Where were you on November 2, 2004 ?

[sabra]

As you all know, tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of the 2004 election. What a ride this past year has been? And DU has been in the forefront of all the latest happenings.

So as we approach tomorrow's anniversary, I thought it would be nice to post about where your were one year ago (physically, mentally, etc..).

I'll start:

I remember logging in extra early on the morning of, as the polls were opening through out the country. It was typical fall day here in Chicago, but it seemed like something was in the air. Would it be the day, we get our country back? Well the early exit polls and analysis were looking very promising. And I recall one of the last updates I saw before heading out around 4:00 pm, was Zogby having Kerry winning in a landslide.

Picked up my wife and son (then 2 years old), and we went to vote at the school a few blocks from our house. Everyone was talking about the amazing turn outs, record breaking numbers, etc... Got back home grabbed the laptop and started my routine (CNN, MSNBC, 1 Second of Fox). We all know how this story ends.

The amazing thing is, as early as 3:00 am, people were already posting about irregularities and other incidents that were being reported. The report of the 4k extra Bush votes at a precinct in Ohio, was first noted here well before it hit the MSM.

So here we are 1 year later (and my 3 year old son now has 6 month old sister). And how I wish it was 1 year ago. All the "scandals" that have come out aren't new, these things occurred in Bush's first term. We just know, that they did EVERYTHING they could to suppress it before 11/2/04.

To me the future is hopeful, and this past Friday's events are encouraging. I still believe we can take back this country, one step at a time.

peace.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Handing out Dem voter info materials

at Mill Creek Towne Elementary School, Derwood, MD for most of the day.

[WilliamPitt]

2. Here

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110504A.shtml

[sabra]

4. yes I remember that well...

btw, your live blogging from the Conyers election hearing, was one of the most amazing things.

peace.

[tavalon]

29. Ah, yes

the Chef Boy-Are-Dee incident. I didn't remember that that was at the same time.

[rox63]

3. Physically, I was

Standing in a cold intersection in southern NH, holding a Kerry/Edwards sign, and waving at cars going by.

Mentally/Emotionally: Praying (to what, I'm not sure - I'm an agnostic) that our country would be delivered from the evil * cabal.

The next day, I was sobbing like a baby as I watched Kerry & Edwards give their concession speeches.

[WI_DEM]

5. In Madison, WI

voted early--I like voting early. Then went to the phone banks at the Teachers Union and began calling people to make sure they get out and vote. Madison went overwhelmingly for Kerry who carried Wisconsin narrowly.

[formerrepuke]

6. Standing in a long line at the school down the street. Some guy

whispered loudly to some other guy in line near me.. "hey, who are you votin' for?".. and he responded, sarcastically: "George Bush".. everyone in the line got a chuckle out of that- as his delivery made it clear he wasn't serious, nor was the one asking the question. The choice (at least in this neighborhood) was obvious.

[demnan]

7. I was handing out literature at the voting place

I was feeling quite hopeful because most of the people who passed by seemed to have a very positive reaction to the Kerry literature. Our precinct went blue, which surprised me in affluent Lake Ridge, VA. But since I've moved to Prince William County, Virginia I've been really surprised at how many liberals there are down here.

[goclark]

8. Registering voters in West Los Angeles

All day I was so up because the voters were so excited that Kerry was going to win.


About 5 minutes before the polls closed, a first time voter came in crying her eyes out.

She said, "they are saying on TV that Bush may win!"

I was so shocked!

Diebold killed us that day.

[Coastie for Truth]

9. Having a grand old busy time in San Francisco

(I am semi-retired and work in my own business part time)

Saturday and Sunday I was "walking precincts". Monday (11/1) and Tuesday (11/2) I was at a PFAW phone bank - nationwide "800 number" for poll problems. We "hotelled" (Eastern Standard came on line at 4AM EST, ..., we cam online at 4AM PST) and started taking problems, giving people their poll address, dispatched volunteers to "problems" etc.

We saw the "Ohio" and "Pennsylvania" issues early on --- and the Pennsylvania volunteers were on top of it. I was not following Ohio as much.

By about 3PM PST (6PM EST) the exit polls and blogs had declared Kerry the winner, I turned my terminal nd phone over to the "4PM- closing" volunteer, grabbed a sandwich, and rode home on BART feeling good. By the time I got on "The Nimitz" in Fremont -- things looked a lot worse.

(Voted absentee on 10/26)

[Botany]

10. Precincts 4 A & C Bexely, OH

Watching a republican challenger work with the precinct judge
and other election officials every time I left the room.

One of the 3 Machines in that precinct went down at the end of the
day when they were closing them out ..... the one machine when I
did see the #s had 42% bush vote but the other two in the same
precinct had 31% bush vote ...... it also had the highest # of bush
votes in it even though it had the lowest numerical total of votes
cast (as compared to the other 2 machines) The following day
when I tried to report these problems to an election fraud # for
the state of OH I couldn't because of a block on the line. The block
played crazy music and get repeating in a strange voice "weird stuff."
With in 2 hours of Kerry conceding the block was gone from the line.

I tried to report the block to the Ohio democratic party and was
treated as if I was a turd in a swimming pool. One lawyer on his way
back to his practice in Massachusetts ... wouldn't even listen to me.
He said that he was writing an important thank you letter to his
staff.

I also was with Kerry IT people and workers late on the night of
the election in Downtown Columbus, OH .... @ 11:00 or so it looked
like a switch was thrown and and the vote nationwide was coming
in 70 - 80 - 90+% for bush. It did not matter the state the, the city, the
county, or the precinct it was like somebody flipped a switch.

As I have said many times I saw and heard the theft with my own
eyes ..... It happened.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. Walking by the Washington Monument. The afternoon was warm

The sunshine was streaming over the area. Buoyed by early exits, I felt I was walking on air. Past the WH, dreaming about how wonderful life would be now. Dreaming about how now the poor and downtrodden would have new hope. How all children would now have health insurance.

[gauguin57]

12. I was a Democratic pollwatcher at two different s.e. PA precincts ...

At both precincts, I recorded the names of all Dems who had voted so the phone banks could start calling nonvoting Dems. at dinnertime and encourage them to get to the polls for Kerry!

I got a police officer thrown out of one precinct (only constables are allowed to be in the polling place ... police can be an intimidation factor, so I complained to the judge of elections and he asked the cop to leave).

At the other precinct, I complained to the judge of elections (and later to the Elections Board) about a Republican pollwatcher who was giving legal opinions to voters about whether they were entitled to vote in that precinct or vote by provisional ballots! She was, very likely, disenfranchising voters, and she wasn't even an elections official!

So, in short, I spent a long day at the polls, looking out for the interests of voters (and for the interests of the Democratic party). Our man didn't get into the White House, but so many of us tried our utmost on Nov. 2, 2004!

[Norquist Nemesis]

13. Up at 4:30 am preparing to put up signs

outside the polling place then settling in as a poll watcher for the rest of the day. When the polls closed, we (hubby and I) went to a gathering of our local Dems to turn in our copies of the machine tapes then back home shortly after. Within an hour, I was approaching a feeling of complete and utter devastation and disbelief.

It took me more than two months to get past an overwhelming feeling of dread and cried so many tears as if I were in mourning for my country. It still hits, occasionally. But most of the time, I'm in a fightin' mood!

[KoKo]

14. At the polling station giving out last minute literature on our candidates

for local office in NC, with my Kerry/Edwards button on. This was after spending the night before putting up Kerry/Edwards and local candidates signs down the driveway to the polling place to catch last minute "eyes."

By 11:00 that night...I turned off the TV in DISGUST and went to bed. I wasn't going to stay up and watch any more coverage because I knew in my heart that Bush had been selected again.

I was a Zombie for about two weeks. Didn't think I'd pick my life up again. Barely celebrated the holidays...was in such a funk.

I hate to remember it. When Rove wasn't indicted with Libby last week I had a sort of "flashback" of that time... But, I'm okay now about it all.

[unrepuke]

15. Multitasking. Radio, TV and Monitor = DU, and quite happy about it . . .

until about 3 a.m.

I'll never get over it. :mad:

[fudge stripe cookays]

16. Based out of the Dallas Democratic HQ near Fair Park,

driving underprivileged voters to the polls. It was an invigorating time, and I met some wonderful people-- but I still felt an undercurrent of dread all day.

Somehow I knew, despite all I was doing, that the bastards were going to steal it again. Turns out I was right.

When I found out Kerry had conceded, I was at work, and had to go to a meeting. I laid my head down on my desk and had a quick cry, then sat through the meeting practically catatonic.

fsc

[VelmaD]

17. Freezing my ass off working...

at the polling location for my precinct. I was reminding people how to vote for the DEmocratic write-in candidate for Congress. I had a few Republicans that were nasty to me. I even got rousted by the cops. But mostly people were wonderful. I live in a very Democratic precinct. :)

[tanyev]

18. Working as an election judge.

I got a battlefield promotion from clerk to judge when the person who was supposed to represent the Democratic party never showed. Yeesh.

I had been in good spirits about the election from doing poll watching for the early voting period. The turnout was unbelievable. But turnout on election day was slow, and even though I didn't have any access to the news, something didn't feel right.

I knew we were in trouble when a family showed up right before the polls closed. They had recently moved about 40 miles away, but hadn't changed their voter registration yet. The kids were wearing fundie t-shirts. The woman said, "We probably wouldn't have bothered, but it's just so important this year." I just nodded.

[tanyev]

19. Looks like I killed the thread.

Kick.

[dragonlady]

20. Posted by Election Protection

at Hopkins Street School in Milwaukee. There turned out to be three of us from Election Protection (me and a young couple from Seattle who had come in to help), plus two law students from Chicago and a few others off and on from the Democratic Party and another liberal organization. There was one middle-aged lawyer-looking guy for the Republicans. It was very busy in the morning, and a steady trickle thereafter. Milwaukee did a good job of getting people out to vote in the days prior to election day, which helped a lot.

By late afternoon news filtered in that exit polls looked very good for us and the mood was upbeat. We stayed until the machines were opened after 8 o'clock and learned the totals: I've forgotten the exact numbers. but each ward was something like 600 for Kerry, 11 for Bush.

It was downhill after that, of course. Our family watched the TV returns at the post-election party of Bryan Kennedy, who ran against Jim Sensenbrenner (the congressman we all love to hate). The only happy thing at that point was that Bryan vowed to run again, and so he is.

Sen. Reid and the leadership picked a good day to stage their comeback because instead of feeling melancholy tomorrow we have something to rejoice about.

[Awsi Dooger]

21. I was working GOTV in Las Vegas

Mostly vanning elderly Democratic voters, or ones without transportation, to the polls. Very well coordinated last year, I might add. Far superior to 2002.

In early afternoon we got a break and I snuck a peak at DU. Euphoria prevailed. Everyone was posting about the early exit polls and Kerry's certain victory. I took it at face value without studying the numbers. I called my friend Paul and he bet big on Kerry for us at the one website still taking action, since you're betting against other people not the website itself. Paul called me back and confirmed the wager. Kerry was a 2/3 favorite at the time due to the reports of early exit polls. Within a half hour of our bet, that went even higher, to 1/2.

Many hours later our GOTV group was excused, earlier than I expected. I drove home in a hurry and turned on the TV and DU, anticipating a night long celebration. At that point I decided to peek at the early exit polls that had caused all the celebration, and my wager. Within 45 seconds I was numb beyond description. The early exit polls were obviously garbage. You had numbers like up 18 points in New Hampshire, up 10 in Pennsylvania and down only 3 in North Carolina. I've studied state by state trends long enough to know those were glorified crap, skewed to Kerry by ridiculous margin. About 15 hours earlier I'd posted a thread on DU warning about the early numbers from 2002, how terrible they were.

Then I peaked at Ohio and Florida. It was the most sickening feeling since the SCOTUS decision in December 2000, actually much worse than that because I never thought 2000 would switch to our favor, but here I was for hours certain Bush had finally been properly evicted. The Ohio and Florida early exit poll numbers had Kerry only slightly ahead, one or two points. At that point I turned off my computer and TV and fell energy less on my bed for hours. Kerry was a certain loser. The early polls were all slanted in his favor, and since Ohio and Florida were only a point or two they would never hold up given how far off the other states were and therefore the trend.

DU was still celebrating even while I was in indescribable despair. The money I lost didn't mean a damn thing in comparison, although it was a four figure chunk and I scolded myself for not being more careful in checking out the early numbers, especially since I'd warned against putting too much stock in them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

22. Volunteer poll monitor in St. Paul, working for Election Protection.

I was so sure Kerry would win. I spent most of the day freezing my ass outside an elementary school in an inner-city neighborhood, watching to be sure the Republican operatives didn't come by to harass minority voters, and I remember an older African-American woman walked out of the building wearing this huge smile, and she said, "I've been waiting four years to do that!" And later that night, when it all fell apart, I thought about her, and how she and the rest of us had just been screwed again.

[HeeBGBz]

23. It was cold and rainy

The exact opposite of tomorrow which is sunny 70's.

I was full of hope.

Later enthused turned to disbelief turned to anger and deep sadness.

I feel better now.

[eridani]

24. Working as a pollworker

7AM in the morning to 11PM before we gave up and just wrote on our report that 4 out of 2000 voters probably tallied their provisional ballots on the scanner when they weren't supposed to. I went to bed confident in waking up to hear from president-elect Kerry.

The next morning-- :mad: :puke: :nuke: :mad: :puke: :nuke: :mad: :puke: :nuke: :mad: :puke: :nuke: :mad: :puke: :nuke:

[Sugarcoated]

25. I was a pollwatcher

here in the Philly burbs.

[texpatriot2004]

26. I worked the "election" (alternate judge) nm

[oldlady]

27. took a day away from work to drive my neighbors to the polls

took the next day off too...to hang a sign seceeding my apartment from the US union & posting a UN flag in my yard, then wandering aimlessly about the world.

[tavalon]

28. I was at work - night shift

It was so close that I broke down and cried. My boss found me in an empty room and we cried together.

Of course, that was nothing compared to the next morning when I heard Kerry concede. I had Kerry posters up in all of my windows and I tore them down and tore them into tiny bits screaming in rage the whole time. I called one of my partners but I'm fairly sure he couldn't understand a word I said as I was sobbing but the gist of it was "That bastard fucked us!!!!! He really fucked us!!!

My body often responds to my emotional state in a way that can only be called poetic and within the month I had to go on a heart medicine (I'm still on it). My heart was broken.

[BlueIris]

30. Campaign office from 6 a.m. on...phonebanking Ohio. Sucked.

Then home to cry and sleep and get up and watch the returns come in. Woke up just in time for the shit to start happening, which began at 8 p.m.-ish out West.

[Realityhack]

31. IIRC voting... then working... then Kerry Rally in Bos. n/t

[cmd]

32. Democratic HQ

Dispatching drivers to take people to the polls and tracking information from each precinct. We had volunteers checking each of 81 precincts for voting problems and tracking the number of ballots cast.

I left HQ sick and exhausted at 6 pm, but exhiliarated because all exit polls said that Kerry won Ohio. I intended to go back later for the victory party. I can't talk about the rest.

[JudyM]

33. Going door-to-door in Cleveland OH am to pm & busing back to DC overnight

What a sorry adventure... days in the driving rain hearing from person after person in the inner city neighborhoods we canvassed that they'd received deceptive phone calls from the Sec of State's ofc or others indicating they were inelegible to vote. One woman had been convinced by a caller that she was ineligible to vote because her brother was in prison. Now who would have had that info if not state officials?

Initially we were ecstatic and celebrating about the exit polls report but as the night wore on we fought off exhaustion on the bus, hoping against hope the tide would turn back.

Combined with all the other reports we've all heard about Ohio, my firsthand witness accounts are why I am convinced we did not lose honestly.