Only ten voters in Dixville Notch this time around . . . the closing of the Balsams hit them hard. A check of the 2008 Dixville Notch presidential results showed 21 voters that year -- it looks like most of the ones who moved away were Democrats.

Dixville Notch's breakdown: 3 Republicans, 2 Democrats, 5 Independents.

Interesting that one person who was enough of a rock-ribbed republican to vote for Bass and Lamontagne still voted for Obama. Disliked Romney that much, maybe?

Thanks for posting this -- I'm going to bed now so I can get up and work for Obama, Hassan, and Kuster tomorrow in Hinsdale and Winchester, at the other end of NH from Dixville Notch.

Ovide Lamontagne may be a Republican, but he has a cool name.

So does Vermin Supreme.

On my ballot in Texas, I got to vote for Oliver Wendell Strange III.

Hooray for the voters of Dixville Notch!

At least we know one polling place is honest. I cann sleep easy, assured that the magic of elections is uncorrupted.

I wish I could sleep lomg enough to miss the court cases.

Oops, just rechecked that: it was William Bryan Strange III. Just as good.

Election? What election?

Voted. PS 40. Sorry about the cliche, but: I miss the old mechanical *kerplunk* machines.

I have to admit I'm a little startled to discover that Ovide Lamontagne is still alive. I figured he would have choked to death on his own bile long ago.

I found it interesting that the NH House of Representatives apparently has multi-member districts (as there are two members being selected on the Dixville Notch ballot). So you can be represented by people from more than one party (though looking over the listing in Wikipedia, it looks like most districts are either single party or all-but-one-member single party).

You need a pretty big chamber to do this (NH has 400 representatives, nearly twice that of more-populous PA; on the other hand, NH reps are essentially unpaid while PA's get $78K/year each). I'm curious if you, or other folks living in multi-member districts (how common is that?) find that it works notably better or differently from single-member legislative districts.

JMO @12: Maryland provides for three delegates (lower house) per senatorial district. In sparsely populated areas each of these delegates gets hir own sub-district, but in the DC-Baltimore corridor they have multi-member districts. In my experience, having MMDs makes it even harder to knock off an entrenched incumbent: you have to place not one but two or three other candidates ahead of hir. The Baltimore City Council switched a few years ago from multi-member districts to smaller single-member districts by referendum in the name of increased accountability.

Ovide Lamontagne... An embarassment to French-Canadians, I take it.

Not that I'm really surprised, but I just came across a quote from actor Sam Elliott that confirms he's a liberal.

I wonder if I could ever get handlebar moustaches as awesome as his.

Not only can districts be represented by more than one party, but the same person can represent more than one party (by getting write-ins in the other party's column).
Anyway, the joke about the New Hampshire House of Representatives is that not only is it the world's largest legislative body (on a per-capita basis), but it's the only one still meeting in its original chambers, so the odd things they propose and their bizarre votes are explained by lack of oxygen.

As to how well it works, it works well enough, I suppose. It does make sure that a large-enough minority isn't overlooked.

Serge Broom #15: I recommend the liberal use of hair restorer.

Fragano @ 17... Should I also wax poetic?

Serge Broom #18: You could end up looking too melodramatic.

Your democracy at work, America: according to a Balloon Juice commenter, the Republican candidate for state Treasurer in North Carolina is saying that if he is elected, he intends to get NC ready to issue its own currency, in case the dollar collapses. The Democratic candidate thinks this is not a good use of state resources...

this is Nate Silver's first triumph of the election, right?

He is calling the popular vote at about 51/48, so scaled down to 10 voters that comes out exactly 5/5.

If Dixville had voted 6/4, it would have been totally devastating for the credibility of Nate's models!

Michael, #10: So do I. That was a most satisfying THUNK when you'd set all your choices and you pulled the big lever to cast your vote.

OTOH, I'll bet that the electronic machines are a lot easier for people with strength, range-of-motion, or some mobility issues to use. So there's a place for them; I just wish they weren't the most common option because they're too easy to compromise.

I've never used one of the voting machines that go THUNK!

When I was with Uncle all my votes were absentee.

Now here in New Hampshire all my votes are pencil-and-paper.

When it was my turn to feed my filled-in ballot to the electronic voto-droid, a poll-worker looked at me seriously and asked, "You filled out your ballot, right?" Question marks swirled over my head.

Then I realized that some voters (well, non-voters, apparently) must have checked into their polling station, received their blank ballot, crossed directly to the line at the electronic voto-droid and patriotically fed their blank ballot into the machine.

I have a suspicion the voto-droid rejected such ballots, but I'm not actually sure about that.

Lizzy:

Is he planning to go onto the tobacco standard?

I just cast my vote -- you fill in the circles with a black marker here, not a pencil. (Which makes more sense -- pencil could be erased.)

It was a weird experience this year. First off, there were three sheriff pickups -- one unmarked -- in a cluster up the road from the voting place. I don't know if they'd just voted on their lunch break, if they were waiting for someone specific (this area has its fair share of true nuts, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were threats), or if they were just parked there because it was a convenient place to have a quick conference. This area's so rural, though, it's unusual to see more than one officer at a time, so to see three of them sitting together in one place was a bit odd.

Then, when I went in to vote, they couldn't find my name -- which was weird, because, uh, I've been voting in this district for eleven years. They finally found me on the list with my first and last name transposed. Had I not been polite and stubbornly persistent I probably would not have been allowed to vote ...!

I did get to vote, thankfully. (Arizona will probably go Republican for president, but there's a close-ish senate race, and some initiatives that I was eager to vote against.)

In New Jersey we had a candidate running on the, "Politicians are crooks" ticket (I shit you not), for the House.

I decided I couldn't, in good conscience vote for him; since he must be a crook.

Cygnet @26, I still miss the "fill in ovals with a Sharpie" method of voting from Arizona. I like tangible paper trails.

From what I could tell, we had even higher turnout at my polling location (Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis) early this morning than we had 4 years ago. My brother typically votes a little before 10am & thinks there were also more people at that time this year than in 2008.

Both years I've gotten in line before the polls opened. The number of people already in line seemed about the same as of 7am. As I remember 2008, by the time I finished my ballot & left the line was pretty much gone -- everyone had gotten at least inside the building, voted & left. There were still people coming & going, but there wasn't a line outside the community center. But this morning, by the time I finishd and left just before 7.30, the line was still out the door, around the building and trailing almost down to the lake!

Historically, the vast majority of PP votes go to the Democrats, with a significant number for the Greens and various flavors of Socialists, and I assume the same will be true this year - local demographics haven't changed significantly, no increase in Republican yard signs, etc. One anecdote certainly doesn't prove anything, but it's heartening to know that the blather about lack of enthusiasm on the left is untrue in at least one place!

Add me to the list of those who miss the big metal lever that went CLUNK! and also pulled back the curtain on the booth. Talk about "exercising" your right to vote!

(I voted on the first day of early voting; Georgia, amazingly enough, allows anyone to vote early without stating a reason. The early voting days/hours include one Saturday.)

The New Hampshire early results made it into the Seattle Times, with much less detail. The story was datelined Dixville Notch, but included the information about Hart's Location (a bit larger and slower to count). For some reason, it wasn't on the front page, but buried on page 4....

JMO @13, Washington State also has multi-member districts -- each of our 49 districts elects one Senator and two Representatives. However, each seat is distinct on the ballot: House candidates run separately for either Seat 1 or Seat 2.

Very roughly speaking, the state is politically divided between the extended Seattle/Puget Sound area (Democratic) and the largely rural remainder (Republican), and indeed five of the six districts with mixed representation are on the outermost fringes of the Seattle metropolitan area.

I voted before work. Line was a little longer than I expected (maybe 5-6 people) and between the procedure and the people manning my polling station, it was a bit slow. I miss the old voting machines too, but at least this time the scanner didn't jam on me.

I think our districts must be pretty small - we have three voting in one room (the town courthouse) with one 4 person voting station and one scanner each. There were some people (mostly elderly) sitting at tables to fill out their ballots.

Also for those of you who, like me, did not get a sticker you can have either Captain America or Scholastic. I think the tweets about the lack of stickers in some precincts have outnumbered other voting tweets in my feed today.

Voted in Philadelphia-- very short lines, electronic voting machines.

I went to two sites to look at the list of candidates, and neither of them had the pop quiz questions.

Other than that, I'm betting that Pennsylvania isn't a swing state.

Michael Weholt @24: Are blank votes legal and/or valid? I have often cast a blank vote as a "none of the above" option, but I do not live in the US.

Voted at 6 AM in Virginia, when polls opened.

Line was well out the door; took 15-20 minutes to get to the machines.

They said it hadn't been this busy before, even in '08. Looks like people got the message.

Also, it was a remarkably diverse (age, race, and gender) crowd. I was pleased.

Sten @35: Sure you can turn in a ballot that has one or more "no votes" on it. I don't really know what the voto-droid would do if you made no mark at *all* on a ballot, though.

It makes no logic-tree sense that it would allow you to feed it a *completely* blank ballot, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't let you do it, I guess.

The thing that I found a little troubling about what I surmised was happening was that the absent-minded or still-asleep or slightly-confused might end up submitting a completely blank ballot and then, of course, would not be allowed a do-over because nobody could be assured that they *had* submitted a blank ballot. Unless the voto-droid rejected it, of course.

If you submitted a completely or partially blank ballot, would it be technically possible for a sufficiently sneaky election worker to mark it himself (by punching a hole or ticking a box with a pen - I am still not clear about exactly what the ballots look like)?

Voted here, in Travis County, Texas. My usual polling place is conveniently right across the street from my apartment.

However, instead of the 15-30 minute maximum wait I am accustomed to, it took two hours. I don't know if it's because more people turned out than usual, or because Travis County is now offering the option to vote anywhere in the county. (Which I didn't think would affect us, we're at the far north end of the county. It just occurred to me, though, that there are major employers in Williamson County, about 5 minutes' drive from my subdivision, and it might be more convenient for people who live in Travis but work in Williamson to try to drop by on their way to work, or on their lunch breaks.)

Whatever the cause of the lines, I can say as a certainty that five voting machines were not enough.

Husband was smart and voted early. I think I'll do the same next time.

#38 Sten: Here is my sample ballot.

An election worker could not mark it or alter it because the voter him/herself puts the ballot into the machine. They even have "privacy envelopes" you can hold your marked ballot inside as you are waiting to slip it into the machine.

You feed your ballot in, the machine sucks it up, thinks for a moment, flashes a message on the screen that your ballot has been counted, then stores your paper ballot in its belly for later, if needed, confirmation of vote count.

Sten, I replied but included a link so I guess the reply has to go through airport security or something.

On the way to give blood (after voting) I heard the CBS radio humorous commentator Dave Ross talking about the Dixville Notch vote. He opined that they'd probably sat down over waffles and planned the whole thing. And further stated that waffle intoxication was a problem in New Hampshire. To which I can only say, it's lies, all lies!

Everyone knows that it's the maple syrup that's the intoxicant!

Jennifer Baughman@39, that may not be entirely accidental. Travis County is Austin, which is rather different culturally and politically from Most of Texas, and if I were corruptly running an election bureau, I'd allocate more voting machines to more politically correct parts of the state, just as Ohio did in 2004. Or maybe it was just too close to lunchtime.

I'm putting down the computer, walking away, going to go vote and go to work now. (But...but... there are still New Tweets coming in about the elections!... Must hit "update" now!...

Hi, Gnomes, sorry about the exclamation marks and extra dot dot dots. I've brought some cheese! And they say there'll be cake after we vote.

Voted early in DC on Friday morning. No line at all; but Marcia did the same on Saturday at roughly the same time and had a 45-minute wait.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/06/machine-caught-changing-obama-votes-to-romney-outcry-forces-it-offline-video/

The machine I used indicated Johnson when I voted for him, but what if some of the machines have their indicator lights bolluxed, too? I hate electronic voting machines.

Sten, it depends on where you're at. Here in Arizona it would be difficult but not impossible. After filling in your bubbles with a black marker you carry your ballot in a cardboard folder (which conceals how you voted) to a very sturdy locked box that sucks it out of your folder (a tip of the ballet sticks out, so it can grab it). The ballot box is locked and has an electronic counter on it. I don't know if it also scans the results as the ballet is sucked in, though that would add to the efficiency and security of the process.

The ballot box is presumably transported to a secure location for counting.

I can envision any number of ways this could still be rigged, but not without significant high-level corruption. The workers at the polls wouldn't be able to alter your ballot here. The Democrats in this state are a small but fierce minority, too, and I'm sure they have their eyes on the process.

Of course, this is Arizona, so high level corruption is entirely possible. This state's history when it comes to corruption, political stupidity, and general malfeasance dates back to before Arizona was a state.

In all my years of voting (all in the same county, though in different districts), I've never voted with a Ker-CHUNK machine. Nor did I ever see one even when I was a little kid and went with my parents when they voted in the late '60s. I only know them through descriptions.

I know people who voted in the next county over who did use them, though, up through maybe 20 years agoish. When I started voting, it was a punch-out vote, with a plastic guide that slipped over your card and lined it up with however many holes there were for that election, (conveniently cone-shaped to guide the stylus in) and a stylus to punch out the holes with. I never saw a hanging chad on any of my ballots; they all punched easily and cleanly. Perhaps they used better perforation tech than Florida did.

Later, (and currently) they went to the "fill in the oval with the provided black marker" ballot, that you then feed into a scanning-and-storing machine.

I didn't think to count the number of polling stations at my polling place this morning; it was approximately 10, with one electronic screen.

I had to wait for about five people in front of me, which is highly unusual, especially for a mid-morning vote. Our ballot was very short; just the president, a congressman, a state representative, the forest preserve district, the county board, three judges, a state constitutional amendment, and a proposition. There were a few other offices, but they were unopposed, so I don't remember them. It took maybe five minutes to vote, after another five minutes in line.

The places with the long lines must have a lot more things on the ballot, a lot fewer polling stations, or both. I mentioned to one of the poll workers that I knew some people in other states who had to wait over an hour to vote, and she was shocked that they didn't have enough polling stations for the expected number of voters to be processed quickly.

Michael @40, Cygnet @47: Thank you for the explanation, that makes a lot of sense.

For some reason, I was under the impression that you put your folder containing the vote in a physical box, and that an election worker later (presumably after the voting had closed) fed all ballots into a machine for counting. Glad to hear that it is handled better than I thought.

I wonder if the people who didn't fill out their ballots thought that you put the paper ballot into a machine, made your choices by pushing buttons on the machine, and then the machine would physically mark the ballot for you? That's the only thought process that makes sense to me as to why someone would get a blank ballot and immediately feed it into a machine.

Either that, or a moment in which they got distracted by their kid, a friend, etc., after receiving their blank ballot, and after the distraction had ended, they genuinely thought they'd filled out the ballot already. I can imagine that happening to me (although it never has).

Every time I've voted in a county that uses paper scantron ballots, the poll worker at the scantron machine has said something cheerful like "All done?" as I approach with my filled-out ballot. I hope that interaction gets people to make sure they are, in fact, all done before they feed their ballot in.

I've also never been offered a folder to hold my ballot as I walk from booth to machine. I've never felt like anyone was trying to look at my ballot, but just on principle, I wish folders were SOP everywhere. I mean, what if your ride to the polls is a controlling parent or partner who will have a look at your ballot if he or she can?

In general I'm a big proponent of paper scantron ballots, because you get both the speed of automated vote counting and the paper trail you need to recheck errors or do a meaningful recount. But privacy between filling out your ballot and feeding it into the scanner could be an issue.

#50 Caroline: I wonder if the people who didn't fill out their ballots thought that you put the paper ballot into a machine, made your choices by pushing buttons on the machine, and then the machine would physically mark the ballot for you?

I think that is precisely what happens most of those times when the blank ballot rears its empty bubbled head. Most voters here (NYC) have voted with the Ker-Plunk machines most of their voting lives, I think. We are still not quite used to these new-fangled dealie-bobs.

sten:

That's a known attack on paper ballots, assuming they're not kept physically secure. Though it's probably easier, assuming you have physical control of the ballots for awhile and know what the ballots look like, to just replace some ballots directly. (Whether that works or not depends on other procedures, but the more fundamental issue is whether the paper ballots are kept secure or not.)

I think most opscan machines can be configured to reject ballots with overvotes (which in many places spoils the ballot) or blank ballots, or potentially even undervotes (where you leave some race blank--but lots of people do that intentionally, so I think few jurisdictions use that option). IIRC, one good reason to reject a blank ballot is to catch the case where a ballot is put in upside-down or backwards, and the marks aren't where theyr'e supposed to be.

Michael/Caroline:

There are also voting machines that do fill out or print a paper ballot for you--usually called ballot marking devices. I think these are mainly used to meet the legal requirement for every polling place to have at least one accessible voting machine, so blind (and many other) people can vote without any human assistance.

My local polling place was closed* today, but I was able to cast a provisional/affidavit ballot at my sister's polling place (only for President and US Senator, though, since it's the wrong county). That covers multiple election districts (as is fairly common around here), so the line was pretty long at midafternoon. I had to wait almost an hour to get my ballot, and the room was packed with milling people picking up ballots and voting. There did seem to be plenty of machines available. Everyone was pretty cheerful about the wait, even though it's quite cold out, and most of the line was outside (down the block, wrapped around the corner). The group in front of me had cut their vacation short so they could vote; they had come straight from the airport, apparently. When I came out, the line was just as long as when I went in.

*The local electrical substation flooded and/or exploded during Sandy. It's going to be *weeks* before my neighborhood has power

I grew up in New York, with the big green voting machines; you pulled a lever to register your vote. They were awesome. My father used to bring me with him into the voting booth. I remember how thrilled I was the day got to go into that booth alone, and pull that lever on my own. I still feel that thrill, even though now I mark a paper ballot, and vote by mail.

I voted earlier today--very short line in the afternoon in Montgomery County, MD.

Mary Aileen

I'd been wondering about how they were going to handle local candidates/propositions/whatever; I'd heard that New Yorkers could vote at any polling place because of the storm, but the news didn't say if they'd print out a copy of "your" ballot for you or what.

I take it you simply don't get to vote for the local stuff?

I voted earlier today, and am somewhat aghast at the number of ballot measures that made it on this year (I should note that I'm in Berkeley, so there are always a lot of ballot measures). Between state, county and city, I counted 23 ballot measures across a four or five page ballot, which is impressive, in a slightly disturbing way, to someone who is used to seeing a handful of measures at most (e.g., Massachusetts, where I grew up, might have 3-5 any given year, with the chance for another 1-2 for the city).

My minor griping about ballot measure overload notwithstanding, I very much want to see Prop 30 pass, since the consequences for the UC system (where the Amazing Girlfriend and I are grad students) are dire.

Cally (56): Right, I don't get to vote for the local stuff. If I had voted somewhere in my county, I could have voted for more races; the closer to my actual polling place the more overlap there would be. If I could have made it to my county board of elections by yesterday, I could have voted absentee, but that trip just wasn't going to happen.

I was hoping my polling place would be open today--the board of elections wasn't committing itself one way or the other as of yesterday--but it was definitely closed. I *might* have been able to get to a polling place in the next town over, but with so many traffic lights still out, I decided not to risk it.

Sten @38: One of my coworkers was saying that there are reports of something like that happening to some of the absentee ballots in Oregon, where someone got into the mailbox for them and filled in a bunch of votes on the downticket races that had been left blank.

I voted a couple of hours ago; here in my part of Silicon Valley we use paper ballots where you draw a line in pen to connect two halves of an arrow pointing to your candidate(s) of choice. Short lines (about 4 people in front of me), probably because they've been heavily promoting early voting by mail for years here.

Add me to the list of people who are sad that Nate Silver is (apparently) not liveblogging the elections this year. (I'd be delighted to be wrong, but there's no sign of it on the NYT page for 538.)

I drove a 250-mile round trip to drop off the absentee ballot that I had absent-mindedly failed to mail early enough.

Here is a story about the ballot-tampering case in Oregon:

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/11/state_ballot_tampering_investi.html

As of this morning, only two ballots were suspected of having been tampered with. (The suspect used pencil to fill in the bubbles; the original voters used ink.) Those two will have to be tossed. But many more were "quarantined" just in case.

Bill Stewart #43... yeah, that thought had occurred to me, too. However, I'm going to give the election guys the benefit of the doubt--this is the first time they've tried the "vote anywhere in the county". I do think, from a project management standpoint, that it might not have been ideal to have the maiden test of voting countywide on a major, heavily-contested nationwide election.

It's just weird--five voting machines has been the standard at my polling place for the past...*thinks* 12 years, minimum, which is as long as I've been voting here, and it's never been a problem until now.

I suspect that we've been spared a great deal of the voter shenanigans going on because we're not a swing state.

Someone donated a huge box of these to the donation center on Saturday. Naturally we couldn't give them out. Maybe tomorrow, but not before that.

Michael Weholt @24, I haven't read all the way downthread so I apologize if this has already been answered, but at least from my experience with the paper-ballots-filled-out-with-black-markers-and-scanned-by-a-machine-that-eats-the-ballot that we use in my district in Illinois, the machine will spit the ballot out if ANY contests are left blank. (If you deliberately did not vote in a contest or referendum, you feed it back in again and it will accept it the second time).

@Xopher: Were those the ramen-noodle-version of the 7-11 soda-cup presidential poll?

If so, the fact that there were enough Romney noodles around that they felt worth donating is a good sign . . .

I voted because...

Nate Silver is liveblogging the election, right here.

Jennifer Baughman #63, I'm in South Austin and had the same experience you did - same number of machines, way longer lines. I've heard similar anecdotes from around town, too. Maybe it really is just a high turnout.

In Arizona, the ballot will only be rejected by the reader if there's an overvote (too many picked for an office). Undervotes are just accepted.

It's possible the machines have different settings that the election commission(s) choose between. My local ones spit out undervotes the first time and accept them the second. At least they've done so in previous years; this year I voted in all races (even the uncontested ones) so I don't know if that's still true.

My name wasn't on the list, today, at the same polling place where I've voted since 1980-something. The poll workers mentioned that a number of names seemed to be missing from the rolls, this year. Over a hundred? I asked, and the answer was affirmative.

So I'll have to call the telephone number on the provisional envelope receipt to see if my ballot was counted.

Jim@68: thank you! I must have jumped the gun earlier.

Anyway, I now know what I'm doing for the evening. (Curling up with a laptop and a beverage to watch the results with a friend 1500 miles away. We've done it twice now, which makes it a tradition. Right?)

Also in Austin, here, and there was a short line days and days ago when I voted early. (On the UT campus, as the polling place there is right next to the auto-coffee monolith.) Today when I passed that building, the line wrapped around at least two and a half sides of the building--and I am talking about a very large student center, not any tiny just-for-classrooms building.

Then I passed another polling place by the grocery store on the way home, and the line there had shrunk since this morning; instead of stretching out to the parking lot, it was just about a half dozen people out the door. But I couldn't quite tell how crowded the line inside was; "very", I think.

I think it's a higher turnout. I don't know. The new voter ID stuff slowed things down slightly when I was voting, and "slightly" probably multiplies pretty fast.

WMUR is reporting "recordbreaking" voter turnout today in New Hampshire.

The gnomes of Making Light must be hungry. *passes chocolate-chip cookies about in hopes of rescuing her last comment*

Cassy

Whereas I didn't bother to vote in the uncontested races in the district next door or so from yours, and my ballot was not spit out. It no doubt depends on the settings.

My county's optical-scan machines (PDF link) accept the ballots put in any way up. Ever since I found that out the first time I voted here, I've thought what a good idea that is.

From looking that up just now, I also learned that these machines will alert you to an overvote, undervote, or blank ballot. Neat.

Photographic evidence that Hawai'i holds elections too. Taken at 1:30PM or thereabouts today. No lines, but at that hour in my suburb that's not surprising.

I mailed in my absentee ballot in NJ on Saturday the 27th... do you know if they still count it if it's been through the wash?

53
My voting place had one that, I think, had a screen, and I know it had one for the blind - it had a keypad with big shapes, a set of headphones, and a printer for the ballot slip.

When you take your ballot over to the counting-box, you slide it in face-down, so no one can see the marks, and you get the numbered stub (and the 'I Voted' sticker) from the person tending it.

Apparently the trees in Michigan are not the right height.

Fade, #74: What new voter ID stuff? That was struck down. All I had to provide was my voter registration card, just as always.

I forgot to mention that my comment when I was shown the Rameny was "Much as I'd like to boil him..."

We are told that McCaskill has beaten Akin to the Missouri Senate seat :-)

Lee @83, for the first time in years, I was *not* asked for a photo ID. I had it in my hand and they said, "oh, we'll probably not need that..." (They did compare my signature with the signature on my registration.) I'm in Illinois.

Lee @83: They scanned my driver's license, since that's what I had with me, but I saw people using their voter registration cards, too. I was comparing it to the last presidential election I voted in, in another state, where I told them my name and then signed by it, no ID required; but possibly Texas has always wanted the voter registration card, and I just didn't remember.

I don't think I've ever had to show my ID at a polling place...at least since I moved to NY. But then I live in a smallish town. On the other hand, they have a copy of my signature printed on the form where I sign, so I suppose they can compare those.

Clearly the gnomes wanted a better form of ID than the one I gave them.

One change from previous years-- in other elections, I got mail about my polling place, and people nudging me to vote. This year, all the communication came from campaigns, and I needed to look up my polling place online.

Cassy B @ 86: Fellow Illinoisan here, and I noticed the same thing. I was in the process of taking out my photo i.d. when I was waved on to the next station. Come to think, all they did was ask for my address and check off my name on the roll.

Well. That's a relief.

Plus we get the bonus of watching Fox News trying to talk Rove down from the rafters. A good night, all the way around. All that remains is to hear the speeches.

92
Might be a while, since the GOP refuses to recognize that they've lost, and their hissyfit over who won Ohio doesn't change the overall result.

Mitt is probably too ticked off to even write his concession speech, let alone actually give it.

It's been suggested that when Obama makes his speech, that he bring an empty chair out, too.

Looks like marriage equality wins in Maine and Washington. It's not final in Washington, but 'Yes' is ahead with the biggest chunk of uncounted votes from King County.

Romney just conceded. His speech was actually pretty darn classy, and he looked happier than at any point I'd seen him during the campaign. I think he was glad to get away from the handlers.

P.J. @93/94: Oh, come on. As it happens, Romney gave an entirely serviceable and timely concession speech.

(Heh. One of the talking heads is saying "It wasn't Stevensononian, but it was more like Gore's speech than like Nixon's.")

Well, all I can say is Whew!* And Michael Weholt @92 made me scare the guinea pigs.

—

* For certain measured and carefully qualified values of "whew."

So... we get to hear a Second Inaugural from Obama. I guess I'm pretty much looking forward to that.

Four years ago, I was jubilant -- it felt as though America had finally come out from under the Shadow. Tonight my feelings can more accurately be described as deep relief -- we dodged a bullet, but we're still under fire.

It occurred to me the other day that the Republicans pretty much ran a campaign targeted entirely to the Angry White Voter, while simultaneously sneering at blacks and Latinos for practicing "tribal politics". Well, DUH -- if you've made it very clear to non-whites that your campaign has nothing to offer them, you shouldn't be surprised that they flock to the other guy! I can only hope that the article someone linked here recently is correct about this being the last time that kind of approach will fly.

I think the figurative bullet we dodged was the one that would have kept us from more speeches like that victory speech he just gave.

Holy Crap.

I can't tell from your last comment (@101) whether you liked his speech or not, Michael. I certainly did.

A characteristic of good winning speeches is that you manage to be simultaneously triumphant and conciliatory. Obama certainly did that.

Lee @ 100: It's so striking when you look at the crowds at the two events. Apparently all white for Romney. All colors (including white!) for Obama. I shouldn't be surprised. The conventions were like that, too, but it's so creepy.

Hilary @88: I live in NYC and have never needed ID. Your name, address, and signature is in the book, you sign, they compare, easy-speasy.

Many people had the notices that had been mailed to them. I didn't, but I had memorized my E.D. and A.D. The lady at the door (we had a line snaking out the door and around the corner from the polling place) asked to see that, and when I gave the E.D. number said "Are you sure?" Yes, I was sure.

#102 Tom Whitmore: I loved the speech.

Hey, Jim,

(waving hand in air like an excited kindergartner)

I read that New Hampshire's top offices are all held by women now.

Ah, civilization.

Alas, the congresscritter who refuses to answer any emails, who is a not-so-secret birther, and an openly race-baiting troll still allegedly represents me in the House.

Perhaps next time. . .

97
Past my bedtime (I should have been in bed at least half an hour earlier).

Yeah, New Hampshire has an all-female congressional delegation and a woman in the governor's office.

On the governor's race: Last night the talking heads were blaming Ovide Lamontagne's defeat on negative ads paid for by out-of-state interests. But really... Ovide has run for state or national office four times over the past twenty years. Once for the House, once for the Senate, and, now, twice for governor. The last time he ran for governor his defeat was of historic proportions; he gave us our first Democratic governor in forty years, and our first female governor ever. (This was partly because he opposed state-funded kindergarten, I'm sure.) This time, the race for Governor was such a rout that the AP called it about an hour after the polls closed. Ovide has been standing firm: he still opposed state-funded kindergarten.

Ovide is a man of principles. Most of your Republicans run to the right during primaries and run to the center during campaigns. Ovide ran to the right in the primary and didn't change during the campaign. He started pretty far right, too. So far right that the Tea Party ran a guy against him in the primary because they thought Lamontagne was a wingnut.

So, before I blamed the attack ads this time around, I'd look to see why Ovide was defeated in every election he's stood for over the past two decades, and why he couldn't even carry his home district where they presumably know the man himself.

This is a heavily African-American (and Afro-Caribbean) area, and there was an actual impromptu parade down this street shortly before midnight last night, complete with drum rolls and horn blats. The celebration started a little after 11:00 with lots of shouting, whooping, and chanting of "Obama!" and "Four more years!"

Jim 109: So far right that the Tea Party ran a guy against him in the primary because they thought Lamontagne was a wingnut.

I just have to stop looking at that sentence before my mouth dries out completely.

His own district, huh? Wow. Must be the kind of guy who fortifies his property lines and shoots other people's cats.

Even after Michelle Bachman showed what a bug-eyed airhead nutbar she is in the primaries, they still re-elected her. That means that Minnesota's 6th Congressional District's voters are mostly homophobic stupid crazy assholes. I feel sorry for anyone who isn't, and lives among such horrible people.

I napped, and woke up at 3:45am and checked things. And reacted with an "Oh thank goodness" and a "HOORAY!".

I remember the KER-CHUNK machines, but it's been a veeeeery long time.

Here in Tennessee, apparently the poll workers have been instructed to take _back_ the numbered stub you're given (here, you enter the number from it into the machine to identify your vote) after you've voted. They didn't used to do this a couple years ago. I was early-voting, but I can't imagine they changed the procedure between then and yesterday?

And a quiet "hooray" for Maine and Maryland as well, for joining the 21st century marriage-wise.

So... it looks like the Dixville Notch prediction was as close to 'right on the money' as it could be, given that it can't simultaneously say "number of voters: tie" and "one party wins over the other"?

--Dave

New Hampshire now officially has a binder full of women.

I didn't vote for the Oregon pot-legalization initiative. Too many give-aways for the growers.

If and when pot becomes a legal, commercial crop the growers will in short order become really wealthy. They'll have all the power they can buy, then. No need to give them favors up front.

Stefan Jones #114: If and when pot becomes a legal, commercial crop the growers will in short order become really wealthy.

Assuming the cigarette companies don't simply take over the business....

Is it appropriate to note that a few big spenders in the top 1% did not succeed in buying the presidential election?

#115: Yes, that was exactly the scenario I'm afraid of. Them, or a foreign cartel that starts front companies.

#116: Yes, I imagine Adelson and the Koch Brothers are feeling cheated this morning.

I like to imagine this morning's stock dive is a result of them raising funds to move to Australia.

Since I don't think I saw it noted here yet, the Register reported that Maine duly elected its first Orc Assassin Rogue to its State Senate, ignoring the Republican attacks on W**** of W**C**** players as unfit for public office. Another blow for equality! (Of Orcs, of Rogues, or of gamers, you decide.)

Brenda Kalt @116:

I am now considering the possibility that that big pile of money *did* buy results -- it bought the Republicans ~48% of the popular vote, continued control of the House, and continued status as a credible pillar of the two-party system.

(Sorry: should have said "big pile of money plus a systematic vote-suppression campaign.")

(I mean "credible" to the population as a whole, not to me, of course.)

Some here may be interested to know that Charles Darwin got over 4000 write-in votes in Georgia's 10th District Congressional race (in which Rep. Paul Broun was running unopposed).

As to how things turned out in the state elections in New Hampshire:

Seventy-nine incumbents were defeated in the House. Only four of them were Democrats.

The odious House Speaker, William O'Brien, was re-elected, but is no longer House Majority Leader. He turned down the chance to become House Minority Leader.

The New Hampshire Senate, formerly 19-5 Republican, is now split 13-11 Republican and, depending on a whether one challenger gets a recount in his race (7/10 of a percent between them)and the recount goes his way, might go to 12-12.

Recount has happened. New Hampshire state senate is still 13-11 Republican.

A cheerful headline about one NH legislative race Anarchist defeats Minarchist in New Hampshire Election. The two candidates were housemates, the anarchist is a Democrat, the minarchist is a Republican, both of them libertarian-leaning.

I thought a minarchist was a girl on the cusp of puberty...

...it is? Oh.

Never mind.

Have you heard about what Horn is doing? We need leadership in the NHGOP and NOT a Chicago-style politico. Visit the truth why we cannot have her as a representative for the NHGOP! Anyone but Jennifer Horn!

[Almost certainly drive-by spam, but watching New Hampshire Republicans form a circular firing squad is so much fun. Decided to release this one anyway after disabling the link. Since they want "anyone" but Jennifer Horn, and I'm "anyone," y'all can pick me as the next NHGOP Chair. -- Rulufpo Cirosi, Duty Gnome]

Why say that this is probably spam?

Well, there are eight people named Octavio Vlk in the USA (not exactly a common name) and none of them has ever posted before anywhere on the Google-indexed web. The e-mail address "Octavio" gave is in a form and format that is very common among spammers. (That was the flag that caught the gnomes' attention to start with.)

"While New Hampshire Republicans sort out their internal issues," said New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley, "New Hampshire Democrats are focused on creating jobs and rebuilding our economy."

Jim Macdonald@126, As a Chicagoan, I'm mildly amused at the phrase "Chicago-style politico". I have to wonder what, exactly, that's a codeword for...? Given the Shakman Decrees, I'm guessing Chicago is someone less corrupt that, say, Dixon, Illinois, whose treasurer (allegedly) embezzled 30 million dollars without anyone actually noticing for years....