Tuesday - November 03, 2009

High Voter Turnout In NJ

UPDATE:
Republican Christie wins NJ Governor race. DSC funded “independent” Jarret - was he the anti-spoiler who cost Corzine the 5% “cheatability” margin?
Republican McDonnell wins Virginia by 58-41 margin; Republicans win VA Governor, Lt. Governor, State Attorney General slots
NY23 race still in early counting; Conservative Hoffman 5% behind right now

Dare we HOPE for some CHANGE ???

In NJ even the weather makes a difference. It wasn’t raining today, though it was seasonably cool and quite breezy.

The sun may be shining on Jon Corzine.

Forecasters predict mostly clear skies and moderate temperatures this morning as polls open in New Jersey’s hotly contested gubernatorial race, and political experts say the comfortable conditions could help the incumbent Democrat secure four more years in office.

“Nice weather generally favors Democrats. Part of that is because urban centers are where Democrats are strongest and that is where weather has the greatest impact,” Joseph Marbach, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, said. “In suburban areas people would normally drive to polling places, so it is a more comfortable way to get there.”

Temperatures should fluctuate between the upper 50s and low 60s in the state’s largest cities like Newark and Trenton, according to Dean Iovino, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly station.

Marbach said the favorable weather should increase voter turnout statewide, especially in urban areas that are long considered Democratic strongholds, where voters will likely have to wait in long lines and take public transportation to reach their local polling place.

Meanwhile Governor Corzine has his own ideas on how to get the vote out ...

Corzine enlists union workers to boost voter turnout for N.J. governor’s race

“We call it knock and drag,” said Jim Williams, general president and director of organizing of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, with about 3,500 members in New Jersey. “We knock on the door and drag ‘em out to vote.”

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine joined national union leaders on a get-out-the-vote bus tour throughout the state, while Republican challenger Chris Christie campaigned at diners.

With the candidates neck-and-neck in the polls, voter turnout is crucial for each party. The sunny weather traditionally favors Democrats, but an overall dissatisfaction for Corzine and unhappiness over property taxes that are the highest in the nation could hamper turnout in this traditionally blue state.

Labor union workers, many who said they were unemployed because there were “no jobs,” showed up at rallies in places like Bayonne in Hudson County to pick up packets with home addresses of members mapped out and campaign literature to distribute.

In the hall of the Boilermakers 28, Corzine rallied the workers, repeating a now-familiar theme that the election was about more than the names on the ballot, but about families, jobs and health care.

“I want to be a voice for labor,” the governor said to hoots, cheers and whistles. “I’ve got an opponent who says you guys are the adversary. You guys are no more the adversary than the man on the moon.”

Armed with the manila envelopes, workers are checking polling stations to see who had not yet voted, then target those members to vote.

“We’re going to do what we do best,” said Barry Kushnir, 39, the secretary treasurer of the Turnpike Employees Union Local 194.

Silly me ... I thought the rolls of who had voted or not were private. Well, it is government data, therefore at least semi-public. But I don’t think it should be released into union worker’s hands. “Knock and drag” huh? I can just imagine. “Weez from da union. We’re gonna help you vote. First, we’re gonna take you for a ride. A nice ride. To the votin, a cawse! Den yer gonna vote. Yer gonna vote da right way, right? Cuz after, we gonna take ya fer annuder ride, ya know. It could be a long trip, youse woulden wanna make no mistakes.”

And of course there’s the good old absentee ballot. The perfect vehicle for ballot box stuffing. Except this year, it’s Vote By Mail, for your convenience. We don’t have Absentee Ballots anymore. Now anyone can choose to just mail it in.

Of course, there were stories going around this morning about people who got turned away from the polls, since their paper ballots had already been received. Whether they had already voted, or someone had voted for them, remains to be seen. Anybody who feels disenfranchised can get a Provisional Ballot anyway ... another great idea for stuffing the old box.

Thousands more mail-in ballots will be counted today than in the 2005 general election, thanks to new legislation that says voters can use the vote-by-mail for any reason.
...
“It’s convenient for people who have busy schedules, long commuting hours or family obligations and find it difficult to get to the polls,” she said. “There was some effort to promote this opportunity.”

Voters can sign up to vote by mail for an entire calendar year or for every general election, she said. For this election, county clerks issued 185,000 mail-in ballots, and more than 136,000 have already been returned. That’s still far less than in last year’s presidential election, when 235,000 people voted by mail, Evans said.
...
Absentee ballots were replaced with the mail-in this year with the vote-by-mail system. Unlike absentee ballots, voters don’t need to give a reason for requesting a mail-in ballot.
...
This year, the number of mail-in ballots issued in Morris County was almost double compared to the 2005 race—just over 9,800, as compared to 5,400 ballots in 2005, said Adam Smith, an elections clerk. Similar numbers were reported in Union County, where about 9,000 mail-in ballots were sent out this year, compared to about 6,400 in 2005.
...
“All the feedback I’ve gotten so far is that not only is it not like last year, but even with the gubernatorial election, we’re not getting a big turnout,” said Jerry Midgette, the administrator for the Somerset County Board of Elections.

In Middlesex County, officials said they have not heard of any large turnouts or major problems at the poling places—only a few voters who wanted to know if they could vote despite having forgotten their mail-in ballots. They were told they could using provisional ballots.

In Essex, Union, and Morris, officials said they had not heard about the turnout by early afternoon, but in Hunterdon County, officials said it was busier than they expected.

Hunterdon County, where I live, is a deep red county. Turnout here is usually abysmal. When I went to vote today, my ticket number was more than 100 higher than usual. Maybe there’s a bit of grassroots movement going on. Or maybe everyone with a functional brain cell has figured out that today is a Now Or Never situation. But hey, even the Dems are pissed at Corzine. 

Take a map of NJ, and draw a big fat line from Philadelphia to New York City. Color it blue. That’s the Democrat corridor. The northwest and southeast counties are all Republican. Too bad that fat line will cover every major urban area in the state. Us Conservative types are the hicks out in the sticks.

Meanwhile, the talking heads on TV have been going on all day about “what this all means” ... because if NJ and VA go for Republican governors, and NY’s 23rd district takes an R, then it means something bad for Obama. Um, right. Except that Hoffman in NJ is pretty much a done deal, as is Virginia picking a R for a governor. VA always picks a governor from the party that isn’t in the White House. They’ve been doing it for over 20 years.

So the story outside the story within the story is that Obama ... Obama says it don mean nuttin’

White House downplays Election Day

Heated referendums over same-sex partnership laws in Maine and Washington powered voter turnouts today in an off-year election that included closely watched races in New Jersey, Virginia and New York.

Pundits were debating what the results could mean for President Obama, who campaigned for Democrats in governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia and in an upstate New York congressional race.

But the White House sought to put some distance between the president and the outcome.

“We don’t look at either of the gubernatorial races or the congressional race as something that portends a lot for our legislative efforts going forward or our political prospects in 2010,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said at his daily briefing.

Which tells me that the White House figures the Dems are going to get their clocks cleaned in all 3 races, no matter what “extraordinary efforts” they make. Wait and see.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/03/2009 at 05:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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