Polling places open at 6:00 a.m. and remain open until 7:00 p.m. Those individuals arriving after the polling place has closed will not be allowed to vote. However, those individuals in line at 7:00 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
(Unless, of course, Kit Bond breaks his hand pounding a podium in St. Louis…)
Results will be posted at the Missouri Secretary of State‘s web site after the polls close (Johnson County will probably take longer since the County Clerk can usually find a way to screw these things up).
Use this as an open thread to discuss your voting experience and observations.
But I’ve got the flu right now, so I’ll probably sneak in during the midafternoon lull wearing a surgical mask.
But, what is this rain going to do to the turnout? Will anybody benefit?
Right here in Warrensburg, it’s coming down pretty steadily. It’s also raining in Columbia and Jefferson County at this moment.
It doesn’t look like anything big is happening in the city of St. Louis, but the Southern part of St. Louis County has some rain right now.
And no rain in Springfield, which is good news for [insert Republican candidate here]
and that was the paper ballot count, although few seemed to be opting for machines.
Outside the polling location, 5 people from the 17th Ward Democratic Club handed out sample ballots for Obama, along with leaflets for Rodney Hubbard. Hubbard, Obama, and Clinton each had a sign.
I cast my first ballot ever at my new polling station about noon today. I don’t know the poll workers like I did at my old polling station (which is physically closer to my current home than my new station – weird) but they did tell me that turnout had been heavy, and Democratic ballots were being requested by a rate of four or five to one.
Then I hopped on the bus to come home, and was faced with a civil rights violation, and I thought I had already slain this particular dragon – so now I’m fired up again. My current snit-fit can be found here.
They were pushing the touch screen voting machines (Diebold) but I requested a paper ballot. There was a waiting line for the two touch screen machines (for two consolidated precincts numbering around 2500-3000 voters). I observed one individual at a touch screen machine ask for assistance because she had “been given the wrong ballot” [party]. As I walked past the line of touch screen “waiters” to mark my paper ballot one of the people in line offered to switch with me. I declined. Our party poll challenger was seated against the wall behind the election judges’ table – effectively unable to hear or see much. I saw the County Clerk – we did not exchange greetings. The County Clerk spent a good amount of time at my voting location – by the reports of people who were there to vote in the morning.
It was rainy, cold and windy all day. The local paper reported that turnout was heaviest in my precinct and in another precinct south of town. The turnout in the precincts where most college students live was not as heavy.