So our children can fly

So our children can fly

via The Bilerico Project by bil@bilerico.com (Bil Browning) on 11/5/08

"Rosa sat so Martin could stand. Martin stood so Barack could run. Barack ran so our children could fly."

Voters Around The Country: Long Lines, Historic Crowds

Amazing stuff from the most unlikely places.

Voters Around The Country: Long Lines, Historic Crowds

via The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com by The Huffington Post News Editors on 11/4/08

Voters are sending in incredible stories from throughout the country, many detailing long, but moving, lines, stacked with energetic supporters of both candidates. There is, it seems, an up-tick in student participation. And more than one reader was in awe at how historically unique this voter turnout was from past election. Here are some emails -- send us yours here:

Bucks County, Pennsylvania
I live in Northampton Township in Lower Bucks County PA. Polls opened here at 7 am. I got to my polling place at an elementary school about 8 am. There was a line of about 10 people ahead of me and the poll workers said the line was out the door just a few minutes earlier. I was voter 161 -- which means that 10% of registered voters in my polling place had voted in the first hour. Yowza. In off years and in primaries, the polls works said they had maybe 25% turn out.

Oklahoma
As a native Oklahoman I have never waited more than a few minutes to cast a ballot. This morning was different. When I arrived at my polling place at 7am there was already a line. Voting took me a total of 45 minutes, I know this is not much compared with the hours long waits faced in other states but for Oklahoma it's historic.

Columbus, Ohio
At 6:10 I was 31st in line. By the time the doors opened there were more than 100 in line. I am 57 years old and this is the first time there were more than 3 people present prior to the doors opening. Usually I am the first and only voter at opening.

College Stations, Pennsylvania
More than 1,000 Penn State students have shown up

University of New Hampshire
Students at University of New Hampshire reported standing in line starting at 4:30.

Orlando, Florida
I live in a very red part of Orlando. I moved to my current residence 15 years ago, and have voted in every election, it is always old white people or young blond republican moms. This morning, it was black, white, young, old, Hispanic, it was remarkable, it took about 30 minutes, the poll workers were hyper organized and enthusiastic. I actually teared up on the way home realizing I was privileged enough to vote for the first black president.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana
I live in Zachary, just north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I was so pleasantly surprised to see a line at the school where we vote! When we arrived at 7:15, there were 3 alphabetical lines with about 25 people in each. Only had to wait 30 minutes to cast my vote. Someone who was leaving as we arrived said she got there at 6:15, just after the polls opened, and the lines were HUGE! She had waited an hour to vote.

Blacksburg, Virginia
The polls opened at 6:00Am and the line was around the block but it only took 38 minutes to vote. The greatest part for me was seeing the youth turn out. The woman in front of me was a college student and it was her first election and she was really jazzed.

St. Louis County, Missouri
I arrived at the polling place at 5:40 a.m. There were at least 200 people ahead of me and the lines were just as long when I exited the polling place. Someone commented they didn't realize we had that many residents in the community where I live.

Indianapolis, Indiana
Two hour wait...but it was well worth it! Arrived at the polls at 6am sharp and there were already close to 300 people in line.

Sioux Falls South Dakota
I always get to my polling station 20 minutes before it opens. It has been a game between a few friends of mine that live in the same district to see who gets there first. In the past 12 years I have been in the first 3. Today I was 22 in line and by the time the poll opened there was nearly 200 people.

DeKalb County, Georgia
My polling station is the gym of the North Peachtree Baptist Church on Tilly Mill Road in Dunwoody, Georgia. I got to the polling station before six this morning and found a line of about two dozen people and the line continued to grow as we reached opening time. At least half of the people on line were African-Americans, many of whom had their children or were accompanied by an elderly person.

Detroit, Michigan
At 6:35pm, I arrived my polling place on the northwest side of Detroit, MI. It was still dark and about 200 people were already in line! I had my hot tea, breakfast sandwich, lawn chair and patience. I met a 19 year old young woman who just registered this summer at her church through the Barack Obama campaign. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to the table to acquire our ballots.

My Voting Experience

Because I have to work (wouldn't you know we're in a crunch time in my office) and I knew the lines would be long, I went to vote at 6am. Luckily my neighborhood Starbucks was open and I could get some coffee to go. When I got to the polling place at 6:07am, the line already stretched around the corner. I just started laughing, mostly at myself for thinking I had beat the system. I got in line and people were generally in a good mood. I was reading stuff on my iPhone and said aloud that the small NH town of Dixville Notch, first in the nation to vote, had gone for Obama (first Democrat since LBJ!). Well, that was already old news to the people around me.

The line moved pretty quickly and after about 20 minutes, I got into the school gym. At that point, I had to get into the line for my district (they look up your district number on a list). I realized that the big line moved relatively fast because we were all disbursed into these dozen or so smaller lines. At that point it was another 10 minute wait to get my name checked off, sign the thing and get into the booth.

I voted and walked to Columbus Ave thinking I'd take the bus to work instead of the subway since it was so early. That was fun. We passed long lines at polling places on the Upper West Side (there was a place in the 70s where the line went around 2 corners, and remember, it wasn't even 7am yet!) and then when we got to Times Square, we heard some random group of people chanting, "Obama, Obama!" Totally amazing.

My final voting related act was to go to Starbucks for my free tall coffee. Just tell them you voted and it's yours.

Better than that Free Coffee From Starbucks

Now here's a real motivator for voting.

Free Sex Toys For Voting: "Sex Crosses Party Lines"

via The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com by The Huffington Post News Editors on 11/3/08

Just when you thought it was safe to focus on the issues in this historic election season, a chain of sex toy shops has joined retailers, restaurateurs and other businesses across the nation in the time-honored tradition of rewarding Americans who go to the polls.

Babeland, with stores in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, is offering a pair of self-gratifying incentives for voters who present their registration cards, ballot stubs or "word of honor" that they voted next Tuesday.

The rewards are no-so-subtle reminders of this year's campaign rhetoric. For men, it's the "Maverick," a "sleeve" for self-pleasuring. According to a press release, "He's always there to lend a hand, he works for every man, and he bucks the status quo." Women can choose the "Silver Bullet" mini-vibrator, which is "a magical solution to difficult problems" and "a great stress-reliever during these troubled economic times!" The promotion lasts through Nov. 11.

More Election Related Syndromes: Obama Overload

Here's another pop psychology analysis of what many of us are experiencing. I imagine the next piece will be about post-election depression (not having anything to look forward to) - even if he wins!  I'm considering bundling all of these posts into an anthology that can comprise an Electoral Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders.

I Have Reached Obama Overload

via The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com by Pam Atherton on 11/3/08

We've got Obama Overload at our house.

You may not find this particular psychological disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders (DSM), but I can assure you, it exists. I know because we have it.

It's certainly not one of those things you can predict. I thought we were normal, pretty-much-not-interested-in-politics type of people. I've spent my career in radio staying away from talking about it. (It's too divisive, and I need all the listeners I can get.)

I do know when it started. I can pinpoint the day. It was the day John McCain brought Sarah Palin onto the ticket as VP. That was the day my sleeping political animal awoke and came unleashed.

I couldn't sleep that night. I was too ticked off. I couldn't stop talking about it the next day. My friends (who might not be Democrats) told me to shut up. I turned to the only method of expression I had that wouldn't get me thrown out of restaurants. I wrote.

I hadn't written essays or op/ed pieces since college when I was editor of the newspaper. I've been a broadcaster for 20 years and we don't need to know how to string sentences coherently or how to spell someone's last name properly, or what kind of punctuation goes after a sentence fragment. (We just use dots.) But the choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President so insulted me that I pulled out my old AP style book and went to town. I wrote until 2 in the morning, and then I sent it out to everyone on my email list who might lean even slightly to the left of far right.

When I got up the next morning I was greeted with a massive amount of email. I realized that I had struck a chord, especially with women. I wasn't the only one insulted, nor the only one pissed off. And my email list encouraged me to write more.

So my next piece I submitted to the Huffington Post. And when they accepted it, I got another blast of euphoria. There were even more people who felt as incensed as I did! And I was connecting with them.

This, my friends, is the start. Sadly, I must say, the Huffington Post is the gateway drug of Obama Overload. I know. Because I didn't just check to see if anyone had commented on my piece, I started reading other pieces. And then other sections. Then older pieces of the writers I really liked. Soon I was checking HuffPo, (as we addicts like to call it), several times a day. I was sending url addresses out in emails. I was watching the slideshows of the Obama's PDAs and tearing up at the realness of it. I was watching the debates because I WANTED to, not because I had to. I was hooked.

So I hear you say, "But that is simply an addiction." That's how it starts, my friends. It only gets worse. Here's how you know you when you have crossed the line into Obama Overload (OO):

You find yourself putting off important tasks to read "just one more" political article. Soon it's 2 in the afternoon and you are sitting at the computer, still in your nightgown, reaching for the eyedrops to soothe your bleary eyes. People call and ask when you'll have their project done. You say you are in the middle of something really important now and will call them back when you break free. You just never break free.

Polls. I don't have to explain. All of you other addicts and OO'ers out there already know what I mean. You know where they all are. And you check them every hour.

You start talking with your children about history and they don't walk out of the room. Your daughter is a 22 year-old college student and only drops by when she's out of cash or needs the laundry done. Now you spend copious amounts of time together talking about the lost 2000 election and hanging chads, about what the Constitution says the job of the VP entails, and how the Republican Party ain't the way it used to be

You use certain code words around people to determine what their political affiliation is. And when you find that someone you thought was a McCain fan turns out to be an Obama supporter, you make new friends for life.

You have no real sense of time. You tell your daughter, who is waiting patiently in the car, that you will only be in the store for 10 minutes while you pick up the bubble mailers that are 3/$1.00, but in fact you emerge several hours later, (only after the security guard hustles you out because the store is closing). This is because you have been standing in the store aisle talking about Obama with one of your "new friends."

You get emails from your friends saying "I don't want to talk politics with you anymore. Please stop. Don't text me, either." Granted, those are from your Republican friends, but they are friends nonetheless.

You start downloading Obama ringtones. You attach them to the numbers of your Republican friends so you can at least have a laugh each time they call you. Plus the added bonus of pissing them off when they hear your phone ring.

You humanize your cats. When Clawdine, the little cat, starts horking up a hairball, you ask what her problem is. Your daughter replies "She's choking over the thought of Palin as Vice President."

And here's how I knew we had a real problem:

Your daughter admonishes Tim Robbins about voting. In a dream. Your daughter wakes up and tells you that she dreamed she saw Guy Ritchie. She asked him if he had voted for Obama, but he told her that he is not an American citizen. She tells him to spread the word to his American friends. Tim Robbins approaches and she asks HIM if he has voted for Obama. He says he is planning on it. She says "That's not good enough! Get off your duff. Early voting is still open. Don't plan... DO!"

I have contacted a therapist for help with our problem. After we talked for 2 hours about why America needs Obama, she agreed to put us in a 12-step program. The first step is making sure Obama gets elected. I think the other 11 will fall into place on November 5th.

Simpsons Characters Weigh in on the Election

Here's a fun interview by a Norwegian reporter with Harry Shearer, the voice of many Simpsons characters, giving their various opinions about the election.  Listen for Waylon Smithers to hear what he's paying close attention to.

Today's Polls, 3 AM Edition

Not sure these will be the last polls we'll see, but it's important to keep our eyes on CO, PA, and NM, ranging from 5-10 points ahead for Obama. Everything else we need is comfortably in double digits. Of course, there are plenty of non-essential states were he is ahead: VA, OH, NV. Some people think it will be an early night. What do you think?

Today's Polls, 3 AM Edition (11/3)

via FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right by noreply@blogger.com (Nate Silver) on 11/3/08

Barack Obama's position has become somewhat stronger since our update this afternoon. We now have him with a 5.8 point lead in the national popular vote, and winning the election 96.3 percent of the time. Earlier today, those figures were 5.4 and 93.7, respectively.

I continue to find a hair's worth of tightening on balance in the state-by-state polls -- even as Obama's position in the national trackers seems to be roughly as strong as it has ever been. This, ironically, is the exact reverse of the position we saw earlier in the week, when the national polls seemed to be tightening even as the state polls weren't.

However, Obama's win percentage has ticked upward again for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he's gotten some relatively good numbers out of Pennsylvania since our last update, with PPP and Zogby giving him leads of 8 and 14 points, respectively, and Rasmussen showing his lead expanding to 6 points after having been at 4 before. (The Zogby poll is probably an outlier, but may serve to balance out outliers like Strategic Vision on the other side).

Secondly, McCain's clock has simply run out. While there is arguable evidence of a small tightening, there is no evidence of a dramatic tightening of the sort he would need to make Tuesday night interesting.

Related to this is the fact that there are now very, very few true undecideds left in this race. After accounting for a third-party vote, which looks as though it will come in at an aggregate of 2 percent or so (after doing some work on this tonight, I concluded that I had been slightly underestimating the third-party vote before), I am showing only about 2.7 percent of the electorate left to allocate between the two major-party candidates. Even if John McCain were to win 70 perecnt of the remaining undecideds (which I don't think is likely), that would only be worth a net of about a point for him. Frankly, McCain's winning scenarios mainly involve the polls having been wrong in the first place -- because of a Bradley Effect or something else. It is unlikely that the polls will "tighten" substantially further -- especially when Obama already has over 50 percent of the vote.

It's very late, obviously, so we won't get into too much more detail, but a couple of quick notes.

-- Don't worry too much about that SurveyUSA result in Minnesota, which shows Obama just 3 points ahead. SurveyUSA's polling in Minnesota has been very, very weird all year; they've never shown Obama with larger than a 6 point lead in their likely voter model, and had McCain ahead in the state as recently as October 1st. SurveyUSA does not have a Republican lean in general, but in Minnesota, it has consistently had a huge one.

--A couple of the national polls have now started to predict how undecided voters will behave and allocate them between the two major-party candidates. I use the versions of these surveys before any such allocations are made, as from my point of view it isn't the pollster's job to get into the prediction business (our model has its own ideas about how to handle undecideds).