Login Here 
UPDATE: Atrios has the video.
Just got this in my e-mail from an election watch group:
A number of problems have been reported this morning as polling places have opened around the country, especially in Ohio, where numerous election machine problems have occurred, leading to delayed openings and long lines. One apparent victim of the Ohio voting machine problems was Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, as a local TV station broadcast footage of her struggling with a machine.
Oh my. If anyone can find the clip posted online, I will happily post the link. Election machine problems are no joke -- and being able to show evidence that this sort of thing can happen to anyone, even a member of Congress? Priceless!
Go, Victoria Wulsin! Get out there and vote gang -- let's turn America blue, one ballot at a time!
And if you have trouble voting, try these numbers:
1-888-DEM-VOTE for the DNC's voter hotline -- this will get you directly to DNC lawyers and others to help with fraud issues.
Election Protection's 1-866-OUR-VOTE has live operators who can address some problems over the phone and dispatch lawyers on the ground, if necessary.
Common Cause's 1-866-MYVOTE-1 can help people find their polling place.
Share This 
Spotlight
karma, indeed!
Morning frogger!
I mean, how cool is it that i open up the ol’ fdl link on just the BIGGEST DAY EVER and there is my own leathery congresscritter to inspire me. I’m catching an early flight back to OH-2 just to work a little more to put Dr. Vic in Mean Jean’s place.
I’m off to vote with my hubby,look foward to seeing you guys tonight on CNN.
Karma happens.
Here’s hoping that it happens in a very big way today…
GOTV!
Hey Christy…are you guys blogging from the Tryst all day?
Go you guys — GO GO GO!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!
I voted over a week ago by absentee ballot, though my SF votes aren’t gonna be difference makers this time around….
Firepups, keep up all the amazing great work, and I’ll check back in when the results have started pouring in….
I think I’ll have to do one or two steps of the pas de Schadenfreude for this one.
MWAHAHAHAHA
On Topic: MO poll workers hassled the MO Secretary of State illegally over voter ID requirements before realizing who she was.
Slightly OT:
RH–
Are you going to get any airtime tonight? One thing to keep an eye on tonight is the aggregated Democratic vote–i.e. added up over all districts. One can do this both for the House and Senate. That number is easier to predict than the number of seats. It will also show the Democratic mandate better.
Redistricting has led to very low responsiveness in Congress-large changes in the popular vote result in much smaller changes in the number of Congressional seats.
Looking state-by-state / district-by-district we’re likely to win the Senate popular totals tonight about 28 million to 22 million, i.e. 56-44–even though it’s not highly likely we will even manage a tie in the Senate seats. The House looks likely to be a 54-46 affair; again, the seat totals are likely to show less of a margin. This fundamental lack of responsiveness is why we all have to go out into the field today! (For myself I’ll be in NH-02 after work.)
I think that we won’t have long to shape the media view of what happened today, and we should be ready with numbers that show clearly what people are choosing today.
What’s with all of the election crap on this blog?
Don’t you know that Kirstie Alley wore a bikini on Oprah?
Here’s the link for Mean Jean’s voting problems :)
http://atrios.blogspot.com/200.....2937700726
Epu’d so repeating a bit from below.
If yousee anything hinky at the polls, don’t just call it in, make sure to leave you name and contact info in case you are needed as a witness later.
If there are other witnesses present who are willing to share their names and contact info with you make sure the person at the other end of the voter help line takes it all down.
Balrog @ 10
It’s good to have perspective. Thanks.
*g*
I’m getting ready to head out to HQ and start asking, cajoling, pleading and, if necessary, dragging every last dem voter in my part of the county to vote.
I have hope for miracles today. My congressional candidate, Selden Spencer, was endorsed by the major papers in the district and the Des Moines Register. His Republiclone opponent has gone negative after promising not to, a sure sign that his well-funded polling is getting him upset.
I will be thinking about all of you, and so many others around the country who also have hope, and who will be working this election tonight until the polls close. Godspeed.
LJ/Aquaria @ 11
She looks like the meanest person on the planet. If her hair was pulled back any tighter her face would split wide open.
Mornin’ all
Voted in bright red Atlantasuburbia.
Diebolds all round, must’ve been 15 machines in there. No lines, no wait, 10% had voted by 9 EST.
Straight blue ticket except when I had to write myself or my Dad in when there was no Dem challenger.
Cheers!
Following up on looseheadprop’s advice, I’ll remind people that most digital cameras can record a minute or two of video. If you find yourself in the middle of something hinky, you can at least get something even without a real camcorder.
Just had a talk with a co-worker. I’m in the defense industry in a very red district of a rather red state. I asked him if he voted - “not yet”. Asked who he was going to vote for (he’s a Reagan Republican - anti-union, always supported the Iraq war) “straight Democratic ticket. The Republican party has been taken over by the far right.” Said he made a list of all the major issues he could think of and was on the Dem side on almost every one. He was very upset that he was going to have to vote Dem :)
I voted early in Athens thinking that it would be crowded but with this gloomy weather I don’t know.
T- @ 16
Hey, Christy, good luck with your gig on CNN tonight. I’d be scared shitless! I guess maybe you get used to it since you’ve been on TV before. All the best!
Balrog @
10
This is a surprise from someone who wore pointy ears in her debut film role?
LJ/Aquaria @ 11
It appears that the scanner gagged when confronted with a vote for Mean Jean.
Prof. Foland at 8 — They are going to have some sort of combination of live-blogging and online streaming video on their Pipeline stream, as well as do occasional interviews with folks who are there. The coverage is supposed to start at 7 pm ET, but I really have no idea how the whole thing is going to work together until we get there and get started. Should be interesting…I’m just psyched to have the campaign information access that we’ll be able to get via the CNN wire reports and such.
LJ/Aquaria @ 21
And failed miserably in the Kubayashi Maru simulation.
Ya’ll will slay em!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 23
Balrog @ 24
And didn’t get that she coulda banged Kirk, if she’d tried at all. He was panting for it!
can I just say that I deeply dislike Mary Matalin?
ack.
MayDaze at 20 — I have to say, I’m a little nervous. But it won’t be just me — there will be a whole group of bloggers on both sides of the aisle. I just want to do you guys proud…
You’re welcome for the link CHS. ;)
Christy Hardin Smith @ 28
We know you’ll do great!
Balrog @ 22
Not only that, what it spit out was a message that went “U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi…”
Actually, it was really Jean’s fault. She went to the plls after the sun had come up and optical scans, like mirrors, do not pick up her image.
And I can’t say I blame them.
LJ — that made my morning. :) Thanks much! Schadenfreude hotline? I’ll take a double order…
MayDaze @ 30
Christy, you do us proud every day!
Hi guys. I know I’ve been really busy… but… did I, like, totally miss Rove’s “October Surprise”?
froggermarch @ 31
It seems that she was goalie for the high school Jarts team before facemasks were common.
Malacandra @ 34
Here it is.
You’re going down, TurdBlossom. SURPRISE!
TBogg on what to expect with these elections.
Hilarious, especially the last line:
Speaking of Rove, today is the day we pull back the curtain and expose him as being a mere mortal. Oh, what a wonderful Wiz, he WAS!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 28
CHS you have integrity and justice and good candidates on your side. They have sleaze, dirty tricks, and pond scum. Give them hell!
Malacandra @ 34
I think the various dirty tricks (the biggie is the robocall scam) are all he’s got. In his finale, he’s going back to what he knows best.
Given the expected traffic here today, it’s a good day to be nice to the moderators who keep things running. Toward that end, and to make newcomers feel a bit more at ease, here’s some info that will keep your comments from landing in moderation or otherwise clog things up and make life difficult for the mods:
1. Size matters. Long posts get automatically put in moderation and require the mods to set them free. If you want to use a post from elsewhere, don’t cut and paste the whole thing, just give us a link and post a snippet. It saves space here, and gives the original author the traffic they deserve on their site.
2. Words matter. Especially those words that appear in email spam. Creative use of asterisks in words like “ins*rance” or “vi*gra” will keep things from getting caught in the filters.
3. Links matter. If you put a comment in with more than two links, it will end up in moderation. If you absolutely, positively have to have multiple links, you probably want to split it into multiple comments.
4. Attribution matters. If you are posting a news item, give us a link so we know where it came from, how timely it is, and how credible it is.
5. Preview is your friend. Before you send that post, especially if you’ve used bold, italics, or inserted a link, check it out by clicking the preview button before you submit it. It saves on the cleaning bills.
Finally, and most importantly: Do not feed the trolls. It just encourages them, and makes life difficult for the mods.
Welcome to the ‘Lake! The water’s warm, so jump right in.
Oh, and this cute little piece of advice from TBogg:
MWAHAHAHAHA
It will be comedy frickin gold. You just know it.
I bet her Mascara runs. And a big clump of her hair Aquanet-slathered hair sticks to her face.
Talk about your Can’t Miss TV!
Balrog @
36
I like it. A late October this year, but that works for me.
1,327 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Hardin Smith and the Firepup Patriots:
It has started…the Rove surprise is to blatantly corrupt the election process in as many large demographics as possible in order to cast all the major Democratic gains into question, hoping that the results will not be able to be audited and the corrupted tallies will be certified by lame duck Republican officials. This is happening early and is being broadcast openly with the strategy to discourage voters right up front this AM…Ohio isn’t the only case, it has started in Missouri and early reports are comin in from northern Virginia.
I predict that there will be so many corrupted returns in Virginia, Missouri, Ohio AND Connecticut that the election in those places will be impossible to count and Gruppenfuehrer Clusterfuck will declare martial law in those areas and have federalized National Guard take the ballots and certify the election in those areas.
There is gunna be violence folks…out here in white bread tundra where the little old lady poll workers usually wear a smile on their faces for their biggest social event of their year, everyone of them looked exhausted and completely stressed out AT 8:00AM!!! …and this in an area with paper ballots and manageable numbers.
Please God, make me wrong about this but I think we have the makin’s of a real American Reich stag fire…they are gunna go for it today folks.
I’m goin’ down ta the county party HQ and see what poll watchers have reported…my lord, if they ken mess with this area I can’t imagine how bad it will be out where it counts the most!
KEEP THE FAITH AND BE READY TA HIT THE STREET!!
Morning. Checking in from work. Listened to the radio on the way here and the reporter in New Jersey said his polling place had a line — they never had a line. He said the poll workers said the turnout was higher than they had seen it in years.
Good news for the Dems
LJ/Aquaria @ 42
Where’s the spew warning? I had only taken one sip from my coffee, and now it’s all over the screen!
((wiping off the monitor))
Katherine Harris channelling Tammy Faye Baker? Ewwwwww . . .
The Atlanta suburd that I voted in had a slight wait. The horses ass in front of me made a statement about making sure to have a photo id and the poll worker was laughing about having to accept other forms of id. After noticing my glare she said she was only joking and I mentioned that I found it tacky and offensive. Should have seen her reaction when the fellow behind me showed his New York state driver’s license.
Ride! Riders of Rohan!
Mean Jean is a dead ringer for the wicked witch in Wizard of Oz minus the patriotic cheerleader outfit.
I may have missed it, but do we have an fdl pool on the results today? If not (even if so) here’s mine:
House: pick up of 36 seats
Senate: pick up of six seats, which looks good until Lieberman (who, sadly wins in a close one) casts his lot with the forces of darkness. Except then, Susan Collins, sensing political cover from that move, pulls a Jeffords and evens things out just as Darth had left the hospital after his latest hunting trip to head to DC to cast the deciding vote.
Equally important, the Dems take the statehouses in record numbers and the state legislatures follow with redistricting ahead. Tom Delay is brought in by the Dems as a gerrymandering consultant, but it turns out to be a cruel ruse to make a point.
karma, indeed.
Okay, Pups, I gotta get some sleep. Haven’t slept since yesterday at…11 a.m. CT. Alas, the bane of new meds = LJ/Aquaria more hyper than that other Monkeyboy (Warning: Major MacGeek joke).
Okay. Maybe I’m not that hyper.
Christy, anything that makes Jean unhappy has the opposite effect on me, but don’t enjoy this too much: “Election machine problems are no joke — and being able to show evidence that this sort of thing can happen to anyone, even a member of Congress? Priceless!”
The Republicans are planning to dispute results they don’t like, and part of the groundwork for their challenges involves calling the voting machines into question. If they can’t steal the vote by suppression and election-day shenanigans, expect to see goons and lawyers wherever the Democrats have a close victory. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Republicans also have a list of more pliable judges.
Why would the Republicans raise questions about one of their favorite vote-stealing tools? Because they (or is it just Bush and Rove?) believe that wherever the vote is in dispute, they can win.
A real-time, interactive map of election “incidents” is at http://eirs.cs.net:8080/EIRS_WEB/Map/begin.do. If your web browser is blocking popups, a bar will appear at the top of your screen about allowing popups. Click on it to allow.
Ohio has the highest number so far. I click on it, then on Franklin County. Here is an example:
But you don’t have to scroll through there, because other sites will pick out and report examples from that site, such as Protect Our Votes:
Peterr @ 41
Re: #5 above - preview doesn’t work (at least for me) on Internet Exploder 6. But you can use the Spell Check to preview (and correct those pesky typos). The Revise Comment also doesn’t work on IE6, so get it right the first time (do as I say, not as I do).
old gold @
38
Careful, the Fates, they’re fickle. One eye between ‘em but the scissors are sharp! Don’t tempt ‘em.
I woke up early in the morning with a horrible dream that the task force poised outside of Iran had mounted an assualt, martial law was declared, Executive order was cast…elections suspended indefinately. Who’s to say the fat old Rat Bastard doesn’t still have something up his sleeve. I’m gonna pray to whatever powers that still love light and life; and them I’m going to follow their coffins to make sure that they’re dead! Take no chances! Call a friend to vote blue!
Update from a very red state. Co-workers report significant problems with Diebold machines in Provo Utah precincts. Poll workers can’t get the voter access cards to work. Machines ask for a “Supervisor card” - nobody at precinct has them. Poll workers don’t know what to do…
On the plus side, I got all of my dem friends (what few there are in this state) out to early vote last week….
Just voted. Turnout at my poll here in Northern Virginia was MAMMOTH. It was more than I saw in the Presidential election.
Parked behind a car with license # 73, my lucky number. Then I saw it said Virginia House of Delegates, which meant our state Rep. was there, or Mrs. Rep. After the vote I went up and talked to him, he was so excited about being onstage at the Webb/Clinton/Warner rally last night. I offered my increased support for him and people that he recommends in the future.
I think that will be one of the benefits of this election, to get a lot more of us regular citizen types re-engaged in the political process. We cannot make progress if we all just leave it up to somebody else.
My 90-year-old neighbor was voting when I joined the long line for checkin. She came up to me and said “Are you counting them all?” While I cannot tell you how she voted, since it’s secret ballot and everything, she has always been on the side of Truth and Justice.
The mood at the poll was like sitting in the bleachers waiting for your championship team to come onto the field. We KNOW we’ve got the momentum. This is gonna be good.
Am off now to get pumpkin muffins for some very deserving and hungry fdl folk.
THIS IS IT —– MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!
OMG LJ/A - what meds do you and Balmer take?
Glorfindel @ 48
Words of wisdom from Gandalf, before the battle of Helm’s Deep:
“We must face the threat at hand…if we fail, we fall. If we succeed, then on to the next task.”
Birdman at 56 — Could I get you to call the DNC call line: 1-888-DEM-VOTE and report to them what you just said here? They can get an election team on the ground there to get things sorted out, but they need to be apprised of the problem. Thanks!
Ken Mehlman is a lying sack of shit. I just needed to say that out loud this morning.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 61
you took the words right outta my mouth, Christy.
My fondest wish for today is that the polls that predict squeakers for our side are wrong because of the voters like all the young adults in my family who do not have land lines or use caller id and thus don’t answer questionable calls. Landslide please!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 61
Is it me or is Mehlman looking a little Haggard?
(joke not original — stolen from the comments section last night)
Words of wisdom from Balrog before the battle of Midterm 2006.
Katherine Harris couldn’t carry TFB’s make-up bag.
Jane at 64 — mwahahahahaha *snerk*
For those interested in real-time reports on voter suppression and vote fraud, visit the website http://www.protectourvotes.org/.
Some disturbing early news this morning:
In Missouri, whose close U.S. Senate election may determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, and thus the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court for the next generation, voters are being asked for a photo ID this morning even after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled last month that asking voters for photo ID is illegal.
Full story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00774.html
Oh-huh. Sure.
I have voted. The polling place was packed at 7am, and I hope that’s a good sign.
Let’s all hope that Arizona CD-8 sends Gabrielle Giffords to Washington, turning one red seat blue. And that Kyl’s psycho ads against Jim Pederson have backfired on him.
Cliff Varnell @ 66
But she’d be great in a John Waters film. Serial Senator.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 61
He accidently let some truth slip out once:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skXLOf-_Pnk
That might be it for this decade. Thank God for John Stewart!
Balrog @ 10
Just one more reason to kill my T.V.!!!!
Here’s Jean Schmidt messing with the voting machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxCI9hJKXno
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
angie @
27
I deeply HATE Mary Matalin and will dance with glee if I ever get to read her obituary.
Christy Hardin Smith @
61
Another whose obit will be cause to drink expensive liquor.
I’m wearing my firedoglake T-shirt. all is well. we will prevail.
Guitar_Playing_Bastard @ 74
Guitar_Playing_Bastard @ 75
Two very good reasons for single malt scotch whiskey. I’ve never felt the need for a ’single single’ but I feel it coming on!
Balrog @ 15
She bears a remarkable resemblance to Frau Blucher from “Young Frankenstein.” And I suspect that horses agree with me.
Took me 45 minutes to vote in my Alexandria location. Lines out the door.
They had two lines depending on your last name: one line for A-K, one for L-Z. The A-K line was short and you go get right inside, but the L-Z line was long. They had 5 or 6 voting machines (I forget)and when I voted for Webb, my confirmation screen included the infamous error in confirming his name incompletely. I tried to snap a cell phone picture but it came out real bad.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 60
Done!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 61
Mornin’ back atcha Christy! It feels good doesn’t it? “Ken Mehlman is a lying sack of shit.” Now go on…”who is living in that lying sack of shit in evrything he does, both publicly and privately.” Feel the power. “And who represents a party who is lousy with lies, built on lies, nourished by lies…” Testify. “and who’s lies will be lain at the foot of the political grave where, after today, they shall be, erm, laid bare to rest in perdition.” Amen and whoop! whoop! hallelujia!
Or something.
Peterr at 7.20 -
Good stuff; have been lurking & occasional commenting for a long time but you’ve answered several back-of-the mind questions. Keep meaning to google for a list of spam words. FDL mods are the greatest!
Yeah, it really does feel like a very LotR day for America.
article on the FBI investigation in VA
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15603344/
Here’s the gop inoculation against exit polls. They use these talking points until the diebold results are “tallied”.
EvilDrPuma @
78
Ovaltine, perhaps?
Don’t do what I am about to do in this post.
MayDaze @ 54
How about a new “guideline” today: If you must quote, go inside the blockquote markers and delete most of what you are quoting.
And then remember to PREVIEW in case you broke something.
I consciously did not follow my suggested “guideline” in this post about the problem because it helps demonstrate how awful long, long, quotes and re-quotes can be. And what a waste of bandwidth (and readers’ brain-width).
T- @
84
Please read what appears to be a pertinent article that I found by way of Raw Story: http://online.wsj.com/public/a.....71106.html
Balrog @ 65
It’s a good thing the corrupted, Morgoth-serving Maia from the First Age is on our side.
Does anyone else have a problem with not-my-friend PayPal? When I try to plug in my credit card information here, it reverts to PayPal.
Here is the same “quoting” with rigorous editing to get to the point.
MayDaze @ 54
(Then you make your comment on the double quotes.)
T- @
84
Who on Earth is going to take the time to read that Filibuster? Certainly not the Prezdink.
Oh, and credit where credit is due.
I want to thank President Clinton for appearing and campaigning with Ned Lamont yesterday.
Oh, wait. . .
EvilDrPuma @ 88
Though it hurts me that Gnome de Plume @58, who by definition should know better, called me Balmer.
Pachacutec @ 92
DON’T GET ME FREAKIN’ GOIN MAN! Everything was pretty rosey there for a while.
random dispatch from God’s Country -
am a ‘rover’ and driver - was supposed t/b 8 miles down the road today, just thought I’d stop by local polling place to say hi and wish all well
it seems some John Carter (DeLay Weasel/TRMPAC Monkeyboy) supporters had been there twice already this morning - questioning poll workers credentials - funny that the only credentials questioned were those of the bi-lingual volunteers - fellow poll worker holds up her camera phone while the questioned poll worker dials the national number - -bwahaahaahaahaa !!!
. . . say hello to my little friend:
http://www.livingroom.org.au/c.....9_2883.jpg
I am grateful that Clinton showed up for Jim Webb yesterday, though.
What was his wife doing anyway?
There’s a steady, cold rain here. I went with Esten to vote, and it felt GOOD.
T- @ 84
Thanks, T.
Wow, they are really touchy, aren’t they? They must think they will not be looking so good, maybe.
One would think that professional pollsters might have noticed such trends and adapted them to interpretation of this year’s results. Funny, I thought that the disparity between exit polls and final results might have said something was fishy in the TALLIES for the Ohio and Florida results they focus on, since otherwise exit polls have been very reliable indeed. But, they are entitled to their paranoia, as well, I suppose.
Go on Prof!
I consciously did not follow my suggested “guideline” in this post about the problem because it helps demonstrate how awful long, long, quotes and re-quotes can be. And what a waste of bandwidth (and readers’ brain-width).
New thread, gang — trying to keep threads short so the blog keeps moving right along without a hitch. :) (We live to serve…)
Pachacutec @ 92
Watching the tail end of the Jas. Webb rally on cspan last night Bill Clinton looked a little lost and sad out of the limelight on the stage - serves Big Dog right for hanging Ned out to dry.
Jane Hamsher @ 64
Ted or Merle?
??? Question re. expected heavy traffic at the Lake later in the day ????
Would it be appropriate to notify newbies on the availability of WindCatPond ?
My voting experience was a pleasure, the old grey battle steel machines with colored lights on top like an old circus, enter behind the curtain PPP and exit a dove, that means no Hillary, and not the Republican either. Half the slots here don’t even have republicans, I went equipped with my 1-888-DEM-and 1-866-OUR-VOTE but no problems here. After 2000/2004 I felt like someone in the family had died and I’m cautious now but I think were going to be historic today thanks in a big way to the efforts made right here on FDL and Christy.
Good luck to all you in the battle field.