Damn near fifty voters in our small village (WNY) this morning in line fifteen minutes early...

[EarthFirst]

I’ve been voting at this polling place for almost twenty years; I’m typically one of the first ten voters in the first half hour after polls open...

I’ve never witnessed anything like it!

[Deb]

1. Wonderful! Thanks for working to help make this a great election day.

[Light63]

16. Bustling & Excitement

I've been voting at this polling place since 1998, every year. I've always been, if not the first, one of the top threes in line, always with a 6AM cup of coffee in hand. For the first time, there was a line in front of me. The assembly room that had housed four precincts into one room, this morning, was only reserved for one precinct. Other threes were allocated to other three huge rooms including a gym. I experienced the excitement and bustling of poll workers and voters. My youngest daughter joined my wife and me to vote for the first time - All for Joe Biden.

Pray for the best!

Get our country back to normalcy, decency, integrity, and honor!

Get Out The Vote!!!

[samnsara]

2. not sure where WNY is..but is this the area that always votes first? I remember last time..

...first it went for Hills then ended up for trump But sounds strong for us now! YAY!

[wnylib]

4. WNY is western NY state. It includes

Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, and various small cities, towns, and villages. The rural farm areas and small villages tend to be quite conservative, but the urban areas are Democratic. As you can tell from my DU name, I am in western NY.

Polls opened at 6:00 am. I am in a small city near Buffalo. I got to my voting site at 5:30, bundled up for the cold weather. There were 2 people already there waiting. Within 5 minutes, there were 9 of us, all masked up and maintaining social distance. By the time the doors opened, there was a long long line behind me all the way down the street to the corner, and several cars pulling up. Glad I got there early to place my straight line Dem vote.

[EarthFirst]

6. "Fight Like Hell!"

McMurray NY27!

[wnylib]

10. Hoping McMurray makes it, but I am

just outside that district, trying to unseat the R incumbent in mine.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

23. Born and raised Western New Yorker and Bills fan here.

I grew up in Ransomville, Youngstown, and still have a place in Wilson. Although now in MD, I know the area well. When I was there, it was a strong union area and mostly solid Blue. Over time as jobs went away, particularly construction, gerrymandering and standard Republican tropes carved out some Red areas. It's much like the rural/urban divide in the rest of the state and country. At least Collins is gone! Forward!

[wnylib]

30. Gerrymandering is definitely a problem here.

And rust belt job losses.

I'm an Erie, PA native but have relatives in Buffalo that we visited often, have lived there briefly, and have lived in the region now for over 30 years. Buffalo is still solidly blue. As you said, it's now a spotted red and blue area, roughly along rural vs. urban, as in the rest of the state.

[Lucky Luciano]

17. WNY outside Buffalo is full of shithead supporters.

Hope this turnout does not bode well for the shithead.

[wnylib]

26. Really? Are you in this area? Western NY is

a large region for such a sweeping claim. My town, for example, in western NY outside of Buffalo, has a Dem mayor. Granted there are some braindead trumpists in some parts. But none of my friends in this region are Trumpists. (Wouldn't be my friends if they were.)

The Buffalo NPR station is saying that, since most of the huge numbers of people who voted early are Dems, there will be a large turnout of R voters in person today. But there are still Dems voting in person and dropping off mail in ballots today.

Can you try being a bit more upbeat?

[Lucky Luciano]

35. Sorry...to be clear, I'm sure we got this + senate.

Glad for your town - a Democratic mayor is obviously a good prior!

I was going by this map:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/28/the-most-racist-places-in-america-according-to-google/?arc404=true

The correlation is not perfect, but the East Texas and Central Pennsylvania (Pennsyltucky) are very telling - Central PA and rural Western NY are highly correlated.

[wnylib]

36. The last mayor of my town was also a Dem.

Buffalo's mayor is a Dem and a Black man. But there is still a problem of racism in Buffalo, especially on the police force, as everyone saw during the BLM protests.

There are a couple of white supremacy groups in rural areas of western NY. Timothy McVeigh was from Lockport, NY, in the next county north of Buffalo. The people I know are not proud of that.

The criteria used for that map is faulty since it shows the most heavily red, Trumpist regions of the country as non racist. In the era of Trump, no self-respecting non-racist or anti racist could also be Republican. In my region, we've got the good, the bad, and the ugly, side by side. But even in Trump regions, I would not assume that everyone there is a Trumpist or racist (basically the same thing), because I know it's not the case in my region. Look at how many DUers live in heavily red areas, but obviously are not lockstep with their neighbors.

[Lucky Luciano]

38. Your point is well taken

Sure - Buffalo/nearby suburbs are blue as are maybe some oases in a college town like Geneseo etc.

I think the reason for the methodology not working so well in the mountain west/prairie states is that this is only a check for racism against black people and not other minorities - on top of that, those mountain west/prairie states don't have enough black people for those living in those areas to be as aggressive in their use of abusive language - i.e. to be deep red on the map necessitates a large enough population of black people to induce their irrational hatred and rage to the point of using the N word enough to trip the methodology for the above map.

Also, passing judgment on a region does not mean that I think 100% of the people there are tr&*pers - only that the ratio might be 2:1 which, in itself, is egregious, but those 1 out of 3 are much appreciated in that sea of red!

[jaxexpat]

9. I think it's just W of ENY, maybe a hair E of WWNY but not so E as EENY by a long way

We here in NEFL watch that area pretty closely. What I'm looking at more is WWPA and SCAZ. That could determine the whole fate of the USANESW, certainly the WH or even the WW. One must, however, give credit to the EEU and especially the GDR for what stability there is in these times.

[Midnightwalk]

14. Wait really?

Did you just call wnylib a W of EENY? They got up early, stood in line in the cold and voted.

Wnylib rocks.

Just kidding. Making dumb jokes to kill a couple of minute before I head out to vote.

[jaxexpat]

18. Yeah, got it. Since I already voted I joke and chuckle non-stop. Manic almost.

Not a worry or care in the world. God's in her heaven with a leprechaun on each knee.

[Borchkins]

19. But what about SCWI!!

[jaxexpat]

22. Cheese and beer's good but too cold there for my thinnish blood.

Prefer SWCA, SWTX or even KWFL. It's down to 51 here this AM, there aughta' be a law.

[Borchkins]

24. I hear you.

When the weather finally turns nice, the mosquitoes are plentiful.

[wnylib]

32. Yeah, I got it, too. Of course it's just

manic post voting jokes. DU members would not harrass or riducule other DU posters.

[R B Garr]

3. Thanks for this info!

[debsy]

5. We are in New London, CT, in a polling place that is typically walk-in-walk-out

This morning, we waited outside for nearly 30 minutes before we made it into the building. LOTS of folks in line getting their vote cast before work this morning!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. Yeah! My home state! Makes me think that in traditional blue

states, there will be record turnout! When in past, their vote didn't matter that much. Now, we are in the "walk on glass to get rid of a monster " mode!!

Biden will win the popular vote by a landslide. This will help if the whole thing goes way south into the courts.

[wnylib]

27. Plus it helps down ticket Dems.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. Impeach AND convict this time..if somehow he games the EC again

[wnylib]

33. Plus give Joe the congressional support

he needs to straighten out the R mess.

[JT45242]

7. Masks?

If most if the people have masks, then that is great.

Maskless are almost certainly for tRump.

Thanks for the update. I voted early and checked the website to avoid maskless covidiots today.

[EarthFirst]

8. I'd say 99% compliance...

I did make an effort to notice this...

[wnylib]

11. I always notice masks wherever I am

as a safety measure so I can avoid the cooties from the maskless. While I was there, it was 100% compliance.

[jaxexpat]

12. Voted early last week. Jacksonville, FL. 100% masks, even the huge tattooed man left his knife...

with the doorkeeper. Except for the fact I knew that a bit more than half of my fellow voters in the room were a bunch of half-witted Republican goose stepping lemmings, it was fine.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

21. Great way to tell who is in line! And if a mask is some american flag variation!

[ouija]

13. Good news

[forward2012inny]

15. It's garbage day here in Lancaster, NY

Symbolic. Time to make room for something new.

[panader0]

25. Welcome to DU!

[wnylib]

28. Hi, neighbor. How's the voting there today?

WBFO is reporting on turnout in suburbs and surrounding areas, plus voter conversations on issues and candidates while they stand in line. Haven't heard their report on Lancaster, but they're saying that Amherst issues discussed were health care, covid, and the economy, which sounds good for us. But they said Town of Niagara voters were discussing support of Trump and indifference to down ticket candidates.

[forward2012inny]

37. Quiet here

Usual stream of cars but nothing crazy in Lancaster and Clarence. Agree with the indifference comment, voting for McMurrary for the 3rd time is not exciting anyone.

[mtnsnake]

29. Here in Erie Cty of WNY which includes Buffalo, 296,167 registered Dems, 157,767 registered Repubs

https://www.elections.erie.gov/Default

[liberal_mama]

34. I'm in Cheektowaga, New York, a suburb of Buffalo

My polling place is at the end of my street, about a 2 minute walk from my house. I've already voted, but I'm going to take a walk shortly to see how busy it is.