Open Thread: Did You Throw Away Your Vote?

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:11:00 GMT

Stop being so cynical. Just go and vote, damn it. And then come back and tell us what you saw, experienced, and had to put up with from people crazy enough to work for the Board of Elections. We're going to keep this thread open as long as it takes, people. Fight it out, talk it out, or just take it out on somebody else that things aren't going your way. And then let's all have angry sex tonight because we didn't get what we want: Chuck Norris, Vice President.

We'll be posting updates throughout the day...

7:00am - Heading to rally for John McCain at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. Nosferatu, aka Rudolph Giuliani, will be the main attraction.

7:06am - Funny Quote For the Day: "Hillary's going to win. It was set in 1988 to go Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Fireball, Dragon, Armageddon. Everyone gets a fiddle and a lighter." - Jeff Kreisler

9:00am - That means it's 6am at all polling sites in the continental US, so time to get up and vote. Now.

9:01am - Fox News calls the Presidential election for Mitt Romney. Their "scientific" exit polls project Mitt wins all 72 states plus Compton.

9:03am - This is almost too eye-roll-inducing to believe, but apparently Hillary Clinton bought an hour of TV time last night for a Town Meeting. Where did she buy it? The Hallmark Channel.

9:08am - Reuters has a good overview of Hillary Clinton's amusing appearance on Letterman last night. She made a joke about being the one "who wears the pantsuits" in her White House.

9:12am - Here's the link to the two-part YouTube clip of Hillary on the Late Show.

9:28am - For more detailed info on statewide vote closing times, delegates, and a couple of recent poll, click here.

10:47am - McCain is speaking live to some more geriatric dudes in West Virginia. It's on CNN or on cnn.com, if you can find a working video link.

11:30am - great Flickr photo here. Thanks to Tony for the link.

11:32am - A Ron Paul supporter is on WNYC in New York right now talking some gibberish about Taiwan and China. These people will say anything just to get that dope's name out there for another fifteen minutes. Yawn. By the way, the caller said he wouldn't consider voting for McCain. Do we think these people will sit the election out and let Hillary slide through?

11:54am - From Hotline on Call: "At VFW Post 2866 in conservative St. Charles County, MO, voters were lined up outside before polls opened at 6 AM local time to cast their ballots. Since doors opened two hours ago, a steady stream of voters have braved chilly rain to participate in this bellweather state's primary. Election officials estimate that over 40% of this precinct's 3,000 voters will turn out today."

12:15pm - GOP is in ruins... hounds eat the corpse of Dan Quayle... Duncan Hunter colonizes Uranus... a desperate Mitt Romney talks smack about Bob Dole on TV. Anybody wanna bet he quits tomorrow?

12:34pm - A couple of stories are floating around about Obama backtracking on his plan to decriminalize marijuana, which he said he supported during his 2004 Senate campaign. Hillary is against legalizing pot. Ugh-- is this really the kind of change we need? What's the difference, on any issue, between any of these two and McCain?

12:55pm - Not inspired yet, you armchair activists? Don't miss the excellent photos of primary happenings around the country, updated frequently on Flickr.

1:05pm - Hotline on Call reports on some more annoying and useless polls that show Hillary leads 9-8 statewise (Arkansas was not included) and McCain is up 10-4 over Romney. But it's all moot now, right? Because we're going to throw everyone off by writing in Donald Duck on every ballot, aren't we?

1:41pm - Today's Huffington Post blogs include Alec Baldwin taking some of the frustration caused by the writer's strike and dumping it on McCain and the genius clip artist David Rees points out that while Obama supported a 2006 amendment to ban cluster bombs in civilian areas, Clinton actually voted against it. Oy vey.

2:52pm - Governor Mike Huckabee won the GOP primary in West Virginia today, taking all 18 delegates. It seems the anti-McCain vote defected to him instead of Romney, a huge upset. Unfortunately for him, this is a weird state and does not reflect any sort of national trend. But you never know-- maybe the call will sound across the country that the GOP wants Huckabee.

3:20pm - Busted Tees is having a Super Tuesday sale at this link. It reminded me that I wish Stephen Colbert was still running. Imagine Obama's victory margin with the spoiler Stephen vote.

4:30pm - "In Georgia, where voters are now required to present photo identification [under a totally racist new law], wait times in some areas were as long as 90 minutes because for the first time in a major election, poll workers had to compare IDs against computerized registration records." (Everything Alabama)

5:57pm - Just got back from voting (see post: "Live from the Bk") and things are really tense out there. The spinmeisters are on CNN and MSNBC talking about how a McCain-Clinton matchup would allow someone else-- they disagree on whether Bloomberg might be one of those someone else's-- to jump in and sweep to November. We're hearing reports of bizarre voting predicaments, not just in New York, where the State is being sued for failing to comply with the Help America Vote Act and replace the machines it's had since the Garfield Administration. People in Chicago voted at a hot dog stand because... well, we're not really sure. There were photos on Flickr of people voting in what appeared to be a dormitory laundry room. Craziness.

6:02pm - Hearing rumors that Kucinich is endorsing Obama. Will this help or hurt Obama? More importantly, will it make any difference at all tonight? (Note that the Kuch said Obama should be everyone's second choice in Iowa.)

6:06pm - CNN is screwing the pooch and saying "an early exit poll" (whatever) gives Obama a 47-46 lead.

11:44pm - Obama speaking, live on most decent news channels. He did not do as well as his supporters would have liked, but better than anybody would have thought a week ago. It all depends on how the media spins this. And California.

12:06am - Chris Matthews on Mike Huckabee: "He's now the second man in the race, and he was the third man in this race."

12:50am - Here's what we have for state-by-state winners:

DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama won: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Utah [13 states, plus likely winner in New Mexico]
Hillary Clinton won: American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee [9 states/territories]
REPUBLICANS:
John McCain won: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma [9 states]
Mitt Romney won: Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah [6 states]
Mike Huckabee won: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia [5 states]

Report: Bill and Hillary Did It In A Voting Booth

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:01:00 GMT

"I feel good," Bill Clinton said. Asked whether the race would continue beyond today, he said "I don't know. I just wanted to get it on."

Bill and Hillary were in an elementary school in upstate New York, where they are both carpetbaggers. Bill at first tried to corner one of the oversized teachers, but eventually had to settle for his wife.

In other news, Obama voted in Illinois, Romney voted in one of his states, and Huckabee is sleeping one off.

You think I'm kidding about Bill and Hillary doing it in a voting booth in Chappaqua? You cearly did not hear about what happened just after that, on the wild suburban streets.

Scanner : Super tuesday

Open Thread: Did You Throw Away Your Vote?

Report: Bill and Hillary Did It In A Voting Booth