November 3, 2020

Meade votes... second in line.

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He arrived about a half hour before the polling place opened. I was out doing my sunrise run, but I drove past the polling place on my way home. Didn't see many people. I think this is a neighborhood where people would tend to vote early, so the open spaces don't mean lack of excitement and are, of course, good for resisting COVID.

If you're wondering what "Protected Count" means, it's just the total number of ballots that have ever been fed through that particular machine. The "Public Count" is the number for this election.

47 comments:

Iman said...

Go Meade! My fervent hope is that millions are motivated and have the exact intention of their action: Trump landslide!

rehajm said...

Meade's morning MAGA. Go team...

Chris of Rights said...

I arrived at around 5:15 AM. Polling opened at 6 AM. I was about 10th in line. There were about 100 people there when 6 AM finally rolled around.

gspencer said...

The frau and I were 52 and 53 in our precinct. Busiest I've ever seen the polling station.

mikee said...

All well and good, but did Meade his "I VOTED!" sticker?! The affirmation to one's own self esteem generated by the receipt and possession of a colorful sticker is one of the true joys of voting in the United States. Thank goodness nobody knows where such stickers come from, or people would just buy themselves one, and nobody would ever vote again.

This year, in addition to getting a classic oval "I VOTED!" sticker for my primary vote (Bernie, to send a message to the Dems that crazy should be rewarded) I also got a larger, more colorful, circular "I VOTED EARLY!" sticker for my Trump vote, which, honestly, I would have given him even if denied such a reward. Trump 300+ in a week or three!

WisRich said...

Heard on the radio that Dane county had a 80% early vote.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Women have no need to vote; their husbands vote for them.

hawkeyedjb said...

We voted last week, but went by our neighborhood polling place on our morning walk. At 6:30 there was a line out the door, down the sidewalk, across the basketball court and along another sidewalk. In our neighborhood, I don't know for whom the voters are turning out but there certainly are a lot of them.

Tommy Duncan said...

My thanks to Meade for bravely moving behind enemy lines to cast his vote.

My thanks to Althouse for not cancelling Meade's vote.

WK said...

Drove by 3 of our local polling places. Parking lots had spaces available and didn’t see lines out the door. I think there were plenty of early voters. Beautiful day in Ohio (but cold) so at least if there are lines it isn’t in a downpour. It usually seems to rain on democratic voters being suppressed in outdoor lines. So we won’t have that visual to deal with.

Maillard Reactionary said...

We voted a week ago, slipping our ballots into a reassuringly low-tech box in front of the police station (under video surveillance) which, we were assured, is emptied daily by a bipartisan pair of County election officials. No line there, and I didn't bother to wear a mask. Easy-peasy.

What I'd like to sport is an "I Loaded Magazines" sticker on my shirt.

Temujin said...

Hmm...are you sure that 'Protected Count' are not the votes held in reserve for a Democrat? Just in case they need some?

RK said...

Believe it or not, there was a time in Madison when Trump got half of the city's votes. It was the millisecond after Meade voted.

Dave Begley said...

I was 9th in line at 7:11 am in Omaha. When I left at about 8:15, there were at least 200 people in line.

In the primary, I voted at 10 am. I was about number 20.

I have never seen anything like this. That I can tell you!

Trump landslide.

Lord Clanfiddle said...

This was my 11th presidential election, and I've never seen a line as long. Given where I live, I expect most of us were voting Trump. Crossing my fingers!

stevew said...

Voted this morning in my small, seaside Maine, resort town. It was about 8:30am. I arrived and had my forehead temperature taken - the device wouldn't register at first, the poll entrance person and the two cops laughed when I said, "I promise, I'm alive.". Sometimes I crack me up.

Entered the voting area, checked in, and then took one of the open booths. There was one other guy voting. Cast my votes (note there is rank choice voting for President and US Senator), put my ballots in the machine. When I left there was one other person (male) entering the building.

I suspect a lot of people voted early.

Doug said...

Who took the accompanying picture of the voting machine? Our polling place has signs strictly prohibiting any video or picture-taking inside.
My polling place in TN opened at 9 a.m. I'm used to voting in the morning darkness in NC.

Dave Begley said...

Not too late to change your mind and vote, Ann.

alan markus said...

A friend posted a picture of her "I voted" sticker 5 minutes after the polls opened. 42 year old mother, voted on the way to dropping her son off at school. Not sure how she voted - in the past I would have assumed Democrat, but in a recent discussion she did not exhibit any signs of TDS, and seemed somewhat critical of Biden.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

We haven't voted yet. It is about 7am and the polling place has just opened.

There are not that many people in our rural and widely dispersed area and usually if there are more that 5 people at a time it is amazing. Never any lines. However, because of the Covid Paranoia, we may see a few people standing outside as they are limiting the number of people in the building at a time.

We shall see.

Original Mike said...

My wife and I were going to vote early, but then realized that a poll worker in Madison would open our ballots and run them through the machine (I think that's how it works). With the opportunity to see our votes first, the odds of our ballots being disappeared is unacceptably high. We decided to vote in person.

DanTheMan said...

I voted this morning here in Florida. It seems like most Floridians voted early, as there was no line at all.
And there was no broken glass for me to crawl over. But I would have, honest!

Ralph L said...

Laslo is number 1 in the pubic count.

narciso said...

no you're supposed to feed the ballots into the machine, because virus,

reader said...

Husband and I got to our polling place ten minutes before it opened and we were third in line. We got to share an x ;)

By the time we left all the booths were taken but there were only about ten people in line.

reader said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CStanley said...

Voted with my son who is a first time voter today.

There was a slow steady stream of voters but no lines, which IMO doesn’t bode well since were in a deep red district. I know a lot of people voted early, including Republicans, this time, but my understanding is that Trump still needs a big turnout today.

Danno said...

I think this is a neighborhood where people would tend to vote early, so the open spaces don't mean lack of excitement and are, of course, good for resisting COVID.

In other words, a neighborhood of Karens!

Will said...

"....what exactly is this math?"

It's the math that let Obama/Biden invent a new category called "Jobs created or saved.:

Votes created or saved will put Joe over the top..


Seriously, if the media thinks it has the credibility at this late stage to try a power play like this they are insane. Trump's vote total will be known exactly when Biden's are known. You think Trump didn't analyze the rules of this game?

William50 said...

My wife and I went to vote at 9:00. There was a short line, we had to wait maybe 5 minutes at most. The waiting line and traffic into the parking lot was starting to increase as we were leaving. I was rather surprised that this many people had waited until today to vote. With Cottage Grove being essentially a suburb of Madison I figured that most would have early voted.

Dave Begley said...

Althouse's refusal to vote reminds me of that great line in "Big Chill" by University of Michigan alum Jeffery Goldblum, "Who can't get through a day without at least half a dozen rationalizations?"

The script was written by Larry Kasdan; a Michigan man.

holdfast said...

We went to our polling place around 9:15, and waited about 10 minutes to get in.

Folks seemed to be in good spirits and were chatting with neighbors.

Whiskeybum said...

At first glance, I thought that headline read: Meade votes... a second time !!

stevew said...

I fully expect the Democrats to do everything in their power, regardless of what is legal, fair, and right, to elect Joe Biden/Kamala Harris. Just as it was done with Al Franken's election to the Senate a few years ago. And I expect them to be successful. Sucks, but there it is.

Scott Patton said...

You gotta get goin' if you want to make a showin'.
Ann said to the sun: "Good morning sun"!

Larry J said...

Our polls opened at 7:00. I arrived at 6:20 and there were at least 70 people ahead of me. It was 32 degrees but sunny with no wind. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and friendly. I had a big insulated coffee cup to help me stay warm. They allowed people over 70 and those with disabilities to go to the head of the line. By the time the polls opened, there were at least 300 people waiting in line. I was beginning to regret drinking that coffee. I entered the polling place at 8:10 and was done by 8:20. When I left, the lines went back and forth around the building 3 times and people were still arriving. It looks like turnout is going to be very good today.

Original Mike said...

Just voted at Hoyt School (near west side of Madison). Very few voters but a ton of poll workers (I did not count, but I'd say 30-40 including those outside), all young and masked but not seeming to understand the concept of social distancing. I kept having to back away from the helpful attendants.

At the outside checkpoint, I was told I needed to answer three questions before I could enter, but the poll worker asking them couldn't remember the third question. This brought several of them over to see if they could help.

ME: "What's the third question" I asked them. "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, perhaps?"
THEM: "Do you know the answer to that?"
ME: "African or European?"
Thus, I was allowed to cross The Bridge of Death.

(Althouse, ask Meade to explain it to you.)

As I said above, I voted in person because I don't trust Madison poll workers to run my ballot through the machine. So when I get to the 'put it through the machine' stage, the machine is malfunctioning. I was invited to put my ballot in their "secure" ballot box. I demurred, opting to wait until they fixed it. Interestingly, nobody behind me were willing to put their ballot in the "secure" ballot box either. With so many poll workers it was hard to find an out of the way place to wait, but fortunately they got the machine fixed in about 5 minutes.

Rory said...

"Thank goodness nobody knows where such stickers come from, or people would just buy themselves one, and nobody would ever vote again."

You can buy little "I Farted" stickers that look a lot like the real thing.

walter said...

Did he wear his Trump dove shirt?

Francisco D said...

I went to the polls in North suburban Tucson at about 10 am, figuring that the early birds would be gone. There was no line, but a lot of poll workers.

I have no idea what this signifies in terms of turnout. My wife is going after work and we will see what that time period is like. I think a ton of people voted early here.

I will ask my (life long Democrat) wife if she adhered to her Althousian promise to not vote for either POTUS or senate candidate.

Sydney said...

I went at 7:00 this morning. Stood in line outside in the cold for 30 minutes, mostly because of social distancing requirements. There was a steady stream of people at my polling place but it combined 3 precincts. There was another building several yards away that was also a polling place for a different precinct that had no line at all.
There were Republican and Democrat party operatives outside handing out ballot recommendations. Both parties seemed low key and very polite. No negative campaign signs, just signs identifying who they were with.
It was rather a pleasant experience.

hstad said...

AA - it could be that nobody was there because of this:

"...
Dan O'Donnell
Democrats Appear to be Struggling in Wisconsin Early Voting
By Dan O'Donnell
Nov 2, 2020




"...Wisconsin Democrats do not appear to be hitting their vote-by-mail and in-person early voting goals, an analysis of the early vote by "The Dan O'Donnell Show" has found. Despite a massive push for early voting across the state, the 12 counties won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 are badly trailing their early vote percentage from four years ago...."

"...As of Monday morning, the day after in-person early voting concluded in Wisconsin, the 12 Democrat counties--Ashland, Bayfield, Dane, Douglas, Eau Claire, Green, Iowa, La Crosse, Menominee, Milwaukee, Portage, and Rock--accounted for a total of 743,829 votes; 39.4 percent of the 1,886,533 cast statewide. In 2016, those 12 counties accounted for 50.4 percent of the statewide early vote (336,533 cast out of 666,846 total early votes)..."

https://newstalk1130.iheart.com/featured/common-sense-central/content/2020-11-02-democrats-appear-to-be-struggling-in-wisconsin-early-voting/

RobinGoodfellow said...

“ Axios treated Trump as though he'd be doing something wrong to declare victory early... Now, I assume Axios would defend itself by saying the 2 plans are different.”

“It’s different when I do it!”

See also, “Shut up, they explained.”

stevew said...

Am I alone in wondering if all the "Be Prepared for a week of Chaos and Panic" being peddled by the Media is just going to mimic the the loud concerns we heard leading up to Year 2K?

Curious George said...

Not sure what time the polls open here in WI, maybe 6AM? My polling place has three wards, I was #100 in my ward. Didn't win a prize.

"All well and good, but did Meade his "I VOTED!" sticker?!"

My son texted me when I was in line, and said "No 'I voted" sticker, total bullshit."

Funny kid.

Rabel said...

I voted at 1:45 in a Southern town of 25,000 that is 40% AA.

No line. None. And very little early voting allowed here. Surprising.

DavidUW said...

Hstad.

That's what i've been saying; I don't understand why WI is supposedly a lock for Biden.

Biden could still win, sure, but there's no evidence for a Biden win from the early voting patterns.

In particular, break down Milwaukee county, the majority black north side is underperforming more. The votes from the overall underperforming Milwaukee county are coming from the south side. Which as I wrote before, are not just white folks, they're Archie Bunker white folks. They're not voting for old Joe, and they sure as F aren't voting for BLM and riots.