High Stakes GOTV Battles on Primary Day

Can we start a support group? (4.00 / 3)

I can't say I'm glad that you experienced this too, but I am extremely relieved that someone knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Tuesday was a very stressful day for me, and it actually got much better after I left the polls and started knocking on doors instead.  The high point was actually sitting in the Nashua High gymnasium and shouting my lungs out during Obama's speech.

It's time we steer by the stars, and not the lights of every passing ship

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by: Andy Edwards @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 21:44:22 PM CST

*jumping*.. not sitting n/t (0.00 / 0)

It's time we steer by the stars, and not the lights of every passing ship

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by: Andy Edwards @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 21:46:54 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Lame. (4.00 / 1)

As much as the Primary brings out the best in people, it sure does bring out the worst as well.

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by: Pat C. Le’Venés @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 21:55:42 PM CST

Fact checking. (4.00 / 1)

Here's the rules.

There are two classes of observers in the polling place: 'official' observers and citizen observers. Official observers  have been credentialed by the Secretary of State and/or the Party.

There is a line - which may or may not have an actual rope showing it - between where voters arrive to be checked in, and where they move toward the poll booths after being checked in.

Official observers can station themselves behind that line: specifically, right behind the poll workers who are checking voters in.

Citizen observers cannot.

This happened in the ward where I was working. The Obama volunteers were 'citizen observers' and told to move when another campaign objected.

Did the Obama campaign have its act together and request the required credentials, but was turned down?

THAT would be a story.

But I haven't heard anyone claim that.

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by: elwood @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 22:33:09 PM CST

It seems that in some places, (4.00 / 4)

Obama citizen observers were told to move further away than such observers are required to be. That's the troubling claim I've heard.

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by: Laura Clawson @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 22:43:27 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The thing is, though (0.00 / 0)

At least in a larger precinct, there is no other useful place to be, beside the official observer spot.

In my ward the observers stayed as close as citizen observers were allowed, based on a reasonable interpretation of the rules.

That was certainly close enough to recognize people you personally knew. It was NOT close enough to hear names as they registered.

Maybe the closest of the three lines. Not the other two.

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by: elwood @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 23:01:41 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I appreciate you clarifying the laws (4.00 / 4)

but what the Post article is talking about is something entirely different.

We were not allowed to enter one polling station. At another, we were told we had no right to be there.

They were using the law about challengers to conflate the issue, to the point that the moderator at Ward 9 thought that some rule had been changed since the past election and that poll-checking was no longer allowed, period.


It's time we steer by the stars, and not the lights of every passing ship

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by: Andy Edwards @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 23:25:47 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Wow. (4.00 / 3)

I've thought Patty Little in Keene did a good job. I didn't realize how much worse it is elsewhere.

We got an "Election Training" manual of about 35 pages before the voting. It spelled all this out.

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by: elwood @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 23:32:18 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Andy - not allowed to enter? (0.00 / 0)

Do you mean, during voting hours? Over on dKos you mention not having access before 6AM, which I believe is standard practice...

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by: elwood @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 23:35:49 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Yes, we were never allowed in (4.00 / 3)

This occured at several other wards in Nashua in the morning, as we learned from the campaign office when we called in to request a lawyer multiple times between the hours of 6 and 9 AM.

To my knowledge, volunteers from the Obama campaign were eventually let in at these other wards later on in the day, but not at Ward 9.

It's time we steer by the stars, and not the lights of every passing ship

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by: Andy Edwards @ Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 23:49:19 PM CST

[ Parent ]

When was all this commotion? (4.00 / 1)

I went down to vote at Ward 9 at 10:30 or so and saw a very light campaign presence from everybody. Barely any sign holders, none of the usual faces from the last couple of elections. I had to stand in a line that began to approach the door to outside, which was also a first.

I mean, it was pretty busy, and I could understand campaign people getting a hard time for politicking in the no-politicking zone or impeding access to the polls, but nobody seems to have mentioned anything like that and I didn't see anything like that when I was there.

Also, and this is kind of unrelated, but the election area seemed to be set up quite differently from when we had municipal elections in the fall.

The ward moderator is also a new guy, he won with like a dozen write-in votes last November. It sounds like he should've called the City Clerk for clarification if he was unsure about what to do with you guys or what the law said, especially with Bergeron contradicting Jane in the article cited above.

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Mon Jan 14, 2008 at 22:25:40 PM CST

[ Parent ]

If this is how the Clinton Campaign behaves (0.00 / 0)

is there anyone left wondering why I voted for Obama?

I really, really hope she looses on Super Tuesday.

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by: Nicholas Gunn @ Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 18:16:42 PM CST