The "how I will be watching the election results" thread

[nomadthethird]

it's like it's some third world country that's new to democracy and can't quite sort its electoral shit out.

there are what, 300 million people here? It's not as simple as it may sound

 

[Mr. Tea]

there are what, 300 million people here? It's not as simple as it may sound

 

[nomadthethird]

Not many states use electronic voting but yeah...thing is hackers would be far more likely to skew the election toward Obama. Republicans are old and white. They barely know what a cellphone is, let alone how to hack into Diebold machines. Actually I've heard you have to program a chip and it takes six minutes to open a machine and stick the chip in. There was a guy on the Colbert Report talking about it the other night.

 

[Grievous Angel]

Ah, gotcha. (We cross-posted ) So one of the real stories of the election is the high turnout.

But I agree, in a sense Obama has got a pass. Most of the republican base is pissed off at Bush for not being conservative enough, and haven't trusted McCain at any time in his career. It's kind of a surprise that Obama isn't doing even better.

 

[nomos]

On the couch with the missus, a bottle of red and a big bag of Cheetos; switching between CBC, BBC and CNN coverage; praying to fuck that people turn out to vote, can manage to get 6 hours off of work, and that the dirty tricks aren't enough; feeling politically optimistic for the first time in 8 years and cautiously looking forward to Canada not being joined at the hip with a lumbering psychopath for a change. Not being unrealistically optimistic about Obama but it needs to happen and the alternative would be a disaster in many ways.

Also, should Obama win, I can't wait for him highlight, by example, just what an ass-backward fool our mini-Bush PM is.

I don't understand the voting machines though, except as a self-perpetuating industry that's done well cozying up to the GOP. We have paper ballots here and we never have a problem. If you have enough poll locations to begin with then efficiency shouldn't be an issue.

 

[john eden]

John - there's a hint of interest and enthusiasm for this election somewhere in there, I just know it . Then again, you have just spent the weekend partying with godless communists, so who knows!

I doubt that my actions tonight will have any serious effect on the result.

 

[nomadthethird]

I don't understand the voting machines though, except as a self-perpetuating industry that's done well cozying up to the GOP. We have paper ballots here and we never have a problem. If you have enough poll locations to begin with then efficiency shouldn't be an issue.

In the U.S., the average age of local electoral board members (all volunteers, of course) is 72. This is part of the problem. The level of organization is just not there to support the current population of the U.S. It is also easy for parties to hijack the state electoral boards.

Paper ballots are just as easy to toy with as anything, see Florida circa 2000 and 2004. A lot of the ballots that mysteriously disappeared during the count were provisional paper ballots and such.

 

[Dunninger]

Because in the past, very few people actually voted, so authorized polling places are only ready for a certain number of voters based on past participation. In general I think something like 40% of people who are eligible to vote in the U.S. actually do. This year they're expecting something like 80%.

It still sounds quite weird that even the double amount of voters results in queuing up for up to 4 hours. I don't think I ever waited for more than 5 minutes here, if at all.
Anyway, I won't spend the night looking at charts and graphs, just hope for good news tomorrow morning.

 

[nomadthethird]

It still sounds quite weird that even the double amount of voters results in queuing up for up to 4 hours. I don't think I ever waited for more than 5 minutes here, if at all.
Anyway, I won't spend the night looking at charts and graphs, just hope for good news tomorrow morning.

Another factor that is slowing down the lines is--because of the ACORN scandal and the last two botched elections--poll officials are being much more careful about getting proper identification and ensuring that those who show up to vote are who they claim to be. Also there are registered voters who aren't showing up on rolls, which then slows down the line while people do paperwork so the person can fill out a provisional ballot. Plus there are people who need all kinds of help to figure out the voting machines, machines breaking down, people accidentally casting the wrong vote on electronic machines, etc.

If you could just allow any human who lived in the US to walk in and drop a piece of paper into a box, it would be easy. But we have a lot of illegals here, and lots of felons and others who are not allowed to vote.

I'm registered in upstate NY so it's only going to take me 10 minutes around the corner. It's the bigger cities that are having problems.

 

[droid]

How does that happen? - I mean the long queues. That's pretty much unheard of in the UK, for voting, standing in the Post Office it's pretty standard these days though.

From that democracy now link in the other thread:

MARK CRISPIN MILLER:But there have also been, as usual, very long lines in Democratic precincts only. We’re talking about a calculated kind of shortage that magically does not afflict Republican precincts, only Democratic ones....

...AMY GOODMAN: That report, by American News Project. We’ll be getting reports from them throughout Tuesday night for the five-hour broadcast and Wednesday morning for our expanded two-hour broadcast the morning after. That voice, especially for our radio listeners who didn’t see her identified on the TV broadcast, was that of Marge Tartaglione. She said make sure you “spell my name right.” T-A-R-T-A-G-L-I-O-N-E. She is the chairwoman of the Philadelphia Voting Commission. Mark Crispin Miller, the significance of what she said—people wait all night for baseball tickets, they wait all night to get an iPhone—what’s the problem?

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Well, that kind of contempt, that cavalier attitude towards people voting, and equating voting, which is like a crucial civic function, with waiting in line to get the latest toy, you know, demonstrates how weak a commitment these people have to democracy. I mean, she’s a Democrat, whoopee. All over the country, given how corrupt our political culture is, we have Democrats and Republicans essentially working together against the voters. The problem in Philadelphia with the long lines and so on, we’ve seen this elsewhere in the country. Just yesterday in Georgia, people were waiting over ten hours to vote. So this is something—

AMY GOODMAN: And who this disadvantages? You might say, well, everyone waits on the line.

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: No, that’s just it. Here again, as with the vote flips, which go in one direction, the shortages afflict basically one side. They happen in the inner cities. They happen in Hispanic neighborhoods. They happen in college towns. You see? So these people give up; they have to go to work, and so on, and they can’t vote.

AMY GOODMAN: And even if the same—even if people from across the economic spectrum wait on the same line, the issue is, who can wait? If you’re a worker who’s got to get back to work, if you have to work that day, versus if you can take time off.

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Well, that’s absolutely true. I’ve yet to hear, though, of any long lines afflicting, you know, the polling places in the suburbs or small towns, you know, where there’s a lot of Republican voters.

Shenanigans!

 

[...]

With a TV set, booze & fags. What other way is there?

 

[nomadthethird]

Shenanigans!

Thing is most democrats live in big cities, hence longer lines in "democratic" districts. Or that's at least a partial explanation. I wouldn't be surprised if there were old republican election officials crankily trying to muck it up in districts where democrats outnumber them.

 

[mistersloane]

With a TV set, booze & fags. What other way is there?

no tv! so watching via internet whilst drinking pale ale and making molotovs and looking forward to taking to the streets and killing whitey when McCain gets in. I'm looking at Dulwich Village as my first target.

 

[...]

I'll be looking for glimpses of Sarah 2012. Hockey Mom. Naughty Librarian. Joe Six Pack. Joe the Plumber.

 

[...]

By the way, did any one follow the story of Joe the Plumber? According to Sidney Blumenthal in today's Guardian,

McCain desperately elevated Joe the Plumber as the voice of the people against Obama's "socialism". Joe was a ghost of Republican campaigns past, the stalwart member of Nixon's "silent majority", the "Reagan Democrat". But the symbol was an atavism; the reality was a guy on the make seeking to own a business and avoid taxes. Once the spotlight focused on him, he hired an agent to hustle commercial endorsements and a book deal.

Which sounds brilliant. Downfall!

Just as McCain's campaign has been an extended seance trying to call forth Reagan, he found himself at a rally summoning Joe the Plumber, who wasn't there. "You're all Joe the Plumber!" yelled McCain in frustration.

I'd link it, but you don't really need to read the rest of the article. You could ghost it yourself.

 

[jambo]

Interesting Joe the Plumber getting quite severely grilled on Fox (by Shep Smith) over saying that a vote for Obama is a vote for 'the death of Israel'. Worth watching the interviewer's reaction at the end.

 

[nomadthethird]

Just got back from the most anti-climactic voting trip ever.

There were no lines. It was a well-oiled machine with lots of poll officials and lots of booths.

No one asked for my ID. They just had me sign my name next to a scan of the signature that's also on my driver's license.

Not very scary overall.

 

[nomadthethird]

Interesting Joe the Plumber getting quite severely grilled on Fox (by Shep Smith) over saying that a vote for Obama is a vote for 'the death of Israel'. Worth watching the interviewer's reaction at the end.

Well, don't I feel silly now for voting for Obama, after someone with no foreign policy credentials and no formal education made an outrageous claim that's obviously bullshit.

Thanks, Fox, for spoonfeeding me what I should be terrified about. Otherwise I might have to think and actually read things once in a while!

 

[Mr. Tea]

no tv!

I thought you had a psychic tv?

so watching via internet whilst drinking pale ale and making molotovs and looking forward to taking to the streets and killing whitey when McCain gets in. I'm looking at Dulwich Village as my first target.

Good man. I just finished my bottle of cheapo Italian plonk so I may head out in a bit to find something more interesting to drink if I decide to stay up and watch results come in.

 

[mistersloane]

I thought you had a psychic tv?

The TV in my head only picks up Channel 5 though.