Posted on 10/28/2008 3:58:06 PM PDT by MittFan08
Crist extends voting hours
This is a very big deal: Florida Governor Charlie Crist, to the shock and dismay of Florida Republicans, just moved to extend early voting hours, a move likely to widen the Democrats' lead under a program on which the Obama campaign has intensely focused.
"He just blew Florida for John McCain," one plugged in Florida Republican just told me.
I have. I did one of my long "calculations on a napkin" calculations of the early FLA vote earlier today. The Republicans are actually running very slightly ahead if you base it on who requested ballots and how each side voted in 2004 (e.g. Dems voted 85-15 Dem in 2004 and 2006), GOPers voted 93-6 in 04 and something like that in 06). Heck, I even threw in the absentee Independents and assumed they are voting 57-41 Kerry as in 2004, and STILL the GOP almost certainly leads the vote.
In short, you're right. So far the evidence is that neither side is benefiting from early voting, but this is a plus for McCain because Obama and his "formidable" GOTV machine is trying very hard to turn out Dem voters early. This is compared to four years ago, where polling had indicated that early voters were favoring Kerry by a substantial margin. Chet 99 knows more about that part of all this.
This ruins EVERYTHING! This is the end! IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!!
DON'T YOU GET IT!!!????
Even 'plugged in Republican' that Ben talked to confirmed this. How come you can't see the DIRE situation that this puts us in?
Come on, kesg! He was 'plugged in' for God's sake! You KNOW that means our goose is totally cooked.
Stop being a Pollyanna and admit it!!!!
Fortunately we are not a Democracy. In a Republic there are rules and limitations that are agreed upon in advance, and then not changed, until and unless the parties involved agree to change them.
IOW, we have the rule of law, not the rule of men.
I'm sure the early voting dates, times and places were well publicized.
And now, I'm off to early vote. The early voting location closes at 8 PM, and I'm not going to stand outside the door whining because I got there at 8:01.
Is he mad McCain didn’t pick him?
Democrats had urged the extension, which means that votes will be cast 12 hours a day, not eight hours a day.
Ok, since Republican voters typical HAVE JOBS and need the extra time at the end of the day to vote, WHY IS THIS BAD?
IT MEANS THE DEMS WILL GET TO VOTE MORE OFTEN?? :O)
He extended it from 8 hours/day to 12 hours/day through Friday and extended the combined Sat/Sun from 8 hrs to 12 hrs.
Another Politico "unnamed Republican who is mad/upset w/ other Republicans story". Hmmmm...I'm sensing a pattern.
I don’t get it. Why is extending voting hours favorable to Democrats? Are they just allowing Dems to vote?
I get all warm and fuzzy when I read stuff like this. We hear so much crap about how formidable Obama's GOTV machine is when in fact they haven't done a damm thing that the RNC didn't already start doing six years ago.
You remember that when ACORN, and other such groups, are clamoring to keep the polls open to give "working people" more time to vote. They, and groups like them, have done that in critical areas for the last several elections.
Of course what it really does is give them more time to bring another few busloads of the folks they registered in to vote, and then again a couple of precincts over.
If the times need to be changed, the time to do that is *before* voting starts, not midstream.
Democracy is about giving everyone a chance to vote once.
Problem is, in a lot of states, ACORN has people voting who are not legal to vote, people voting in more than one state & also people voting multiple times in the same state.
Tell me how this is our "democracy" at work?
So, are you admitting that you’re engaging in a slippery slope logical fallacy?
Politico — that sorry outfit (or maybe it was CNN) who announced that McCain was pulling out of Colorado on the very day that Sarah Palin was holding three hugely successful rallies in that state and three days before McCain himself came to Colorado to campaign at rallies events announced on his website a week in advance. Don’t these guys actually practice journalism?
I'm a white female in OH and I doubt seriously if any judge would extend the hrs. so I could vote.
Me too, but that’s because I already voted, and I don’t live in Florida. ;-)
With extended hours, 7am to 7pm up from 8 hr days, why does that help the democrats more than republicans? From articles I’ve read it seems they have long lines with up to 90 minutes wait time under the current 8 hour day schedule. Do you think Repubs aren’t taking advantage of the early voting also?
Is he actually allowed to do this?
We have two more offices in Hillsborough County then they had in 2004. The best news is the brand new phone banks that are efficient. It is the same all over FL. I quit calling into Florida over a month ago because they had enough people to man the phone banks.
The McCain campaign offices in FL have had trouble keeping signs in their office. At one time, they were running out daily and ordering more from a place in Ocala.
My wife, daughter and I voted early today and we areRepublicans.
We voted in the Mt Dora Library and this county seems to be heavy Republican. The poll worker stated that they have been extremely busy this year, much more than usual.
I believe that there is a lot of early Republican turnout just to ensure that they get their vote in rather than wait to the last minute.
Wait a minute. I don’t get it. How come extending early voting is a Democrat thing? Can’t Republicans vote early too? What’s the problem? And don’t the majority of absentee ballots comprise of GOP votes?
To me, increasing the chances there’s not a clogged mess on election day should help, not hurt. Then again, I voted by mail this year and found it to be nice and stress free, so I could be biased. :-)
Seriously, someone explain to me why this is bad for us.
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