Information

[Kara]

 Since you all are hours behind the east coast, do the early predictions effect whether you vote or not??? I have always wondered that.....

SO????

[Flapdoodle]

 I've wondered that, too.

[MaBuglet]

 Not for me.  I still vote.  I just vote early.  I see some results coming in.  I hope it doesn't stop people from voting.

[Kara]

 me too Jamie. I would like to think that everyone feels that thier opinion counts!!!

[TinaH]

I'm in California and I vote no matter what! Even if the Presidential race seems decided, there are still state matters to vote on and we had school board and mayorial elections. But today, I voted early because that is how it worked best for my schedule.

[averys_mom]

 We vote by mail and I mailed my ballot early yesterday morning, so today's early predictions had no bearing on whether or not I voted.

[MLee]

 I have always thought that there should be regulated hours of voting so that all polls open and close together country wide OR there should be a news black out until ALL of the polls close on the west coast. There is no way that there isn't some psychological effect on certain voters as the news starts saying things like "it's all wrapped up" or "he's already won" or it's over and done with now...

Whether you think your vote is unncessary and you don't need to vote because your candidate is ahead or behind, they news media should not be this much of an influence on voters! Every election it gets worse than the prveious election!  I swear, there are simply some things that our constitutional writers just could not foresee and plan for.

Okay - there... off of my soapbox and back to scrapping...

[gonecamping]

 Doesn't effect the way I vote. what is so irritating is the news giving states to certain candidates when they have counted less than 1% of the vote..?? I don't get it.

[dianagirly]

 I have always thought that there should be regulated hours of voting so that all polls open and close together country wide OR there should be a news black out until ALL of the polls close on the west coast. There is no way that there isn't some psychological effect on certain voters as the news starts saying things like "it's all wrapped up" or "he's already won" or it's over and done with now...

Whether you think your vote is unncessary and you don't need to vote because your candidate is ahead or behind, they news media should not be this much of an influence on voters! Every election it gets worse than the prveious election!  I swear, there are simply some things that our constitutional writers just could not foresee and plan for.

Okay - there... off of my soapbox and back to scrapping...



I so agree with this! And in actuality, I asked a neighbor today if she voted and she asked what the point was. She totally did not think her vote would matter. And I told her what if hundreds of thousands said that same thing!

[AnnOminous]

 The media is a bit more restrained nowadays than in the past.  They got heavily criticized several years back for proclaiming one winner pretty soon after the east coast polls closed.  Maybe it was 72 with the Nixon/McGovern contest that was so one sided? 

They have been sorta kinda proclaiming Obama to be the winner based on expecting him to get all of the Pacific Coast, so y'all had better keep voting whether you want to prove them right or wrong!!!!

[LuvMyBoys]

 I am watching the news right now and at 8pm they said obama won... but how since our polls closed at 8... can they count the votes that quickly?

[Jenn Kellams]

 They have pretty much got it down to a science.  Obama has basically won the election.  Its the electoral votes that matter really and he won Ohio and another one so it pretty much put him over the top. 

About the whole "my vote doesn't mater" thing...........my brother told me that today.....My words to him were, "that is the worst thing an AMerican citizen can say.  It is an honor and a privilage to be able to choose our leaders.  Some people would kill and do kill to be able to do that.  It is your civic duty and responsibility to go vote!"  I was so mad at him!!

[AnnOminous]

 I am watching the news right now and at 8pm they said obama won... but how since our polls closed at 8... can they count the votes that quickly?

They are going by the polls.  Obama had a two digit lead in those. 

[misty5]

 Dh an I went and voted at 8:30am so there wasn't much on the news at that time of morning. We had alot of rain and power outages during the night into the morning and that was pretty much the only news we heard. Power is back for us so we are good! Both of our kids vote by mail so there already casted their votes!

[mysunshine]

 This is the last election in WA where there will be any polling locations to go vote.  There's actually only two counties that do it this year.  From here on out it will all be done with mail ballots.  I think that's interesting, but apparently more people vote that way since you basically get handed a ballot instead of going to stand in a line.  So....I would think that counting votes will take longer since more people will put stuff in the mail on the election day.  But, yeah, some crazy statistical formula that they use to say who won without actually counting many of the votes.

[scrapgram]

 I vote early in the day to avoid the late crowd.

[Judes]

 I watched the whole thing on PBS and nobody predicted anything until after our polls closed here.  I did notice that Tom Brokaw went out on a limb on CBS early in the evening.

[luboost]

 This is the last election in WA where there will be any polling locations to go vote.  There's actually only two counties that do it this year.  From here on out it will all be done with mail ballots.  I think that's interesting, but apparently more people vote that way since you basically get handed a ballot instead of going to stand in a line.  So....I would think that counting votes will take longer since more people will put stuff in the mail on the election day.  But, yeah, some crazy statistical formula that they use to say who won without actually counting many of the votes.

Somehow that just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.  Too much room for mischief...as it is a gal in front of me today wasn't on the list but they let her vote anyway!

[jaziscrapper]

 I'm glad so many of you said you vote regardless. Everyone's voice should be heard.

[Queen Mum]

 I wish they wouldn't start with the coverages until the west coast had time to vote.