Posted on 11/04/2008 10:44:32 AM PST by NYC_BULLMOOSE
Just returned from New York City Polling Location (UWS of Manahattan -where I live and just voted) -- short version... VERY long lines, VERY long waits... my polling location is an extreme left "Church" -- Hugo Chavez spoke there a couple of years back...
NOT A SINGLE BLACK FACE ON LINE (200-300 people) at lunch time... was a little weird. Almost all voters btwn 25-40, a lot of mom's voting while kids in school I suspect... I'm sure the crowd was overwhelmingly Obama BUT...quite a few folks (bravely) wearing McCain/Palin Gear. Like me -- determine to vote no longer how long the wait...
I was VERY surprised by how long the line and the wait was... and had an Epiphany...
Increased voter turnout helps IF AND ONLY IF -- the polling stations can handle the through-put... If they can't (and it looks like they can't here anyway) then it just results in long lines and frustration... Saw many folks looking at their watchwes and giving up after 15 minutes... muttering about getting back to work..
My experience in this neighbhood is that the early morning rush, and the after work rush, are MUCH busier at polling stations... People who walked away at lunch are unlikely to come back and wait EVEN LONGER at dinner time...
So -- I think there is a practical limit to how much piling on Obama's supporters can do in big cities...
my 0.02$ for what it is worth.
I posted this in another thread, but it fits here, too:
Downtown NYC — lower Manhattan (near the former WTC).
Fairly blue district, so I know that Obamessiah and Nadler (our big-mouth, big-assed congresscritter) will win here, but I vote anway, as I always do. Nearby Battery Park City has more Repubs than I thought would be there, and there are quite a few people here in the Financial District who moved here from out of state and can lean a little right.
We have multiple Election Districts (determined by address and pretty much exist to make people stand in different lines) in each polling place, and the one for NY’s 8th ED was out the door and down the street. A few hundred young, mostly white people. I have NEVER seen so many people voting here, and I have no idea where all these people came from. I thought they might be from the NYU housing high-rise nearby, but they’re in the 9th ED.
I had just gotten on line when a poll worker walked around and tried to make sure that people were on the right line. When I showed him my card, he sent me inside and after getting around a few winding lines, I found my ED — and became the 3rd person on line. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. I went a little after 11 a.m. and was somewhere between the 150th and 200th voter of the day in my ED.
I actually skipped a few contests — mostly judicial elections in which the candidates were endorsed by both parties (I refuse to play along with that crap).
And I think a lib is more likely to give up and leave than a “broken glass conservative”.
Bless you for the update. Thanks for the post. Re: the voters who gave up to get back to work; employers can’t punish employees for voting. I suspect this is just personal frustration and this is just MHO but I think republicans are more likely to withstand the weather and wait to fend off any chance of Obama than dems are because they think its in the bag.
NYC had school today? Here in my county in VA, schools are used as polling places - so no school.
Waiting also limits fraud. You can’t vote 10 times if you have to wait. And wait. And wait. :-)
I voted in Bloomington MN this morning. A Minneapolis suburb that tilts slightly to the left. No bumper stickers on any cars, somewhat a good sign, since we know what bumperstickerphiles liberals are.
Saw about 5 black voters out of a hundred (probably a little high for Bloomington)
Then I drove into Minneapolis, a liberal bastion of demonry. I saw many groups of people women with hair died red like raggedy ann wearing combat boots with skinny guys with nose rings looking too happy for their own good.
After seeing how easily so many conservatives here have thrown in the towel before the first vote was even cast, I'm not so sure about that.
The opposite held true in Harlem where the lines were stretched for blocks.
Upstate NY - I had 5 people ahead of me at 7 am and waited a whole 10 minutes. I was agitated but waited it out.
I think employers are required by law to give you 2 hours to vote.
obama types have little self control and attention spans so maybe they’d give up too fast
I still have my towel. I voted absentee last Monday.
“an dissatisfied customer is much more effective in damaging your business, than a happy customer is in promoting your business.”
BOTTOM LINE — Anger motivates people more effectively than “puppy love” — and conservatives are RIGHTEOUSLY angry with Obama...
I for one would have slept on the sidewalk to vote today if necessary.
Some results from that:
1) Harder for people to vote multiple times if they have to stay in line at each polling location = reduction in that type of vote fraud.
2) Obama voters in NYC might decide “Hey, Obama’s going to win NY anyway, screw it”
We will see how this affects NY totals
“I think employers are required by law to give you 2 hours to vote.”
Yes. But they are not required to pay you for it.
doesn’t matter if Obie takes NY 60-40 or 98-2.
Weird.......schools are used here in Texas, but school is in session. They just have voting in the lobby.
There is no reason to cancel school for it.
The kids are off today in NYC.
“Waiting also limits fraud. You can’t vote 10 times if you have to wait. And wait. And wait. :-)”
Thank you for that astute observation. We get the feeling so often these days that there are very few palpable forces out there staving off voter fraud.
Thank you again!
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