On the Ground 2008 on The Huffington Post

John Wellington Ennis: Top 10 Most Overhyped of 2008

2009-01-08T02:44:21Z

Everyone is a sucker for the year-end lists. Beyond re-hashing highlights of hoopla, I propose revisiting the topics herein with hindsight, rather than reflex. It is in the spirit of moving forward in 2009 with wisdom and renewed faith in other Americans that we (impatiently) approach this historic inauguration, and re-examine the issues we previously lost our shit over.

1. Hillary citing RFK's assassination as a reason to stay in the primaries.

I admit it, I flipped out over it, even though I remember her first making the comment months before. It just came at a point when her opportunism and goal-post hedging made the race seem like Obama vs. Omarosa. Now she's, like, Secretary of State to-be, and everyone's happy.

2. Gas Prices

Now that gas has abruptly gone from over $4 a gallon to less than $2 a gallon, can we just call out these oil price regulators for their inflated greed and exploitation? Once the economy deflated like a souffle on a Seventies sitcom, they eased the reins at the pump to keep the beast breathing. Invading Iraq was supposed to stabilize the oil market -- perhaps it has made it all the more controllable?

3. Rev. Jeremiah Wright

If it was in a conservative white church...

4. ACORN

That a community organization with a history of helping poor neighborhoods can be so broadly maligned for non-existent voting crimes by a major political party with a proven history of numerous voting crimes is testament to how far the media will carry water for the conservative agenda. Unlucky winner of The Golden Swift Boat for 2008.

5. Anything on "The View"

The very premise that this tabloid tea party speaks for women is patently insulting.

6. Rev. Rick Warren's Invocation at the Inauguration

The outrage over Rick Warren is not really a real fight over anything real. There are lots of bigots, there always will be. Let's fight the institutionalization of intolerance in the courts, at the polls, in the streets, and in the press. I myself will fight Rick Warren in the Thunderdome. (Two men enter...one man leaves.)

7. Sarah Palin, the new GOP Spokesmodel

The alarming percentage of people who alienated us by blindly embracing Sarah Palin despite her inability to complete sentences or describe reality are actually the same percentage who still think Bush is doing a good job. She'll give that base hope, because she has not personally fucked up everything yet. But she is so not a real threat, even the conservative pundits who sat nodding through the entire Bush Reign of Error had to do a spit-take at her arrival. (And maybe in 2009 we'll finally see those Palin birth records Andrew Sullivan keeps demanding like he's Nurse Ratchett.)

8. Miley Cyrus Bareback

A non-revealing photo of an over-hyped teen star is not a sobering cultural watermark to examine the objectification of underage girls in modern society. American Apparel ads are.

9. Cable Network News

It might seem that including the corporate media machine that actively over-hypes 24/7 would be redundant in a list of Most Overhyped, but the amount of concern over what these overpaid pinheads say has jumped sharks, whales, and that weird Montauk Monster. It's tabloid TV, turning political faux-pas into a Brangelina catfight, utterly distracting us from real issues.

10. The 2008 Campaign

In our desperation for hope at the end of the tunnel, the media and the public utterly abandoned oversight of our Problem Child-in-Chief. While we worried about American flag pins, American flags were adorning more coffins. While the pundits scoured Hillary's inflated record of sniper fire, inflated prices of homes and Wall Street brokerage houses were about to shoot down our entire economy. In our historic race for the first female or black president, we neglected to check in on our first dyslexic president, except when he made a drunken cameo at the Beijing Olympics worthy of a Cannonball Run outtake.

Let us all make a concerted effort in 2009 to not chase shiny things in the news that distract us from the not-so-easily digested issues that demand attention and action, not outrage.

Ted Johnson, Maegan Carberry, Teresa Valdez Klein: Iowa: One Year Later

2008-12-31T16:44:38Z

As 2008 comes to a close, it's time to reflect on where we began. The Iowa Caucus was a mirror into how each candidate ran their campaign: Hilary Clinton high above, flying from place to place via helicopter, and Barack Obama on the ground, meeting every voter and establishing a network of grassroots supporters.

To give us some perspective, Jim Nam, a regional field organizer for the Obama Campaign, joins Wilshire & Washington for a look back at those fateful days. What does it take to win on the ground? How do you get good data on voters and how do you make it work for you? And what is it like when nearly everybody is actually interested in talking politics? Maegan also shares her experiences from her time in Iowa, where she learned how the caucus works, and how amazing and unfair the process really is. (Maegan will be publishing a week-long series on The Huffington Post covering her time in Iowa. Find it here.)

But even as we reflect, there's plenty of news out there happening now. What's with the media coverage of Sarah Palin's grandkid, and is Palin the new Paris Hilton? Is that an improvement? Why does a senior Republican, running for the chairman of the RNC, think it's a good idea to distribute a CD full of songs like "Barack the Magic Negro?" Even after this election, what does this say about the Republican Party's leadership and ability to reach beyond its, um, storied history of race relations? All this, and maybe a little more, on today's Wilshire & Washington.

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player:

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Matt Stewart: 2007 -- The Year that Time Forgot

2008-12-31T12:37:19Z

Quick--what happened in 2007?

I'm not talking about your sister's wedding, your Tijuana honeymoon, that bare-knuckles fight with your parents at Christmas, the new dog-catcher job, or other personal battles won or lost. Try to think of global events, newsworthy happenings worthy of sustained communal attention. Something that percolated in the headlines for a week or more.

Bet you can't think of a single thing. Zilch. Zip. The mind washes, reaching and straining, only to come back with a lumpy gray mass of...huh? It feels a lot like the morning after a night of heavy drinking: must have been passable, and at least we made it out alive.

You're not alone. I can't remember anything about 2007, and neither could the dozens of people I polled about it. We couldn't tell you who won the World Series or American Idol, or a single bill to make it out of Congress. We can't say what Bush did or any cool movies that came out or any celebrity divorces of note. We are unable to recall if it was hot or cold, if there were any major terrorist attacks or plane crashes or landmark albums or non-lethal stock tips. The Surge may or may not have been in 2007; we can't really remember. Even after ruminating for weeks, I could only think of a couple of minor incidents, all of which slip my mind. Ask around, and you'll find most people can't remember a thing either.

My point: 2007 is the most forgettable year in a long, long time. It's like that one date your bookkeeper set you up with, a shlumpy drab dresser with winding breezily delivered stories about pizza delivery and cats and whatshisface and whodidwhatnow and thank god that's over, please pass the tequila. A bad date, at least, inspires memorable moments, something to hang onto: that wart on her nose, his fart during the movie. Whereas 2007's blotted from consciousness altogether.

Compare that to 2008, the most dynamic, exhilarating, and mentally demanding year since the Wall came down. You've got Obama, McCain, recession, Olympics, Palin, shoe-throwing, the mortgage meltdown, Chinese Democracy, iPhone 3G, Indiana Jones, Hillary, Batman, Spitzer, Blagojevich, Prop 8. Russia v. Georgia, Israel v. Gaza. Obama's speech on race. Lehman Brothers and AIG. The news served up a mind-boggling diet of grass-fed steak, complete with epic rises and ridiculous sidebars and vicious falls from grace. Billy Joel would have enough material for "We Didn't Start the Fire 2" pulling from October alone.

It's only natural that after our most recent 12-month carnival, 2007 would seem relatively blah. But 2006 was a year earlier, and that at least cooked up Democratic Congressional victories I can remember, plus the World Cup. 2005 gave us Katrina. 2004, Kerry v. Bush. 2003: Iraq. 2002: Afghanistan. Which brings us back to 9/11.

Every now and then, history lays an egg. What happened in 1957? 1910? 1887-1897? The entire 16th century? But in the modern era of information overload covering every last imaginable semi-newsworthy event, from Paris Hilton's undergarments to Steve Jobs' blood pressure, isn't it shocking that nearly nothing sticks from just a year back?

2007 proves that, on occasion, society fizzles. 2007 was a year of continuation, of safety and sameness, of steady jobs and wavering home prices and Iraq and Bush and another load of the usual. We muddled through 365 days of human life without really growing or expanding or trying something new. We were low on Big Ideas; we went through the motions; we didn't have a lot of luck either way. Today's economy and mass layoffs ain't pretty, but at least we've got thinkers, action and change, a glimpse of a road that might lead to sure footing. In the long run, there's nowhere to go but up.

I'll take that over a dud like 2007 any year of the week.

Dr. Judith Rich: 2008: What Will We Tell The Children?

2008-12-30T09:11:18Z

Pull up a chair and settle in while I spin a yarn about 2008. The story actually begins 20 years into the future (visualize a clock advancing rapidly) .......

It's 11 PM on New Year's Eve, in the year 2028. You're sitting by a crackling fire (a fake one, of course, since wood-burning fireplaces were outlawed a decade ago) in your favorite antique rocking-chair with a grandchild snuggled up in your lap. The dog is snoozing at your feet. The mortgage is finally paid-off, the world is peaceful, and life is good.

Just as you begin to nod off, the young girl, still wide awake, looks up at you, and asks: "Tell me a story, Grandma. (Or Grandpa, as the case may be). Tell me about the olden days, back when you were young. Can you remember what it was like, say, 20 years ago?"

You start to perk up. "Let me see, twenty years ago, that was 2008. I was born way back in 1942, so I already wasn't young anymore. But I can still remember that year like it was yesterday."

"To sum it all up in a nutshell, honey, 2008 was a pretty wild year, when all the rules flew out the window and everything that wasn't supposed to happen, happened."

"Really? Like what, Grandma? What wasn't supposed to happen that happened?"

"Well, for starters, 2008 was the year we were supposed to have our first female president, a woman named Hillary Clinton. She sure thought it was going to happen, but it didn't. Instead, we elected our first African-American president, Barack Obama,. They said he couldn't get elected. It wasn't supposed to happen, but it did. So much for what 'they' say."

"Why did people think Barack Obama couldn't get elected? Wasn't he one of our greatest presidents?"

"Well yes, honey, he was a great president. But back then people didn't think a black man could be elected to the highest office in the land. We'd never had a black president before."

"You mean, some people didn't like him because of his skin color? That's so silly! Besides, he wasn't only black. He was also white too, remember?"

"Yes, I know it's hard to believe now, because everything's changed so. But remember, we began as a nation of slave owners and it took many generations before black people got equal rights, let alone equal treatment. Barack Obama changed the course of history and that was one of the few good things that happened in 2008. "

"Grandma, why do you think it happened then? Was there something special about that year?"

"Indeed there was, sweetheart. I don't mean to sound all negative, but after eight years of the Bush presidency, life was worse than anybody could ever remember."

"Really, Grandma? How bad was it?"

"Oh, honey, are you sure you want to hear all this? This is not exactly bed-time story material".

"Sure. Then I'll have stuff to tell the kids at school about how hard life was when my Grandma was younger".

"Well, it was a very scary time. Towards the end of 2008, just before the presidential election, the economy collapsed and everything just stopped working. Many banks failed, and several of the largest investment houses on Wall St. disappeared overnight. Many people lost their life savings and their homes; some even took their own lives because of it. It was horrible! See, I told you this wasn't a very happy story."

"That's OK, Grandma. I wanna hear. I read about all this at school, but you know how boring history books are. It just doesn't sound real. How could all this happen in such a short period of time?"

"Well, actually, the seeds of destruction were planted many years before. A long time ago, the people who ran our government decided to get rid of most of the rules that had regulated the economy for decades. As a result, the rich people got richer and the poor people got poorer.

Some of those rich people became very greedy. And when people get greedy, eventually, their greed catches up with them."

"Boy, sounds like greed is a really bad thing!"

"Well, it's not exactly something you'd want to have written about you on your tombstone. The thing about greed, sweetheart, is that it's like a hungry monster that doesn't know when to stop. It just keeps on going, gobbling up everything in its path. Eventually, it gobbles up everything until there's nothing left to consume. The only thing greed can do then is turn in upon itself and when that happens, everything collapses and the game is over.

"Oh, I get it, Grandma! It's kind of like in the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West and the witch starts to melt. My favorite scene in the movie is when the witch cries, 'I'm melting! I'm melting!' And then she disappears."

"Exactly! And that's kind of what happened to the Big Three Automakers around this time."

"Big Three Automakers?"

"Oh, I forgot, you wouldn't know about them. Well, back in the olden days, the U.S. used to manufacture cars, right here in this country. In fact, Detroit used to be the automobile capital of the world. But that ended when the economy collapsed and we fell into 'The Great Repression of 2008.' Now, there are no more American cars."

"What's the Great Repression, Grandma? Sounds like a disease. Did everybody get sick?"

"Oh boy! This news isn't getting any better is it? Yes, in a way, people got sick because so many people lost everything back then."

"When the economy collapsed, people lost their jobs, many also lost their homes, many companies went out of business, and the banks failed. The government called it a Recession, which sounded better than calling it a Depression.

"After all, George Bush didn't want to leave office with a Depression happening on his watch, so he dressed it up and called it a Recession, which was like so many other funny names the Bush administration gave to things. Kind of like calling something the opposite of what it really is like: 'The Clear Skies Act, The Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind' etc."

"Is that like non-fat half and half, Grandma?"

"Yeah, kind of like that. But the impact of the failed economy felt more like a Depression because it hit people harder and it spread around the world. Eventually, someone combined the two words and called it a 'Repression,' and it seemed to fit the times.

"Is there more, Grandma?"

"Oh honey, I'm afraid there's much more. But this is enough bad news for one night. Let's change the subject. It's kind of depressing just to think about it".

"But Grandma, if you don't tell me, then I won't know about your life and how it was for you. I'll never know the history of our family and the hardships you all went through. Do you think I only want to hear about bunnies and butterflies? I want to hear everything, the good and the bad. Go on, Grandma."

"Well, OK, but the story doesn't get any better for a long time.

"Even though we'd elected our first black president, our country was still very divided in 2008. For one thing, in most states, gay people were denied the right to marry each other. Can you imagine that? I know that sounds silly now, but back then, there was still discrimination against same-sex couples. Gay people fought for many years to have equal rights with everyone else. I'm happy to say that one turned out well."

"What was it like during the Iraq War, Grandma? Did everybody have to give up stuff?
I read in my history book at school how during World War II, some things were in very short supply and goods were rationed, like rubber, gasoline, butter, and even nylon stockings. Did you have to give up a lot of stuff to help the war, Grandma?"

"Oh dear! You do ask a lot of interesting questions, sweetheart. Actually, this one is kind of embarrassing to answer, but no, we didn't have to give up stuff to help the war. President Bush just told everyone to go shopping, so we did.

"Some things were in short supply, like oil, so gasoline prices shot way up and we had to wait in lines to buy gas for our cars. Of course, that was back when cars still ran on gasoline. Now those cars are all antiques and you only see them in museums."

"Gee Grandma, it sounds like life was really weird back then. Like in the story of Rip Van Winkle, when he went to sleep for 100 years. Did everyone go to sleep back then, too?"

"Yes, I think we did. I know, it sounds crazy now, but after the fall of Communism in the late 1980's, even though we lived in peace and prosperity for nearly 10 years, I guess we must have needed a new enemy. Then, after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, in 2001, we found our new enemy: terrorism.

"The government told us to be very afraid of terrorists. They said terrorists could be anywhere, even living next door. So we all got paranoid and scared and went along and didn't question things, even allowing many of our rights to be taken away because we thought it would help keep us safe.

"I guess you could say that's the reason why we had the Big Crash in 2008. You know, how when Grandma's driving the car, she has to keep her hands on the wheel and her eyes on the road or she'll drive off the road and end up in a ditch?"

"Yeah, Grandma, but you're a really safe driver".

"Yes, but that's kind of what happened to us in 2008. We took our hands off the wheel and our eyes off the road in 2000 and we ended up in a big ditch in 2008."

"How'd we get out of the ditch, Grandma?"

"Well honey, as soon as Barack Obama became our president, he handed everyone a shovel and said 'Here, start digging, and we did. We became focused on making life better for everyone, not just a few. Everyone had to sacrifice and give up being selfish. We learned about being responsible citizens and insisting on government being accountable to the voters. It took us many years to get back on track, but thank goodness, we did it. Yes, we did!"

"Wow, Grandma, 2008 sounded like a very hard year."

"Yes, sweetheart, it was. But we managed to get through it and we grew stronger because there was nowhere to go but up. I'm grateful to be able to say that in the face of so much difficulty, America found the courage to change course. We gave the reins to a new generation of leaders, starting with President Obama, and look how far we've come since those dark days of '08.

"Grandma, have we come far enough for me to ever become president some day?"

"Oh my darling girl, Virginia, we've come a very long way. As President Obama would say, 'yes Virginia, you certainly can'!"

What will you tell the children about 2008? Just in case you need a visual aid to help you explain what happened, snuggle up with the children and watch this "Walk Down Memory Lane, 2008" children's video with Uncle Jay. He makes these videos weekly. Check it out.:

What were the high and low points of this year for you? Please share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment in the Reply section below and subscribing to the RSS feed so you won't miss any future posts. And thanks for being part of this reader community.

Dr. Judith Rich is a corporate training consultant, writer, and executive and personal coach. For further contact, she can be reached at judith@theraisinyears.com.

Monroe Price: Sarah Palin: the All-in-One Reality TV Show

2008-12-07T19:26:06Z

It's hard to have yet another Sarah Palin epiphany, but that's what happened as I was drifting happily through a conference called "Reality Worlds," organized at the Annenberg School for Communication by Marwan Kraidy and Katherine Sender.

Scholars devoted to the genre were generating all sorts of theories about these relatively inexpensive and ubiquitous program efforts. But what occurred to me (and undoubtedly has occurred to others) is how Palin's trajectory through the political campaign approximates the rhythm of makeover and other reality TV shows.

Palin is one-person reiteration of everything from "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (early round dismissal?) up through and including "Survivor."

And then now, there's the story of Palin and her hair stylists, including Amy Strozzi, who received over $40,000 and was awarded an Emmy for her work on the show "So You Think You Can Dance." Shades of "Making the Cut," "Million Dollar $alon,"and "Top Hair."

Palin wasn't even mentioned in the Annenberg talks, but her arc during the campaign could have been a subtext for all the scholarly presentations.

Laura Grindstaff, for example, a professor at the University of California, hit a kind of proverbial Palin nail on the head when she spoke about how these shows seek out a center of American life, and engage in what she called the "production of ordinariness" through reality television.

Grindstaff was talking particularly about an MTV series called "Sorority Life" which chronicles the life of pledges as they move towards acceptance and initiation. I didn't ask, but it seemed to me that one could call Palin, whatever else she was, a kind of initiate, a rushee who among other things had to go through a process of hazing (did she make it? You be the judge.).

At the Philadelphia event, I talked with a very helpful Penn graduate student, Rebecca Pardo, who, like a lot of modern young scholars, has a slight and admirable obsession with "reality" filtered through this art form. She loves the work of Nicholas Couldry (a professor at Goldsmiths in London) and sees Palin as the embodiment of what Couldry has called the Myth of the Mediated Center.

Pardo also put me on to Justin Wolfe, who blogs about "The Hills," a reality show about life in 90210, hedonistic and pragmatic California. Wolfe has written , without, blogwise, using capital letters, about Palin and the process of candidate selection in reality shows:

"it's funny because the way sarah palin was chosen is, in many ways, just like the way heidi montag was chosen for the hills. if you strip all the fame away from heidi montag, if we pretend that she's just a normal girl what's special about her, what sets her apart? nothing, really, she's just normal. kind of pretty, sort of ambitious, but mostly normal. and, without the magic ticket she was given into the world of celebrity, into the show, that's how she would've probably stayed, a normal girl from a small town in colorado. If course, that's the Sarah Palin narrative, too: plucked from the relative obscurity of the alaskan wilderness into the national spotlight, with the barest of real experience or qualifications but with scads of those particular qualities that resonate with the american public: personality, relatability, normality.

"

As on some reality shows (take "Project Runway" for example), Palin was subjected to ingenious and daunting tests that would raise public anticipation about the outcome--triumph or failure. Would she make it to the next round? When Sarah met Katie Couric, it could have been one of these "tests" revealed to the contestant ("for your next challenge, you must go one on one with a noted anchor-person who will ask you questions you may have no way of answering"). Palin's life was a series of created melodramas with accompanying anxieties and the imminent apprehension of failure.

No reality show is complete without the backroom drama, as "Dancing With the Stars," illustrates through the elaborate process of trying to turn someone quite ordinary (in some respects) into the surprisingly gifted (the Pygmalion moment, the alchemy of transformation). Can you really make this person rhumba? Can he or she be trained to be a cook or a business executive (or an expert on foreign affairs)? We were all on pins and needles to see if this process would work with Sarah.

My mind drifted to one of my favorite shows I never watched in entirety: "Ladette to Lady," the story of a group of relatively inexperienced young women,who are given an old-fashioned five-week course in learning how to behave like a real lady. They are sent to Eggleston Hall, an English finishing school.

There was a lot of Ladette to Lady in the Palin tale, though Palin was not a Ladette, by any stretch. And the Republican National Committee wasn't Eggleston.

You could say that this wasn't a real reality show because it didn't have the panel of judges requisite in some versions. But I think of that curious crew of indifferent panelists Wolf Blitzer oddly and unrealistically named "the best political team on television." They could just as well have had cards and numbers; and Sarah (holding Todd's hand tightly) might have been seen on camera -- like frightened ice-skaters -- waiting for the results in an isolated room.

Zala Volcic, a Slovenian now living in Brisbane spoke, at the Annenberg conference (part of Professor Barbie Zelizer's Annenberg Scholars Program in Culture and Communications Program) about That's Me, a Big Brother style Balkan reality TV show which mixed roommates from all over the former Yugoslavia. The show was designed to "negotiate the struggles among religious, ethnic and national groups that still plague the region." That's Me was supposed to smooth conflict, and did not necessarily succeed. This was reality show as social engineering. Think Palin: The Message, energizing the base.

There was much talk at the Annenberg workshop about "parenting" as a persistent theme in reality shows. Mark Anthony Neal, the Duke scholar of hip-hop, gave an exuberant talk on Snoop Dog and his program called "Fatherhood." There and on so many other shows, the fragile nature of parenting--and the possibility of failing and the complexities of succeeding--were tracked.

Of course, the Sarah candidacy--right out of the box--was about mothering in American society--mothering and having a career, mothering and the extraordinary decisions about a child with Downs Syndrome, parenting and an unmarried daughter who discovers pregnancy--it goes on and on.

Much of reality television scholarship is about voting habits of the committed viewers. Stephen Coleman (Leeds), the guru of Big Brother voting, has concluded that there's not a gulf between those who vote in "real" elections and those who vote in "reality" elections. Aswin Punathambekar of the University of Michigan probably had a slightly different view. He spoke, movingly, about the temporarily intense political activity and rampant mobile phone voting in North-East India for the Indian Idol candidacy of Amit Paul.

And then, of course, there were the clothes. Palin and her relationship to clothing is Reality TV writ large. It's the epitome of the "makeover" story. One can think of the RNC operatives as channeling "What Not to Wear", the British show with Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, even including those choice bits of surveillance where Trinny and Susannah view videos of the poor subject.

It's a small and maybe obvious epiphany--The Palin campaign as all reality shows rolled into one. The Annenberg conference luxuriated in phrases that resonated with the campaign like "cult of the commonplace." But mostly, it was interesting to see, through the Reality TV Show lens, what the Republicans -- McCain and Palin's handlers or the audiences reacting to her so enthusiastically -- were actually doing, thinking and reflecting this summer and fall.

Keith Thomson: Memo to Americans Spying for Another Country or Considering It

2008-11-25T21:07:42Z

Most people know about Aldrich Ames, Jonathan Pollard and Robert Hanssen, but the list of Americans who have spied for other countries hardly ends there.

A recent Defense Department report, Changes in Espionage by Americans: 1947-2007, cites cases of 173 Americans arrested between 1947 and 2007 for passing state secrets to al-Qaeda, China, Egypt, the Philippines, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Libya, Israel, Switzerland, Austria, Ecuador, Japan, Vietnam, Liberia, Taiwan, South Korea, Greece, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Iraq, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, El Salvador, Jordan and Taiwan, among other countries or organizations whose identities were not discovered.

Since the report's publication in March 2008, "There have been at least ten or twelve more arrests," says its author, Katherine Herbig. In addition, a companion report entitled Espionage Indicators 1985-2005, which is classified Secret, cites even more cases.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Herbig speculates there are hundreds of other Americans still spying.

If you're one of them, possibly it happened something like this: You became friends with another member at your racquet or golf or yacht club. We'll call him J.P. He's from -- let's say -- Fredonia. His work regularly brings him to your city. You two had a lot in common, you hit it off, even your wives clicked. Also you have Fredonian roots. You and your wife spent a week's vacation with J.P. there.

After you'd been friends for more than a year, he confided to you that he does a little work for the Fredonian intelligence. And he asked you a favor. Your company has been contracted to do a project for the Army. J.P. wanted a look at the specs.

"I'd like to help Fredonia," you said. "But isn't that illegal?"

"It's not really that big a deal," he said. "Fredonia and America are allies."

So you did it, for reasons that could be considered noble. Or you're thinking about doing it now. Of course you hope you won't be caught. Your country, after all, would consider you a traitor. That aside, there's one thing you should know:

J.P. is most likely not Fredonian, but an agent of the Russians.

Or the Chinese.

Or al-Qaeda.

Or a different organization flying a false flag in order to capitalize on your ancestral, religious or other ideological affiliation with Fredonia.

The house you stayed at in Fredonia, J.P.'s office you visited there: fronts. And his wife probably wasn't really his wife.

From the vantage point of a case officer, it's a relatively simple op. "You figure out who has the information you need, then you figure out how to get it out of them," says Fred Rustmann, a CIA case officer for twenty-four years before becoming chairman of CTC, a private counterespionage company. "The best way to get it is to get them to want to give it to you. So you have to become someone that person will want to talk to. A good case officer, using the right access agent, can dupe them."

Rustmann ought to know. He once penetrated Hezbollah using the same tactic. "The agent thought he was working for Khomeini," he says.

Says one Defense source, "It's a nice thing that Americans are willing to trust a stranger coming up the street." Still, the intelligence community would like Americans to bear in mind the words of Jefferson: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

If you've been solicited by a J.P., or even if you've already given him secrets, call your local FBI field office.

Today.

Your lapse may be forgiven. Moreover, it may prove a boon to our national security.

Lorelei Kelly: Bloggers: Get Thee to Congressional Staffs!

2008-11-09T00:56:30Z

So the bloggers won. Or at the very least get a lot of credit for creating an audible echo chamber on behalf of Barack Obama and progressive ideas. But the Senator's victory is a turning point for everyone who has been loudly denouncing the decisions made by our elected leaders. We don't need to reinvent the wheel anymore. We need to get it rolling. As Gara LaMarche and others have pointed out here on Huff Post, a key to Obama's success as president will be how the administration remains meaningfully engaged with its nation-wide network of campaign activists. This transition website is a good first step. And a friend told me tonight that the site has already attracted upward of 60,000 resumes...But the administration isn't going to be able to make long lasting change without its partner branch of government: the US Congress. And that's where the populist nature of the blogging Left can play a vital role. But In order to actually have impact, we're going to have to shed the leftover anger, the residual cynicism and the schadenfreude of "gotcha" reporting. And the prize is worth it: In its place is the possibility for real power and influence.

So here's my pitch: You twenty-somethings who are reading this, if you can't take your day job after being part of such a political earthquake like last week's election, go find your local Member of Congress and apply for a job. Take the district job over one on Capitol Hill. Even though DC is as giddy as that prisoner in Plato's Allegory of the Cave--you know, where he is chained immobile to a wall for years--and then gets taken out to see the sun--the states are still where the most important action is going to be found because influential citizen input is a missing link for many issues on Capitol Hill. Then, when you write your letter to the Chief of Staff or mobilize your contacts, bill yourself as a "New Media" or "Citizen Participation" Specialist. The great thing about being part of a new movement is that you get to make up your own job title. You will know more about how this election was electronically organized than anyone working in the office (but don't brag about it). In fact, apply for the job advertised, and sell your qualities for fulling those requirements, but come with a creative plan about how you are going to keep the citizens of the district involved and inspired. There are many resources available today that make national priorities relative to local concerns. Here are three that I use: the state report cards of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the bioterrorism defense report card from Trust for America's Health, or GreenReportCard. In fact, if you need a place to start, just google your issue together with "report card" and you'll get some good stuff. Don't forget the insanely useful Sunlight Foundation.

I worked for years on Capitol Hill--my area of expertise is peace and security. I helped Members and staff on both sides of the aisle. But my biggest frustration was how the issues we cared about didn't stand a chance against the agenda items that had a well-fed stable of lobbyists behind them. I ate lunch recently with a friend who is still on the Hill and he told me how Congress--with its vintage 1946 system of referring issues--was crushed by information overload. That staff had reached their human capacity to deal with the incoming data and demands and so were defaulting more and more back to anthropology 101: Other people. Hence the success of lobbyists who get paid a great amount to cultivate those personal networks. Anyone who has worked on the Hill will tell you that the three most important elements of influence are relationships, timing and solid knowledge communicated simply.

The inability to be successful on my side of the issues became evident in 2003 when the Army's Peacekeeping Institute was nearly eliminated. I thought, for Heaven's sake, if the Army can't represent itself, who can? Despite the vital lessons that our military had archived from its missions in the 1990's--the Institute wasn't shilling an expensive trinket for someone's district. It needed political commitment and staffing and support for the United Nations (the response from Congress on these issues went something like this...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) But I was finally pushed off the Hill into domestic politics after the Iraq War. Having been working in Congress when the war was declared, it seemed that one of the most effective coalitions for stopping the runaway President might have been progressives and retired military--yet there were so few relationships to mobilize that the opportunity escaped. And this was a constituency that should have existed in districts across the United States. It now does thanks to groups like National Security Network and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Back to the inspired twenty somethings: What I'm saying here is that, at the end of the day, being on the ground in the institutions that make the decisions is vitally important. Because then you are the one that the front desk intern will turn to with a bewildered "what's a FISA?" If there is anything that the Left should have learned from the last 12 years it is that we've been fighting a professional Army with a pickup team. Before its self-destruction last week, two cliches that the conservative movement lived by were "Nature abhors a vacuum" and "Half of winning is just showing up". So conservative leaders proceeded to destroy public infrastructure--thereby creating a vacuum--and then outsourced its replacement to their friends and allies. A great example of this occurred with the "reforms" implemented by 1995's Contract with America--the de facto elimination of much of the cooperative informal infrastructure like staffed caucuses--that helped Members stay educated and also built alliances between Democrats and Republicans on issues of interest (like arms control or the environment). Congressional staff from the old days refer to that year as "the lobotomy of Congress". Gingrich had no need for these informal venues ... he consolidated formal power of recognition to himself and simply outsourced substantive policy needs to conservative think tanks. So one of the major human abilities in Congress--convening--was devastated.

Replacing the old system isn't the answer here. We've no urgent requirement for bricks and mortar anymore. But we do need to restore the institutional memory of our government. Congress is a mining camp for people with community organizing ideas and electronic savvy. And these two things must go together. You can't have analysis without synthesis. You can't have notifications without opportunities for real participation. The politics of mass mobilization have changed dramatically, yet our legislature is stuck in the 40's. Process is respected and old traditions reign. Congress will only be renewed by people who have a healthy respect for all of these elements. Relationships and feeling like a stakeholder are the fiber of democratic institutions. No electronic superhighway will ever replace that.

Our challenge going forward today is to be hyper conscious to avoid the same old traps on the Left. We must not substitute tactics for strategy (chaining yourself to a nuclear plant to protest global warming) nor strategy for tactics (sending a copy of your PHD dissertation to Congress and expecting legislation to result) That doesn't work anymore, if it ever has. So ask your parents, ask their friends, find a connection to your new (or old) Member of Congress and practice your pitch!

p.s. the Army's Peacekeeping Institute was saved, renamed the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, and is now thriving.

Erik Ose: Supposedly Safe GOP House Seat in CA Too Close To Call

2008-11-06T16:42:13Z

Prop 8 Hangs In Balance as GOP Lawyers Try To Influence Vote Count

Two days after the Nov. 4 elections, a congressional race in conservative Orange County, California that was dismissed by most observers as a lock for the GOP remains unresolved. Democratic challenger Bill Hedrick is down by 4,600 votes against 16-year incumbent Republican Ken Calvert in the 44th congressional district, but nearly 100,000 provisional and vote-by-mail absentee ballots have yet to be counted.

GOP lawyers are descending on registrars' offices in Orange and Riverside, the district's two counties, trying to influence the vote counting which began Thursday:

Rebecca Martine, Riverside County's chief deputy registrar, said there are 38,000 paper provisional ballots and 9,000 electronic provisional ballots to be counted.

This is in addition to approximately 50,000 absentee ballots still outstanding.

Calvert's team has apparently been having private conversations with the registrar's office in Riverside County, which was the last county in California to report its election results. There were numerous reports from Democratic Party officials, voters and even a poll worker in Riverside County that voters were "forced to use provisional ballots" or "denied ballots entirely" on Tuesday.

Hedrick's campaign today issued a call for all votes to be counted. "We are urging any voter within Riverside or Orange County who voted in the 44th congressional race and were issued a provisional ballot to contact the registrar of voters in their county," said Hedrick communications director Lori Vandermeir, "to demand their ballots be counted."

44th district incumbent Ken Calvert (left), and challenger Bill Hedrick (right)

The fate of California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 initiative is still up the air, with the measure's foes refusing to concede before all provisional and absentee ballots are counted. Voters in Riverside County approved the initiative by a heavy 64-36% margin, but provisional votes may skew differently.

If you'd like to ask elections officials to count all the provisional votes fairly, free from influence by GOP lawyers, call the Riverside County Registrar's office at (951) 486-7200, where you can leave a message for Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore.

The 44th congressional district includes San Clemente, home to Richard Nixon's Western White House. It is a GOP stronghold. The Hedrick-Calvert race was rated solid Republican by Charlie Cook's Political Report as of mid-October. In 2004, Bush beat Kerry in the district by 59-40%.

Calvert has been named one of the most corrupt members in Congress for three years running by the independent watch dog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He has served in Congress since 1993. Calvert outspent Hedrick in this race by more than 5-1, raising and spending nearly a million dollars to Hedrick's $150,000.

Despite voting with George W. Bush 94.4% of the time, this fall Calvert distributed mailers without a single mention that he belonged to the Republican party, proclaiming himself "An Independent Voice Working for You." The 44th district has seen a jump in voter registration this year, with Democrats outpacing Republicans, especially in Riverside County. It is the second-fastest growing district in California, adding almost 200,000 new residents since 2000, the majority of that growth in the district's Hispanic population.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports Hedrick got an assist from Obama voters:

Republicans still hold a slight edge over Democrats in the Riverside County portion of the district, with roughly 5,000 more registered GOP voters than Democrats. But Hedrick, perhaps aided by the excitement surrounding President-elect Barack Obama, was ahead by almost 6,000 votes in Riverside County, according to the Riverside County registrar of voters.

Voters wait in line in Riverside, CA on election day

National Journal's Hotline on Call blog agrees:

"Calvert...appears to not have taken his re-election seriously enough, and may have gotten tripped up by the big Obama-influenced turnout. An unlikely win by Hedrick would be the story of the cycle."

Although the Obama tsunami wiped out GOP incumbents across the country, this is one congressional contest no one predicted would become a cliffhanger. Help bring public pressure to bear in support of a fair counting of all the votes in this race, which is shaping up as a poster child for meaningful voting reform that takes us beyond the sloppy provisional ballot system. Any form of Election Day confusion that leaves 47,000 citizens in a single county unsure whether their votes will count is not what a true democracy looks like.

Erik Ose is a veteran of Democratic campaigns in North Carolina and blogs at The Latest Outrage.

Chuck Lasker: Most Republican County in Indiana Delivers Obama Victory

2008-11-06T10:43:17Z

For the first time in 44 years, the state of Indiana voted for a Democrat for President. While we know about the massive coordinated Obama campaign volunteer effort, it is essential to mention the strong and active Republicans for Obama movement in Indiana. These RFOs, as they're called [full disclosure: I'm one of them], received local, national and international attention, including the New York Times, XM Radio, coverage in Brazil and the 100 million Japan Broadcasting Station viewers worldwide.

These RFOs were supported by the Obama campaign, and, through meetings, emails, telephone calls, blogs, and one-on-one discussions, created an impressive impact in Indiana. Indianapolis NBC affiliate, WTHR, writes:

"Obama got some help from Republicans in his Indiana win. More than a third of Indiana voters said they consider themselves Republicans, and a strong majority of them voted for McCain. But the percentage of self-described Republican voters supporting McCain was smaller than the number who voted for President Bush in 2004."

I live in Hamilton County, known to be the most Republican county in Indiana, and one of the richest counties in the United States. At the polls, there were over a dozen positions with no Democratic candidate even on the ballot. On Election Day, Hamilton County voted almost straight Republican. In fact, Barack Obama lost Hamilton County. But that does not mean Hamilton County did not play a major role in Obama winning Indiana.

According to the official election statistics:

129,256 people voted in Hamilton County on Election Day.

38.44%, or 49,691, voted for Obama.

In 2004, Hamilton County gave Kerry only 25.2% of the vote.

So, the difference between what Kerry and Obama received is 13.24%, or an extra 17,113 Hamilton County votes went to Obama compared to the Kerry vote percentage.

Obama won Indiana by 22,986 votes.

That means about 75% of the reason for Obama winning Indiana was from Hamilton County voters.

In September, WTHR covered one of our Republicans for Obama meetings. They interviewed me, then went to an exclusive golf course clubhouse to interview the Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman, Charlie White. The following quotes are prescient of the change that was coming:

"Anyone alleged Republican who is for Obama, is either not a Republican, but they are into more form than substance," says White, said: "If you can fit 'em in a couple of mini-vans, its not a movement."

But Republicans for Obama say the GOP supporters may be surprised come November 4th, "it's going to be a lot more than a mini-van," says Lasker.

Even if only 10% of the 17,000 voters in Hamilton County who helped tip the scales towards Obama were Republican, I would conclude that 1,700 people would have a difficult time fitting into a couple of even the largest Hamilton County soccer mom's mini-vans.

The lesson learned is simple. One man joining together with others for a cause can create a ripple, that makes a change, that tips a state, that tips an election, and changes the world. As President-Elect Obama said in his acceptance speech, "And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can."

James Sanders: Campaigners Have Heavy Presence at Philly Polls

2008-11-04T17:42:41Z

Campaigners for both political parties are not lagging around with their vote, and they are making sure that you don't either with tables and chairs located closely to polling places, especially in Philadelphia - the paramount of Pennsylvania.

"We have been volunteering since the primaries," Fairley Baker, a Philadelphia native said. "We just need to have a presence out here. It's a unifying thing."

Baker, along with another volunteer Ellen Kaye, setup shop right outside of the Borders Books and Music on Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia - they are far from worried about Obama - these supporters are sure that their candidate will win by a landslide.

With leading newspaper endorsements, and poll numbers in favor of Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the race in Philadelphia seems clear, but volunteers for both parties are still making sure that the citizens of Pennsylvania get out and vote.

Thus far, the Philadelphia area has received numerous reports from polling places - with intimidation being the main report.

Men wearing Black Panther apparel, were allegedly intimidating voters by standing outside of a polling location in Philadelphia on 12th and Fairmount Street carrying sticks. Police escorted one man off of the premises. Later another man dressed in the same way, came to the same polling place. When he was approached by police, he is reported as saying that he was a registered observer.

At an appearance made by Mayor Michael Nutter he said of Obama, "He is the first African American literally on the verge of being the president of the United States."

When asked about the Black Panther incident, he told Fox 29 News, "No voters have been denied the right to vote. Unless they break the law or do anything, they have the right to stand there. We don't need anyone trying to trump up anything," said Mayor Nutter.

Pennsylvania voters are still heading to the polls and will be able to do so until 8 p.m.

In Washington, DC: Voting For 'Obama And Our Mommas'

2008-11-04T17:33:56Z

We want your stories! What was your voting experience like? What interactions have you had with the campaigns? Are you volunteering for a candidate? Have you received any last minute robocalls or campaign mail? Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods: email vote@huffingtonpost.com

Here's a pretty adorable story. Out on the damp streets of Washington, DC's Columbia Heights neighborhood, Liz Glover encounters two women at a District polling place getting out the vote not just for Barack Obama, but their mothers, both of whom are running on local tickets.

Indiana Judge: GOP Poll Watchers Violated Court Order On Foreclosure Lists

2008-11-04T17:07:25Z

An Indiana judge ruled on Tuesday that Republican poll watchers violated a court order regarding the correct process for challenging voters on election day, according to the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund.

In late October, Democrats and Republicans in Marion County were ordered not to use lists of voters who had been foreclosed on -- or who had been evicted from their homes -- as the sole basis of any election day challenge at the polls.

For Indianapolis voters in particular, the prospect of having their residency status challenged on the basis of home foreclosure was understandable: last year, nearly 26,000 homes were foreclosed on in the city.

On Tuesday afternoon, the NAACP's legal arm went to court alleging that GOP poll watchers did not have copies of the previous court order, as they said the order itself required. NAACP officials had no knowledge of voters having their eligibility challenged based on foreclosure and eviction lists. But they alleged that at the very least, GOP polling officials were not adhering to the initial court order.

In response, Marion County GOP lawyers responded that all Republican poll workers had been previously trained on the court's standing order.

The judge, John Hanley, agreed with the NAACP, ruling that the Republican workers had failed to follow the previous order to the letter. (Hanley did not address whether or not any GOP poll watchers had improperly challenged any voters today.)

"Our position was that they needed to have the the court order and the credential together," said Jenigh Garrett, assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "The court's remedy is that they would have to remove any [poll-watcher] without the order from the polling place. They can't be in the polling place without it."

The issue comes down, essentially, to trust. A Marion County Republican spokesperson said that all poll workers were trained not to use foreclosure or eviction status as the sole basis for any residency challenge. "We did poll training with every single one of our poll workers," said the local Republican official. "We handed them the agreement, letting them know that these foreclosures are not a valid basis to challenge residency."

Democrats, as well as the judge, now want every Republican challenger to carry the court order at all times when present at polling places.

Garrett said the judge was reassured, to some degree, by claims from both Republican and Democratic poll watchers who said challenges had been infrequent so far on Tuesday.

Jeanine Molloff: Slow Voting Process in St. Louis

2008-11-04T16:57:36Z

According to the latest polling reported in Taegan Goddard's Political Wire; Obama and McCain find themselves at a classic 'Mexican standoff,' in the battleground state of Missouri. The most recent Public Policy Polling Survey reported that both candidates are tied in a dead heat at 49%. A 'key finding' of the Public Policy Polling Survey flatly stated that ....

"If Obama could keep his deficit among white voters in the state within single digits he would be in good shape to win it, but he currently trails 55-43 with that demographic. His 93-7 advantage among black voters evens that out, which means that the winner in Missouri could have a lot to do with the relative proportions of black and white voters within the electorate."

The relevance of this statistic cannot be underestimated, as Missouri has a long, bitter history of racism and the accompanying voter suppression tactics of many southern states.

Consequently, the Obama camp has dispatched teams of 'official poll watchers,' to numerous polling places in historically black or racially diverse areas, ready to report any incidence of suppression tactics.

Already this election day, many polling places in poor or minority neighborhoods face unreasonably long lines and a shortage of paper ballots. My own voting experience began at 5:15 am, some 45 minutes before the poll opened. At that early hour, the line snaked around the school building, down the sidewalk to the street. Already there was talk of a paper ballot shortage, though there seemed to be enough.

Poll workers were meticulous but slow moving. Most voters used the optical scanner device which accepts paper ballots. Though many voters were willing to make their selections with their own pens and place ballots in the optical scanner; the poll workers in St. Louis County insisted that we wait until they lead each one of us INDIVIDUALLY to small, rickety 'voting stands,' and use THEIR PENS. After this mind numbingly slow process; we HAD to be led to the optical scanner AGAIN INDIVIDUALLY BY THE POLL WORKER. This entire process probably doubled voter wait times. Comments about arriving late to work, and being docked some pay--flowed like the 'prophetic milk and honey in the promised land.'

As Rachel Maddow, recently noted--voting wait times of several hours represent a covert 'poll tax.' Many people in these neighborhoods are hourly wage earners who cannot afford to lose a day's wages. For far too many, a day's wages make the difference between paying the rent or facing the street. St. Louis IS part of the 'rust belt' in the Midwest, facing major labor cutbacks in private corporations like Edward Jones, American Airlines and Chrysler, and other cutbacks by public employers such as St. Louis Public Schools, the state's largest school district. Vote wait times approaching a half day or a full day ARE A POLL TAX, yet Democratic Secretary of State Carnahan, failed to make the issue of unduly long wait times--an issue of equal voting rights.

As in many urban areas, rumors fly about voting issues. Here in St. Louis, many minority voters have been misled into thinking that the mere instance of voting may trigger an on-site investigation into any outstanding warrants, and immediate arrest. The presence of police at many polling sites only contributed to this fear. Other minority voters told me they believed that voting would end promptly at 7:00pm and anyone still waiting in line would lose their chance to vote. Another rumor dealt with the voting rights of homeless people. They have no stable place of residence, so are they disenfranchised?

The Missouri Secretary of State, Robin Carnahan, has voter education facts on her website, but no outreach program was evident. Paper ballots were provided for the optical scanner, but most polling places only ordered 1 to 2 optical scanners, which limited a voter's options, due to even longer wait times. My polling place had 12 voting stands for paper ballots and 4 touch screen machines. When I voted this morning, there were some 400 people waiting in line. I was voter number 99.

Both St. Louis City and St. Louis County Boards of Election Commissioners claimed that sufficient touch screen machines and optical scanners were made available based on previous recorded voter turnouts. When poll watchers phoned in; waiting lines in more affluent areas of St. Louis County were significantly shorter than their lower income, urban counterparts. Wait times in one wealthy burg, Ladue, Missouri were a fraction of St. Louis City, with extra machines in place. (It should be noted that George W. Bush's cousin, Bucky Bush--resides in Ladue).

Just yesterday, Sarah Palin was in Jefferson City, reminding the all-white crowd about the 'bad terrorists,' and the stupid democrats who want to just wish them away. As before, Palin fails to understand our government's role in any creation of new and improved terrorists by the illegitimate Bush preemptive war policy. Maybe the Iraqis hate us because our government bombed them back into the stone age! Consistent with the Bush/Cheney strategy pushing constant fear--Palin dishes up some piping fresh threats and latent bigotries aimed at the other--those who look different from the average white bread WASP.

It's clear the strategy has been to widen the racial divide in Missouri, using 'terrorism' and ' Country first,' as racial code words. Every time she emphasizes Obama's middle name of 'Hussein,' you can see the bigots foam at their twisted little political mouths. Apparently, if McCain/Palin can't win on the facts--they would enter the Oval Office by widespread fear and outright voter suppression.

While 'Bucky Bush' conveniently casts his vote for McCain/Palin--perhaps only fashionably late for lunch at the racially restricted St. Louis Country Club--many hourly wage earners waiting several hours to vote, worry if they can pay the rent on a day's less wages.

Gail McGowan Mellor: Devotion, Suspicion and Excitement in Louisville

2008-11-04T16:25:34Z

In the heavily African American area of well-kept middle class houses next to Shawnee Park, in Louisville, Kentucky, people across from the polls at Christ Temple Christian were awakened at six .a.m. by the sound of two hundred car doors slamming all at once as the polls opened. Voters--many of them determined to vote before work, others dating from the civil rights era, occasionally with walkers or on crutches--often had tears of hope and pride gleaming in their eyes as they went to cast their votes for Barack Obama.

That Obama vote in the African American community within Louisville is fervent, but far from universal. There is no early voting in Kentucky so today is the only day. Streets were lined with "VOTE TUESDAY" signs, to counteract the dirty tricks flyer circulating with the false statement that voting was Wednesday. The lists of voter suppression tactics though usually do not include the main one apparently operating here. With work scarce in Western County neighborhoods, many blacks have found jobs far across town.

As neighbor Tamera Sanderson explains, "Even if their employers let them off for an hour to vote, they will have to bus back to their poll, vote, and bus back in time not to lose their jobs. Many are waiting until after work, bussing back, and the polls close at six p.m."

Louisvillian Dorothy Ridings, former head of the national League of Women Voters [LWV], said, and the Jefferson County Board of Elections confirmed, that if that is the case, the employers' actions are illegal.

As people scrambled to get to their jobs though, voting at Christ Temple abruptly fell off around 7:30 am. That brought a wave of savvy mothers, getting in to vote "between the old people and people with jobs that would not let them off and the young people who will sleep until afternoon," as Tonya Mitchell put it. She was there with her son Tylor who was voting for the first time.

Tylor said he was "text-messaging everyone to get out here."

Just as black people are not voting for Obama because he's black, being black does not mean that someone necessarily voted Obama--partly because half the neighborhood, more than half the voters, are women and so many have heard the rumors.

Sarah Williams, a McCain supporter standing on her front porch, said. "Women of every color were slaves before black men were, and women in many countries still are. This country is not going to straighten out until we women assume our rightful position as the majority. I got one chance with Hillary,. Sarah Palin is my second."

Like many, Williams subscribes to the rumors making the rounds among both white and black Evangelicals. "That Chicago church Obama belonged to? It's exactly the kind that a Muslim would choose. You know in the Bible, 'Bama' means 'in high position.' And what kind of Christian would reject his church and pastor for political gain? I hear that Obama's a Muslim, refusing to swear on the Bible, and that he's the Anti-Christ, the Master Rapper Seducing America."

In poorer areas, where babies have babies, most of the kids to whom I talked had no intention of voting. (As one totally stoned guy behind the wheel of a Chevy said, "My mama vote. I don't vote. He'll win any way.") On the other hand, as another mother stressed, I was there before noon on a day with no school and most young people were not up yet. She assured me, "Oh absolutely. They'll vote."

Parents from one end of the city to another were not willing to leave that to chance.

In the racially-mixed working class South End, at the poll in Middle Creek Elementary, where the canon on a WWI tank points directly at you as you drive into the school grounds, the early line was fifty percent youth vote and, later, young people who were reluctant were being dragged to the polls by their parents. Robert Peoples said, "I told my 22-year-old daughter, 'You better get your young butt over here!' "

A woman inside the largely white East End polling area where I voted (not allowed to act as a reporter within a polling area, I won't use her name) said, "My mother had a fourth grade education; my father an eighth grade education and they never told us how powerful voting is. My own kids who are in college and when they did not get absentee ballots, I made them come home to vote. One said "What if I don't care who wins?' and I said, 'It's an historic day and you are going to want to tell your grandkids you were there." Not all new voters are young. She added, "My brother is 60 years old, was in Vietnam, and he is voting for the first time," She is for Obama; he is voting McCain.

Glorious autumn weather, hope, pride and fear are bringing hundreds of thousands of people out in Louisville, the anchor city of a region that takes in southern (swing state) Indiana and north central (red state) Kentucky. Kentucky and Indiana will be among the first states to report their totals tonight. In southern Indiana, it's sometimes been a bit nasty during campaigning. (One Obama canvasser reported having a dog set on her and another said that, trying to distribute literature to Obama people, she knocked on the wrong door and a McCain supporter told her to get off the porch or she'd be shot.) None of that is evident this afternoon. People are voting their beliefs, not slugging it out, which arguably is the miracle of democracy.

Kentucky's voting technique is sensible, using paper ballots (which leave a trail) marked by soft pencils (no hanging chads) tabulated instantly as they are fed into a machine. Folks were camped out by 4 am in some places on the Kentucky side, but their lines have been moving quickly and smoothly all day, even in the Zorn area, where voters were reportedly clogging the road and parking in the median Forgetting poll etiquette, friends and strangers are calling back and forth from the lines, hugging, whispering "historic day." As a Shively woman said with a pleased smile, "You'd think they were giving out something free, so many people are here!"

An American Muslim Woman's Vote In Tucson

2008-11-04T16:23:49Z

"Did you hear the story about the American Muslim who walked into her polling place at a LDS church in Tucson, Arizona?"

Well, the story goes like this: She voted, or I should say, I voted. And it was awesome. Usually my polling station has voting booths set up in the lobby of the church. Not this time. The gym area was opened up for this historical national vote to house more polling booths.

While there are far more populated areas across the nation with much larger precincts, with so many more voters, still, it was a lovely site.

The day broke like any other in the southwestern desert; with the sun rising over the dusty Rincon mountains amid a faint murmur of cacti needles dropping to the desert floor. A clear indication that fall had arrived. I felt that euphoria of cooling weather, finally, after months of an intense dry desert heat, a heat that matched the past two years leading up to this election day of 2008.

I live in a quiet, middle class neighborhood on the far east side of town. In elections past, I have witnessed a moderate amount of voters. This election appeared different. I waited in line after seven a.m. with my fellow Americans to cast my vote. The line snaked outside of the building onto the sidewalk flush with the bright blue desert sky.

A young family was in front of me, with their two children joining in their parents civic duty. Directly behind me was a middle aged gentleman with his college aged daughter. Those who finished voting passed us by. They were the young, middle-aged, old, hispanic, black, asian, and white from our neighborhood, a salad bowl of the best that personifies America.

And me. An Irish American Muslim convert enjoying the wait to cast my vote. My mid 20's aged daughter had beat me to the polls. She had worked the night shift and came directly from work to vote right after the polls opened at six a.m. Her fifteen year old sister had told her the day before how jealous she was in not getting to vote this election. Now that's a unique take on sibling rivalry.

The line of voters steadily progressed into the lobby of the church. Soon after I arrived a polling volunteer asked for those with last names beginning with M to Z to form a shorter line. I joined in.

As I waited, polling volunteers would call out, "First time voter here!!" Many of us joined in the applause of support and wooohooooed to our hearts content.

Once it was my turn to show my ID, I was directed to another line, for those who had requested early ballots. I had done so but did not find the time to fill it out and mail it in.
So, there I was anxioulsy anticipating my turn to vote.

I voted and then was given a preforated voting receipt taken from my ballot. I was told to call the number listed on my receipt in a few days to ensure my vote had been counted.

Next, I was instructed where to add my ballot into a bin for others like me, who had not been able to cast their early ballot but joyfully voted in person. As I pushed my ballot in the slot, I could feel mine push up against a heavy stack of previous ballots.

How great is that? Totally great, I believe.

After stuffing my ballot into the bin, I thanked the polling volunteers for their work. It was only eight a.m. They had a long, glorious day ahead of them.

As I walked to my car I noticed the line had shortened but was still outside of the building. I guessed it would ebb and flow like what I experienced earlier, all day, until the polls closed at seven p.m.

I was not surprised by the upbeat and organized functioning from the volunteers. They were a fine group of folks, adding to the positive tone of election day in Tucson.

I was not surprised by the diversity of voter turn out either. It is a fact cemented in our greatness as a nation, a nation of variations of peoples participating in their civic duty in voting, on this, our election day, November 4th, 2008.

Blessings to one and all on this beautiful occasion.

(P.S....psst, Tucson is blue. If anyone tells you otherwise, don't believe 'em.)

Claudia Cruz: Ohio Dispatch: Long Lines Early, But No Lines Now

2008-11-04T16:21:38Z

Ohio got a bad rep after the 2004 Presidential Election because the long lines at the polls discouraged and disenfranchised urban working people and students from casting their vote, an electorate that usually votes democratic. Many blamed the long lines as the reason why Bush beat Kerry that year.

Since then measures taken by the Secretary of State and the local Boards of Elections have sought to minimize the wait. Not only have voters been able to vote early, but for election day they have added more machines, specified poll worker duties and streamline the voting process.

Still, voters who showed up early at some polls did find a line. In the Westgate neighborhood of Columbus, at 6 a.m. the line already wrapped around the Westgate Recreational Center.

"I thought I'd get here early and vote quickly but it took me an hour and fifteen minutes," said Ursula Barrera, a new resident in the area surprised by the line. "I feel bad for those who arrived as I was leaving and also had to be at work by 9 a.m."

By ten o'clock however the line had completed dissipated to about a 20 minute wait.

"There has been a slow trickle throughout the day," said Susan Ashbrook, a democratic party campaigner who handed out ballot information outside. Ashbrook said that about 60 percent of the voters at her location seemed to have voted Democrat, a change from when she first moved to the area.

The Franklin County Board of Elections foresaw that there would be heavier traffic at certain hours of the day. They hope that their measures will make this election day memorable for short lines rather than long ones.

Watch A Quarter Million Central Ohioans Vote Early
(Total running time 5 minutes 38 seconds)

Obama Voters Moved By Historic Vote

2008-11-04T16:11:10Z

Overshadowed, occasionally, by all the talk of voter lines, machine malfunctions, election projections and electorate anxiety is the truly historic nature of what is taking place on this Tuesday, November 4. An African-American man has guided his way to the cusp of the presidency. The deal won't be closed for a few more hours. It may not happen at all. But the emotional threads have already begun to affect many voters. A slew of readers offered moving testimonials of the brief time they spent today casting a vote for something historical. It's worth sharing their words.

Steven, a 44 year old white male living in Orange County, Florida:

I hail from the great state of Mississippi -- however, I was raised by black folks in my earliest years... My family and background give impetus to why I am a very strong supporter of what Barack Obama's campaign represents. One of my first memories was watching the funeral of MLK, Jr. with my (de facto) African American mother. My people, James and Christine, come from the red-clay hills of Georgia. They both disciplined me, made me eat gizzards, and tried to get me on the righteous track very early in my life. Both are retired, getting on in their years, and they have imbued me with very strong ideals about what it is to be a patriot and a citizen of this country -- as well as what it means to be an honorable human being.

Tonight, when I call them at about 9:00pm, will be one of the proudest moments of our lives.

Jim from Montgomery, Alabama:

I'm a 59-year old white guy who votes in Montgomery AL at a "predominantly black" voting place. Both campaigns regarded Alabama as a state so far gone for McCain that there was no point spending money here. Far as I can tell, there has been no visible get-out-the-vote campaign here for anyone, though there was reportedly some uptick in registration, according to this morning's Montgomery Advertiser (which endorsed Obama).

My voting place (Hamner Hall Fire Station) opened at 8 AM. I arrived about 8:15 and walked right through. No line at all. Marked my ballot by hand and fed it to the machine, all in 5 minutes, most of which was spent marking the two-sided ballot (on the back were some constitutional amendments, of state and local import.)

When I think about it there was little point in casting my vote (for Obama) here; there's no realistic hope of overtaking the McCain flood or grabbing any electoral votes for O. But I'm happy I did it.

I've lived here my whole life. I remember my Dad explaining the Montgomery Bus Boycott to me when I was six years old, while it was going on all around us. The Freedom Riders took their licks at the Greyhound Bus Station downtown here when I was around 12 years old, and the Selma-to-Montgomery march ended on Monroe Street here when I was 15. My daughters 13 and 15 like Obama, but I wonder if there is any way they can ever understand what happened back then and what is happening here today. If not, maybe in a way that's a good thing. Maybe it's even the point.

You could easily walk from Hamner Hall to the site of the old Greyhound bus station, and with a little more effort to the capitol steps where Jefferson Davis and George Wallace were inaugurated -- and where Dr. King gave his speech in 1965. Likewise to the site on Montgomery Street where Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, number 2857, in 1955.

It's a pretty amazing place. And time.

Tanya from Parsippany, New Jersey

I just voted this morning. I must tell you that the emotion caught me off guard. My polling place was not overly crowded, but more crowded than on non-presidential years. When the curtain closed, I paused and had to catch my breath from the excitement. After I pushed all my requisite buttons, I paused again to triple check I'd hit everything correctly, and that's when it hit me. I was born 23 days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and 40 years later there I stood voting for Senator Obama to be the next President of the United States of America. How's that for CHANGE? How's that for the ability of this country to survive its failures and move through them to reach a point where this is possible? So, in all that, I started to cry, for the pride and joy I felt at that moment and the wish that so many others who've moved on from this world could have been here to witness it and share the same amazement. What a great day to be an American, even with our antiquated voting system, even with the challenges we face as a nation today and even with the cultural walls we've yet to climb.

Voter Turnout: Hours Extended At One NC Polling Place

2008-11-04T16:05:09Z

The Raleigh News & Observer reports:

Earlier today, voters encountered lines at some Triangle precincts, but the waits abated by the afternoon. Early voting helped ease the Election Day crunch, Poucher said; statewide, 42 percent of registered voters cast ballots during the early voting period, which ended Saturday.

"I don't think the rain is going to stop ANYBODY from voting in this election," said Kim Snow, a poll worker at Hodge Road Elementary School in Knightdale.

Most polls close at 7:30 p.m., though anyone standing in line at that time will be allowed to vote.

Voters at the Barwell Road Community Center in Raleigh will get an extra hour to vote -- until 8:30 p.m. -- because of a delay in balloting this morning. An election official who was dropped off there this morning left the ballots in her grandson's truck, and she had to track him down, Poucher said. That delayed voting by just over half an hour and kept about 300 people waiting.

Dan Treul: Cool, Calm and Collected at Grand Rapids Polling Station

2008-11-04T15:49:27Z

With McCain's surprise withdrawal from the state on Oct. 2, and Obama enjoying a major advantage in the latest polling, Michigan's 17 electoral votes are all but in the bank for the Illinois senator. Nevertheless, record turnout is expected today in the Wolverine state - just two weeks ago Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land reported that 7.47 million Michigan residents were registered to vote, representing an unprecedented 98 percent of the voting age population.

Early voting opened yesterday in Michigan for those sixty and older, although from what I saw at the polls this morning, not everyone qualifying took advantage. I arrived this morning at Coit Creative Arts Academy in northeastern Grand Rapids not knowing what to expect. Not overly concerned but still cautious of reports of seven and eight-hour lines in Ohio and Florida, I decided to go in the early morning, and arrived around 9:15. The line at that point was not long - only 30 or 40 people, I'd say - but elections officials insisted that shortly after the polls opened at 7 a.m., the line had meandered through the school, outside and around the building. I was told waits had been longer than an hour, but I waited only half an hour. The ballot was clear, concise, and even the two statewide proposals - referendums on medical marijuana and stem cell research - were surprisingly straightforward. The general feeling among both voters and poll workers was cool, calm, and collected.

If I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the mid-morning turnout and enthusiasm, I was tremendously pleased by the voters' demographic breakdown. My neighborhood in Grand Rapids is a fairly diverse community of blacks, whites, and Hispanics, although white conservatives (particularly of the Dutch Reformed variety) have traditionally enjoyed tremendous influence. Today, however, northeastern Grand Rapids had all the bases covered. Most apparent was the number of young, college-age voters I encountered - a marked increase from even last January when the Democrats held their primary. All signs seemingly favor Obama this morning, true to the latest RCP statewide polling average that affords the Democrat a 13 point advantage over John McCain.

"I think it was epic," said Shawn Wanhala, a senior at Aquinas College who voted for Obama this morning in suburban Rockford, Michigan. "I've had anxiety all afternoon." Wanhala said there weren't many people in line at the church he voted at, but dismissed Rockford as an almost exclusively white enclave of Republican support.

"We actually drove by a Palin sign that had McCain's half cut off," he said, laughing. "People are crazy here."

The trend seemed to hold in other locations around the city, as well. John Taylor voted in Wyoming, just outside Grand Rapids, and thought the intangibles favored Obama, whom he supports.

"I was proud that all the demographics - all ages and races - were well represented at my polling place," said Taylor, another senior at Aquinas. "I thought the mood was excited, but anxious." Taylor encountered no problems, and waited for less than five minutes to vote at 9 a.m.

Both Taylor and Wanhala are confident American college students will not disappoint. "All of my friends have voted already," Wanhala said. "Except for maybe one or two who are like, 'man, your vote doesn't matter'... Those guys," Wanhala says, "they're like, communists or something."

Reports Of False Text Messages Crop Up In Several States

2008-11-04T15:46:21Z

***SEE UPDATE BELOW***

This could be a cheap (if elaborate) hoax, but bloggers in multiple states are posting cell phone photos of text messages urging Obama supporters to vote on Wednesday, November 5.

First reports of the false text message came from writers in Arizona and Texas. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post received another image from a source who said he received a similar text message in Illinois. [UPDATE: Another reader in Georgia chimes in with an indentical claim.]

The new image, courtesy of St. Louis software engineer Matt Gatten, shows a phone featuring a message that reads: "Due to the long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday. Thank you! Please forward to everyone!"

Gatten said he was a "little bit mad" when he received the message. "I did a reverse look up on the number that sent it, and it came from San Antonio, Texas," Gatten told the Huffington Post. "It made me mad. They're stealing votes that way. It's like spam: if it didn't work, people wouldn't be doing it."

Of course, it's hard to believe that a large number of voters could be fooled by such a ruse. Sorting out voters by candidate would quite obviously destroy the notion of a secret ballot. But if the tactic is as widespread as it seems, it might suggest that operatives are using every last trick at their disposal -- with only a few hours left before this election is in the books for good.

UPDATE: A student at the University of Florida says the fraudulent text-message campaign has become so widespread that a campus-wide advisory has been emailed out:

Dear Students,

A number of University of Florida students have reported receiving a text
message today claiming that voting has been extended until Wednesday. This
message is NOT legitimate and it should be ignored. Voting concludes today
-- Tuesday, Nov. 4 -- and polls close at 7 p.m.

If you have any questions, please call the Alachua County Supervisor of
Elections office at 352-374-[redacted].

Patricia Telles-Irvin
Vice President for Student Affairs

Natasha Chen: Obama's Support in Suburban Texas May Help Down-Ballot Dems

2008-11-04T15:44:39Z

One of the most Republican areas in Texas may have as much as 45 percent support for Barack Obama today. Electing Obama in Williamson County is a big stretch, but the fact that it is even possible is astounding in this place, the fastest growing area of the state. More importantly, this suburban area northwest of Austin is a bellwether for political winds sweeping through Texas, where Democrats need only five seats to win back control of the state house of representatives.

Williamson County, which includes the cities of Hutto, Round Rock, Georgetown and Taylor, is seeing most of its growth from urban populations moving out of the city, creating a much more diverse community than just a few years ago. This movement is seen in many other areas of Texas as well, according to state demographers.

Early voting in Texas took place from Oct. 20 through Oct. 31, which included both mail-in ballots and in-person voting at polling places. Just in those 11 days, 113,000 ballots were cast. That's only 10,000 votes shy of the total ballots counted from Williamson in the 2004 presidential race. But as of 2:00pm CST on Election Day, turnout has been pretty light.

Campaign staff from both parties are knocking on doors and calling residents today, but no one knows what the results will be, because no public polls have been done recently on the presidential race or otherwise in Williamson County. The only data from which to predict is from the primaries, where Democrats came out in unprecedented numbers and chose Obama over Clinton.

"I think Obama - if not really close, he'll be within three or four points. Remember, we have cities out there that are solid blocks of Republicans," said Richard Torres, chair of the Williamson County Democratic Party. "A lot of people are focusing in on Williamson County because we're such a red county and they're starting to see the movement to be more purple. There are 26 precincts that we won [in 2006]."

Twenty-six precincts may not seem like a lot, considering that they have 99 total precincts in the county, but Torres compares this accomplishment with having only two blue precincts in 2004. Torres said that from studying the previous records of this year's early voters, he can tell that about 45 percent of them voted Democratic in the past, nearly 30 percent have records of voting Republican, and the remainder did not have any previous voting records and thus were labeled Independent. Texas does not have official party registration.

Bill Fairbrother, chair of the Williamson County Republican Party, said that he still expects John McCain to win easily, despite the light turnout thus far. His volunteers have also been going door-to-door, putting out signs, and phone banking.

The goal for Democrats in the county was to turn out at least 70 percent of the voters who came out in the Democratic primary. But by midday today, Torres said that probably would not happen. Still, he is optimistic that even if the county elects John McCain, the high level of support for Barack Obama will positively benefit Democratic candidates down the ballot, including a race for the open state house of representatives seat between Democrat Diana Maldonado and Republican Bryan Daniel.

The Republican incumbent, Mike Krusee, is not running for re-election. Krusee won in 2000 with 84 percent of the vote, and in 2004 with 91 percent of the vote. This time around, the two candidates have raised almost equal amounts of money, with the Republican raising about $40,000 more between January and the end of October, according to the Texas state ethics commission.

This is one of the five seats Democrats would need to win to take back control of the state house. The Democrat, Diana Maldonado, is predicted to win by Texas blogs, is endorsed by the Austin American Statesman, the Austin Chronicle, and the Williamson County Sun, the latter which the Maldonado campaign manager doesn't think has endorsed a Democrat "since God was a boy."

Maldonado at a rally

The Maldonado campaign manager, Genevieve Van Cleve, also said, "We have run out of people to flyer, talk to, block walk, etc. Anyone that understands campaigns will know what that means - We have run out of turf!... If nothing else, we have done everything humanly possible to win this race and I'm incredibly proud of Diana's staff, volunteers, and family."

Laura Jackson, the campaign manager for the Daniel campaign, said that Daniel has been advertising heavily in the last few days, which may sway the results in his favor. "He's on the radio, and she's not," Jackson said.

Regardless of Williamson County's choice of president, voting trends over the last decade show this area may be turning purple. It might not be today, but tighter races for a variety of contests show change is in the air.

Virginia Voter Drives All Night To Get To Polls

2008-11-04T14:33:01Z

A reader emails:

My voting day started three weeks ago when I applied for an absentee ballot. The absentee ballot never came. After several conversations with my local registrar I had a dilemma ... either sit in a luxury suite watching the Redskins play the Steelers or drive the five hour trip south to Martinsville, VA...all to vote a provisional absentee ballot. Easy choice, I gave the tickets away. I left last night at 7:30...One pee break, two coffee stops and a five hour car trip made in record time (4 hours and 56 mins) and this morning I was in line to vote at 6 am. My friends told me I was crazy, my parents told me I was crazy...but to have missed this election without my vote would have been crazy. I told them it was my civic duty. I didn't want to look back in 20 years and regret not voting for Barack Obama. Plus the skins lost. I simply told my roommate "I had to go see about a President."

Also Tom Perriello was on the ballot, nice guy like that deserves some effort.

Shawna Vercher: FL Already a Hotbed of Voting Problems

2008-11-04T14:28:06Z

A quick glance at what is currently being reported from across the state:

Tampa, FL - Special "Emergency" Ballot Box Created On the Spot
All ballots at a particular polling place were rejected by the optical scan machines. Technical Support was called but was unable to remedy the problem, believing the issue to be "defective ballots". The Supervisor of Elections created an "Emergency" ballot box where the ballots would be counted by hand at the end of the night. One of many issues causing concern is that the Supervisor of Elections is up for reelection on those very ballots.

Augusta, FL - Optical Machines Replaced with "Trust Us"?
Just moments after the polls opened the voting machines were not working properly to accept votes. Voters were given a choice - come back later or trust poll workers to enter their votes later.

Boca Raton, FL - Every Person For Themselves
Among hundreds waiting in line to vote, rumors of computer glitches caused the back of the line to disperse. That and a lack of poll workers to assist special needs voters creates an environment of "complete chaos".

Florida Absentees - Voters Still Chasing Down Their Ballots
With average hold times of well over an hour in the weeks leading up to the election, numerous Floridians feel "truly let down" as incomplete or lost registrations, system glitches and address issues prevent them from receiving their absentee ballots by mail.

Statewide - Felon Voter Rights Not Yet Restored
Despite a law passed by Governor Christ restoring the constitutional right to vote for felons, several felons have been told that there was "not enough time" to process their voter registration before this election.

Special thanks to the Election Protection coalition for providing much of this information. This non-partisan organization will continue to provide updates throughout the day.

UPDATE 4:07pm:
Tampa, FL - Voters Not Provided with a Full Ballot
An affiliated blog of the St. Petersburg Times reports that hundreds of voters in the Tampa area were only provided with the first page of the two-page ballot. The issue was reported by a voter that noticed that the second page was missing and corrected by officials. No word yet on what steps, if any, will be taken to remedy the situation for those that had already cast their votes.

UPDATE 4:15pm:
CNN is reporting that over three thousand calls have been logged with Florida voting problems already. Nearly ten percent of all complaint calls logged for the country are from Florida.

To share your voting experience please comment below and then click here to tell Huffington Post about it.

Off The Bus: Your Voting Stories (Nov. 4 2pm Update)

2008-11-04T14:00:45Z

Thank you, HuffPost readers, for sending your voting stories. If you haven't already, you can file them here.

My polling place was a local Catholic church, which felt a bit strange since I've never been in a church before outside of weddings. Outside of a few crucifixes and sermon posters, it was a welcoming place, even for this Jew. There were tons of volunteers and everyone, including the voters, was very upbeat. Afterwards, I visited a coffee shop, where the air was just charged with enthusiasm -- something I've not experienced in any other election.
Jane Devin
Chaska, Minnesota

I have never had to wait in a long line before in order to vote. I waited about an hour. This is an awesome election!
Doris Ilene Slot
Grand Rapids, Michigan

My NYC voting spot was more crowded than I've ever seen it, with a line snaking around the corner. Every time someone else arrived, he or she would inevitably ask, "Is this the line?" One man deadpanned, "What line?" That got a chuckle.
Lynn Geller
New York, New York

I went to vote early this morning and received a "draw a line through" ballot. It was already marked McCain! I told one of the judges that my ballot was already marked and that I did not mark it as such! She then looked through another pile of ballots and some of them were marked as well (not only the presidential vote, but for other races). I received another ballot and voted.
Laurel Fujisawa
Chicago, Illinois

We have multiple, ethnically diverse districts that vote at the same location. I'm Caucasian but was online with a large number of residents from the black neighborhood nearby. I was awestruck to see more senior citizens than ever online at 7:15am. I was stunned when the monitors told us about the waiting line when the polls opened at 6am. I was impressed that my fellow voters were dressed in their Sunday best, as if going to church. It was then I understood this is not only an historic election but a sacred right of passage for our nation. I have the privilege of voting at the elementary school I attended and always go to vote with my mom. This year, mom took pictures of me outside the school in front of the VOTE HERE sign as she did when I voted in my first election in 1992.
Jennifer Erland
White Plains, New York

In Foster City, a suburb 25 miles south of San Francisco, extra polling places appeared for this election, as officials anticipated higher turnout. As a result, my wait time at 9:30 a.m. was only 5-10 minutes, which was shorter than the time I spent getting free coffee at Starbucks afterward. People in my neighborhood usually report to the local elementary school gym to cast their ballots, but today, I voted at a recreation center that was in walking distance from my house. The only frustration was that the polling place volunteers were mostly elderly folks who could not hear well or did not always know exactly what to do. Signing in alone took up more time than waiting in line. I have mostly voted by mail in the past, since I've been away at school for years, so today was my first interaction with the electronic voting booth.
Natasha Chen
Foster City, California

This morning I was driving on the main road from Chapel Hill, NC, to Durham, NC, and on the side of the road at a very busy intersection was an older white couple standing in the rain with their donkey. The donkey had a pretty blue and white blanket with stars and the word "Vote" in big letters. With this couple was a tall black man in a dark overcoat, gloves and a huge smile. With the Obama mask, he looked just like the candidate. He was waving to the traffic. There was much honking and waving all around. As I was pulling away from the intersection, a car full of young women pulled over to take their pictures with this charming group. It was so sweet and such a nice thing to see on a very rainy election day.
Janice A. Farringer
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

I arrived alone at 6:25 am, assuming I would beat the crowds. HA! The line was deceptive since no one was outside. It actually snaked around on the inside of the park district building. There was only one electronic machine in my precinct, and there were 4 different precincts polling in this location. There were easily 400 people in line for my precinct. An interesting aside: I was the sole non-black resident of my ward voting at that point in time. Struck up some good conversations, and updated those in my radius with info from HuffPo on my crackberry. By the time I voted, I ended up getting to work late, but as my Civic duty calls, so I answer.
Richard Striano II
Chicago, Illinois

I live in a very white, "blue collar" hamlet on Long Island, in New York. I got to the polls at 5:35am this morning expecting to be first in line, and ended up being 5th. What was scary is that as I waited in line to vote, the poll workers were explaining to each other how to do the job, and the ancient machines we use here in NY were not working propertly (though they did get them fixed in a few minuts). This is a tiny area, and I was shocked by the fact that 25 people were in line at 6AM.
Claire Tolmie
Sound Beach, New York

At 7:00 am, I looked out the window of my apartment and could see that the line for my polling place across the street was already snaking around the side of the building. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to vote after work, I headed over and took my place at the end of the line of about 500 people. Ultimately, it took 3 1/2 hours to get through. However, it was worth it to see the children in line with their parents who were all playing and having a grand time with each other. It really made me stop and think about how my vote - and the votes of everyone around me - will ultimately affect the lives of these little people.
Christina Page
Silver Springs, Maryland

My husband and I went to our normal voting place, a church in the nearby community we live in outside of Frankfort KY. We had a 3 minute wait, tops, and I was in and out in 5 minutes or so. Everyone was friendly and there was no political discussion or canvassing outside anywhere so it was quite uneventful. I told my husband that I'm saddened that there are people waiting in line for 8 hours or more to vote and we walk in and out faster than we would to pay for gas or pick up an item at the store.
Patricia Alexander
Frankfort, Kentucky

Read about peoples' early voting experiences here.

Read stories filed by HuffPost readers the morning of Nov. 4.

Noon Stories Update

Please share your stories with the Huffington Post using this Survey Monkey form. We're going to pick out the best voting tales and share them with the entire HuffPost community.

Yuna Shin: So Far, Light Traffic at Polling Places in New Hanover County, N.C.

2008-11-04T13:22:15Z

Wilmington, N.C. -- My colleague's first words to me this morning were, "Boy, this was the best election experience ever thanks to early voting! It took me only 3 minutes to get in and out this morning at Parsley Elementary." I am wondering, can this be? Ernie continued, "I was there at 8:00 am. I filled out my ballot and I was out of there."

I had to check it out myself. I stopped at the Obama headquarters a little after 11:00 am. It was not busy since most of the volunteers were congregating at the staging locations closer to their homes. There were a few people already cleaning stuff out of the closets and off shelves. They were positively giddy. "Can you believe it's finally here? We are going to celebrate tonight!" Volunteer Betsy said, "I know he will win, but we want to win in North Carolina."

There was a police car parked outside. Officer Donna Smith was in the car, so I asked her if there had been a threat called in. "No," she said, "We are just keeping an eye on you. Just to keep you safe today." As we were talking, a white Jeep Cherokee drove by. It has a huge sign on top that reads, "NO BAMA! Barack Hussein Obama, Islamic Socialist for President?" Officer Smith said, "See? That guy's been circling around this block." I told her, "I am so glad you are here." I ran inside and get her the biggest muffin that I can find.

Then I drove to a couple of polling stations, one in a very conservative precinct and the other in a mixed precinct. The first was virtually empty. The schools were closed today, so the schools were even emptier than I imagined. I found a couple of Obama volunteers holding up signs at Alderman Elementary. They were very excited just like those at the headquarters. A gentleman came out and said, "I have tickets for the inauguration." He had plastered himself with stickers of Kay Hagan, the Democratic candidate for Senate, Julia Boseman, NC Senate candidate, and Jonathan Barfield, the only Democratic candidate for New Hanover County Commissioner. This was one guy that was really sure.

Then I went to the Arab Shrine Club. It too was empty. There were cars parked outside, but the parking lot was far from being full. There were more people holding signs outside then were there voters visible from outside. I talked to James Gallagher, a volunteer for Mike Lee, who is running for N.C. Senate against Julia Boseman. He said that there was a long line at the beginning of the day, but after about 8:30 am, everybody cleared out. He estimated that the longest wait was maybe one hour. As I was about to leave, Kristen Luikens, president of Democratic Women of New Hanover County, drove up. She said, "There were about 700 people that went through here so far."

The huge lines that were anticipated have not yet materialized. The polls will remain open until 7:30 pm, so it is likely that there will be a wave of voters who will vote after work. But until then, the polling places are, I would say, pretty empty. Early voting has definitely worked in getting people to the polls even before election day. 66.2% of total number of voters reached in 2004 voted during early voting in North Carolina.