Voter turn out today--a glimmer of hope?

[kaygore]

I just returned from the polls here in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where we are voting on city council and school board members and whether we should have a housing authority or not--not very life or death positions or issues.

However, two things struck me as I went through the process:

First, voter turn out was very heavy at my precinct which both surprised and gratified those working the polls.

Second, we used Diebold voting machines for the first time and MANY people were expressing their misgivings about the security of the system and were asking who made the decision to have electronic voting machines in general and ones with no way to verify the vote with paper output in particular.

It is obvious why I was surprised about turn out as such elections typically don't draw crowds; however, I was pleased because I think that this signals how restive voters are, how tenuous they feel that their rights in our republic are these days because as we walked into the church to vote and then as we walked out to our cars, we had to pass the crowd of people handing out fliers for the various candidates and issues. These people would thank us for taking the time to vote on such a beautiful spring day. And voter after voter commented that they would not have missed voting for anything! Trust me, this is not typical! I am looking forward to the returns tonight to see if this was true at other precincts.

My surprise at the response to the Diebold machines derives from where I vote: At what is probably the wealthiest and most religiously and politically conservative precinct in the city. The parking lot at Galilee Episcopal Church (where we vote) was full of expensive cars and SUVs and even an array of Hummers, many still with Bush Cheney stickers from the last election. These are the big Pat Robertson supporters, the wealthy and elite of the city. For these people to be expressing concern about Diebold blew me away!

My precinct may just be an anomaly. I sure hope not and I shall be interested to hear how the elections went today in other parts of the city, state, and nation.

[Progressive4Life]

1. IN: low turn-out in my precinct this morning

I voted at about 7:30am. Including my boyfriend and me, there were about four voters at the polling station. Can't say anything about the rest of the day.

[marions ghost]

2. what kind of

Republicans are these...not your average "Kerry Republicans"? Surely Pat Robertson supporters could NOT be worried about Diebold. Can you explain what the meaning might be?

[kaygore]

3. I am at a loss to explain all the concern over Diebold

I was in the precinct for about 20 minutes between checking in , voting, and talking with people I knew before I left the voting area. In that time, about 30 people plus voted. We had to stop and get a quick lesson in how to use it before we could proceed to the registration table to sign in. Almost everyone who came in commented negatively on the new machines, noting that it was a Diebold machine and that there was no paper trail.

I was shocked at the level of knowledge of these machines and the high level of distrust, especially given who these people are (I grew up in this neighborhood so I personally know a lot of these people but I also know the demographics and the high percentage of Bush supporters in 2000 and 2004 in the precinct), plus I have voted here for 30 some years.

My take on it, although I didn't ask anyone specifically, was that these people take democracy seriously, that they don't want to win if it is by cheating.

I could be wrong. That's why I'll be interested to see how it turns out and I'll be interested in asking people why they reacted to Diebold with such a negative response.

[marions ghost]

4. yes if you could

talk to people in your area and try to find out what their concerns are really about, it would be interesting and perhaps useful to those working for election reform. It's just a real stretch for me to imagine the Pat Robertson crowd giving a fig about what kind of voting machines they have, since the Republicans now are on top. They probably control everything in VA Beach and more than likely are responsible for the machines being there, right?

Does this concern mean they are disaffected with B* because he's SO bad, and worried about getting better Repugs in office? Or has some other issue galvanized them? Or do they REALLY not want to win by cheating, which would imply they do believe the Bushies cheated? Somehow that possibility seems very quaint, coming from "the ends justify the means' set. Have they had some kind of epiphany????

[marions ghost]

5. come to think of it

A good question for these voters -- Do you think the Republicans rigged the last election? If they're so worried about Diebold --it would seem that they DO believe the election was stolen...which would be interesting.