Election Day Open-thread

by Matt Martin | 20 Comments

What are lines like?

Were the machines working?

How does turn-out compare to 2004 at your polling place?

GOTVing today? How’s it going?

What are your predictions?

Or share anything else that’s on your mind!

November 4, 2008, 11:53 am | Category: Election Nights |

20 Responses to “Election Day Open-thread”

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  • the other scott
    November 4, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    I normally vote in the evening (Central Neighborhood in Minneapolis) and have never encountered a line. I voted this morning with a neighbor who always votes early. When we got to the polling place, the line was out the door. There were no problems, just lots of people. Jenny, my neighbor said again and again, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Nor had I. When I put my ballot into the scanner, I took note of the number. When I got home I checked on the SOS site to see what the 2004 turnout was. Total votes in 2004 - 1310. Total votes in the first hour and 45 minutes of 2008 - 320. I can’t wait to see what the total will be. Go Barack! Go Al!

  • Jeff Rosenberg
    November 4, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    In Minneapolis W-8 P-4, I was voter #398 at about 10:30 AM. I didn’t see it, but my wife said there was a second machine; she said she was voter #109 on that machine.

    For the purposes of comparison, about 850 total votes in my very small precinct in 2004.

    Huge, huge turnout today.

  • John
    November 4, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    I was made to go back home and get a second form of ID to register, even though I had a valid MN driver’s license.
    I later checked the Sec of State website and found that this was improper procedure. A valid MN driver’s license is sufficient, no second form of ID required.

  • Cheryl K
    November 4, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    NE Minneapolis - I showed up at 6:30 and found 25 people already in line - by the time I finished voting at 7:10am there were over 200 folks in line. Yeah!!

  • alicia-logic
    November 4, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Just voted in Nowthen (Just north of Anoka). I slyly decided to vote at midday instead of morning or evening to avoid a line, but still encountered a bustling polling place. The worker I spoke to reported, however, that they did see record-breaking lines this morning, so it was still a good strategy.

    But darn, I wish I’d known to look for a number on the scanner!

  • Greg
    November 4, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    I arrived at my polling location in Roseville before opening at 7 AM and there was already a long line. Once the doors opened I made it through in about 45 minutes.

  • blt
    November 4, 2008 at 1:42 pm

    Voted this morning in Albertville (Wright County). Got there at 7:00 am and had to wait in line for about an hour. I’ve never seen any lines at all in Albertville, so turnout looks especially high. At 8:00 am, the scanner tallied my ballot as voter 208 (2004 turnout for this precinct was 2984).

    When I got back to my car, I found that someone had covered my Obama and Franken bumper-stickers with sheets of paper! Maybe I parked closer than 250 feet to the poll entrance, maybe a righty felt offended. I suspect the former; The line to get in ran right past my car.

  • MtkaDem
    November 4, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    No lines at W1C in SD42 (Minnetonka) at 11:30 am. In fact, it was almost empty.

  • Clem's Nuts
    November 4, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    SD 60B, Pershing Park was an hour wait at 10:30AM, but the line got smaller as I moved up. Not bad, no glitches, I did see a pathetic Republican Challenger amongst all us libs, cute suit he had on. Obama supporters had to take off pins and t-shirts, but thats about all the I saw. At 11:49 when I cast my ballot, I was ballot number 1024 at polling place.

  • The Train
    November 4, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    Two things I want to say on this historic day. First, great job to everyone responsible for this site. As the election approached this became a site I came to every day, multiple times, and I have learned a great deal that I otherwise might have missed. You should be very proud of your work this election cycle and it’s a great addition to Minnesota’s political landscape.

    Second, my voting data: we voted in St. Louis Park this morning, about a 1-hour process total from start to finish (well-run, just lots of people). My ballot was around #350 at 8:15 a.m. and there were at least another 100+ in line as we left. In 2004 a total of 1545 were cast for President in the precinct.

  • Johnny
    November 4, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    I voted in St Cloud today. I have my ears to the ground pretty hard, and I have heard of very few issues up here, aside from some small misunderstandings at SCSU.

  • MRW
    November 4, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    @ blt - Isn’t the distance limit 100 feet? We had to measure a sign placement in our downtown that was quite close to our city hall polling location. So you might just have irritated a rightie. I hear there are quite a few of them in StMA.

  • Linda
    November 4, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Voting in Brooklyn Park W E P 07 where I was an election judge for the first shift, went smooth and over 700 people had voted by 2:00.

  • SeanH
    November 4, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    Witnesses claim Somali translator in Minneapolis encouraged voting for Coleman

    http://minnesotaindependent.com/16268/witnesses-claim-somali-translator-in-minneapolis-encouraged-voting-for-coleman

  • A Nony Moose
    November 4, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Obama is going to win both Minnesota and the Presidency - that is pretty much assured.

    I’m more interested in the Senate, Congressional and State House races. One thing that did surprise me greatly - my college aged daughter is the biggest liberal on the planet (vegetarian, works for pro-choice causes …). She loves Obama and called me to tell me how happy she and her friends were to be voting for him and his likely victory. What surprised me was that at the last minute she decided she couldn’t vote for Franken and filled in the dot for Barkley.

    Made me proud!

    (I actually know a lot of people that are voting Obama - Coleman just like they did with TPaw - Amy)

  • Zach
    November 4, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    A co worker told me he voted in the Kenwood neighborhood of MPLS and there was a line 2 blocks long this morning.

  • DantheMan
    November 4, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    Some lines where I was in the Western Suburbs. Reminded me of 1992, which also had some lines. In looking at the MN SOS website, ‘92 was indeed the highest MN voter turnout since the 60’s. It never got that high again until 2004. I expect this year will be even higher.

  • the other scott
    November 4, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    My wife reported that by 2:45 today 1004 people had voted in our precinct. That means they 5 hours to get 300 ballots to surpass the 2004 total. I don’t think that will be a problem.

  • SeanH
    November 4, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    I was number 1313 in my precinct at 4pm

  • ooopinionsss
    December 2, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!

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