me that the only other election she remembered with this sort of turnout was the 1976 presidential election. I don't know what any of this means because I didn't poll the folks waiting in line with us. Folks were very quiet and respectful.
Also, a retired school official who was visiting the school said that his precinct was hopping at 6:15 this morning with a long line out the door. The machine that takes the ballots broke, and the poll workers began putting ballots in a black bag. He was REALLY uncomfortable with this because "how do we know it is secure?" Hopefully, that precinct has honest poll workers.
Voted in Southern Fauquier County at 1:30P. No line and no one was going up to the sKerry table!!
Go BUSH/CHENEY !!
I have stories from TWO polling places - my own, and the church when I went to the noon Mass.
My polling place:
I was working the polls from 6 - 9 (going back at 4 to close)- Steve came with me to vote before going to work. He didn't actually vote until after helping me set up, but he was the 65th voter and it couldn't have been later than 6:15. I was 287 at 8:20. This is Western Spotsylvania County. There was a Kerry worker as well - very outgoing, native Virginian, Marine Vietnam vet if you can believe it. He was going to have to work two other polling places as well because the Dems down here don't have enough people to cover them all. They had enough to pull up 1500 Bush signs in a week, but that's different.
The church:
St. Patrick's school got used as a polling place, and it was kind of a disconnect to see all the Kerry signs out front. Some people walked into the church thinking the voting was in there and had to be redirected. There was one lonely Kerry worker, sitting dispiritedly on the trunk of his car as most people headed for the Bush poll worker.
In previous state or local elections, I've voted in the late afternoon and you'd be lucky to see a total above 300.
Wife is voting later this afternoon. There were a gaggle of David Ashe volunteers outside the school.
I was at the Smithfield, VA precinct (rural/suburb-type area) at 5:50 a.m. About 50-60 folks already in line. When I left there about 6:20, estimate about 125-150 folks waiting in line to vote. For the area, this is an extremely high, early voter turnout. Mostly 30-40-50+ age and up.
I just voted in the Fairlington section of Arlington, it took me 14 minutes.
I volunteered at the Wakefield precinct in Fairfax this morning from 6-9:30ish. It was very busy at 6, and tapered off a lot30-25 by 9 .. decreasing wait time each hour from 30-35 minutees to about 10-15 minutes. THEN I went to my own voting place around 11am, Oak Hill precinct at Canterbury Woods ES ... TWO HOURS in line! We met other Bush people in line, but don't know what the breakdown is, used to be 2:1 GOP, but demographics are changing. I was encouraged to see the local RC priest talking with his parishioners, hopefully pro-life, pro-Bush .. we will all see tonight !!! Good luck to all.
I'm in Stafford, which will no doubt be heavily Bush (Quantico), but there was something that worried me. I was at an elementary school, but apparently the library right across the street is open for voting too. So, conceivably, you could vote at the school, drive across the road and vote at the library. Disconcerting.
I voted in Fauquier County. I don't understand what happened with my ballot, though. It was a paper ballot which I filled out perfectly, but the counting maching spit it back out at me. The lady standing there said I must have put an extra mark on it and said to turn it over and put it in that way. My husband said that happened to a guy in front of him, too.
The marker was very heavy and I noticed one mark on the back of the paper had bled through to the front. Perhaps that caused the glitch.
I hope my vote was counted. I didn't wait to get a thorough explanation. It was very, very disconcerting.
Voted in Hampton this morning, decent turnout.