Early Voting

Billions of Photos, Thousands of Votes (OWAs) — This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services. There are a lot of ways to get your images online. Facebook recently noted that more than 10 billion images have been uploaded to its site, while Flickr touted its own 3 billion number soon after. While these giants might have attracted the most photos, so far, they haven’t attracted the most votes, with a half dozen other photo sharing sites seeing significant numbers in early voting. Which should win the Open Web Award? Take a look at the nominees and... [Tags: early voting, flickr, free stock photography, international contest, music sharing]

GA-Sen: Chambliss up narrowly, still anybody's game — InsiderAdvantage's newest poll, like most of the polling over the past few months, shows the Georgia Senate race wide open. InsiderAdvantage for The Politico. 11/23. Likely voters. MoE 4%. Chambliss (R) 50 Martin (D) 47 Democratic internals have it as a two point race. The InsiderAdvantage poll assumes a 25% African-American turnout, higher than black turnout in early voting (23%), but significantly lower than black turnout on November 4, with Obama on the ballot (30%). It shows Martin etting 31% of the white vote, a decent total which can give him the victory if black turnout is sufficiently high. In... [Tags: african american turnout, barack obama, ceo, democrat, early voting]

Clearspring is Eating Your Widget for Lunch (OWAs) — This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services. We know that Clearspring is the biggest widget network in the world, but they are also dominating early voting in the Embeddable Widgets category of the Open Web Awards. Top competitors so far include Sprout and RadicalBuy, while last year’s winners – Flockr and Widgetbucks – did not make it to the voting round. Here’s a look at all of the companies in the running: ConveyThis – Translates a website or blog post into any of 29 different languages. Clearspring –... [Tags: best websites, different languages, early voting, flash applications, flockr]

Early Florida Voting Drove Obama's Win — MIAMI — More Floridians voted for John McCain than Barack Obama on Election Day, but the Democrat sealed his victory in the state by winning more early and absentee votes. An Associated Press study of 94 percent of the state's total shows that the Republican beat Obama by almost 5 percentage points on Nov. 4, but Obama trumped McCain by 11 percentage points in early and absentee balloting. Overall, Obama beat McCain 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent in Florida, becoming only the third Democrat in 11 presidential elections to carry the state. The results reflect the Obama campaign's heavy emphasis... [Tags: absentee balloting, absentee votes, barack obama, charlie crist, critical states]

Stevens pollster: Dem will win — Stevens pollster: Dem will win... [Tags: absentee ballots, democratic challenger, disclosure forms, dittman, early voting]

Stevens Trails Begich In Alaska Senate Race — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Just as Sen. Ted Stevens appeared set to return to Congress, felony conviction and all, his re-election bid has faltered. If he loses, it also closes a possible door into the Senate anytime soon for Gov. Sarah Palin. As counting of early and absentee ballots continued in Stevens' race against Democrat Mark Begich, the contest for Alaska's only House seat was settled Wednesday, with the re-election of Republican incumbent Don Young for his 19th term. In the Stevens race, Begich jumped to an 814-vote lead, after trailing by 3,200 when the day began. The tally late Wednesday... [Tags: absentee ballots, aggressive campaign, alaska senate race, anchorage alaska, disclosure forms]

Dave Johnson: Millions More Votes For Democracy Next Time — Millions of people who wanted to vote either couldn't vote, were kept from voting, were tricked out of voting, were tricked into voting the wrong way or voted but their votes were just not counted. There was voter suppression, voter roll purging, voter caging, intimidation, deception, misinformation and other efforts to keep citizens from voting for who they wanted to represent them in our government. On top of these efforts to there were also systemic problems that kept people from voting or kept their votes from counting. I learned about these horrors while working on the Election Protection Wiki project,... [Tags: brennan center, early voting, election day, election integrity, election worker]

Still Waiting... Six House And Senate Races Remain Undecided — Nearly a week since Election Day, the fate of six House and Senate races remained unclear Monday as heated recounts and a runoff were underway in contested races across the country. In Georgia, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) was gearing up for an intense runoff against Democrat Jim Martin after the Republican failed to cross the 50-percent mark. Voters were scheduled to revisit the polls on Dec. 2, but early voting could start next week.... [Tags: democrat, early voting, election day, fate, polls]

Post-Election Advice: Vote Early — The e-voting machines weren't the reason for long lines, bit turnout was, election officials say, suggesting early voting options for the next election.... [Tags: early voting, election officials, vote, voting machines, weren]

This is very odd:Four years ago, 313,592 out of 474,740 registered voters in Alaska participated in the election-a 66% turnout. Taking into account 49,000 outstanding ballots, on Tuesday 272,633 out of 495,731 registered Alaskans showed up at the polls; a turnout of 54.9%. That’s a decrease of more than 11% in voter turnout even though passions ran high for and against Obama, as well as for and against Sarah Palin! This year, early voters set a new record. As of last Thursday, with 4 days left for early voting, 15,000 Alaskans showed up-shattering the old record set in 2004 by... [Tags: alaska, alaskans, american presidential candidate, ballots, blogger]

Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up — Your one stop pundit shop. Roger Cohen nails it in the first sentence: Beyond Iraq, beyond the economy, beyond health care, there was something even more fundamental at stake in this U.S. election won by Barack Obama: the self-respect of the American people. ... but be sure to read the rest. David Broder hopes an Obama presidency will end hyper-partisanship. To the center, to the center! Eugene Robinson says that: ... something changed on Tuesday when Americans -- white, black, Latino, Asian -- entrusted a black man with the power and responsibility of the presidency. I always meant it when... [Tags: ad campaign, adultery, ball games, barack obama, creative strategy]

Shannyn Moore: STOLEN ELECTION IN ALASKA? — Something stinks. Not just an ordinary low tide smell. Not like something you'd blame on the dog. It smells like an infection. For me to plug my nose, I'd have to overlook some curious facts. More people voted for George W. Bush in 2004 than voted for Sarah Palin on Tuesday despite an identical 61-36 margin of victory. Yes. Only four years ago 54,304 Alaskans got off their sofas and voted for Bush, but decided to sit home and not vote for Palin in 2008. In turn, I have to ignore the 30,520 Alaskans who felt progressive enough in 2004... [Tags: alaska, ballots, barack obama, curious facts, democracy demands]

Officials: Early voting could improve e-voting — Election officials said early voting in many states may have led to fewer e-voting problems on Election Day this year.... [Tags: early voting, election day, election officials]

Rob Richie: Electoral Reform on the Ballot: Wins for instant runoff voting and more — 2008 was historic in terms of the election of the first African American to be president and the largest number of voters at the polls in our history. But in the modern era, there is no excuse for privately-owned voting machines that breed mistrust, confusing ballot designs, polling places with long lines, voter registration laws that leave nearly a third of Americans off the rolls, an Electoral College system that undercuts equality and voting methods that suppress voter choice and stifle fair representation. A round of electoral reform victories in key ballot measures suggest that Americans have had enough of... [Tags: ballot measures, cincinnati oh, city council elections, city election, confusing ballot]

AK-Sen: The Alaska situation — Tom Begich, brother of the candidate, explains the current situation up in Alaska: There are about 60,000 votes out.  Of those there are 9500 known Early Votes, 5700 questioned with as many as another 8000 or more questioned ballots (similar to Provisional ballots in some states – in Anchorage these are often teachers and those who work far enough away from their homes, but near a polling place), and 46,000 or so absentee ballots of a substantial number are not mail in but are early vote absentee. Based on these things, we believe it is possible (I think probably a... [Tags: absentee ballots, absentee vote, alaska fairbanks, anchorage, anomalies]

ObamaBot Dutifully Hides Aspirations for 2016 [Robots] — The ObamaBot has been a patient contributor to the Obama presidential campaign. After being assembled for $250, the 6-foot metal and wooden robot took to the streets of Florida waving signs to promote early voting and now President-elect Barack Obama. From a technical standpoint, the robot is apparently "powered by hope," which seems like a...unique...approach to constantly fluctuating energy prices. Bonus shot: While ObamaBot is happy to work its way up through the Senate and into the White House over the next 8 years, the robot cannot hide that its orange foam head may not represent the peak of anthropomorphic... [Tags: 8 years, alligator, aspirations, barack obama, bonus]

A Long Day in Missouri — As expected, St. Louis city and county are turning out to be an epic muck-up. With no early voting and record turnout, polling places have been overwhelmed. Voters showed up at some polls at 3:45 AM, and most places had hundreds in line before they opened. Polls officially closed half an hour ago, but some people have been standing in line for six hours and more. There's been a shortage of machines, materials, poll workers, and increasingly, patience. A couple of poll workers have been dismissed for not following the rules, but mainly things have just been slow. On the... [Tags: city areas, democrat, democratic city, early voting, fliers]

TX: Turnout Predicted Up From '04 — By David Brown Voter turnout in Texas was described as "steady, manageable, and with no unusually long lines" by a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office. Part of the reason for no crowds may be the massive early voting recorded in the Lone Star state. Out of 8.4 million registered voters in the state's 15 most-populous counties, 3.5 million voted early, an option in Texas since 1988. That is substantially more than the 2.5...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.... [Tags: 5 million, crowds, david brown, early voting, lone star state]

CO: Few Bottlenecks Thanks to Early Voting — By Marc Kaufman After a morning rush to vote that led to some long lines, election officials report that Denver residents are generally finding it's getting much easier to cast their ballots. Under clear skies in the mid 60s, Coloradoans are reaping the benefits of large-scale early voting and other innovations like allowing motorists to vote from their cars at Election Division centers. There were few instances of machine or other voting troubles, although The...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.... [Tags: ballots, bottlenecks, cars, clear skies, coloradoans]

Obama's Electronic "Get Out The Vote" Plan: Cell Phone Messages — Obama was using a high-tech method to get young people out to the polls today: Text messages to their cell phones. Bloomberg: The Obama campaign plans to use the millions of cell-phone numbers it has amassed over the past 22 months to blast its supporters with that message today.. The biggest concern for the Obama campaign is getting young people -- who have registered in record numbers and shown unprecedented interest in surveys -- to turn out. In 2004, only 45 percent of those under 30 showed up to vote, according to Census data, making them just 16 percent of... [Tags: cell phone numbers, cell phones, cellphone numbers, census data, early voting]