Posted on 11/2/2004, 5:31:03 PM by doug from upland
Put info and links about Missouri here.
2 votes in the can for W from this family here in MO. No sign of trouble, just a long line. Much longer than 2002..
ping
Extremely heavy voter turnout in suburban St. Louis precincts. One clerk said she thought by 11am they had reached well over half of the 2000 turnout.
2 votes for W in KC. I agree longer lines than 2000.
I live in Clayton MO. I had about a 35 minute line at 6:45 am. The poll workers were EXTREMELY efficient, and got people moving. The only weird thing was that there was NO campaigning outside the polling place. No one handing out literature. No signs for ANY candidate.
The line was mostly quiet, except one person who not only expressed dismay about the wait, but called people on her cell phone to warn them of the line and the "long" wait. She was the only one in line with a Kerry button on. Go figure.
My wife just voted (Wentzville), and said she was No. 454
My husband and I voted this morning in Central Missouri, an admittedly conservative area. I was number 338 at 10:20 a.m. I think there were a lot of straight Republican ticket votes because people were entering the booth and leaving almost immediately. You can blacken one square to vote a straight ticket.
I talked with a Jefferson City resident who tried to vote this morning there, but the line was so long he is going to try again later.
The race for governor is close with trial lawyers contributing heavily to Claire McCaskill for a last-minute ad blitz.
Follow Missouri election returns here:
http://www.sos.mo.gov/enrweb/allresults.asp?eid=131
Waiting Lines At Some Locations Around Missouri
Created: 11/2/2004 9:58:44 AM
Updated: 11/2/2004 11:23:58 AM
By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Initial voter turnout appeared heavy in Missouri on Tuesday, with the state locked in a tight presidential contest for its 11 electoral votes and picking a new governor.
At one Kansas City polling place, more than 200 people were waiting five minuutes before the polls opened at 6 a.m. In suburban Blue Springs, about 75 people were waiting in line just after the voting began.
In suburban St. Louis, crowds arriving to vote at the Rockwood School District were so thick that school buses were delayed in getting into the parking lot to drop children off.
Crowds were also heavy at Fenton in nearby Jefferson County. Voters heading for the Guffey Elementary School couldn't get into the parking lot, so they parked along Missouri 141 and walked a block to the school.
At the Solid Rock Family Church on the outskirts of Jefferson City, an election judge said voters were in line an hour before the polling place opened at 6 a.m.
"I think we're going to set a record," said Louise Gardner, a poll worker tearing off the ballot stubs for voters.
Election officials were expecting a strong turnout through the state, with chances of lines at some polling places, periods of impatience and prospects for victory too close to call in some races.
Voter participation appeared strong, based on the return of early absentee ballots. The secretary of state's office forecast that 63 percent of Missouri's 4.2 million registered voters would cast ballots by the time polls close at 7 p.m.
Helping the turnout were close races at the top of the ticket between Republican President George W. Bush, who carried Missouri narrowly four years ago, and Democratic Sen. John Kerry. The governor's race pitted Republican Matt Blunt, now the secretary of state, against Democrat Claire McCaskill, the state auditor who beat Gov. Bob Holden in the August primary.
Both major parties worked to get people to the polls -- including reminder phone calls, even taxi rides -- while retaining hundreds of poll watchers to protect their interests and employing numerous attorneys to fight out the election in court, if necessary.
Missouri election law allows a candidate to request a recount whenever a race is decided by less than 1 percentage point. It also allows lawsuits alleging voting irregularities -- no matter the vote margin -- which could trigger a recount or, in the extreme, a new court-ordered election.
Missouri has long been a political bellwether, voting for the winning presidential candidate every time except once (1956) during the past century. But presidential coattails don't always carry in the Show-Me State.
In 2000, Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore in Missouri by less than 78,000 votes, a close but comfortable 3.3 percentage points. In the same election, Holden defeated Republican Jim Talent in the gubernatorial race by barely 21,000 votes, a cushion of less than 1 percentage point.
Both McCaskill and Blunt began pre-election swings Monday in St. Joseph. She stopped at a breakfast spot, then a high school, while he rallied with other Republican candidates at the local GOP headquarters.
Overcast skies forced McCaskill to abandon a planned fly-around to northeast and southern Missouri. Instead, she opted to drive to local party headquarters in Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis -- picking up a phone at each place to help with the get-out-the-vote effort.
In Kansas City, McCaskill predicted she would win the election by 2 percentage points, or perhaps 3.
Blunt and the Republican slate pressed ahead with their own airplane excursion.
"If you want to see real change in our state capital ... then I need your vote and I need your support," Blunt said in St. Joseph.
McCaskill, citing her defeat of Holden as part of her independent credentials, countered: "I do represent real change. ... (and) I want people to focus on the reality of my record and my experience."
Is that good? I know St. Louis id dim, but what about the suburbs you are referring to?
bump
Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE!
voted at 6:15 this morning in Hillsboro (Jefferson County) and was voter #52.
Steady stream of voters but no line....
But I wanna hear about Blunt and Co.....how are they doing elsewhere?
I was a poll watcher from 6:00 to 11:00 in southwest Missouri. Voter turnout has been very heavy. The regular election workers said they had never seen the turnout so high. This is good for Bush since it is a strongly Republican area.
I got to the poll in Kirkwood at 9 am and was voter 523. Wonder who I voted for. LOL.
Voted at 6:05 am in Excelsior Springs, MO.
More people than usual. There were 19 in line ahead of me and about 50 behind me within the first 10 minutes... EX Springs is a smaller town near KC, about 10,000.
In previous elections there have been only a few voters there that early. I left my driver's license at work and used an expired passport and a utility bill as my identification. No problems...
little bitty Ashland had a back-up at the polls this 6:30 AM. The old ladies in charge of running the place were a bit discombobbulated, but I got my W vote cast
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