Update: Line is long on last day to register to vote with photo

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10468508

Published Saturday October 25, 2008
Line is long on last day to register to vote
BY ANDREW J. NELSON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

It was as if it were 1965 and the Douglas County Election Commissioner's Office was selling tickets to the Beatles.

Friday was the last day to register in Nebraska to vote in this fall's presidential election. And at 6 p.m. — the cutoff time for registrations — the line snaked out of the commissioner's office at 225 N. 115th St.

Waiting people lined the parking lot in front, down 115th Street to Burke Street, where people still stood five deep.

"I just think it shows . . . a lot of people are excited about this election," said Dave Phipps, Douglas County election commissioner. "It's a historical election and a lot of people want to be part of it."

By about 6:30 p.m., after the line had shrunk to just outside the entrance to the parking lot, 190 people waited to register and/or vote early. The last people in line cast votes about 9:15 p.m., just minutes after the last new registrants joined the voting rolls.


Perry Taylor, at center in white, waits in line at the Douglas County Election Commissioners office near 114th and West Dodge Road in Omaha on Friday, the final day to register to vote in Nebraska. Taylor said that he just moved to Omaha from Kansas City. He hopes to vote in Nebraska but said that if he isn't able to register, then he'll definitely make the trip back to Kansas City just to vote.


Elizabeth Wells, 27, cited procrastination as her reason for last-minute registration. Wells said there is feeling in the country that the United States has been on the wrong track for some time, and people feel it is their responsibility to put it back on track. Wells described herself as a Republican who recently moved to Omaha from Lincoln.

Closer to the line's end was Terry Peterson, 28, a recent transplant from Utah who came to register with daughters Zoe, 4, and Gracie, 2, in tow. He was willing to wait several hours, if he had to.


FULL story at link.

[Eric J in MN]

1. In Minnesota, people can register to vote at the polls on Election Day.

Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) wants to make that a national policy.