Featured Article


90 percent turnout! Really?
BY: 
John Dankosky Published: 11/04/2008

The Secretary of the State's Office is running those numbers, and while I find it hard to believe, the early returns seem to back this up.  More than two million registered voters in the state - the highest in history, with more than 300 thousand signing up since January!  And this is in a state where the Presidential campaign was an afterthought.  Diane Orson reported on how Barack Obama's coattails and the big turnout might help sweep Jim Himes into office in the 4th district.  Ken Rudin, the NPR Washington Editor who makes predictions for the network said he thinks Himes will win.  

Meanwhile, long lines at polling places around Connecticut...and much, much longer lines in Florida and Ohio.  My polling place in Winsted was busy, but the wait was short.  The crew of volunteer workers was a well-oiled machine - and it didn't seem anyone had questions about the new optical scan voting machines.  

In anticipation of long lines this afternoon, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued a legal opinion confirming that those "in line" at 8pm when the polls close will still be able to vote...although I'm not quite sure what the standard is for being "in line."  

NPR has this map (below) that they're using to track polling problems around the U.S. - you can report problems to the Election Protection Coalition here, and let us know at WNPR.  Leave a comment on this page, email us at wherewelive@wnpr.org or call our newsroom 860-275-7266.  Let us know:

Are the lines long?  Are things running smoothly?  What problems do you see at your polling place?  We'll be sharing some of our reports during our two-hour Where We Live special tonight at 7.  


Bookmark/Search this post with:
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati
 

Listener email to wherewelive@wnpr.org

Submitted by jdankosky on November 5, 2008 - 1:48am.
Great show. Just wanted to report a problem I had voting today in Hamden. Waiting in line to put my ballot into the optical scanning machine the machine it stopped accepting ballots for apparently unknown reasons. There was only one machine available. The volunteers suggested that we give them our ballots and that they would enter them when the machine was fixed. Given the extent of issues we have seen with voting accuracy in this country, the idea of handing my ballot over to a stranger and hoping all would go well sounded like a terrible idea to me, although a few people did do this. The rest of us were left to wait for quite a while as staffers hovered over the broken machine. It was eventually fixed but I have to say it didn't engender much confidence. 
It baffles me why the documentation of a simple binary choice continues to present such a problem.
Sirie Godshalk
Hamden, CT
 

 

Listener Email from Dan Storms

Submitted by ctalarski on November 4, 2008 - 2:11pm.

I just voted at 11:15, figuring the morning rush would be gone and the lunch crowd not there yet. Parking was more difficult than voting. But people were not seeming to mind having to park a long way away. Organization was excellent—one door each for the two districts using my polling station, many poll workers neatly partitioning off voters by address, plenty of stations to take your ballot, took all of 10 minutes from the time I got in the door till I got my “I Voted” sticker. The woman in front of me had her ballot rejected, machine said she “overvoted,” but she was able to get another ballot right away. I hope the rest of the state had it as easy.

 

Dan Storms