Turnout, turnout, turnout

[millwx]

Don't know about anyone else's experience, but I just voted.  I was in line for two hours in a non-battleground state.  Unreal.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If (if, if, if, if, if) turnout is as high as it might be...

[Sam Spade]

What's a trunout?  

I figure I'm going to be safe and wait till mid-afternoon to go vote in my polling location in downtown Baltimore.

[MODU]

When polls opened here in VA, some locations had over 400 people already waiting in line.  I think we are on pace for record turnout this year, and I don't believe that is necessarily good news for Kerry.  I just think people are (finally) getting more involved with politics.

I can't wait to see the final turnout figures.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

I was #517 at my polling place.  At 9:10 CST.

My precinct is about 50/50.

I voted:
Bush
Feingold
Rittenhouse (what the hell, not like Petri is going to lose)
Abstention on all of the State/Local unopposed offices.  I DON'T RUBBER STAMP.

[Dave from Michigan]

It was my first presidential election so I have nothing to compare it too. I arrived at my polling place at 6:40 and there were 25 people in line once they opened the voting it only took 20 mintues I left at 7:20. I was voter 26

[Nym90]

I was number 446, at 10:45 AM Eastern.

1,318 votes were cast in my precinct in 2000. (Marquette County, Marquette City, Precinct 6)

[Erc]

Long Lines means the less determined people don't vote means more of the people in line are Bush supporters...

[ATFFL]

The question is will the heavy turnout continue all day, or is everyone voting early and there will be no lines late in teh day.

[minionofmidas]

The question is will the heavy turnout continue all day, or is everyone voting early and there will be no lines late in teh day.

The question is also: How are voters usually distributed throughout the day? In Germany, we get the biggest rush right after lunch, but then we vote on Sundays so it'll be mighty different in America. IIRC Britain tends to have the largest rush in the hour before polls close.

[Nym90]

The question is will the heavy turnout continue all day, or is everyone voting early and there will be no lines late in teh day.

The question is also: How are voters usually distributed throughout the day? In Germany, we get the biggest rush right after lunch, but then we vote on Sundays so it'll be mighty different in America. IIRC Britain tends to have the largest rush in the hour before polls close.

Lines are often longer earlier in the day, since senior citizens tend to vote early. So the lines are long early because people take longer to vote.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

IIRC Britain tends to have the largest rush in the hour before polls close.

True. Traditionally that's when most Labour voters vote (after clocking off from work) and why we get paranoid about rain...

[njsketch]

Anecdotal eveidence here:  My precinct was just as slow as in 2000...this is Democratic bastion Essex County, NJ.

Several local radio reports state that dramatic increases in turnout have been noticed in Morris and Hunterdon County, which are Republican strongholds and need high turnout to give R's a chance in NJ.

It will be interesting to see what Hudon County, a Dem stronghold, looks like.

[ATFFL]

The US traditionally has a morning rush, a lucnh surge (lots of people leave and go back to work without voting) and finally the after work crowd, which tends to be smaller than the morning and more than the lunch crowd.

[MODU]

The radio here still says many sites have a 30 minute wait in line.  Of course, they don't know how many machines are inside each facility, so that might have to be taken into account.

Around here in Northern VA, the poll sites are basically busy all day long as people take time off of work to vote during the "non-peak" hours, especially since our rush hour commutes can easily be 2 hours long at night.

Can't wait to see how many people come out this year.

[Jens]

IIRC Britain tends to have the largest rush in the hour before polls close.

True. Traditionally that's when most Labour voters vote (after clocking off from work) and why we get paranoid about rain...

Same in Denmark. Last election in 2001 the turnout in the evening caused lines outside the polling places and when the election closed at 8 PM, there still was a long line of people that wanted to vote. The polling officials then had to get out and "protect" the line so that the people that was present at the polling places could vote (It was called "extending the parimeter of the polling place").
The turnout was 88% - the best in years.

It seems to me like your polling places are understaffed. At the place where I have been a polling official the last 2 elections, the number of voters was ca 5000, and we where 35 polling officials

[minionofmidas]

In Germany, if there's still people waiting to vote when the polls close (never happened where I was a volunteer though), you have to let them all into the room and close the door on them. Just to ensure nobody else joins the line that arrived after the deadline.

[Mort from NewYawk]

I was #517 at my polling place.  At 9:10 CST.

My precinct is about 50/50.

I voted:
Bush
Feingold
Rittenhouse (what the hell, not like Petri is going to lose)
Abstention on all of the State/Local unopposed offices.  I DON'T RUBBER STAMP.

Good for you, Beef. I like your style.

I voted Bush/Schumer. (I wonder what % of New Yorkers did that?)

And no votes on unopposed judgeships.

My polling place was packed, more than I've ever seen it.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

I was #517 at my polling place.  At 9:10 CST.

My precinct is about 50/50.

I voted:
Bush
Feingold
Rittenhouse (what the hell, not like Petri is going to lose)
Abstention on all of the State/Local unopposed offices.  I DON'T RUBBER STAMP.

Good for you, Beef. I like your style.

Thanks!

I voted Bush/Schumer. (I wonder what % of New Yorkers did that?)

I know that quite a large percentage of Cheeseheads are voting Bush/Feingold.  The Feingold decision was really tough for me, as he voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal.  But Tim Michels is an authoritarian prick.

[Sam Spade]

I'll try to give whatever info I can out of mid-Baltimore City when I go vote in a hour or so.  

Anecdotal evidence, of course.  

[millwx]

Long Lines means the less determined people don't vote means more of the people in line are Bush supporters...

That may be generally true, but not universally true.  I'd say (yes, in jest!!) that any Bush supporter in my precinct would have been in fear for his/her life.  My precinct is heavily (and I mean heavily... probably about 80-20%, at least... Dem).  I witnessed only about five people leaving because of the wait, and overheard at least a couple of them say they'd come back later.  So, the Dems at this polling place were patient.  in fact, one woman came in and exclaimed in an... ummm... "urban" accent... "Damn, I guess we takin' this one seriously!  We not jokin' this time!"  I could do without the grammatical idiocy, but her sentiment was the same as everyone's in line.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Long Lines means the less determined people don't vote means more of the people in line are Bush supporters...

That may be generally true, but not universally true.  I'd say (yes, in jest!!) that any Bush supporter in my precinct would have been in fear for his/her life.  My precinct is heavily (and I mean heavily... probably about 80-20%, at least... Dem).  I witnessed only about five people leaving because of the wait, and overheard at least a couple of them say they'd come back later.  So, the Dems at this polling place were patient.  in fact, one woman came in and exclaimed in an... ummm... "urban" accent... "Damn, I guess we takin' this one seriously!  We not jokin' this time!"  I could do without the grammatical idiocy, but her sentiment was the same as everyone's in line.

ALLOW ME TO BE THE FIRST: I CALL MARYLAND FOR KERRY!!!!!!1!

[Jens]

In Germany, if there's still people waiting to vote when the polls close (never happened where I was a volunteer though), you have to let them all into the room and close the door on them. Just to ensure nobody else joins the line that arrived after the deadline.

You are supposed to do the same in Denmark, but there simply wasn't room for all the voters back in 2001. That was the reason why the perimeter was expanded