apparently there is some sort of election taking place in the US today...
I woke up to see "1000 students in line to vote at Penn State", before 8 am.
It is now a little after 1 pm and the line is still there. Probably a bit shorter, but very long, doubled up on itself a couple of times. High level of activity and buzz in the student union.
Extraordinary turnout, talk of over 80% of registered voters voting, which is very high for the area.
Local republican congressional candidate had supporters just show up in force. They're going to have to be careful to not violate "no campaigning within polling place" rules.
Recycling the election literature this sunday I was amused to see the republican candidate was using yellow colour theme leaflets and on not a single piece of paper did it actually state he was the republican candidate - emphasis was on his being a PSU alumnus and health care experiences. Hmm.
We had relatively few robocalls until monday, but then got sudden near saturation, from both sides.
Local news last night was almost unwatchable, there were literally 2-3 back-to-back ads from the RNC and independent republican funded groups, every single one an attack ad on Obama.
There were also a lot of attack ads on local democratic congressional candidates, especially Murtha.
Some positive policy ads for local candidates, and a small number of positive thematic ads from Obama.
Be interesting to see how it all works out for them.
Talking to a neighbour who was door-to-door canvassing, he was looking worried, said every single "undecided" he had talked was clearly going to vote for McCain but just didn't want to admit it. Maybe he was just stressing, but the final vote could still be tighter than polls predict. Or the high turnout could overwhelm any tilt of undecideds to McCain.
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Heavy turnout here, too. I went to vote this morning--the line was not only out the door but wrapped around the corner of the building. This year they put the registration table (NH allows same-day voter registration) in a different room.
Obama's organization is very active on campus, with rides to the polling place (the local high school, about a mile from campus) every 10 minutes. They also left flyers on every door in my neighborhood, in at least two passes (yesterday during the day, and again last night). The state Democratic Party tried an interesting move: parodies of Sununu's signs, trying to tie him to the recession.
The Republicans have been trying a mail and media campaign. What's been missing is any reason whatsoever to vote for their candidates rather than against the Democrats. Also, they have no ground game in this town (admittedly, this is one of the bluest towns in the state). Our House race (I'm in Shea-Porter's district) was competitive, but it looks like she will hold on, and Shaheen looks set to kick Sununu out of the Senate.
Which congressional district are you in?
I probably saw you there, Eric--just wouldn't know you from anyone else...
We screen our calls, so have not had the pleasure of any robo calls; I had a car stop outside the house this weekend and a bunch of pamphlet-passers climb out... but it wasn't political! J-W's apparently don't mind competition.
I am hoping your predictions are right.
I've been getting a lot of emails mentioning voting, mostly originating from UP.
80%... I'm glad to see something's really happening besides emails!