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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

High Turnout, Some Problems As America Goes To The Polls

Voters leave the Old Blanco Courthouse after casting their ballots on Tuesday in Blanco, Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)

On this Election Day, we get the lay of the land with Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian, and drop in on four crucial states: New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Colorado.

Charlie Mahtesian, national political editor at Politico:

“Pretty much a standard election morning, particularly for an election where there’s a great deal of interest. There’s lots of reports of strong turnout, reports of strong turnout in Western Pennsylvania, and in the Pennsylvania suburbs, lots of different places. And I think its typical of an election day that you hear of lots of problems: ballot malfunctions, offices not opening on time, and then, on top of all that, you’ve got the states that had to struggle through Hurricane Sandy recently, and those are special kinds of challenges, so you see all that across the election landscape this morning.”

John Broder, reporting from Columbus, Ohio for the New York Times:

“[Enthusiasm] is high… it may be lagging a little bit behind 2008, when you had the historic Obama candidacy. I stopped in at the local AFL headquarters here and they were sending out dozens and dozens of volunteers to go door-to-door to make sure people got out and voted, but the head of the local here said that it was a little slower getting volunteers geared up than four years ago.”

Adam Smith, political editor for the Tampa Bay Times:

“In our neck of the woods, we got a call from a former governor Charlie Christ that his Democratic wife got a robo-call from his election office saying voting starts tomorrow from 7 to 7.”

Grace Hood,  reporter for KUNC, in Greeley, Colo.:

“The top [ballot question] is amendment 64, which is calling for legalizing small amounts of marijuana. It’s called the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act.”

Josh Rogers, reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio: 

“There are about 5,000 people registered in this ward and 4,000 have apparently voted by 11 a.m. So turnout looks big, and, from what I’m hearing, it’s peaked pretty much everywhere in New Hampshire.”

Guests:

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

  • Jen

    Would you please link to the Boston Globe story you referenced earlier in the hour about what to look for tonight while watching the returns come in?

  • http://www.facebook.com/virginiahammon Virginia Hammon

    Now that you’ve covered whether the media reports will be accurate, could you please cover whether the vote counts will be accurate.  What is the story on the voting machines that have no paper trail and no way for election officials to review the software for fraud?  What is the story about the Republican election official putting a “patch” on the computers a couple days before the election?
    http://www.salon.com/2012/11/05/ohio_republicans_sneak_risky_software_onto_voting_machines/

  • Alfred

    About a week ago, I received an e mail from a friend in Arizona concerning the local CBS affiliate in Phoenix, KPHO of what they ran during a TV show in the afternoon.

    I watched this video twice. Then I wrote this affiliate seeking an answer to why they run for 17 seconds during a People’s Court show on Friday 19 Oct 2012, results of Obama beating Romney 43% to 40 % with 99% of the precincts reporting. This was 16 days before the actual election date of 6 Nov 2012.
    I still haven’t heard anything from KPHO on this matter after two e mails. The video refers to was this was a “master control technical glitch”. All this fully 16 days ahead of the election.

    This doesn’t surprise me at all. Its well known how the mainstream media is used to shape the views and opinions of the viewers for purposes of manipulation.   

    Watch the video of nearly 4.5 minutes.

    CBS Reports President Obama Winning 2012 Presidential Elections Weeks Before It’s Even Held

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYTw06Te1Q&feature=g-all-c

  • Travis Marwah

       Just voted here in the Orlando area (The fabled I-4 Corridor). Overall, the wait was about 10 minutes. Not too bad, since early voting was in the 1-2 hour range every time I drove by to check. I was worried that Governor Scott had stacked the deck to ensure a long, arduous process, but those fears were unmerited. I’m glad I chose to wait until election day.

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