A Cause for Alarm?

Marc Ambinder reports on two urgent emails from the Obama campaign asking supporters to volunteer in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Virginia because the races there are closer than expected.

Fired Up? Ready To Go!

Watch the end of the video clip. Very inspiring.


H/T: TPM

Election Day Glitches

Huffington Post on voting issues in Virginia:

At the Math and Science Center in Richmond, Virginia, an early breakdown of electronic voting machines led to a three-and-a-half hour wait to vote on Tuesday morning, according to one poll watcher.

"Some people have been here since 6 a.m., and the first voters are just finishing now," said Judith Browne-Dianis, adding that the Richmond location she was watching did not even have backup paper ballots in case of machine malfunction.

Philly.com reports problems in Pennsylvania.

Readers and Inquirer reporters attempting to cast ballots this morning found long lines across the region created by broken machines.

One of two machines was down at a busy Delaware County polling site. About 50 people already had voted by 9:15 a.m. at the Temple Israel on Spruce and Bywood Avenue in Upper Darby, which is heavily populated by immigrant and first time voters. Many of those freshly-minted voters had difficulties using the one machine that still functioned. "Hell of a day for one of the machines to be down," said one poll worker.

First Read reports problems in Florida, Michigan, and Missouri.

FLORIDA: Voters in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area have experienced numerous problems trying to cast ballots this morning. We have preliminary reports of voters being turned away from the polls for incomplete registrations and instances of the statewide problem of broken optical scan machines in some two dozen polling locations all across the state.

MICHIGAN: Voters are reporting massive voting machine malfunctions across the state resulting in long lines and discouraged voters leaving lines without casting a ballot. In many cases, poll workers are asking voters to cast their ballot on paper and they will tally them later. Some voters are being asked to vote on paper using magic markers.

MISSOURI: There were multiple reports of swapped poll books (voter lists for a given precinct at the wrong location) in Kansas City, MO. This issue has been resolved.

Why Tennessee?

John McCain has an ambitious schedule today. He's supposed to appear in Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona. Why Tennessee? According to First Read, Blountville, TN is near Bristol, VA. The proximity to closely contested Virginia makes McCain's choice of location more understandable. But then again why not Bristol, VA?

Update: Marc Ambinder says "It has nothing to do with Bountville. It has everything to do with the parts of rural North Carolina and rural Virginia that share its media market."

Odds and Ends

Politico picks the five best and five worst finance decisions made in this election season.

How blue is Virginia?

The Hill looks at the leadership changes that are coming in the Senate next year.

Washington Post investigates problems with Obama's small donor base.

How bad are things for John McCain? He's running robocalls in Arizona!

Attack the Tracker

In an incident reminiscent of the recent attack in Missouri, two people accompanying Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) assault Democratic trackers.

Odds and Ends

Political Wire notes that the McCain campaign has cut ad spending in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. The spending has increased in red states of Florida and Virginia.

Political Punch notices the disparity in Virginia where Obama has 50 campaign offices to McCain's 24, 200 paid staffers in to McCain’s 50, and Obama is spending $250,000 a day on TV ads in the state, while McCain is spending $30,000 a day.

Top of the Ticket reports that voter registration has stagnated or dropped in safe states – a 5% drop in South Dakota since 2004 and a 2% decrease in New York over the same period. In contrast voter registration is up 30% in Nevada!

For the first time since 1994, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in Nebraska’s Douglas County.

Obama leads in a new poll from Montana.

Equating Obama and Terrorism

The latest in GOP hate-mongering:

Republicans have unleashed a blistering mailing against Barack Obama that invokes the 9/11 attacks with a disturbing image of a jumbo jet and a warning that the Democrat nominee isn't "who you think he is."

The attack flier reportedly has been landing in homes in Missouri and Virginia - two states that the Democrats have been working hard to convert to blue in November - in the last few days, according to Politico.com and Time magazine's "The Page" Web site.

Odds and Ends

Sean Quinn describes Obama's massive ground-level organization in northern Virginia. Hard not to be impressed by the scale of organization.

Andrew Burmon identifies places where voter suppression are likely to happen.

Palin hits Obama on women's issues. (Gag!)

Dem. House leadership contribute to the DCCC after Pelosi's call for cash.

More Hate

Political Punch:

In Cullowhee, NC: Police are following leads in the case of a 75-pound dead bear cub, shot in the head, found draped with Barack Obama posters at the entrance to Western Carolina University, the AP reports.

In Chester, VA: Chesterfield County police are investigating the theft of a 4-by-8 Barack Obama for President sign from the home of 78-year-old Leroy C. McLaughlin, an African-American Baptist minister. The sign was replaced by a Confederate flag.

Odds and Ends

Marc Ambinder argues that regardless of the electoral college results, John McCain cannot win the popular vote. This leaves two possibilities, Obama wins both the electoral college and the popular vote, or McCain wins the electoral college sans the popular vote.

Limbaugh implies that Powell endorsed Obama because of his race.

Conservative intellectuals are uneasy about the McCain/Palin ticket.

The state GOP parties in Florida and Virginia are at odds with the McCain campaign.

Powell criticizes the demonization of Muslims. This is the picture he was referring to. Powerful.


Image Source: New Yorker

Powell and the Battleground States

The Hill:

Retired Gen. Colin Powell’s endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama could turn undecided and independent voters in the Illinois senator’s favor in Virginia, Gov. Tim Kaine (D) said Sunday.

Virginia has a large concentration of military personnel and defense-related businesses and Obama has poured a lot of resources into the state, hoping to score a rare Democratic win there.

...Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said Powell’s endorsement will also resonate strongly in Florida, another battleground state.

“We have thousands of military retirees in the state of Florida. And I think what Colin Powell's endorsement does say is it shows that Barack Obama can build bridges across party lines,” she said on the same program. Polls show Obama three points ahead of McCain in the Sunshine State.

The value of endorsements is debatable but if Powell's endorsement can shift a few military votes in Virginia, then that's nothing to sneeze at. In a close race, every vote matters. Even if the endorsement doesn't make a difference in the battleground states, the Obama campaign was definitely able to win the news cycle based on the coverage devoted to the endorsement.

Real Virginia

A McCain surrogate argues that northern Virginia is not the real Virginia. This is probably not the best way to put it, if you're trying to win votes there.

Key Counties

Politico:

Sen. Barack Obama holds leads in four key counties that will go a long way toward determining the eventual winner in four important swing states — Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia — according to a new Politico/Insider Advantage survey.

Obama is poised to expand on recent Democratic gains in three populous suburban counties — Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, Missouri’s St. Louis County and Virginia’s Prince William County. In a fourth, Ohio’s Franklin County, home to Columbus and its suburbs, the survey also found Obama with the lead.

News Briefs, 10/3/08

The RNC raked in $66 million in September. This is good news for the McCain campaign and for the House and Senate Republican Committees.

Obama invests in Nebraska's second congressional district.

Judge refuses to dismiss Stevens trial.

New voter registrations hit record numbers in Virginia and Colorado.

Voter Rergistration Surges in Virginia

From the Washington Post:

With time running out on its push to register thousands of new voters in Virginia, the Obama campaign is picking up the pace. State election officials told the campaign Friday that 49,000 new voters signed up in August, a sharp increase from the 36,500 who signed up in July and the 28,000 who registered in June.

...There is no way of knowing how many of the newly registered will vote for Obama, especially since Virginia does not record voters by party affiliation. But the campaign is encouraged by the demographic profile of the new voters -- about 40 percent of those who registered in August are aged 25 or under.