Last Election Liveblog of 2008

Living in Chicago, my state probably is as much a "swing" state as New York, James. Still, when I went downstairs to my polling place (conveniently in my building) at 6 am when polls opened, there was a HUGE line of voters....it took me almost an hour to get a ballot to vote.

Still, it very much warmed my heart to see so many citizens of all ages, races, genders, and backgrounds exercising the rights thousands of brave men and women fought and died to protect.

P.S. Those of you who watched Morning Joe on MSNBC might have noticed how long it took Obama to vote. The reason? Judicial retention votes -- you cannot vote manually vote straight ticket at all on the Chicago ballot, and there were at least 50 separate judges you had to vote to retain or reject. A pain in the neck, but I imagine a former law professor probably wanted to take his time on that part of the ballot.

Sweet! The drinking buzz words of today are: Ohio, Virginia, exit polls, red state, blue state, and voter turnout.

@Chaddogg: Thanks for the Chicago insight, I was wondering about the time it took him to vote myself.

I'm in the swing-state of Virginia in a sorta-not really swingy area - the Shenandoah Valley - and it was only a 10 minute wait. I don't know how it'll go in the more densely populated areas in Richmond, Tidewater and the DC area, but I don't see how Gov. Kaine wouldn't do everything in his power to make sure that voting went flawlessly.

In and out of my east Denver polling place in about 15. (we only had about 25 judges to make decisions on)
Heard similar things to what Chad said from one of my North Sider friends in Chicago.

Pretty quiet when I went to vote this morning around 7:30am here in the perennial swing state of Massachusetts. First time i've ever voted in person as opposed to absentee ballot. I was very disappointed, no touch screens, no levers, no crazy booths. Just a fill in the bubble sheet. I felt like I was taking the SATs again. Most of the people on the ballot were either uncontested or essentially uncontested (John Kerry, Barney Frank). Oh well at least if McCain wins I can get a trendy "Don't blame me, I voted for Obama" bumper sticker...

Seriously, the ballot is ridiculous. I'm generally against electing judges (the merit is that they're independent from the political process), so the lengthy second side of the ballot involving judicial retentions was a pain.
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Still, I thought people should know why it took so long for Obama to vote (paper ballot, filling in lines, long ballot, etc.)...but it was nice to see him and Michelle voting with their daughters. I saw MANY people bringing their children (and one person their dog) along with them to vote....foster democracy, folks!
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As for voting buzzwords, I'd add North Carolina, landslide, Indiana, historic/groundbreaking, "too close to call", hanging chads, 2000, Civil Rights movement, and (on MSNBC and NBC, at least, with a touch of melancholy) Tim Russert (and what he would have thought of this election).

After letting the early birds do their thing, I rolled in to vote at about 9:10 and was thru the line and the ballot withing 30 minutes. Not bad. Whatever the outcome, let's hope everyone who is eligible to vote does and we have a nice, smooth American-style transition of power. After such a long campaign, I want a rest. Though it looks like we'll have a Senate run-off in GA in a few weeks. Does that make it the last election of 2008 or the first of 2010?

I did early voting last Thursday, and it was awesome. We waited till the last day of early voting, so everywhere was packed. We went to the station out by our house, but it was crowded like the circus was in town or something, so we did an internet search of the polling stations with the least traffic, and we wound up at a polling station where we were literally the only white folks around. Everyone was so excited, folks were there with little kids and old ladies in wheelchairs, and everyone from church folks to gansta dudes were all in line. There was a lot of excitement in the air, and folks were mostly chatting about Obama (even though we weren't actually supposed to be talking about it, according to the signs) with mostly hopeful, optimistic attitudes. We had a great time, and it was good being in a place full of Obama voters - my parents went to early vote and all they heard was McCain McCain McCain.

As for today, in Knoxville there are lots of folks on streetcorners with signs, folks seem pretty excited. We're having an election nite vigil with some friends to watch the returns coming in, I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'll check into the liveblogging periodically, although probably not too often so as not to seem antisocial at the gathering.

Happy Election Day!!!

I voted absentee in Michigan, since I now live in Israel, but my ballot came super late, so I had to express mail it, so I think I've now spent more on voting than anyone else ever. There goes the myth of the rational voter...

I'm currently debating whether or not to go to the election returns party at 3:00am tonight. Will I be able to sleep anyway?

I waited 45 minutes to early vote last week here in Indiana, but it sounds like I got off easy. I heard of people waiting 2+ hours to early vote Saturday. The worst line I've heard of today is about 40 minutes, though.

I voted at a elementary school out here in California. This morning there was a line all the way around the school so i ended up waiting until this afternoon. This is a very historical day in american history so get out and vote.

This is a very historical day in american history. This morning i was going to vote but there was a line all the way around the school in which i have to place my votes. So i ended up waiting until this afternoon where it was less crowded and put in my vote.

How late will the liveblogging go on?

Living in California, I got to vote by mail a couple weeks ago, but I kind of miss going to the polling place, especially on day like today (I felt giddy just at the grocery store, seeing people with "I voted" stickers). My neighbor told me our local polling place is actually in someone's garage!

I lived in Chicago in 2004 and got up at 6am to vote at the school across the street in my pajamas. That was kind of cool. I don't miss the judicial listings, though.

I'll probably repeat this on the live blog comments, but I want to let James and Karen know how much I appreciated their blogging the debates. Before I knew about today's live blog, I was thinking this morning about how you guys made the debates so much more entertaining and how I'd miss that. Thanks for a great job!

James, I noticed the liveblog has you listed as Jim Poniewozik. Have I been adding an unnecessary air of formality by calling you James all this time?

Oh, as far as the election coverage goes: I won't be involved. I'll turn ye old television on for the duration of The Shield and then turn it off again. The results, and The Republic, will still be here tomorrow.

Tom Shaw's wisdom knows no bounds.

As for me, my voting took approximately 30 seconds (after registering took 15 minutes, but that's another story). The only things I voted for were President, US House, and a local referendum. There were 4 or 5 state and local races with one person running unopposed, and I was going to put various presidential candidates into those write-in slots, but I completely forgot.