I think MI could be a head fake by Clinton camp

[bushisanidiot]

They are suckering Trump into spending money there instead of AZ, IA, FL, OH, NH, NC all of which are must win states for him.

[7worldtrade]

1. I suspect

They know they will win, but want to make sure the margin is as high as possible so Cheetoh cannot dispute the result.

[hlthe2b]

2. It was reported earlier that Trump had discarded his pollster, who he refused to pay...

with the implication that he was no longer polling. IF this is true, he would definitely be susceptible to such a "head fake" and more, the Clinton camp would surely take advantage of that.

[treestar]

17. Of course he refused to pay!

Pollster did not do a good job!

[qazplm]

5. I think the primary surprise plus no early vote

has them concerned.

[Ace Rothstein]

7. Robby Mook said they were spending the final days focusing on places without early voting.

Makes sense if you are confident in your ground game getting the job done in the early voting states.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Yes. They worked on the states that have early voting to get them banked.

Then they have more resources for states without early voting that are battleground states. There are 13 states that don't have early voting. The key ones are Michigan, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.


http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/absentee-and-early-voting.aspx

[Amishman]

18. PA and NH have close senate races and closer polling. I just don't get MI

The heavy attention by our side side on MI is literally the only thing worrying me. Being in PA and NH to bolster the senate races. MI doesn't even have a senate race. Spending time in MI makes no freaking sense, it is a reliably blue state and it doesn't matter if we win it by 4% or 8%.

I just can't wrap my head around it and it is literally the only thing that makes be doubt a blue tsunami election

[kwolf68]

23. DinG!

Don't expect a blue tsunami. I fear a very close election. Michigan is confusing

[still_one]

9. I do not believe they play games. They are not taking anything for granted that's all.

[yellowcanine]

12. I think MI may have been but PA isn't. Clinton camp was worried about the SEPTA

strike in Philly depressing turnout. Now that it is settled that fear is gone, but meanwhile they will benefit from the extra attention. I do think Trump is doing a bit of following Clinton around because the Trump campaign essentially has no internal polling whereas Clinton's is first rate. The Clinton camp knows that and I do believe they will find ways to exploit it. But essentially they are concentrating on key states with minimal to no early voting. I also believe a big part of the strategy is down ballot help and that alone could explain the emphasis on PA - they want that Senate seat.

[DeminPennswoods]

13. nothing was more overblown

Uber and Lyft are offering free rides. There are 1600 polling places in Philadelphia, most within walking distance.

[yellowcanine]

15. I disagree. The problem is getting to work and back in time to vote.

Many of these voters depend on SEPTA to get to work and back. Anything which lengthens that commute time makes it harder for them to vote. This is actually one reason why returns from Philly often come in fairly late - many precincts are crowded late in the day with people voting after work. The Democratic GOTV program in Philly is first rate - probably the best in the country, but people still can get discouraged if they have to wait too long to vote.

[DeminPennswoods]

19. Polls are open from 7AM to 8PM

I understand people who live in the city, but work in the suburbs might have a little problem w/o mass transit, but this isn't the first strike in SEPTA history. Commuters have managed to get around from the time SEPTA struck until today.

I was an election judge and the only time we had a line was when there were 9, iirc, ballot questions. Most voters didn't come preparted having read the questions in advance and spent too much time in the voting booth reading the questions. Municipal judicial elections can also back things up because there are so many judges on the ballot.

Just glancing at the ballot on the voting machine that was shown in Phila City Hall by MSNBC, the ballot looks really short, just president, senator, local congressman and state house/senate candidates. Voters will be in and out quickly.

[yellowcanine]

20. How does PA vote? Here in MD we use paper ballot + scanner.

Lots of work stations so that a lot of voters can be marking ballots at the same time. Very efficient - MUCH more efficient than the old touch screen machines, which I am happy we got rid of. Now we have a paper trail and it takes less time.

[DeminPennswoods]

22. In Phila used to be levers, but now DRE

The DREs are probably about 10 yrs old now, but they closely resemble the old lever ballot layout. You press a button next to the name of your candidate and it lights up. That was done so voters felt comfortable with the machines. They actually are independent of each other and the totals add with a manual click that's audible. The voting machines are sort of half electronic and half manual. Each machine prints out its totals that are then matched with the number of voters recorded in the record of voters book.
There are plenty of machines unless although the occassional breakdown occurs. Then a tech from the election bureau comes out to fix it. Until then, it's out of service. In my old polling place, there were 4 precincts, so the poll occassionally got crowded and we had to steer voters to the right precinct.

It's different, though, in every county. Where I am now, they use DREs that are more like computer screens. You touch the name and a checked box appears. You advance from page to page with arrows, then get a screen showing your selections. If they're ok, you press a red vote button and you're done. They have to be turned on or reset, if need be, with a supervisor's cartridge.

I don't know of any counties still using paper ballots, but maybe there are some up in the hinterlands.

[yellowcanine]

24. Paper plus scanners is the way to go imo. Everything is completely off-line.

Returns are sent to the state from each precinct on dedicated lines. Virtually no chance for any hacking as each precinct has the actual totals off line and there is paper backup for every vote.

IMO this will be the way we will have to vote in the age of computer hacking. The only way to prevent hacking of elections is to not use computers at all for the actual voting process.

[kstewart33]

14. Could be but...

I doubt there are head fakes 24 hours before the polls open. Too much at stake!