[Roger Kaputnik]

This thread is intended to provide a spot for people to report on their voting experiences and discuss any aspects of voting. It is NOT to discuss candidates.


F'rinstance, I have heard from two people that the wait at the courthouse was about two hours last Friday afternoon and about 2½ hours this very morning (Monday, the 3rd).

I found two ways to report polling situations: The first is to text, the second is to call. The text number is 66937, and you have to type [#voterreport] [zip code] then type your message. Do not type the brackets; they are just there to indicate what you have to start your text with. If you choose to call instead of texting, the phone number is 567-258-8683. You can see your message at www.mozes.com/voterreport.

[Southsider2k12]

A thread about my daughters third birthday? You shouldn't have Roger

[Roger Kaputnik]

Best wishes to her and all of you.












Have any of the Gentle Readers voted early?

[Southsider2k12]

I purposefully did not vote early. In my very unique view of the world, Election Day ranks up on my favorite non-holiday holiday's list along with Opening Day in Major League Baseball. I love the experience and the atmosphere of going to vote, and I wouldn't dream of diluting it by voting early, or by mail, unless I absolutely had to do so.

[Dave]

I voted early, took me about an hour. I commented about it elsewhere on here. When I got there around noon, about 30 people in front of me, and about 40 people behind me when I left. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, no real griping about waiting.

[JHeath]

I went to attempt to vote this morning at the MC Fish and Game Club, and will have to try again later (time constraints). I arrived at 5:53, and by 6:15, would have been just checking in, but decided to try again later in the day. No problems with the machines that I noticed, just too many people waiting for me to know that I'd make it home in time for my husband to leave for work on time.

The number of folks coming out to vote is just amazing!

[Magnolia]

I have been listening to WIMS all morning, and it is amazing to me the turnout so early this morning. the radio even mentioned that 25% of those 2004 voters have voted early. How exciting!!!!!
Magnolia

[Roger Kaputnik]

Admin, can you consolidate this thread and the other one about voting?

[Southsider2k12]

Some national and state level results have started to roll in. The most immediate is that Mitch Daniels has already been declared the victor over Jill Long Thompson with an early 12% point lead. The Presidential race so far is virtually tied.

[Southsider2k12]

Some of the initial results are in from the school board races, and ALL of the incumbants look to be getting whipped early on.

Kora and Nauyokas are within 6 votes of each other with each being over 550 votes each. Carlson is in a distant thir. This is in the City seat race.

Greene is up two to one over all of his opponents in the Springfield/Michigan race.

Dulaney is leading by about 4 percentage points over Hinchman in the Coolspring area.

[JHeath]

Joe Donnelly is the projected winner for US Senate over Luke Puckett. With over 74% of the precincts reporting, he has 67% of the votes.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Frankly, I do not see how Mr. Hanke did not do better. I would be interested in his thoughts, even in a PM.

[michigancityoutreach]

My friend and I arrived at the MCAS administration building around 3:45 and were gone by 4PM, with only 3 people in front of us. However, right when we were leaving there was a huge rush. My husband went at 10AM (before work) and had 25 people in front of him and had to wait about an hour. Guess we timed it just right! Also, this was my first time voting, ever, and it was quite surreal. It didn't really click in what my vote meant until I started watching the election results on tv. It's good to know my voice was heard. (From Joanna Dillard, member of the Michigan City Outreach team).

[Southsider2k12]

Well in general I am thrilled with the results.

We the people have completed a successful overhaul of the MCAS school board. To put this in perspective, in one election cycle for the full board, we have elected 6 new members out of the 7 seats. If that doesn't speak to what we think of the preformance of the former board and Michael Harding, I don't know what does.

As a county and City, we have also elected some people that I am very excited about seeing in office. Despite The tone around here, I really feel that guys like Scott Pelath and Jim Arnold don't get enough credit for the good work they do. A testament to Pelath's excellence is that the Republicans didn't even bother running someone against him. I am excited to see Craig Hinchman and Johnny Stimley take office as well. Hinchman is one of the most honest people I have ever met, and Stimley puts a ton of time into Michigan City. As I said earlier, I didn't have as much time to research all of the races, so the people's names that I am omitting, just means that I don't know enough to speak of them.

Congratulations to all who ran and especially to those who won. I look foward to our county moving forward from here.

[eric.hanke]

I recently sent you a PM.

Thanks,

Eric Hanke

Frankly, I do not see how Mr. Hanke did not do better. I would be interested in his thoughts, even in a PM.

[Southsider2k12]

I recently sent you a PM.

Thanks,

Eric Hanke

You did an excellent job. Stick with it, and stay involved. The second time around is much easier, especially when you start with zero name recognition.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Yes, I am surprised by this result in particular.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=49448.66

Clerk: Late precincts, early votes caused delays

Craig Davison
For The News-Dispatch

LA PORTE - Two precincts delivering ballots late led to a delay Tuesday night of the final La Porte County election results.

Clerk of the Circuit Court Bette Conroy said precincts in Galena Township and Long Beach came in late with their ballots.

In addition, ballots from early voting could not be counted until after all the precincts were in to make sure no one voted twice.

"That's just a protection for our county," Conroy said.

She also pointed out seven machines were used for early voting instead of the four that had been used in previous elections to handle the more than 8,500 people who voted early at either the Circuit Courthouse in La Porte or the Superior Courthouse in Michigan City.

Conroy said it took time to download and count those votes. Normally, she said, there are only about 1,800 early and absentee votes.

Joseph Felker, precinct inspector in Galena Township, said high turnout and long lines led to delivering the ballots later than usual. Felker said the township had about 400 voters in the primary and 734 voters Tuesday.

"We had almost a double dose of voters," he said.

Lines were long enough at 6 p.m. that the precinct didn't close out voting until almost 7:10 p.m., Felker said. Polls in Indiana closed at 6 p.m., but people still in line when the polls close are still allowed to vote.

Because the precinct was busy all day, poll workers were unable to count the absentee votes by mail until nearly 8 p.m., he said. According to Galena Township's precinct summary report, there were 214 absentee ballots.

The final vote tally was confirmed at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday.

[Dave]

In addition, ballots from early voting could not be counted until after all the precincts were in to make sure no one voted twice.

Now, I have to say this was/is totally screwed up.

I was working at one of the precincts for Obama for the GOTV effort, and after the polls closed, we all (poll workers and observers such as myself) discussed this.

The list of names of people who had early voted did not arrive until after the polls closed at 6 p.m., even though the early voters had voted the previous day at the earliest. If it had been shown that Joe Blow had voted early then voted at the precinct, what would be done? There's no way to purge one voter's input from one of the voting machines at the precinct (and I approve of this, otherwise how can your or my vote be secret?), but the voting machines for the early voting at the courthouse were the exact same machines, so presumably the same situation would apply to the early votes. So, as far as we could tell, Joe Blow would get to vote twice -- then he'd get to go to jail for vote fraud.

It would be much better if that list of early voters had been at the precinct before the polls opened.

If I am wrong about this, I sure would appreciate it if someone could set me straight.

This post has been edited by Dave: Nov 6 2008, 03:25 PM

[Roger Kaputnik]

I would have thought that the names would have been known to the pollworkers so they could stop a person from voting again. In discussion about this from someone I know, this did happen in the primary voting when a certain someone from MS tried to vote twice but got reminded that that vote had already been cast.