Election Results Open Thread

Gotta love the sewage smell from Chicago.. 45 seconds after the polls close the AP announces Blago is retained: Total precincts reporting =0 Vote Totals Blago=0 Topinka=0 Whitney=0 .. I'm impressed... Did they release the early votes ahead fo time???? That really takes the fun out of things... lol.. Actually.. Blago takes the fun out of everything...

Corker leads Ford in Tennessee.......with 3% reporting.

(At this point, I'll take anything I can get)

Not exactly getting the votes counted quickly...

What the county waiting for? Shelden has to dispose of all the student ballots. I thought they would have just integrated shredders into the scantron machines, but apparently they're still stuck with the old fashioned fireplace method.

Can't say I am really sad to see Chafee go - the guy has voted against just about every thing Bush has put forward

The reason it takes so long for the county to get the vote totals is partially because write-in votes still have to be counted by hand, partially because the system is new and the procedures require old-time judges to do things differently, and partially because the results actually have to be driven into Champaign. Ballots cast have to match ballots tabulated, have to match applications to vote, etc. It can take a little while if not everything balances out and you have to find where you made the mistake.

As far as students not producing ID "even with a provisional ballot" - they are not required to present any id for a provisional ballot, that is why it is provisional. They vote provisional and then have a certain amount of time (I think it's three days) to take their ID to the County Clerk's office.

All in all I think things went pretty well, at least as far as I saw.

Irked Judge, I don't understand your situation. Doesn't proof of address happen at registration, not during voting. If these students were registered, and went to the correct polling place, isn't a signature enough to be allowed to vote?

I think that the ballot scanners need to make a paper shredder sound a few seconds after it pulls the ballot in. That would wake those 6am voters up better than a cup of Starbuck's best.

Results are starting to appear now.

The voters guide I received in the mail has a big thing about provisional ballots on page 6. On page 8 it directs you to the website to view your sample ballot, where I believe it will tell you if you need to show ID. In the FAQs on page 16 it also talks about acceptable forms of identification.

On the website next to the link for the mail-in registration it says you'll need to show ID. The mail-in form has these requirements on it. Registering via kiosk is the other way you'd need to show ID -- I don't know what it says there.

Redstatewannabe,

My understanding is that some voter registration methods (good examples include the folks that sign you up on the Quad and the booth at Jerry's IGA) don't require you to show ID at the time of registration. This is why some voters have to show ID when they come to the polling place.

An Election Judge,

You're correct, but they didn't even think they could produce ID within the two day period granted by a provisional ballot. That was my point.

Let me get this right... If you register to vote on campus then you need to present ID to vote? I didn't realize we were disenfranchising students here in Illinois. Real classy, Mark.

"If you register to vote on campus then you need to present ID to vote? I didn't realize we were disenfranchising students here in Illinois. Real classy, Mark. "

I can go to the registration kiosks right now and register 200 times with completely random names. I think requiring ID for the students that registered this way makes sense.

Guv Rod just declared that "we ain't seen nothing yet".

Well, his first term was pretty much nothing... so the second term may be interesting one for Official A...

Now that we have a Dem House in Congress, I'll be anxiously awaiting for evidence of their concern over budget deficits. I predict calls for tax increases and spending cuts for the war - nothing else.

Dems sweep all state offices, have veto proof General Assembly... good job GOP.

Well, I was hoping for a little more change, but this should still send a message to the hapless status quo defenders: Enough. Time to stop spouting nonsense and using it as some sort of corrupt rationale to avoid change.

I don't understand "election judge's" 9:12 pm comment about counting the write in votes by hand. Not one single candidate registered as a write in candidacy, so I thought Illinois law allowed the precinct judges to ignore the "Donald Duck" votes, when there is no announced write-in candidacy?

The lesson learned from Mark Shelden's choreography of the release of the results is that thinking local media will drive from precinct to precinct in the future to read the posted results from the polling place door, and not wait like lapdogs for him to schedule the release of results in the order that makes the GOP come from behind in a glorious finish, as has been his motive in past elections.

I would like to thank all Illinipundit folks who tolerated my comments during the election with special thanks to those who supported Tom and me in the election. Blessings to you Joe; you ran a good camaign. A final quote for this cycle: "Alls well that ends well."

So much for the pledge to keep Rummy 'til the end of the term.

If there's one thing we'll now see with Bush, it's most like the gloves coming off. The true measure of a man is how he acts when he has nothing to lose. Be prepared for the worst.

"Bush is already showing he is not a hard-core conservative."

This is directly related to what I saw Ken Mehlman and Ed Gillespie spouting last night (early): the need for bipartisan cooperation, the need to work together to address the important issues we all face together...not even close to words you would ever hear from these two when the GOP was in control.

Fortunately, Dems seem to understand that their victory last night was due in large part to an overwhelming dissatisfaction with the actions of a hard-core partisan government. If the blues hope to stay in power for a while, they should remember this.

Hey RSW there was a definite conservative and cooperative approach which carried some of these Dems to victory yesterday. Your 'My way or the Highway' canidates pretty much lost.

"a definite conservative and cooperative approach which carried some of these Dems"

I will believe it when I see it. Remember, they are taking their orders from Pelosi.

Wow. How quickly they turn.

How 'bout this: The American People have spoken. The Democrats in Congress have gained some political capital. They intend to spend that capital.

Sound familiar?

I doubt Pelosi or Reid will utter those words, and that's the difference that most Americans voted for last night. Enough of the bullshit. Let's get back to solving problems and making this country great again. If tax cuts are all that concern you, then I'd respectfully suggest that you're missing the point.

Bush is "at least liberal, way too often in my opinion (and see what it got him). NCLB is not conservative, or the Medicare prescription drug plan. The farm bill? Steel tarriffs? And, if he could have kept his party in line, we'd be drilling in ANWR and have eliminated the estate tax."

will is liberal about drilling in ANWR and eliminating the estate tax? you be confused

Are you making the argument that Bush, Inc. hasn't been conservative enough, and that is the reason they lost? Do you believe that the American people rally to the idea of privatized social security, a repeal of the estate tax, drilling in Alaska, etc.? Honestly?

I am sorry, but I think the problem is that the conservative ideas are hollow. Neo Cons have blown the foreign policy. Your social conservatives have alienated a large swath of Americans who know and care about gay people. The scandals have just made them look ridiculous, btw.

And economically, this country is hurting. More breaks for corporations, fewer for the working class.

These are now winning ideas. They are losers. Let's hope the Democrats get the message, and start standing up for all Americans.

We'll see ...

"Are you making the argument that Bush, Inc. hasn't been conservative enough, and that is the reason they lost? Do you believe that the American people rally to the idea of privatized social security, a repeal of the estate tax, drilling in Alaska, etc.? Honestly?"

I am arguing that they lost a portion of their base over these issues, yes, and it hurt them. And they obviously didn't make it up with more centerist converts. I think the ultimate reason they lost was the war. If our presence in Iraq right now was as consultants to a fully-functioning democratic gov't, able to defend itself, all the rest of the stuff wouldn't matter. And, the ironic part is, we might be at that point in a year or two - and who will get the credit?

"And economically, this country is hurting."

Are we living in the same country? Employment, profits, interest rates, the stock market - this country is going thru a huge economic boom, in spite of a war and high energy prices. Average Joe's have access to a world of consumer goods at low prices due to our free trade policies. The poor in our country are more likely to be fat than hungry. People flock to this country from all over the world, legally and illegally, because there is more opportunity here than anywhere.

Yes, we are living in the same country. The economy sucks, not because the corporations are making big profits, but because the next time an Aldi or Wal-Mart opens up there will be hundreds of applications for the crappy jobs.

You are proving my point. Republicans have believed that things are going well in this country because the upper classes are doing well. The average, working class folks know better. Your party is extremely out-of-touch, and your comments prove that.

In another thread you mentioned universal health care, stem cell research, a raising of the minimum wage, etc. as BAD things to be worried about, now that the Dems have power. What you apparently don't understand is that these are GOOD things that most Americans support. If everyone has health care, stem cell research brings new cures, and working people get a raise we call that progress. Republicans apparently call that their worst nightmare.

There are places where the two parties can meet, and work together. But, honestly, it is time to move past the archaic Republican notions of how this state and country should be run. It is time to help the middle and lower classes.

If that means new taxes on the millionaires, so be it. That might be your worst-case-scenario but you are still free to partake in the progress that will hopefully come from a new party's mandate.

Again, we'll see. We've all been burned by these bums before. Here's hoping (and praying!) they get it right this time.

Cheers!

I agree for the most part with the previous two posters, I also wanted to take issue with this:

Bush has been bipartisan, or at least liberal, way too often in my opinion (and see what it got him). NCLB is not conservative, or the Medicare prescription drug plan. The farm bill? Steel tarriffs? And, if he could have kept his party in line, we'd be drilling in ANWR and have eliminated the estate tax.

You are confusing "idiotic" with "liberal". That's a chronic problem with people on the right.

NCLB and the prescription drug plan are simply horrible policy. I'm not saying that to attack Bush--NCLB was his AND Ted Kennedy's baby.

But you are totally being ignorant in casting them as "liberal" policies. You can count on one hand the number of those on the left who have ever supported NCLB. It's basically the most reactionary plan you could come up with--destroy the public school system with meaningless bureaucracy so you can open corporate schools.

As someone who has directly studied the legislation and works within the school system, it can't possibly work. It is spending huge amount of money on educational principles that have been scientifically refuted decades ago. It's a case where Bush is demonstratably smarter than Kennedy--he at least has an agenda. Kennedy just passed something that he doesn't know what it does.

What these two "liberal" policies have in common is one main thing. Actual leftists were the main people protesting as they we proposed and passed. My folks went so far as to leave AARP because AARP supported the horrible drug plan.

I was the person in the family who enrolled my 93 year-old grandfather in the new plan. It was a nightmare. He saved a little money in the end, but if he hadn't had me around, he would have missed months of coverage, and the company tried to overcharge him half-a-dozen times. Each time, I had to call them back and waste my time sorting it out.

To myself, my grandfather, and most of the folks I know who need to use the plan, it seemed intentionally cryptic with penalities for late compliance and ease for companies to defraud senior citzens, many of whom cannot protect themselves from such fraud for any number of reasons.

I was raised to think that mugging kids and old folks on the corner because you can get away with it is neither "liberal" nor justifiable. When Barbara was raising her "liberal" son, did she forget that lesson.