Politics: People really wanted to vote today
As noted earlier, I waited in line for about 45 minutes to vote. I got in line at about 9:30 a.m. and got back to my car at about 10:20 a.m. When I got in line, a woman exiting the building said she had to wait about 1 hour, 5 minutes. Yikes.
I considered coming back later, but decided to get it over with.
We chatted with out line mates about the weather, kids, what we were doing for dinner — you know, the usual bonding experience of voting. No one chatted about politics. No one mentioned WHO they were voting for. We all were resigned to having to wait, since the media’s been warning us for months that the lines would be long. The closest I heard to a complaint was a long, resigned sigh.
At one point, I did joke that turnout is probably going to be to close to 120 percent of registered voters. A guy in line behind me suggested I don’t even joke about that. I honored his wish.
We were united in our admiration for on particular line mate. Several mothers where there with children in tow. Most of the kids were in strollers. But this one young mother had three, approximate ages 3,2 and a babe in arms. The kids were astonishingly well-behaved (and were cute as all get-out). The women in line with me noted that it took some endurance to carry a baby that long.
And all I’m thinking was that this woman — I’m guessing she was half my age — had the perfect excuse for skipping the whole thing.
People really, really wanted to vote this year.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
They were saying on the radio this morning that a third of the electorate had taken advantage of early voting. A third !!!!. That third was overwhelmingly Democrat, even in states that have more registered Republicans than Democrats.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Billy, I hope you don’t set off an international incident as a result of that link to your post! Lol!
November 4th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
How can they tell mahkno, I don’t believe early votes are to be tallied until election day. Sounds like someone is feeding you flase information.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I bet a good chunk of the third of early voters is going to vote today a few times also. Ha Ha. But seriously, both of the main parties have proven to be unable to progressively handle the challenges in a sober manner. Therefore, I not really excited about all this phony “change” in the air. The real change will have to come from the people, not the politicians.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Billy sez: “People really, really wanted to vote this year”
I say: You can thank George Dubya Bush for that!
November 4th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Starbucks. A 10 oz coffee is free by telling them you voted. Value in Pekin was $1.55 Good strong flavor with room for half and half!
Vote and enjoy.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
11Bravo,
In most (maybe all) states you have to register to vote before election day. When you go in, they check your name off as having voted. They haven’t tallied the votes yet, but they know that you have been there.
That’s how they know.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Okay, but a lot of states (and like Illinois which is highly democratic) don’t register voters by party so they still have no way to tell. I’m just asking where the info came from because it sounds fishy.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
it’s awesome that there has been this “problem” of long lines all over… people taking a greater interest in public issues is always a good thing
November 4th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Looks like the early voting is about 25% of actual voters and 1/6 of registered voters. In the City, at least ~ 4000 of 16,000 voted early. That 16,000, BTW is 2/3 of all registered voters in the city.
In the county, it was 62% turnout.
Nice job by Peoria city and Peoria county getting their totals out so quickly.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:17 am
11 Bravo, they determine them by exit polls.