yeah, I'll take this too

[sisyphusshrugged]

this does my little populist heart good

Voters around the country, undeterred by 90-degree heat in Florida and steady rain in Ohio, waited for hours to select the next U.S. president as independent election experts predicted the highest percentage turnout in decades.

Thousands of observers, some nonpartisan and others working to help the campaigns of President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, monitored the voting in swing states. Poll watchers reported scattered problems around the country.

``We're in line for record numbers of voters, record numbers of people supervising the process, record numbers of people watching the process and record numbers of people concerned the result might not be what they hoped for,'' said Doug Chapin, director of the nonpartisan electionline.org, which monitors voting reform.

Up to 121 million people will vote, compared with 105 million in 2000, according to Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. That would be 60 percent of eligible voters, the highest percentage since 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, when 61.9 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.

A heavy turnout probably hurts Bush, said Larry Sabato, who runs the University of Virginia's Center for Politics in Charlottesville, Virginia.

``If this turnout goes about 120 million, which it might, he's gone,'' Sabato said. ``That many new people are not showing up to say, `Good job, Mr. President.'''

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen these:

a la Slate:

Late Afternoon Exit Polls
It's a tight squeeze.
By Jack Shafer
Updated Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004, at 3:18 PM PT

In the national exit poll, Kerry leads Bush 51-48. In Wisconsin he's up by three, and in Ohio and Florida he leads by one.

Why is Slate running these numbers? See this morning's piece. ... 3:16 p.m. PT

Early Exit: A sqeaker: The first wave of exit-poll data reaching my desk comes from a variety of sources. In some states the sources disagree about the specific margin by which a candidate leads, but never about which candidate is out in front. Some of the confusion may stem from the mixing of morning dexit-poll numbers with early afternoon numbers. With those provisos and the understanding that the early numbers are predictive of nothing without their accompanying computer model, here's what I've heard:

Florida
Kerry 50
Bush 49

Ohio
Kerry 50
Bush 49

Pennsylvania
Kerry 54
Bush 45

Wisconsin
Kerry 51
Bush 46

Michigan
Kerry 51
Bush 47

Minnesota
Kerry 58
Bush 40

Nevada
Kerry 48
Bush 50

New Mexico
Kerry 50
Bush 48

North Carolina
Kerry 49
Bush 51

Colorado
Kerry 46
Bush 53

Other exit-poll results have arrived in more vague form, with Kerry leading Bush in New Hampshire but trailing him in Arizona and Louisiana.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2109053/

They're updating every hour or so.