It’s election day, kids—go vote. There are no constitutional amendments, just president, Senate, and House.
Here in Stony Point we had 49 people in line at 6am—probably ten times what we’ve ever seen here before—with steady, heavy traffic ever since. Over two hundred people had voted by a little after 7:00. Nobody has needed to wait more than a few minutes, and the election workers are as efficient and friendly as ever. The rain has held off so far in the northern half of the county, which has surely helped turnout.
What are you seeing at your precinct?
10am Update: Albemarle County reports that 17,556 people voted by 9am, just over 26% of the electorate. That’s compared to to 10% in 2007 and 17% in 2006. (I’m afraid I have no figures for 2004, the last presidential election.) Jeff Uphoff provides photos of Walker in the city—between the donut wagon, the school band, and the bake sale, it seems like quite a hub of activity.
7:00pm Update: “There also have been reports of fake robocalls instructing voters in the Charlottesville area to go to the wrong precincts, allegations that the Virginia State Police are currently looking into.” So says the Washington Post. The results are going to start coming in shortly—follow the returns at the SBE’s website.
At 8:15 in Freebridge, I was in and out in 3 minutes.
in arlington (fake Virginia) the line at my precinct was over 2 hours long, with hundreds of people waiting.
Voted around 8:00ish (Albemarle County). In and out in about 5 minutes. I think there may have been 1 person in line ahead of me.
People seemed pretty upbeat. Cops on-hand outside the building… just in case.
The McCain volunteer was hot.
Not much else to report.
Broadus Wood Elementary School, in Earlysville, was doing a booming business at 8:45. But there are three desks, and eight machines, and I only had two people in front of me.
So the whole thing was maybe five minutes.
I lived in Los Angeles for ten years, and DAMN what a happy contrast.
Except for the McCain volunteer, whom I did NOT perceive as hot.
Long line at Cale at 5:45, and even longer once I emerged from voting. Great to see!
I’m stepping out of the office in about an hour to go to Tonsler Park. Here’s what I’ve heard so far this morning at work:
Downtown Rec Center – 10 minute wait for someone getting in line at 5:45 AM, 1 hour wait for someone who got on line at 5:55 AM, a 40 minute wait at 6:30 AM, and NO line at 9 AM. Jazz musicians serenaded the line.
Clark School (Belmont) – 25 minute wait at 6 AM, 10 minute wait at 7 AM
Meriwether Lewis – short line at 7 AM
Elks Lodge by Darden Towe Park – no line at 7 AM
At 615 at Cale, the line stretched well out of the door. Took not quite 45 minutes, and by 7 well over 300 people had voted. Saw no one with campaign shirts/buttons trying to vote. Everyone in good spirits. The Dems had set up early and in the better spot and with a tent. Leaving the Repubs to get all wet when the rains come. Metaphor much?
(BTW, I’m submitting this at 9:19 EST, not sure if the website needs to be adjusted back to standard time, but some of the responses seem to have come from the future!)
At 6:45am the Downtown Rec Center had a line that wrapped around the building to the Pavillion! My wife was there about 50 minutes. At 8am, I walked right into the building and was done voting in about 10 minutes. There were a lot of people there, but the poll officials were doing a great job. There were about 12 electronic machines and 6-10 booths for filling in paper ballots. Voters were offered a choice up front.
I went running past Downtown rec center at 5:45 and the line was down the street. At my own precinct (Clark School) at 6:05, the line was wrapped around the building and down the street, but it moved so quickly I only waited about 45 minutes. The city made things efficient by not breaking people up into separate lines depending on their last name. I’m sure not going to try to drive near Market & 9th St. today.
Just voted after a 15 minute wait – not too bad. Damn my mccain volunteer was not only hot but smart!
Brownsville Elementary in Crozet –
5 minutes in line to get my card, 3 minutes to get to a machine.
Apparently at 9:15 we had just missed the huge rush. We were told that around 6am there was a line around the building.
when polls opened at Hollymead elementary (forest lakes), there was a pretty good line…30 minutes for us to vote. For what it’s worth, I was #39 at the L – O table (6 tables, i believe). Line was somewhat shorter when we left.
Everyone seemed in good spirits.
Fluvanna Polls at the Fire Department went smooth as silk at 8am: 15 minutes total. The touch screens seemed to be working just fine, as I evaluated their pixel precision. Obama volunteers were very “country-style” friendly (but not “hot”), whereas the McCain camp’s tent was decrepit and mostly unmanned. All in all, as long as we get an accurate poll, things seem to be going well for the time being.
You’re quite right—I’m sorry about that. There’s no telling what will happen now that I’ve fixed it. Here’s hoping posts are stored in UTC; otherwise we’ll have an hour of nonlinear interleaving.
I just got home from Stony Point. That joint is jumping. Traffic is constant, I’m pretty sure turnout is above 500 voters now. The voters are much younger and blacker (if I may assemble a composite) than I’ve ever seen there before. I’m seeing folks voting there who I know for a fact have seldom, if ever, voted before.
I voted at Walker at around 9:15. In and out in less than 5 minutes. I salute the city’s change from having separate lines based on last name.
Got to Walker at 10:00 and walked out 16 minutes later.
No line at Tonsler Park at 10:30 AM!
As I went to the machines, one of the volunteers was explaining how they work to a nervous, first time voter. Imagine having such a big election as your first!
Walked right in to AHS and up to the machine and voted at 10am–shortest line in memory–there just wasn’t one at all!
3 minutes from car to vote to car at 930.
I waited 45 minutes at the rec centre to vote at 6am. I drove by at about 11am and there was no line. My guess is, the usual slow times will be slow, but lunch time and after work will be hopping. Also, maybe I didn’t look well enough, but not only did I not see any hot McCain volunteers, I didn’t see ANY McCain signs or volunteers, which is first for me while voting at the rec centre.
As of a little before noon, there’s a little over 50% turnout in Stony Point. I really can’t stress enough how extraordinary that this is. 50% would be a standard turnout figure for the day.
At Alumni Hall in Charlottesville, there was almost no line around 10 a.m. They said it was busy earlier. If it’s at all possible for you to vote at an unconventional time — e.g., not at noon, and not after 5 p.m. — do it. My co-workers in Crozet and Waynesboro reported wait times before 8 a.m. of a half hour and 45 minutes, respectively, and a guy called into 106.1 around 7:30 to say that he waited over an hour in Ruckersville but was happy to do it.
at 6:03 a.m. at Freebridge (the Elks Club), the parking lot was completely full and people were parking on the grass. the line was out the door, down the sidewalk, all the way to the road. My husband (on crutches) and I finally emerged at 6:40 a.m. after having voted. There must have been about 150-200 people who voted ahead of us.
I got to the Dunlora precinct around 6 this morning. There was a line through the door, but things went very smoothly. I had no idea my precinct was as diverse as it apparently is. The line of people I stood with was a lot more diverse and younger than past elections (as you noted about Stoney Point on your other website)
I don’t think the McCain camp see themselves swaying any last minute voters in downtown C-ville.
Anybody have a prediction on Perriello? He was running a lot of TV ads last night. The ads seemed effective to me! Some were positive, some anti-Goode.
There’s some hope southsiders are tired of Goode, or that voter turnout district-wide will swamp him.
Goode lost jobs in the MZM scandal!
Dems bring jobs with the Ikea factory in Danville!
Why doesn’t Googling “Goode Perriello Ikea MZM” bring up more results? Am I the only one that saw a partisan advantage in the successful wooing of Ikea to build a friggin’ *furniture* plant in Danville, its first American factory, after Danville has lost all those furniture and textile jobs… and lost MZM’s jobs at both ends of Goode’s district due to corruption? The wooing of Ikea must have been bipartisan (Kaine locals).
“There were about 12 electronic machines and 6-10 booths for filling in paper ballots. Voters were offered a choice up front.”
On CNN this morning I thought I saw a reporter say that paper ballots in VA were illegal unless a technical problem required their use. Does anybody know the truth about the law in this case?
It struck me because at Carver this morning they were also giving people the option to fill out a paper ballot rather than wait in the line to vote electronically.
We were also given the option of filling out paper ballots at Alumni Hall. However, the story I saw on MSNBC seemed to suggest that it was the paper ballots causing technical problems in Virginia, when voters dripped rain on them and they couldn’t scan properly. I don’t know anything about the legality of them. I voted electronically.
At Downtown Recreation 7:40 am, long line out onto sidewalk. But it moved very fast, was out by 8.
At Agnor-Hurt around 1:30, I was in and out in under 5 minutes. :)
@Voting by paper ballot illegal, etc.
I thought that doesn’t include these ballots that are optically scanned. I thought the “paper ballots are illegal” thing referred to provisional ballots above and beyond what they already had in place (as in, if they already had planned to use the optical scanners, they could, but if they only had electronic machines, they couldn’t just switch over willy-nilly).
At least that’s how I understood. I’ll be happy for a better explanation, though.
I voted in Free Union at the Free Union Baptist Church just before noon. There had been something in excess of 600 voters before me in the morning. I waited in line for a mere 3 or 4 minutes — because the lunch rush had not yet begun.
I don’t know what percentage of Free Union voters 600 is, but having been an election official in past elections, I can tell you that it represents an amazing turnout.
Should a long line form later today, there’s plenty of room inside the building to shelter the voters from the rain.
For Free Union, there were 898 votes cast in the 2004 Presidential election. With 600 before the lunch and post-work rush times, that precinct looks like it’ll easily surpass the 2004 numbers.
Nice to see local-hood-makes-good Larry Sabato as an anchor on BBCAs coverage of the elections.