ELECTION DAY OBSERVATIONS

Updated at 4:00 p.m.
LIBRARY TURNOUT ALREADY TOPS 2002 Number
At 3:50 p.m., the number of votes cast in Wards 60 and 62 at the Central Library was 602, far surpassing the entire 2002 gubernatorial vote there of 477 ballots cast. Furthermore, as of 3:50 p.m., more than 190 potential voters were standing in line at the polling place, registering to vote. As mentioned in a previous post, those exercising their franchise for the first time appeared to be Marquette University students. The two wards produced over 2000 votes in the 2004 presidential election.
--Michael Horne



Updated at 3:15 p.m.
LOVELY WEATHER, ISN'T IT?

[A Special Report from the Meterological Department of www.milwaukeeworld.com]

By Michael Horne
An examination of November election day weather in Milwaukee from 1986 to the current date shows that today is the mildest on record for the period. As of this reporting, the temperature at Mitchell International Airport is 57 degrees. The low this morning was 42 degrees. The last election with weather nearly as good was the presidential election of 2000, also on November 7th. The temperature that day ranged from 39 to 55 degrees. However, that high temperature was reached in the very early morning, before the polls had opened. The thermometer fell throughout the day. The temperature also reached into the fifties in 1994 and 1996. For the most part, however, the weather is in the thirties and forties on Election Day here.
Will this alone affect the vote? The record is mixed. In 2002 (42 degree high) some 1,775,349 Wisconsinites cast their vote in the gubernatorial election. In 1998 (43 degree high) the number was 1,756,014. In 1994 (53 degree high) the turnout was only 1,563,835. The coldest election day in the survey, 1990, (32 low; 42 degree high) also had the lowest turnout, with 1,379,727 voters casting ballots for governor. The Wisconsin State Elections Board is projecting a turnout of 2,000,000 voters, today. If so, that would represent half the state's electorate, the first time more that 50 per cent would have voted since the election of 1970. Will we surpass that milestone? The good weather certainly can't hurt.
--Michael Horne

CITY TURNOUT HIGH

By Michael Horne
By 9:40 a.m., I was the 359th person to have voted at Cass Street School, in the Brady Street neighborhood. "We didn't even have 359 voters all day in the February election," a poll worker at Ward 54 told me. [Presumably she meant April, as there was no February election in the City of Milwaukee in February.] A line of about 7 people registered to vote on the spot, also higher than ordinary, and younger than usual. [The polling place later ran out of ballots. See Wednesday's posting.] Over at the Election Commission in City Hall, the workers were, for the most part, dressed in their finery, as is the custom in that department on election day. In an adjacent room on the fifth floor, about 10 workers fielded a nonstop stream of telephone calls from voters wondering where their polling place was located. At the Milwaukee Public Library downtown at 11:15 a.m., 252 voters had cast their ballots into the machine that counts them for both ward 60 and 62. Last time this combined ward business caused bookkeeping errors that led to all ballots in the city being hand-counted. Apparently, the software problem has been fixed. Yet another thing we will know by the end of the evening.
Ward 60 traditionally has a low turnout, yet is geographically quite large. Its location is what you see around you as you drive on the high rise bridge; its population consists in good part of those you see around you if you happen to be in jail.
Ward 62 encompasses just about 5 blocks between W. Wisconsin Ave. and W. Wells St. around the Marquette University campus. Of the 21 people in line at the Central Library polling place that serves thetwo wards, 14 of them were busy filling out green registration cards. All appeared to be students at the university, which has residence halls in the 62nd ward.

TOUGH LUCK, KARL ROVE: YOU ENERGIZED THE WRONG VOTERS!

I have a feeling if the intent of the right wing zealots to put the anti-gay marriage amendment referendum on the ballot was to energize conservative voters, their ploy may have backfired in the city, judging from what I observe to be a much higher than usual turnout of young people. And they are not voting "yes."
The current generation of first-time voters, at least in the city, do not seem to favor this ridiculous amendment, and have told pollsters they plan on voting "No." (And said the same to me.) Now it looks like they actually have done so. We shall see whether this proves to be the case, and how things work out in the rest of the state.
Recent events have shown people that the Gay people they should fear are not the ones trying to get married, but the ones who are married -- like Rev. Ted Haggard -- or pretend to be straight -- like Rep. Mark Foley.
The political forces that engineered this nationwide-amendment push are as hypocritical as the two aforementioned individuals. If I know a thing or two about closet cases, some most likely have even more than that in common with them.
The question for J B Van Hollen and Kathleen Falk: Will the attorney general's race be won in Milwaukee -- or in Minocqua? [Update: Wednesday -- Minocqua it is. You can vote from a deer stand or a duck blind there.]
--Michael Horne