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Early poll report from New Jersey

28 comments on Early poll report from New Jersey

Early poll report from New Jersey

: Out my way, in GOPland, the polls were empty. I mean, empty. I’ve never seen them this sparse at this hour of the morning. And because I’m an idiot (and my wife threw out the sample ballots) I went to the wrong polling place and saw the same situation at both. One district had a handful of people. The others had nobody.

I don’t know what that means. Could it be that Republican turnout will be low?

: Megan reports on Instapundit that her New York polls were packed.

Fred Wilson also reports crowds in New York.

: By the way, what would have happened if all those people who waited for two to five hours in line in Florida had all showed up to vote today?

: ADD YOUR REPORT… Lots more dispatches from polls here and there in the comments. Keep ’em coming.

28 responses to “Early poll report from New Jersey”

  1. anne Avatar
    anne

    In suburban Philadelphia (Montgomery and Bucks counties), the lines were longer than normal at 7 a.m., when the polls opened. I had to wait 35 minutes, and I have never, ever, had to wait before.
    A co-worker told me that she saw a line stretched around a church, where the polling place was located, and police had to help direct cars because the parking lot was filled.

  2. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    Here in Princeton, it was busy busy at 7:30am, with many parents bringing their small children and a palpable sense of excitement. There was a Republican poll watcher with a bad toupee who looked befuddled.

  3. pun Avatar
    pun

    florida only opened a few early polling places. 4 in a city vs. 60 today, for instance.

  4. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    At my polling place in Bloomfield, polls weren’t packed or anything – but it was 6:15am. When I left, however, the cars started to arrive – seemed to coincide with the sun actually coming up.
    Talking to contacts in the MD/VA area, turnouts are INSANE in a lot of places, with plenty of people arriving well before polling places opened.

  5. notthisgirl Avatar
    notthisgirl

    Well, Jeff, never fear … we’ll make it to the polls.
    It sure doesn’t help when our district (the 11th) over here in the north end of town has someone jam the machine.
    I hope this doesn’t affect our vote.

  6. david Avatar
    david

    I had just the opposite here in heavily democratic Hudson County…four years ago there were only a few people there today a lot more about twice as many. Both times I went to the same polling place at about the same time around 6:45AM possibly all the talk about NJ going for Bush has brought out the Democratic faithful.

  7. notthisgirl Avatar
    notthisgirl

    Oh and by the way, my husband said there was a very long line at our polling place. I’m sure some of it had to do with the jammed machine – but – the line was long at 6am … so maybe it’s just your end of town!
    That’s were we see most of the Kerry signs anyway!

  8. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Hoboken, NJ City Hall – 8am: About 40-50 people in line with about a 20 minute wait. The line consisted of about 90% of the typical Hoboken citizens: an age range of just-out-of-college aged ‘kids’ to people in their late 20’s, early 30’s with just a smattering of older folks. I believe young people looking for a healthy change in the oval office will be out in force today. Let’s hope so, anyway.

  9. dr. cookie Avatar
    dr. cookie

    Here in Michigan, the polls are packed. Voters waited at least an hour if they went early the morning. Now it’s down to about 15 minutes. Often when I vote (which I do at nearly every election) I go at about noon and end being voter #63, or something. Today, when I voted at 9:15, I was voter #270, and the line snaked out the door behind me. The poll workers were breathless with excitement (and given their average age, that could be dangerous).

  10. david Avatar
    david

    >The poll workers were breathless with excitement (and given their average age, that could be dangerous).
    LOL line of the day. Thnx for giving me a good laugh.
    :potd:

  11. Barry Campbell Avatar
    Barry Campbell

    New York City, West Village – heavy turnout this morning.
    Line out the door and down the block at 7 AM. Happily, it moved fast… took us about twenty minutes to get inside, and five more to get our sign-in cards from the poll-workers and cast our ballots.

  12. pragmatist Avatar
    pragmatist

    I vote in “heavily Republican” DuPage county
    here in Illinois. Today was the first election –
    either Primary or General – for which I had
    to wait to cast a ballot. Unless something very,
    very strange happens Illinois will go Kerry
    and our new Senator will be a Democrat.
    So I’m not sure what to make about the turnout
    in what is a normally Republican area.

  13. marc cenedella Avatar
    marc cenedella

    In East Village, Manhattan, *heavily* Democratic and poll workers allowing anti-Bush t-shirts and clothing into the polling place, very heavy turnout. Probably twice what it was in 2000.

  14. Lenny Avatar
    Lenny

    Lines were long and I had to wait over 1 hour here near Media, PA.

  15. Staci K. Avatar
    Staci K.

    Just got back from my precinct in University City, Missouri (suburban St. Louis). Took us about 50 minutes to work through the line and vote. When we left the line was a little longer than when we started and showed no signs of abating. Just guessing, voting in this precict will be up considerably over 2000. It was relatively quiet, less politiking outside than usual. Two MoveOn/Kerry volunteers had set up a small table on an island between the two schools that house polling places — huddled in the chilly, damp weather they had a “free food” sign and were offering apples and muffins to anyone who was hungry. They told me they just decided it was a neighborly thing to do since people had to wait. I’ve posted a few quick photos at Flickr; just click on my name.

  16. Mumblix Grumph Avatar
    Mumblix Grumph

    7:30 AM, Tacoma, WA…
    Many voters, but no lines. Saddam’s spider hole was easier to find than my polling place.
    Lousy LOUSY weather out here, not sure if it will affect the turnout.

  17. Elisa C. Avatar
    Elisa C.

    Here in San Jose, CA, It was packed at the registrar’s office on Friday when I went to drop off my absentee ballot (in person.)
    And I just got an email from a friend who had to wait in a rather long line that had formed this morning at our local site before the polls even opened at 7am.
    Patience is definitely going to be a virtue today.

  18. jeremy in NYC Avatar
    jeremy in NYC

    Garment District pollsite was pretty crowded around 9 am, but I’m betting it’s slower now.
    Just talked to my sister on-line in Tampa, Florida area – she has been there forever and said it’s very slow going at 11:15 a.m.

  19. Spike Avatar
    Spike

    At Plainsboro at 9:00am, there were 30-50 people in line total for two of the districts, while my district (all three at the same polling location) had no line. I walked right up, signed in, entered the booth and placed my vote. I wonder where everyone from my district was…

  20. apropos Avatar
    apropos

    Voted this morning at around 8:15 in Montclair. (1 Pine Street) Mainly an African-American neighborhood. Fire station was built in 2003. Arrived there and in front of my partner and I was a woman with her elderly mother, who was toting a little oxygen tank attached to her nose. They were waiting for the elevator. It did not work. Voting was on the second floor in this supposedly handicap accessible voting place.
    Firemen told the elderly woman she would have to take the stairs. Her daughter hesitated, but her mother climbed the stairs, slowly and, what seemed like, painfully. There was no attempt to help her, even a glass of water was not to be had. She rested before proceeding to vote.
    The firemen said they called the repairperson for the elevator. That was all they could do, they said. Right. Until then, what are the elderly and the disabled/disadvantaged to do? Maybe wait until tomorrow to cast their vote?

  21. paladin Avatar
    paladin

    I live in a rural area of a heavily democratic county in Illinois. I went to vote around 10:00 and there was a line, but not a long one. Some voters were befuddled by the presence of poll-watchers – a first! As I was working my way through the line, I was chatting with one of the Election Ladies, and she mentioned how busy they had been earlier and that 400 of the 500 registered voters had already voted. I’m not sure what it means, but that’s my experience.

  22. Tony Alva Avatar
    Tony Alva

    Polling in the AM was heavy at our precinct, but when my wife went there was nobody around 11:00 AM here in Lawrenceville, GA…
    Bush by a field goal no overtime.

  23. countertop Avatar
    countertop

    I’m a precinct captain in McLean, Virginia. One of the safer democrat precincts in the lefty Inside the Belway Northern Virgina suburbs of DC.
    Pretty big turnouts, and one pretty big celebrity sighting.
    I expect 95% of the precinct to vote by days end – but thats not too unusual, we usually get 80% turnout here (until recently, we were 100% federal government employee types. . . . now we have a split between liberal tech types from Jersey and California and the traditional Government staffer lobbyist lawyer voting block).

  24. John Avatar
    John

    My wife and I voted separately late this morning and early this afternoon in northern New Rochelle, and neither of us encountered a line at all. We’re on leave after the birth of our second child, though, so we could avoid the busy pre- and postwork hours.

  25. David Fleck Avatar
    David Fleck

    Ames, Iowa: about 70 people in line at 8am, but the line had diminished somewhat by the time I finished voting at 8:30. I was #200.

  26. Jesse Avatar
    Jesse

    Not that it makes one lick of difference but the lines in CT where I voted were very short. Chalk one up for the little guy!

  27. Paul Brinkley Avatar
    Paul Brinkley

    Hammond High, Columbia, MD, around 1:00pm. No line. But this is probably typical. Middle-class suburb, everyone’s probably going to vote on their way home. Four years ago I voted in the evening, and there was a nice line.

  28. Vox Avatar
    Vox

    Phoenix, Arizona:
    Central Phoenix; no waiting, no hassles, all day
    Outlying areas; packed, extremely long lines, cranky people, all day
    We had a big early/absentee voting turnout which may explain the lack of lines in town.