Primary Voting Going Smoothly in PA
Submitted by jmeasley on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 19:55.
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According to observers and newspapers, turnout has been high, but there have been no major problems with voting across the state of Pennsylvania so far.
Usually Pennsylvania doesn’t have anything close to the problems that have occurred in states like Ohio and Florida on voting day. Thus far, turnout could be characterized as record setting, but not overwhelming. Except for some difficulty getting voting machines started this morning at a few Pittsburgh and Philadelphia area polling places, there is nothing unusual going on.
The polls in the state are open from 7am-8pm, so many people vote on their way to work. There are reports of very heavy early morning turnout, but when I voted a little later in the day, there were a few people in my polling place, but no line.
The biggest problem at my polling place seemed to be that the machine that helps the blind vote was jammed, but the worker that runs the machine said that this has happened in the previous two elections as well. Balloting in Philadelphia has gone smoothly, and even though turnout here will be record setting, it seems as if the state was well prepared.
It is impossible to read into the tea leaves and say if one candidate or the other has an advantage. It is anybody’s guess. I think that the lack of a surprise turnout definitely helps Clinton, but it seems that only the blindest of Obama supporters has any thoughts of him winning the state anyway. The real question about the outcome tonight will be how much does Clinton win by?
Anything less than 10 points doesn’t really help her. Ten to fifteen points would be an acceptable margin, and over fifteen would help her. I don’t think she’ll get to 15, but she should win in that 5-10 range. However, don’t expect her to quit if she doesn’t win big. It seems that she is going to stay in this race until the very end.
If you have a story that you would like to share about voting today, go to www.politicususa.com and leave a comment under this story.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08113/875481-100.stm
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080422_Great_weather__...
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"Sample" Ballots in Pennsylvania
I've read several reports of Pennsylvania primary ballots without Barack Obama's name. Some of the responses have sarcastically stated 'these are "sample" ballots' -- assuming these folks are knowledgable about the appearance of these ballots. We have to remember there are tens of thousands of first time voters going to the polls - we just have to provide these folks a little more instruction and give them some slack.
Poll workers
I agree poll workers in primaries tend to assume that voters know what they are doing, but so far there have been no complaints about people being denied their vote.
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