Election day thread

[TayTay]

I will be voting today with my husband at around 5 pm.

It is lightly snowing here in Northern MA. We got about 4-5 inches of heavy, wet "heart attack" snow yesterday and about an inch or so of very light fluffy snow today. The scene is utterly gorgeous. Usually the trees lose their snow cover pretty quickly after a storm, but not this time. It looks like a Currier and Ives painting outside my door. Gorgeous.

This is just a thread to update people on the MA race. We all wish Martha Coakley the best and we shall see what happens tonight.

[MBS]

1. I voted at 9 am

Poll workers at my precinct said it had been "quite busy" all morning, despite the wet snow.
Radio says that turnout is heavy across the state-- "like a general presidential (etc) election". Galvin estimates 50-55% turnout.
Will that help us or hurt us?
We'll find out soon enough.

Only one guy holding a campaign sign outside the poll location. It was a Brown sign. (And this is not a particularly conservative area, though it's also not the most liberal either). Sigh.

Last night, the Talking Cable Heads were issuing obituaries right and left , at least on MSNBC. Aside from wanting the Dems to pull this off, I would be deliriously happy to have all the pundits proved wrong(Most of them know nothing about the state, or the issues. . on MSNBC, only Bill Press and Rachel Maddow made any sense last night) Would love to see the rest of that overpaid, underinformed mob with egg all over their faces, just for the sheer pleasure of it.

Anyway, I can guarantee that there is, for sure, at least one vote for Coakley!

[TayTay]

3. I live in a Republican town.

They voted McCain in the last election. I am interested to see what the vote totals will be when I do go in.

The news is reporting very heavy turnout in the 'burbs. Sigh!

[Inuca]

5. Seems we were watching and listening

to the same frustrating sources of words, words, and yet more words. By the time Rachel came up though, I had had enough and switched to some silly movie just to clear my head and make sure that, eventually, I will not be too agitated to go to sleep.

[Mass]

2. Great turnout here, comparable to 2008.

Despite the snow, when we went to the polling station at about 11 am, the parking lot was full and people were still arriving or leaving. All sorts of people, older, young, with kids, with husband and wife. Today is curriculum day, so kids dont have school.

Dont ask me if it is good or bad news. Despite being the town of Mitt Romney and Kevin Chase (candidate who ran against Kennedy in 2006), this town is fairly liberal, but there are a number of people who buy the low tax argument a lot. So, your guess is as good as mine.

[wisteria]

4. Sounds lovely. A victory would be lovely too. I hope she can pull one out. n/t

[Mass]

6. Hard to believe that the house is so calm. Since we are back, the phone did not ring once.

For the primary, we got called at least 10 time the day of the vote.

[Blaukraut]

7. We only got called once, to ask to volunteer. Since then, nada

No robocalls, nothing. I was beginning to feel a little left out. Obama and Clinton could have disturbed my lunch or dinner anytime.

[wisteria]

8. I received an e-mail from Obama asking me to make calls today for Coakley.

What do you think? I have plenty to keep me occupied, but if it would help I would make a few calls.

[Blaukraut]

9. definitely! It's not too late until the polls close.

I've made a few calls a little while ago, and we did some phonebanking last night. I'd do more, but phonebanking is not my strength.

[Mass]

10. I just got one from the Coakley campaign.\nt

[Noisy Democrat]

11. I've just started doing GOTV calls

Took a while to get up the nerve. So far, a lot of answering machines, not surprisingly since it's mid-day. When other people here said the phones have been quiet, that helped me get up my nerve.

[whometense]

12. Anyone who wants to get a local take on what's going on,

check out http://www.wgbh.org/897/programDetail.cfm?programID=854">Emily Rooney's and http://www.wgbh.org/897/programDetail.cfm?programid=855">Callie Crossley's radio shows from this morning.

[wisteria]

13. Is it over already? We have Axelrod congratulating Brown for a good campaign

and then a Politico post about Coakley blaming the DC Dems for not enough support.

Ugly, and it doen't send encouragement to those who have not voted to vote.

[Blaukraut]

14. The blame game has started in earnest, from what I'm reading

I find that incredibly sad. Could they not wait until after the polls close? Yes, by now they're probably all seeing the writing on the wall, but all this premature finger pointing is doing is discouraging people from even bothering to go out and vote.

[CBHagman]

21. White House press corps was already quizzing Gibbs today.

Frankly I blame a lot of things on the 24/7 news cycle and constant polling. It seems the members of the media are so busy reading tea leaves and shoving the political thermometer up the collective orifice that we no longer have a grip on reality.

I do believe that Kipling was right to say that triumph and disaster are both imposters, but still I want Martha to pull this off.

Will be figuratively chewing my fingernails off until late this evening, perhaps longer.

[wisteria]

25. I want to see that too. n/t

[Mass]

17. To which some Democratic official called this the worst campaign ever.

Something tells me that the results dont look good.

[Blaukraut]

18. someone over at kos said he got an email from Coakley camp

saying voter turnout in Middlesex county is low, and to gotv there. It looks like the high turnout is happening in Brown strongholds.

[Mass]

19. Middlesex County is very large. It depends where turnout is low.

I would not believe rumors on kos or anywhere on the web, in any case.

But still, Celinda Lake is also attacking the DNC and the WH for their lack of support. I would expect that tomorrow, the gloating RW will be the last thing that will bother us. The circular firesquads among Democrats will be unbearable.

[wisteria]

26. That e-mail was from early today. I got it too. n/t

[Noisy Democrat]

15. GOTV calls are going OK

The Obama site has a great feature -- it'll bring up the phone numbers of 5 voters, along with their polling locations. So you just remind them to vote. So far I've gotten a lot of answering machines and people who already voted, and they sound like they voted for Coakley. Only one person yelled at me. Luftmensch has been keeping me company on AIM chat 'cause I find calling strangers to be nerve-wracking. But really it's not that bad. Well, I joke that there must be easier ways to support a candidate, like crawling across broken glass. But this won't kill me. People are actually pretty nice; I'm just shy about this stuff.

If anyone else wants to join in, it's here: http://my.barackobama.com/Call5MA

ETA: I have to go with my mother to the doctor in a few minutes, but I made 44 calls and lived to tell, so it's not bad. I also called a number that wasn't on the Obama list: this progressive bicycle shop I know in Somerville, just because I remember them. http://www.dutchbikes.us/ I said it might seem funny to call a business to remind people to vote, but I knew they were real progressive, so... The owner said, "Good call" and told me that he had told all his employees to take 2 hours off and not come back to work unless they had a little "I Voted!" sticker. :) And he's rooting for Martha, of course.

[Luftmensch067]

16. I called 5 voters in Salisbury and the three who answered were very nice

One was an 84 y.o. lady who said "I already voted, do you know what time it is?" and then said she's never missed a chance to vote since she was first allowed to. Right after I finished, I got called by a volunteer from North Carolina!

The three people I talked to in Salisbury had all voted for Martha.

[fedupinBushcountry]

20. My head is spinning

from all the spin. I pray that all these pundits eat their words when Coakley wins tonight. This has been one of the most biased reporting of an election I have ever seen. Mass people don't let the media call this election. I feel for all of you, {{{{{hugs}}}}} :grouphug:

[Blaukraut]

22. Not much we can do about the media except turn it off

You wouldn't believe how calm I am. Got TCM on the tv, with a nice, cheesy old Elvis movie, and the only thing I know about what the pundits are saying is what I'm reading here and over on kos. They know nothing more than we do. It seems they're going by the polls from the last few days, and turnout numbers from various towns.

[fedupinBushcountry]

23. I'd advise not to read

the blogs either, they so fall for media spin. I turned the TV off, I'm staying right here not entering even GDP or GD. I saw that there were no exit polls that must be driving the spin. What time do the polls close, then I will go to an election result site ( do you know the best one in Mass} and follow it from there.

[Blaukraut]

24. 8 PM and boston.com :) n/t

[wisteria]

27. Me too, I will keep myself busy with other things. What will be will be.

In a short time, it will be out of our hands.

[rox63]

28. Voted for Mahtha about 8:15 AM

Dragged my transportation-challenged former roommate to the polls around 11:30 AM to vote for Mahtha.

My area is a bit hard to predict on who they'll vote for. My suspicion is that they'll go for Mahtha by a small margin.

[TayTay]

29. Voted for Marhther at 5:00 pm

Very, very high turnout, comparable to 2008.

No sign holders which is unusual for such a high profile election, but the snow and cold kept people away.

Ah, not much left to say.