Early reports: Heavy voter turnout in Massachusetts
Wow. WBZ reports heavy traffic at the polls for the special election in Massachusetts today. The secretary of state predicts 40 percent turnout:
In contrast to the light turnout for the party primaries last month, there are already signs of a heavy turnout.
A line of cars stretched for nearly a half-mile from the gymnasium at North Andover High School. Some drivers turned around in exasperation.
Massachsuetts Secretary of State William Galvin told WBZ he expects about 40-percent of voters to turn out for the special election.
Galvin said about 800,000 came out for the primaries and he believes that should double to 1.6 million based on the intense interest in this campaign.
Are you in Massachusetts? Did you vote? Let us know how turnout was in your area.
***
Via Allahpundit, Politico reports that Democrat get-out-the-vote operatives are “stunned by the number of Democrats and Obama supporters who are waving them off, saying they’ll vote for Scott Brown.”
***
Via the Boston Globe, depressed Coakley voters drag themselves to the polls. Current weather forecast: Light snow. It’ll take quite a bit of effort to get these kinds of supporters to turn out once the snow gets worse:
In the Democratic primary last month for US Senate, this city backed the campaign of Representative Michael Capuano, a native son and former mayor who ultimately came up short against Martha Coakley.
Capuano’s loss did not prevent voters from turning out in droves today for the general election, with precinct at the Dante Club bustling early. Several people interviewed on the way out of the social hall described themselves as reluctant Coakley supporters motivated by the prospect of a victory by Republican Scott Brown and concerns that it would thwart the health-care legislation before Congress.
“To be honest, I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about Martha Coakley. But you know, I think the health care thing is so important,” said Chris O’Brien, a 29-year-old singer-songwriter who began paying closer attention after the race tightened…
…”I feel like she’s who we have, and I’m a little disappointed about the way she ran her campaign,” [Mara] Brod said. “But I guess they just didn’t see this coming.”
***
Reader Stephen e-mails: “I voted in Leicester Massachusetts at 7:20 this morning and the lot at the town hall was full. This was comparable to the 2008 Presidential election. It was also snowing moderately at the time. Hopefully this a harbinger of a ‘Massachusetts Miracle.’”
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Indeed, planning to get out of the hospital on the early side and vote.
My wife and I were at the polls at 7:00am and there were at least 100-150 people inside. When we left just 10 minutes later, cars entering were backed up to the street.
No sign of the Panthers, not that Marcia would do anything about it.
>> The
shotscott heard ’round the world! <<I’ve been making calls for Brown this past weekend, and called all my friends who have relatives and friends in MA to ask them to call and encourage them to vote for Brown.
Fingers crossed!
This is probably good news, unless they are all getting off buses with Illinois license plates and wearing purple shirts. Oh yeah – purple shirts are voting for Brown too.
This must be the Fall Previews…
Errah, but I’m casting all my votes today for Brown. What can Brown do for you?! Hopefully stop Obamacare! Gotta run, John, JQ Adams and I are off to another voting location.
Errah just ran into Tip O Neal. He’s joining us. I told him it was a pub crawl!
I would love to be a mouse in the corner when “The One” is sitting in “Fuhrer Bunker” in the White House and gets the election results.
Somebody has got to do one of those Hitler parodies on YouTube with this one.
There’s a reason why 50% of voters in MA are independent, it’s not about party politics anymore. It’s about kicking out the entrenched criminal class of “elected” weasels. Re-register to independent today.
Between 12/27 and yesterday I logged 1,323 calls for Brown from NJ. I would estimate it was almost 70% Brown for those that said the would vote.
I also threw some cash at Brown too. I am still crossing my fingers. I don’t trust the Democrats to play fair.
I will vote tonight after work, bringing my bat in case I need to protect myself from any wildlife. (Black Panthers)
If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of printing presses generating thousands of fraudulent ballots echoing through the lightly falling snow. To Democrats it is the most beautiful sound on earth…
Rogue,
This may be more appropriate, assuming you can carry a firearm in Massachusetts…
http://www.taurususa.com/gun-selector-results.cfm?name=1911%20Pistols&page=1
Oh look, the election isn’t even over and suddenly my senator in Virginia is interested in bipartisanship. It’s funny how when they have to contemplate what life is going to be like without their supermajority and a huge target on their back they want to work with the Republicans.
I voted this morning for Scott….also worked for him and attended the Quincy Rally last saturday. My entire family is voting for him and their spouses…(I have 9 brothers and sisters). Also my co-workers all voted for him ….and 4 friends that I know of have voted for him too!
The only thing we fear is CORRUPTION at the voting booth and that woman in Lawrence doesn’t suprise us!
In her latest post, SISU’s Sissy Willis gets it:
“It isn’t the “level of anger at the incumbent party” per se but disgust with the old-boy networks of both parties that got under the Tea Partiers’ skin. As we wrote in a letter to the editor of the Harvard Crimson last April”
Re-register to unaffiliated independent today. Send the message to the one-party old-boy establishment that the Tea Party has arrived and we don’t like bipartisan one-party government. Let’s get to over 50% of registered voters nationally this week.
Chris went on to say that he suffers from “writers block” and “guitar pluckers finger” and needs someone to get him some health care so he can be cured and become a star.
Good for the MA electorate. Voting is a good thing and should always be done.
How long before McCain issues his automatic “caution” to “my friends” about over-celebrating today. We need to be sensitive to the feelings of his friends across the aisle. I’m sure he will be looking forward to a renewed spirit of bipartisanship accompanied by the Senate tradition of comity and good fellowship.
On January 19th, 2010 at 12:41 pm, JT said:
You sir, ROCK! That’s how it’s done!
Got an email this AM, from a very liberal in-law who lives in the central/north part of MA; citing the blizzard conditions, and deciding to not go out and vote.
* In Massachusetts, 116,483 registered voters are dead, 3.38 percent of the state’s total of registered voters. Another 538,567, or 15.6 percent, had moved to an area outside of where they are registered to vote.
My eldest voted early this morning before work; younger son is going to head straight to the polls after work.
I had to be out before the polls opened, but got back later this morning and went with my husband to vote; this is what I posted on another thread:
At our polling place there was one of those huge Martha Coakley banners planted next to the entrance to the parking lot – but my husband said it was at least 150 feet away from the entrance to the building, so it was in compliance with the law.
The interesting thing is that there were three or four people standing in front of the sign with signs for Scott Brown – and one of them was a big homemade sign. One lone Coakley supporter stood there with them – and it was friendly (even saw one of the Brown people give the guy a quick hug).
A little further down the street another small group stood at an intersection holding signs for Scott Brown – not a single sign for Coakley there.
And this is as the snow continues to fall here – snow or an icy wintry mix. I commented on what a beautiful day it is to the group at the parking lot entrance, and got big smiles and thumbs up from my fellow Brown supporters.
It really is a beautiful day.
DanMan,
I’m going to fight. I’m sick and f*cking tired. I will do everything I can legally do, until they take all my rights away.
Then its lock and load.
In my part of the country, when such a storm comes in it brings clear, fresh air.
Who would have ever dreamed about this possibility just a few weeks ago??
Now, will the California version of Scott Brown step forward so that Senator “Ma’am” Boxer can get KOed in November?
A high school friend of mine is poll watching in Boston’s 17th Ward. Can’t wait to hear what he has to say about what happened there. He’s with a journalist/photojournalist crew ready to expose any shenanigans.
the teaparty people need to continue taking the party from the inside out, and from the bottom up. young folks, get involved, it’s your future these political elitists are screwing with. take over the state gubmints and party apparatchic by volunteering, running for office, etc.
And now Michael Dukakis weighs in on the meaning of this election: Speaks to the need to eliminate the 60-vote requirement in the Senate.
You know the Dems are desperate when they parade out Kerry and Dukakis.
Tell them they’re my heroes. We’re fortunate to live someplace where shenanigans are unlikely, but we know that other areas of the state aren’t as lucky.
The Dems in CA already get it. When are Republicans going to get it?
This is at SFGate (San Francisco):
The RNC is backing Meg Whitman for governor and Carly Fiorina for Senate. Tea Party and Jim DeMint’s SRCC are backing Steve Poizner and Chuck DeVore respectively. DeVore looks likely. Whitman is another Scozzafava.
Well Michael Steele? Learn anything from NY, VA, NY and now MA? How’s your book tour doing?
Is he still alive? Still wearing the helmet?
Yeah, the same way they wanted to get rid of the electoral college after the 2000 presidential election.
Or changing the law here in Massachusetts – or Massachusettes if you’re a Coakley supporter – to not let the Republican governor appoint someone to finish out a senate term, then changing it again to allow the Democrat [emphasis on rat] to appoint a senate seat-warmer.
Then there is the on-going issue of the line-item veto – you know, the thing that no one seems to want a Republican president to have, but for Democrat presidents it’s a whole nother story.
Words cannot begin to express my disgust.
No line to wait in but there was a continuous stream in my little town north of Boston at 2PM which is normally a very slow period. Many of them were seniors but perhaps the earlier snow kept them away this morning? It’s now raining where I am at the moment but that could turn back to snow or freezing rain later this evening which will keep away the ‘weak hearted’ and the ‘not all that committed’ voters from coming. IOW I think bad weather is a good thing for Scott.
The traffic duty officer was inside having coffee and thus not defending the 100′ electioneering perimeter outside. I confess – I snuck into the parking lot with my Scott Brown sign clearly visible in the window of my car only a scant 90 feet from the polling entrance. (Please don’t tell on me.)
To: madshark
The California version of Scott Brown is Chuck Devore http://www.ChuckDeVore.com
Chuck DeVore has been working hard to defeat Sen. Barbara Boxer since immediately after the 2008 election.
If you look at Chuck DeVore’s web site today, you will see a link on how to help Scott Brown win his election in Massachusetts today.
Chuck is a true conservative. I heard him speak a couple of years ago at a California Republican Assembly meeting at a CA GOP convention and I was very impressed!
After hearing him speak, I immediately thought that he was somebody we should keep an eye on because he had so much potential.
Chuck doesn’t drive a truck, but I am sure he probably already has more miles on his car than Scott, because Chuck has been traveling the state of California to meet with voters for over a year now.
Dare to dream of conservative victories in 2010!
Brown by 25%
I heard from a democrat teacher in Lynn that she and ALL the other teachers she hangs with, (nostly democrats), are voting for Brown – they just cannot stand Marcia F’n Croakley.
In your face AFT!
As much as I admire McCain for his service in Vietnam, I have to admit that this question is spot on.
I’ve been thinking lately that so many miss the fact that as Rush Limbaugh never tires of pointing out, the Coakley/Kennedy/Obamas are our political opponents whose ideas, if carried fully out, will mean the end of America as we understand it. By all means, be polite and courteous, but this mindless drive for yukking it up and photo ops with folks who will wreck your country is beyond me.
Frankly, though, I see the same thing here in this comments section sometimes.