Big Texas Turnout On 2nd Day Of Early Voting

Elections officials said Tuesday that more than 340,000 Texans cast in-person or through mail ballots once polls closed Monday in the state's 15 largest counties. That's compared to about 190,000 Texans in those same counties on the first day of 2004, the last presidential election.

In Collin County, voting was brisk, said Collin County elections administrator Sharon Rowe.

Lines several dozen people deep started forming early at voting sites in Allen, McKinney and Plano. "There has been a steady stream of voters all day," Ms. Rowe said.

In 2004 the number of first day election results in Collin County was 9,137 which was 2.47 percent of registered voters. This year the number was 13,900 which was 3.27 percent of registered voters. Second day voting turnout was about the same.

Big Texas Turnout On First Day Of Early Voting

Dallas Morning News
By PAUL J. WEBER / 10/20/2008

Associated Press - Record numbers of early voters packed polling locations from Houston to El Paso on Monday in what officials said could likely be the start of an unprecedented election turnout in Texas.

Anxious voters, many with the nation's crumbling economy on their minds, smashed first-day early voting records before lunchtime...

"If it sustains and continues through the 12-day (early voting) period like this, there's not going to be anything close to compare it to," said Bruce Sherbet, Dallas County's elections administrator.

Read the rest of the story.

Firsthand I can say that first day turnout at at least one Collin County early voting station was very high - Higher than even I anticipated, and I had predicted a blockbuster first day. I had previously posted:

On the higher end of the projections, with a registration count of 426,000 voters, if there is a 80% total turnout with a 47.8% early vote turnout, then 340,800 total votes will be cast for the entire election with 203,628 votes cast during early voting and 137,172 votes cast on November 4th, Election Day, in Collin County. (It is my personal opinion that the higher turnout projection is the more likely scenario. In fact, I will not be surprised if the turnout percentages turn out to be even be a bit higher than suggested here.)

After today I'm starting to think this higher end projection is not nearly high enough!

Go Vote NOW!

Early Voting runs from 8AM October 20 to 7PM October 31 at several locations in Collin County and every other county in Texas. You can vote at any early voting polling place in your county of residence.

Unofficially, it is estimated that the Collin County elections office had nearly 424,000 registered voters by Oct 15, 2008 with a backlog of unprocessed registration requests. The final number will likely approach 430,000 registered voters in Collin County for the November 2008 election. This compares to approximately 381,000 register voters for the March 2008 primary election and 369,412 register voters for the November 2004 election.

In the November 2004 election 246,617 (66.8%) of the 369,412 register voters cast a ballot in that presidential election. 150,001, or 40.6% of 2004 registered voters, cast their ballot during early voting voting of that year.

If the same 2004 percentages of registered voters cast ballots in the 2008 November election, then 284,395 votes will be cast in the entire election, 172,979 votes will be cast during early voting and 111,416 votes will be cast on November 4th, Election Day, in Collin County, assuming the final registered voter count stands at 426,000.

On the higher end of the projections, with a registration count of 426,000 voters, if there is a 80% total turnout with a 47.8% early vote turnout, then 340,800 total votes will be cast for the entire election with 203,628 votes cast during early voting and 137,172 votes cast on November 4th, Election Day, in Collin County. (It is my personal opinion that the higher turnout projection is the more likely scenario. In fact, I will not be surprised if the turnout percentages turn out to be even be a bit higher than suggested here.)

I strongly recommend that if you are a new first time voter who has just registered, you should vote early this year. If there has been any minor snafu in processing your voter registration application, it is usually much easier for the Election Judge to help you resolve the snafu during the early voting period. Every voter, particularly first time voters, should check their registration status on the Collin County or Texas Secretary of State website before going to the polling place to stand in line to vote. If you do not find your name in the voter registration database, you can call the elections office from home to resolve the problem. Check your registration status through the Collin County website here. Check your registration status through the Texas Secretary of State website here.

Please remember to take your Voter's Registration Card with you to the early voting polling place when you vote.

Please DO NOT cut the bar code off of the orange card - election clerks can use the bar code to electronically verify your voter registration status, which makes the voting lines move much faster for everyone!!!

Did you receive your Orange Voter's Registration Card? If you did not receive an orange registration card during 2008, your voting registration record may have been "suspended" or "purged." Check your registration status here.

Related Links:

• Check Early Voting Locations and Time for Collin County
• Touchscreen Voting: A How to Guide for Collin Co. Early Voters
• Lots Of New First Time Voters In Collin County

NYTimes Questions McCain's Health

The Washington Post reported last week that a growing number of doctors believe that McCain's melanoma is "more advanced than his physicians concluded and that the chance of recurrence is consequently higher." Lawrence Altman, a veteran New York Times reporter and one of the few medical doctors working as a full-time journalist, has spent weeks working with the campaigns and medical professionals on a story in Monday's edition of the NYTimes that raises serious questions about the true state of John McCain's health.

Much of the speculation centers on new questions about the status of John McCain's health.

TPM Cafe
We've all noticed John McCain having those "John McCain moments. He gets confused. His thinking is unclear. When he's asked a question, he hesitates for long periods of time and can't remember the question. When he does respond to a question, the one about Corsi's book for example, he gives a diffuse inappropriate answer; "need to have a sense of humor about these things." He now reads everything off small cards and sometimes it appears that he may not know what's going on. Does anyone believe that his condition may be worse than his campaign strategists would lead us to believe?

AmericaBlog
UPDATE: Because the McCain campaign is still refusing to release McCain's medical records, and refuses to say a word of explanation about McCain's strange facial convulsions that have now been repeatedly caught on film in the past few weeks, I'm bumping this post. America deserves to know if John McCain, who is 72 years old and has 4 bouts of serious melanoma, and who has been acting erratically and confused of late, is physically or mentally ill and not coming clean about it.

There are now several videos circulating that strongly suggest there may be some neurological problem causing extreme facial ticks and rapid eye blinking. Americans are clearly interested in knowing what is wrong with John McCain's health.

During a recent campaign speech in Pennsylvania John McCain said,"Across this country this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners," he declared. Then, without even realizing what just came out of his mouth McCain continued to berate Obama saying, "The same standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent." In the prepared remarks he was to say "fellow citizens" not "fellow prisoners."

This is the kind of mental mix-up that really makes one wonder what is truly going on inside of John McCain's mind - is everything really OK in there?

There have been an increasing number of posting and videos that call for John McCain, who would be the oldest president in history if elected, to fully release his medical records. For a very brief three hours in May, McCain did release 1,173 pages of his medical records to a carefully selected group of reporters. They were not allowed to make any copies or phone calls. Why such secrecy?