Need Input from poll workers/foot soldiers

[ewagner]

regarding election day.

I was troubled by what I saw at the polls late in the day on election day. The lines had been long all day but things got REALLY busy late....1-2 hours before closing time...some of that is people voting after work but I got the distinct impression that there was some motivation involved.

Did anybody see any signs of Republican GOTV efforts late in the day? Especially after the first exit poll data came out (3PM EST?). What were the RW radio hosts saying?

I'm thinking the exit poll data got out and repubs put a herculean effort to get people to the polls.

Feedback?

[democrat in Tallahassee]

1. It was dead at my polling place after 5:00 and we had an 80%

turnout. people voted early in the day

[enough]

4. Exactly the same pattern here in Chester Co. PA

We had large turnout (77%) that went 60-40 for Bush (just about the same as party registration, with the independents going for Kerry).

We had NO LINE AT ALL for the last hour, almost no voters after 6:30 PM. There was HUGE crush and long lines for the first two hours of voting, then brisk all day, but nobody at the end.

[L84TEA]

2. My polling place was dead by about 7pm

So we had about 2hours of people trickling in the rest of the night. Infact the news was disappointed when they came to do their story because their was no one in line.

[ewagner]

3. Reply to both

Quiet late?

I'm surprised...especially in Florida.

[Wickerman]

9. Same at my vantage point in rural MN

At 7:00, with an hour to go our Head Judge went to make sure the doors weren't locked. We'd had a steady stream all day, then a trickle of about 20 for the remaining hour.

[althecat]

5. kick... I think this is one of the most important lines of inquiry we have

I would particularly like to hear from poll workers in Repub heavy counties... ones that showed huge gains for Bush... and there are lots of em.

Everything and anything about republican GOTV you can think of.

Where were Rove's 1.2 million minions? APparently not in CA :)

[ewagner]

6. Shameless kick

This is getting interesting..........

[L84TEA]

7. Dead by 7

So we had about 2hours of people trickling in the rest of the night. Infact the news was disappointed when they came to do their story because their was no one in line.

I never seen any effort on the GOP watchers part..infact they didn't even come get their lists until really late in the day.
The only effort I seen from them was challenging voting. They were a pain in my side from 7am til 9pm.
I am never gonna poll watch with those bastards again.
But yeah we were Dead at 7.
I never saw any rush to the polling place besides in the AM

[SharonAnn]

8. I had a couple people come in who had moved to our location

in the last year and wanted to vote but we didn't show them on the rolls. We called back to the election office and they did what they could to check the Moter Voter data to see if they could've been ones that fell through the cracks. They weren't on the rolls the Election Office could check on-line.

I offered to let them vote a provisional ballot, explained how it worked, but they didn't want to do that.

I found that puzzling. What could've made someone want to vote, drive to the polling place, but not use the Provisional Ballot opportunity if it was offered? A friend of mine suggested that perhaps they had already voted in their old state (in person or by absentee ballot) and were just trying to see if they could get away with voting a second time in a different state.

I'm in a very Republican precinct (75% or so) and most of the retirees who move in here are from Michigan and Ohio.

It's an interesting thought, but I didn't keep any names or records of this. In retrospect, I realize that might have been helpful but I'm not sure what, as Election Officer, I'm permitted to do in that case.

[dryan]

10. Worked at a precinct in Orlando, Florida...

I always work at the polls as a facilitator/translator and I have worked at this particular precinct for the last four elections (Governor in 2002, Mayor and City Council 2003, Mayor in 2004 (special election), primary in August, 2004 and now national. This is a very diverse precinct with a total vote count of almost 3,000 people. Comfortable family homes but also a lot of working class (but nice since I live in one myself) apartment complexes, and small businesses. This precinct is on the outskirts of downtown Orlando near Lake Underhill and the Executive Airport. It is at an apartment complex and the polling station is in the clubhouse.

At 630, we had over 100 people in line to vote! It was like that until 12:30 PM. We had over 500 people vote by then--great! It was like that all day. We still had 15 people in the building at 7:00 PM who had not received ballots yet and were waiting because there were another 10 people at each voting station.

The RNC had an attorney come down from Virginia to monitor our precinct. He was with us for several hours and left. He asked a lot of questions about provisional ballots and the requirement for a photo ID but nothing else.
This precinct went to Bush by 12 votes.

[ewagner]

11. So there was no

last minute rush? Am I understanding that?

btw: I was raised in Central Florida so I know that neighborhood.