SwiftVets.com

[hatecelebs]

Bad news - Early voting results tend to favor Kerry:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55598-2004Oct22.html

It's Too Late to Change The Minds of Some Voters
Record Numbers Use Early or Absentee Ballots
By Jo Becker and Thomas B. Edsall

Over the next 10 days, President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry will spend millions of dollars on a blizzard of last-minute ads. The candidates will dash from state to state, trying to squeeze in one more rally, a few thousand more handshakes. But for a growing number of people, the effort will be wasted: They have already voted.

Voters are casting tens of thousands of ballots a day in most of the 30 states that allow residents to vote early in person or to vote absentee without an excuse, including in some of the battleground states where the presidential race hangs in the balance.

As of Friday afternoon, more than 1.3 million people had voted in eight of the swing states, records indicate. Both parties are making a huge effort to get their supporters to the polls early and are reading the tea leaves to decide what, if anything, the early turnout numbers show.

In New Mexico and Nevada, about a tenth of the electorate is already "in the bank," in campaign parlance. Republicans had cast close to the same number of early votes as Democrats in the Las Vegas area, where about 70 percent of Nevada's population resides, while Democrats were running strong in the Reno area, historically a Republican stronghold.

In Iowa, where Democrats have long had an advantage in early voting, more than 200,000 ballots had been cast as of the start of this week.

In Florida, a sampling of eight counties showed a consistent pattern of Democrats turning out to cast early ballots in greater proportion than their share of registered voters, while Republicans were going to the early voting sites at or below what their registration percentages would suggest.

In Seminole County, for example, Democrats make up 31.7 percent of the registered voters but 40 percent of the early voters. The same was true in Republican-leaning Brevard County, where Fred Galey, supervisor of elections, said that he had no specific figures but that "many more Democrats" are casting ballots than Republicans.

In Osceola County, a Democratic bastion, Democrats are turning out for early voting in higher percentages than their share of registered voters, while Republicans are below their registration levels. The same was true in Hillsborough, the highly populated county where Tampa is located.

Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a spokeswoman for the Florida Republican Party, was not too worried: "They're doing well in their areas of the state, and we're doing well in ours," she said.

Charlie Baker, the Democrats' national early-voting guru, was similarly restrained.

"Conventional wisdom says Republicans are most likely to vote absentee and Democrats are more likely to vote early, but a lot of that, I think, is ancient history," he said. "The reality is we'll all have a far better handle on this after the election."

Part of the reason for the uncertainty is that early voting is a relatively new phenomenon, with the number of states offering it nearly tripling in the past eight years. Campaigns have been forced to adjust to a new presidential campaign rhythm: In Iowa, for instance, "Election Day" lasts more than five weeks.

This year, election officials say they are seeing record early-voting turnout, in part because of the enormous interest in the close presidential election and in part because of the get-out-the-vote effort by parties. A National Annenberg Election Survey released this week found that nationwide, 5 percent of voters have already cast a ballot and more than a fifth plan to vote before Election Day.

In states where early voting has existed for a while, election officials are predicting even greater numbers. In New Mexico, for instance, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron (D) believes that more than 50 percent of voters will cast their ballots before Nov. 2, a big increase over 2000.

Republicans are hoping to bank as many voters through absentee and early voting as possible before turning to an intense get-out-the-vote campaign in the 72 hours before Election Day. In Iowa, a GOP mailer urged voters to "Defend America's Freedom" by voting "today."

Democrats, whose supporters tend to be less reliable voters, are counting on early voting to help them turn out those who irregularly show up at the polls and who may be juggling busy schedules.

In Colorado, where tens of thousands of voters have already cast ballots, Democrats mailed supporters a flier that includes a map of locations in the Denver area that offer a chance to vote early.

In Las Vegas, unions plan to bus casino workers to an early-voting site just off the Strip that is open all night, and this week a truck drove through some of the Hispanic neighborhoods as a Spanish-speaking man with a bullhorn encouraged residents to vote early.

By Thursday, more than 86,000 residents had cast ballots, an increase of almost 30 percent over the number who had done so by this time in 2000. An additional 20,000 had mailed back absentee ballots.

Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said he is hopeful that a big early vote in Las Vegas could ease the crush of Election Day, eliminating long lines and potentially staving off other problems. Officials in Florida have also ironed out kinks during early voting there.

"I'm hoping that in Florida and elsewhere, early voting will be a pressure valve that can relieve some of the pressure of Election Day and give election officials a chance to work out problems," said Elliott Mincberg, legal director for the liberal People for the American Way Foundation.

[Anker-Klanker]

No actual votes have been tabulated (and released). This, I think, is just a count of the early voters who checked their names against the list of registered voters. Some of those Democrats could very well have voted for GWB, and, I suppose, some Republicans could have voted for JFK.

It's all fun and exciting for the newsmakers, and I suppose can be easily spun as being pro-Kerry. I'd recommend trying to ignore this kind of thing.

[Bystander]

My neighbor and I abolished 2 Skerry votes in my state last week. I agree with ankler-kankler, I voted democrat a couple of times until I learned I was doing the wrong thing! Hey--Zell Miller is a democrat.
_________________
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
..................................Eleanor Roosevelt

[Bystander]

Anker-Klanker--sorry for messing up your name.
_________________
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
..................................Eleanor Roosevelt

[Nathanyl]

The Democrats have been pushing people to vote early more then the Republicans. I think the early voting is horrible. It needs to be gotten rid of, the founding fathers never meant for people to vote a month ahead of time.
_________________
Bill Hershey
www.worldwar4.net

[rparrott21]

Wouldn't that be against the law to release vote totals...

[Chuck54]

Oh no, Bush is doomed, its over, why vote at all, I want to die.
_________________
"And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often, than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry"

Zell Miller

[blue9t3]

There is no early results!
Sit tight and get out the vote, but there IS going to be a make believe media bump to help the traitor. I didnt get to see sinclair's stuff but im sure we are gona hear plenty!

Bush by 5........later
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MOPAR-BUYER

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Sorry, I don't see anything in that article that indicates that Kerry has the lead in early voting, so I changed the title of the thread to match the title of the article.

The early returns are heavily Democratic in some areas, but the party under which people are registered are not always the party for which they vote.

Concentrate on converting votes right up until the polls close.

The crap is falling on the Kerry Kampf by the hour. Don't let any one thing or any collection of things to deter you from voting and from getting your story told. Pay no attention to any poll, no matter what it's showing.

We owe it to our brothers and sisters in harm's way to give them a CinC with backbone and integrity and courage. We all know that John Fraud Kerry is NOT that leader.

We owe it to our Vietnam-era brothers and sisters to add our single vote to the complete rejection and repudiation of John Kerry's decades of lies and slander.

These brave men have come forward and put it all on the line again, in the interest of protecting our country - let's not go wobbly in the knees over ANY apparent setback.


Remember - November 2nd - Vietnam Veteran's Vindication Day!!!!



.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[deserturtle]

The SVPTs have converted a dem to Bush. I was watching Sinclair's documentary and recording linktv and downloading Stolen Honor when my daughter's boyfriend started watching became curious and downloaded Stolen Honor himself. He is voting for Bush!
_________________
The door to the room of success swings on the hinges of the opposition.

[Chuck54]

[msindependent]

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/brucebartlett/bb000612.shtml


Edsall is one of the Post's most liberal reporters. The pre election spin of a Kerry win has begun. Don't let your friends be swayed by this bull ****. Google search this guy, Edsall is a loser.


No Traitors in the White House

[nightingale97]

A lot of people are voting early here in San Antonio. My husband and I waited in line for about 45 minutes. The person who checked me in said they were doing about 1,000 people a day and that's just at one voting site. The first site we went to we couldn't even find a parking space. Most of the people I saw in line were senior citizens..I would say in the 50+ age group.
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Proud to serve! No medals required!

[srmorton]

NC just started the early voting in 2000. It does not begin until about
two weeks before the election which is after the debates. People should
have all the information they need by that time to make an informed
decision. I think it is a good idea, especially for those people who find
that they have to be out of town on election day too late to apply for an
absentee ballot. The Republicans have been on top of the absentee
ballots for many years, but the early voting is a relatively new idea.
I know the Dems are pushing it this year, but so are we. The Dems
have better luck at waiting until election day to try to use the confusion
to keep the polls open later, claim voter intimidation, etc.

In fact, I proudly cast my vote yesterday for George W. Bush, the next
POTUS. I voted for only one Democrat, a little elderly lady who is our
county's Register of Deeds. She should retire, but I think she should
be allowed to do so on her own instead of being kicked out of office.

Our Democrat-controlled legislature recently made the election of
judges non-partisian. I have always voted for Republican judges if
I do not know the person because they are more likely to be more
conservative. The Democrats did that because there has been a
shift toward the Republicans in the NC courts and they did not like
that trend. They came out with some malarky about how judges
should not depend on donations to run their campaigns and that
their races should be publicly funded and non-partisian. I was
worried about how to vote for judges this year, but my husband
got me a list of the Republicans in the race and I voted for all of
them.
_________________
Susan R. Morton

[Fort Campbell]