Already a lot of news in comments so let’s consolidate in this thread.
Done!
My precinct’s voting venue was rather lightly populated. Chicago and Cook County STILL use punch card machines, which drives me nuts. There were two Republican voting booths at my location, three Democratic voting booths, and two booths that had no indication of party, but were likely EFL or TTY locations.
It’s snowing today up here in Chicago, so I expect voting turnout to be low.
Two amusing things: Michael J. Fox (“Yakov” in parentheses after the “J.” in his name on the ballot) and Jerry Orbach were running in various county seats. Heh.
Next:
It’s dangerous to give too much weight to random eye-witness accounts at a few polling places, but here’s what I got:
Good news for Obama-
Long lines at 8 a.m. at a three-precinct polling place in Richton Park, (middle class African-American.)Slow in key Hynes areas –
10 a.m. count at three precincts in Orland Park shows turnout at about 50% of ’02 primary. No lines at several 19th Ward and Evergreen Park polling places. Palos Twp. slow too.
Got done voting. It’s a bit of a slow day at my Nameoki Township precinct – I was voter #33 at 11 am. 28 Dems, 5 R’s. Hynes has the Madison County Democratic Committee endorsement. I went for Obama because a) I like what I’ve seen from him 2) I don’t quite believe the polls having him far ahead.
Amusing thing: The Officer was on the ballot listed as a delegate for Edwards.
ROTFL–Did John Kerry offer him $150,000?
Hi, I came over from Eschaton.
Re: the punch-card ballots. We use them too, down here in Champaign County. Look on the bright side — at least with these, you can check to make sure you voted for the people you meant to vote for.
Oh, yeah. Madison County uses optical scanners. And any chance to crack on the Officer is a good chance.
It’s light turnout for the most part in Chicago 47th ward. Lots of GOTV activity, but all of Hynes’s people are working because they owe the alderman a favor. Crappy weather up here, but I’m cautiously optimistic for Obama. Come out for the evening canvass if you can.
Although I’m told that Obama hasn’t been running TV ads around here (We have satellite, and don’t get the local channels), he is nonetheless well ahead of the other Dem Senate candidates in the lawn-sign race here in Urbana.
Turnout seemed light in my very liberal precinct when I voted a little before noon. I didn’t think to ask for numbers, though.
very light at the 3 precincts at my Park Ridge polling place during the first 3 hours. as expected, more republican ballots taken at my precinct, but not by as large a margin as u might think.
Lots of positive reaction to my Obama palm cards, esp’ly from the female voters (“Oh, I like him!”). Only other rep on the street–some guy from the cook county circus court IT dept doing his patriotic duty for the great white hope. no republicans.
more democratic signs up, and earlier, than the republican ones. the republican precinct capt put up both Jack! and Rauschenberger signs
excuse me, “precinct representative”
lmfao
Hit the booth early this morning (4th ward, sotuthside). Fairly decent turnout given the weather and time; saw about ten people or so while I voted (for Obama).
Good reaction to Obama lit in the 32nd ward. Although the Precinct Captain was pushing Hynes and there are only Hynes signs at that polling place
It is not at all unusual for primary voting to be sparse in Illinois in presidential years.
Does anybody know if East St. Louis still uses mechanical machines? They were the only election venue using them when I left Illinois in 1992.
Please, please let it be Obama and Oberweis.
Did the Central Committee just have them rigged to start with?
You don’t have to rig the vote in ESL.
but does the Central Committee realize that? 😉
The didn’t do a good job against Officer this last time. Though they did kill off the incumbent.
At nine this morning, in the snow, only 70 people had voted at my 47th ward polling place. Has anyone else heard the rumor that Daley’s internal polling has Hynes in the lead? I’m an Obama supporter–went canvassing for the first time in my life–but the snow and the GOTV machine has me worried.
Entering the polling place, I was told to take off my 1932 “A Pauper For Roosevelt” button. (Thanks, eBay). Not sure what that means.
Hey Ralph–is this your site:
http://makesmeralph.typepad.com/
It is, and I’ve got you linked, Pundit.
I voted at 7:30 this morning in Champaign. My precinct is geographically small, largely serving just a few blocks of high-density college dorms known as the “Six-Pack” for various reasons. I was the 5th Democratic voter. There were two Dem booths and one GOP booth, reflecting the political makeup of the precinct.
Via the News-Gazette the County Clerk is reporting low turnout this morning. My experience is that most college students prefer to vote in the afternoon, though, so hopefully things will pick up before the polls close at 7.
Today’s primary is concurrent with campus elections which include a referendum on the Chief. The referendum is likely to slant pro-Chief, as many students, while democrats, are unwilling/unable to fully think out the implications of keeping our racially insensitive mascot.
Bah, the comments system doesn’t like HTML so the link didn’t come out. The News gazette story is at http://www.newsgazette.com/story.cfm?Number=15633
Squire, I forgot to do that story–I’ll cover the aftermath. Thanks again for the heads up.
I’ll get you on the blog roll here sometime Ralph. I’m going to redesign a bit and have a second page, so as to make this page simple, but you’ll be on there.
The Chicago 5th Ward’s saturated with polling places, so I can’t judge from where I went to vote, but the Obama volunteers are out in full force–this is my first Chicago election, and I’ve never heard a loudspeaker car before. It feels so “Soylent Green”, in a way–or maybe “Back to the Future” would be more accurate (Remember the first few scenes, with the “vote Goldie for mayor!” car?). Not sure about voting turnout, though.
It wasn’t the punching in that stymied me at first, but how to get the ballot in the holder. But after that it was smooth sailing.
Interesting feature in the Trib today about how the Cook County ballot was designed–by professional graphic designers who know how to make things work. I’m voting this evening–how’d it look to Cook County’ers who’ve already voted?
OT–Years ago I worked an election for a guy running for committeeman on the far north side — drove around with a big sign on the top of my old red Nova, checking in with the precinct captains. That was fun. Around mid-afternoon, it was slow and the precinct captains were bored so they were glad to have someone new to tell their stories to. There was one charming old fella who told me that back in the old days he voted a dog, just to prove it could be done.
Strawhat–The ballot’s actually pretty easy to read, once you get it into the little holder-thingy. I’m a new voter, so it took me a minute to figure out what was going on–apparently you slide it into the thingy. Huh. Whatever, I double-checked my punches and everything’s fine.
“And it’s ladies…night…tonight…at Lake Wasapamani…”
“And it’s ladies…night…tonight…at Lake Wasapamani…”
We’ve covered most of Cook, Lake and DuPage County…
It’s a war in the streets down here in Englewood. You would not believe the sheer numbers of Dan Hynes’ people stretching from the 15th Ward to BRIDGEVIEW. His people are everywhere, his signs coating every polling place. Blair’s signs are torn up in the streets, and Barack’s signs are obscured by the Hynes and Milt Patterson signs. Milt Patterson has at least THREE sound trucks patrolling the precincts. Mayor Daley did not waste anything on Milty.
The 15th Ward is predominately Af.-Am. with heavy Hispanic contingents, but nary a Chico sign (until you get further north, of course) and Hynes’ people are on the prowl. Blair has his $75-a-dayers out, and so do the labor unions for Barack and Danny-boy. The same goes for Chatham–turnout looks low, and Hynes is showing remarkably, but I only caught a snippet of it.