Election Day Anecdotes – Updated continuously

Buster says: Don’t be afraid! Go vote!

PJTV: Will be airing at 8PM with a stellar lineup, so check it out.
Also, Stephen Green is Drunkblogging election night and has already called Ohio for McCain, just because he wants to. 7:21 PM

James Pethokoukis: In any event, not an Obama blowout, but he says the McCain camp is still cautiously optimistic and waiting to see the actual vote counts:

Here is the latest from inside Team McCain: Florida looks good. Ohio, Penn., Virginia and NC are too close to call…As superguru Mike Barone puts it, wait for real votes to be counted. But at the very least, this hardly looks like an Obama blowout. Still maybe a McCain win. TCTC. Stay tuned. (You can check me out on CNBC tonight at 10 PM.) 6:43 PM

Betsy Newmark: Unimpressed with the network glitz, and anticipating life behind the barbed wire with far left overlords. She’s a pessimist. 6:40 PM

From an email: “Anchoress, you sound so calm; how do you keep from flipping out?” Actually, I do feel really calm and almost “at peace.” I’m just trusting in what I said in the post above. And, you know…pizza for supper. And whenever I see that picture of Buster, I crack up. Also, whenever I feel myself in need of a distraction, I go visit my nun and monk friends, who are very calming. Speaking of which, Sr. Lauren is now Sr. Maria Teresa and in her habit! Yay! 6:35 PM

New Hampshire: not a comfortable voting experience?. Elder Son and his Sweet Fiancé just went to vote and found it rather anti-climactic. The crowds of this morning were gone. But perhaps they’d just beaten the after-work voters.

Pre-marked Ballots: for non-English speakers? 6:15 PM

Ohio: cautious optimism. I’m going to remain decidedly pessimistic about Ohio, myself. I’m also still not even listening to the exit polls. 6:11 PM

We’re feeling rather celebratory around here…not for any reason, just because it’s election day…so we’re ordering a pizza with onions and mushrooms! Yay! 5:59 PM

Our Ivy Elites: So much better at civility than the rest of us. 5:57 PM

Philly: “I came back and voted a couple times…”. No way this election doesn’t get contested and go on for months…sigh. 5:45 PM

Minnesota: hey, it’s closer than we thought. So, go vote again, or something. 5:38 PM

Military ballots in Virginia: will not be counted, but will be “preserved” for a later hearing. As I said below: Bill Ayers vote got counted today, but our fighting men and women get jerked around. This has to be addressed and fixed. The GOP should have made provisions for accurate and timely military voting in 2000, then in 2002, then in 2004. There’s no reason for this. 5:34 PM

Jim hears “good anecdotal stuff”, but of course…it’s anecdotal. 5:10 PM

Tracey at Pale Page: feels good about election day.

I always cherish my “I Voted” sticker. I frequently leave it on whatever article of clothing I was wearing on election day for as long as I can. I don’t understand people who don’t put the sticker on themselves. I really don’t. It’s a small thing, maybe, but I look for that on election days, for the little sticker on others, for the others who participated and are proud of it, too. And no matter how they may have voted, I feel a kinship with those people. The other sticker people. My heart swells a bit when I see them. Their votes may have been the complete opposite of mine, but I feel almost like I know some small part of them, that I see a tiny sliver of who they are. And maybe I do. Maybe I sense that invisible cord that binds us and holds us all as simply Americans. I pray that it may hold us long and strong.

That’s actually heartwarming. Makes me wish everyone felt that way. Where I live we don’t get stickers. 5:08 PM

Youth Vote?: What Youth Vote? 4:59 PM

Divine right of Kings?: Obama’s geneology and McCain’s geneology. That’s fun. Source. Inspired by Vanderleun 4:50 PM

Ohio cops: Ordered to keep riot gear with them for the next two days. It shouldn’t be this way. 4:42

Bill Ayers had no trouble getting his vote counted, but the military, they are having some trouble getting theirs counted. It’s outrageous that the military has to go through this crap every election. Explain to me again why they cannot set up polling places where they are stationed and have their officers oversee and report the votes? 4:40 PM

Milwaukee: Voter fraud unit disbanded. Guess there’s no voter fraud in Wisconsin, which if I remember rightly, was basically stolen in 2004, with no objections from the GOP. 4:37 PM

In Georgia: Double voting “Thousands of people registered to vote in two states, and … voters who appear to have voted twice.” There appears to be 100,000 dual registrants in GA. 4:35 PM

Shenanigans in New Hampshire. Virginia turnout described as massive. 4:26 PM

Jim Geraghty: Exit Pollsters up to their own tricks? Just forget the exit polls. 4:09 PM

Right Wing Professor worked the polling place today and files a report:

Don’t trust early results from Pennsylvania. We’re expecting many polls to still be voting at least until 11. “The polls close at 8″ only means the doors close. Everybody inside still gets to vote. In this district, it will take about 90 minutes to get everybody inside through. In larger voting districts, it will take even longer. That’s going to make “early reports” based on exit polls even more problematic than they were in 2004. Let’s hope the media learned their lesson about that.
[…]
The media believe that a big turnout favors Democrats. It does not. They should have learned in 2004, but they didn’t. Last week, Palin was right here, on campus, and drew over 7,000 people, people who stood in the cold and rain and bitterly cold, strong wind for hours to get in. The next day, Bill Clinton was here to stump for Obama; he drew 1,500.

In a college town. On campus.

I’m not a drinker, myself – the occasional Guinness is as fast as I get – but Professor Bainbridge, Neo-neocon and Rachel Lucas are planning to go on benders as they watch the returns tonight.

I’m still coughing and sickly, so maybe I’ll have one of Auntie Lillie’s Hot Toddies. Bit of whiskey in the tea.

My Li’l Bro Thom: writing from his perch in NY: A co-worker and I went to the diner we love, for lunch. It was festooned with American flags and the old guy at the cash register was wearing a flags [on his clothes]: “Didja see all the people lined up to vote this morning?,” he said, beaming. “That’s America. No matter who wins. Let the world see. That’s America!”

Cool story. Too bad Christiane Amanpour saw the crowds, the lines, the festive atmosphere and was reminded of voting in IRAN!

Jim Geraghty has a round-up of polling place anecdotes. He cautions though, that we should not expect to know Colorado results tonight. I have a source telling me that about both Pennsylvania and Virginia as well. If Ohio is completely sewn up thanks to voter fraud – and all signs point to just that being true – it seems like these three states are going to be real battlegrounds.

Buster, on the other hand, is walking around his campus wearing his anti-Che shirt and getting into some good-natured chaff with Obama supporters wearing Obama shirts. He does tell me, though, that many of the students wearing their O shirts seem to have no idea why they like him. “They say, ‘he’s for change’ but they don’t seem to know much beyond that,” Buster says. “I think they’re just figuring he’s young, he’s cool, and he’s likely the winner, and people’s instincts are always to want to be sitting with the cool cats, right? Still, it’s kind of odd. It reminds me of the game, Half-Life.”

I do not know that video game, so, someone will have to enlighten me.

Slightly O/T: Keep an eye on your colleges.