History > 2008 > USA > Politics (IX)

Steve Greenberg

cartoon

The Ventura County Star, CA

Cagle

29.10.2008

R: Barack Obama
 

Long Lines Greet Voters

as Polls Are Deluged

November 4, 2008
Filed at 12:26 p.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Long lines and malfunctioning machines greeted voters Tuesday as polls across the country were deluged by people wanting to cast ballots in this historic race between Barack Obama and John McCain.

In the East, electronic machine glitches forced some New Jersey voters to cast paper ballots. In New York, anxious voters started lining up before dawn, prompting erroneous reports that some precincts weren't opening on time.

''By 7:30 this morning, we had as many as we had at noon in 2004,'' said poll worker John Ritch in Chappaqua, N.Y., where Bill and Hillary Clinton live.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell urged voters to ''hang in there'' as state and country officials braced for a huge turnout in that hotly contested state. More than 160 people were lined up when the polls opened at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown. ''I could stay an hour and a half at the front end or three hours at the back end,'' joked Ronald Marshall, a black Democrat.

Hundreds converged on polling precincts in Missouri, a crucial battleground state. Norma Storms, a 78-year-old resident of Raytown, said her driveway was filled with cars left by voters who couldn't get into nearby parking lots.

''I have never seen anything like this in all my born days,'' she said. ''I am just astounded.'' In Virginia, where a Democrat has not won the presidential race since 1964, several counties experienced paper jams and balky touch-screen devices. In Richmond, a precinct opening was delayed because the person who had the keys overslept. Hundreds of people swarming the branch library cheered when its doors finally opened.

Despite the wait to vote, which in some places was longer than two hours, folks standing in line were appeared happy -- and patient -- about casting a ballot in this historic race.

''Well, I think I feel somehow strong and energized to stand here even without food and water,'' said Alexandria, Va., resident Ahmed Bowling, facing a very long line. ''What matters is to cast my vote.''

Ohio, which experienced extreme voting problems in the last presidential race, had some jammed paper problems in Franklin County. ''We're taking care of things like that,'' said elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli. ''But there's nothing major or systemic.''

Perhaps the most bizarre barrier to voting was a car which hit a utility pole in St. Paul's Merriam Park neighborhood. The accident knocked power out for over an hour to two polling locations. Ramsey County officials said voting continued at those sites, and the ballots were kept secure until the power was restored and the ballots could be run through an electronic machine.

Late Monday, McCain's campaign sued the Virginia electoral board, trying to force the state to count late-arriving military ballots from overseas.

McCain, the Republican candidate and a former POW from the Vietnam War, asked a federal judge to order state election officials to count absentee ballots mailed from abroad that arrive as late as Nov. 14.

Lawsuits have become common fodder in election battles. The 2000 recount meltdown in Florida was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

What is uncommon about Tuesday's contest is the sheer number of voters expected to descend on more than 7,000 election jurisdictions across the country. Voter registration numbers are up 7.3 percent from the last presidential election.

''We have a system that is traditionally set up for low turnout,'' said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause. ''We're going to have all these new voters, but not a lot of new resources. The election directors just have very little to work with.''

    Long Lines Greet Voters as Polls Are Deluged, NYT, 4.11.2008,
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Voting-Problems.html

After Epic Campaign, Voters Go to Polls

November 5, 2008
The New York Times
By MICHAEL COOPER

Americans went to the polls on Tuesday to choose the next president of the United States, deciding whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator John McCain was better suited to guide the nation through an economic crisis at home and two wars abroad.

In voting booths in every corner of the land, the people were collectively writing the ending to a political saga that has been unfolding for nearly two years, during a tumultuous, uncertain period of American history in which record numbers of people expressed concerns that the country was heading down the wrong track.

Voters began lining up before dawn at polling locations up and down the East Coast, in what election officials said was an unusually high level of turnout. Some voters waited for as along as an hour in Virginia and others stood in lines that stretched out the door at polling stations in Cleveland. Yogi Preschel, 54, used his 45-minute wait to vote on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to drink a cup of coffee and shave with a battery-powered razor.

Mr. Obama cast his ballot at the Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School in Chicago with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia, at 7:36 a.m. local time. “I voted,” he announced to a few dozen people standing in the gym who snapped photos of him with their cell phone cameras. Shortly after that his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, followed suit soon afterward in Wilmington, Del., accompanied by his wife, Jill, and 91-year-old mother, Jean Finnegan Biden.

Mr. McCain, who was in Phoenix, was expected to vote later in the morning. And his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, touched down in Anchorage just after 5 a.m. local time and set off for an hour-long drive to Wasilla, where she planned to vote before returning to Phoenix.

In tiny Dixville Notch, N.H., which casts its ballots just after midnight, Mr. Obama won 15 votes to Mr. McCain’s six. President Bush won the vote there in 2004.

In Richmond, Va., the capital city of a battleground state, voters started lining up at 5 a.m., and by 6 a.m., lines were already an hour long. They stood in line through a steady drizzle, sipping coffee and reading newspapers, as election officials offered voting instructions.

Whoever wins on Tuesday — Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, or Mr. McCain, the Republican — the election will make history. If Mr. Obama is elected, he will become the nation’s first African-American president. And if Mr. McCain wins, his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, will be the first woman elected vice president.

Presidential elections are really 50 state-by-state elections, and for Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain the day was all about trying to win enough of those states to get the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency. To that end they spent the last days and hours of the campaign making their final pushes in closely contested states from Florida to Virginia to Colorado that could tip the balance in favor of either man.

Looming over the race was the unpopular Republican president, George W. Bush, whose approval ratings are hovering at record lows after starting a war in Iraq that many Americans concluded was a mistake, and presiding during an economic collapse this fall that left millions of people worrying about their mortgages and retirement savings.

Mr. Obama, 47, a first-term senator from Illinois, premised his candidacy on change, arguing that he would turn the page on President Bush’s policies and make the country respected again at home and abroad. Mr. McCain, 72, a son and grandson of admirals who served five and a half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, ran as the most experienced candidate to be commander-in-chief, but also argued that he had long bucked his party and would bring change to Washington as well.

The two men offered starkly different proposals. Mr. Obama called for ending the war in Iraq over a period of about 16 months, and Mr. McCain for continuing it until victory was achieved. Mr. Obama wanted to roll back President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, and to cut taxes for the middle class; Mr. McCain wanted to extend the Bush tax cuts and cut taxes on businesses. Mr. Obama wanted to use government money to expand health insurance for the uninsured, and to require coverage for all children, while Mr. McCain wanted to give individuals tax credits to go toward buying their own insurance.

In some areas, both men promised a break from the Bush administration, even if they differed on the details: both agreed that global warming was real, and promised to take steps to reduce it; both pledged to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and both were outspoken in condemning torture after reports of waterboarding and other abuse of prisoners at the hands of American captors surfaced in recent years.

During the long, grueling campaign, Mr. Obama repeatedly claimed that Mr. McCain would effectively represent a third term for Mr. Bush. And while Mr. McCain has at times been a thorn in Mr. Bush’s side, as a presidential candidate he was proposing to continue enough of Mr. Bush’s policies, from tax cuts to the Iraq war, that the charge seemed to stick. Mr. McCain, for his part, painted Mr. Obama as unprepared, noting that only four years ago he was still a member of the Illinois State Senate, and trying to sow doubts about him by suggesting that he was still largely an unknown quantity.

For all the big issues, there were plenty of fleeting, insubstantial controversies as well. Mr. McCain mocked Mr. Obama as a substance-free celebrity, and Mr. Obama mocked Mr. McCain for being unable to remember how many homes he owned. At times the contest grew ugly, with Mr. McCain all but suggesting that Mr. Obama was a socialist for his tax-cut proposal, and Ms. Palin accusing Mr. Obama of “palling around with terrorists” for working sporadically with a former 1960s radical.

It was a presidential campaign that shattered all kinds of records, from the number of votes cast during the long, bitterly contested primary and caucus season to the huge amount of money raised and spent on the general election after Mr. Obama withdrew from his pledge to accept public financing of his campaign. And during a campaign season that lasted nearly two years, it sometimes seemed that the road to the White House had more twists and turns than Lombard Street in San Francisco.

Both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain went through lean periods when they were considered long shots for their parties’ nomination, only to prevail in the end.

Mr. McCain had entered the race as the presumptive Republican frontrunner by virtue of having been the runner-up in 2000, and by the way he had raised his profile in the years since then by passing a campaign finance bill that bore his name, and appearing frequently on television, often as an independent voice, bucking his party.

But things soured for him in 2007. The Iraq war he had championed grew deeply unpopular, and at a time many were proposing scaling back the American presence there he was calling for adding more troops, leading many to question whether he could win over the independent voters who had always been central to his strategy. Then his support for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws provoked a vitriolic backlash among Republicans, whose support he needed to win the party’s nomination. After spending lavishly but falling short in fundraising, his campaign was nearly broke by the summer of 2007, and his candidacy was all but written off by the Washington establishment.

He scaled back, focused all his resources on winning the New Hampshire primary, and hoped for the best. Then things began to go his way. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who had invested heavily in Iowa and New Hampshire, was embarrassed and weakened when he lost the Iowa caucuses to Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor. Rudolph W. Giuliani, who led in many polls for much of the fall, began to fade as the voting neared, and adopted a risky strategy of holding back resources for the Florida Primary. Fred D. Thompson’s highly anticipated candidacy failed to generate much excitement when he belatedly entered the race.

It was against that backdrop that Mr. McCain was able to win the New Hampshire primary, beating a weakened Mr. Romney and putting himself on the road to the nomination after racking up wins in South Carolina and Florida and the many states that voted on Feb. 5.

Mr. Obama entered the race as a long shot at a time when many Democrats expected Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York or former Senator John Edwards to win the party’s nomination. But his campaign quickly inspired a core of committed young people, and his speeches became political events, drawing huge, transfixed crowds. At the same time he proved himself to be a prodigious fundraiser, making the party take him seriously, and cast himself as a change from politics of the Bush and Clinton years.

He was propelled forward by his victory in the Iowa caucuses, which took on an added significance by signaling to many Democrats that if an African-American could win an overwhelmingly white state like Iowa, he could win elsewhere. But Mrs. Clinton went on to beat him in New Hampshire, presaging a long battle to the nomination.

Mr. Obama was helped by two things. As a former community organizer, he placed an emphasis on organizing supporters in caucus states, many of which were overlooked by the Clinton campaign, but which won him delegates. And unlike the Republicans, who awarded their state delegates on the winner-take-all system, the Democratic rules awarded their delegates proportionally, meaning that Mr. Obama was able to pick up large numbers of delegates even in states he lost to Mrs. Clinton.

In the end, she fell short, and he became the Democratic presidential nominee.

Mr. Obama chose a more experienced hand, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, as his running mate, tapping someone with extensive foreign policy experience but a propensity for making the occasional gaffe. Mr. McCain picked Ms. Palin of Alaska, arguing that her willingness to buck her party elders there made her a perfect fit for him. The choice galvanized social conservatives who had long been wary of McCain, but turned off some independents who came to view her as unprepared.

If both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain were chosen by the parties in large part because of their positions on the Iraq war — Mr. Obama for opposing it from the beginning, and Mr. McCain for supporting the surge strategy that was later credited with reducing violence there — the election quickly turned to pocketbook issues. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas prices over the summer provoked outrage, and the worsening economy reached crisis proportions this fall when the nation’s financial institutions teetered on the brink of collapse and required a huge government bailout.

And the family lives of the candidates did not pause for the campaign. One of Mr. McCain’s sons, Jimmy, a Marine, did a tour in Iraq, and both Ms. Palin and Mr. Biden bid farewell to their sons, who were going off to Iraq. Ms. Palin announced on the day the Republican National Convention began that her daughter Bristol, 17, was pregnant and engaged to be married. Mr. Biden’s mother-in-law died last month, and on Monday, the day before the election, Mr. Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise him during his teenage years, died in Hawaii.

    After Epic Campaign, Voters Go to Polls, NYT, 5.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05campaign.html?hp

Obama and McCain await voters' decision

Tue Nov 4, 2008
12:49pm EST
Reuters
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain faced the verdict of U.S. voters on Tuesday after a long and bitter struggle for the White House, with Obama holding a decisive edge in national opinion polls.

At least 130 million Americans were expected to vote on a successor to unpopular Republican President George W. Bush and set the country's course for the next four years to tackle the economic crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an overhaul of health care and other issues.

Long lines of people waited to vote at some polls in battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. Polls close in parts of Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST and over the following six hours in the other 48 states and the District of Columbia.

Obama, 47, a first-term senator from Illinois, would be the first black U.S. president. Opinion polls indicate he is running ahead of McCain in enough states to give him more than the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.

A victory for McCain, 72, would make him the oldest president to begin a first term in the White House and make his running mate Sarah Palin the first female U.S. vice president.

World stocks rose to a two-week high and U.S. stocks rose on Wall Street with major indices up more than 3 percent.

Analysts have said market prices probably already reflected expectations of an Obama victory. But if Democrats tighten their control of Congress, it may be easier for the new administration to deal with the financial crisis.

Opinion polls showed Obama ahead or even with McCain in at least eight states won by Bush in 2004, including the big prizes of Ohio and Florida. Obama led comfortably in all of the states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004.

Ian Edwards, 60, said he voted for Obama.

"Very simple," the chief executive of a small technology company said. "Bad war. Bad economy. Bad reputation overseas."

Tyler White, in Scottsdale, Arizona, distrusted Obama on taxes. "My parents are in the upper tier of the tax bracket and feel that Barack Obama is not the right fit," he said.
 

DAUGHTERS WATCH OBAMA VOTE

Obama and his wife, Michelle, avoided the line at his Chicago polling station as they were let in a side entrance with their two daughters to vote. Poll workers and voters snapped pictures and cheered.

"Voting with my daughters, that was a big deal," Obama said afterward, on his way to Indiana for one last campaign event.

McCain, an Arizona senator, voted near his Phoenix apartment before final stops in Colorado and New Mexico.

Seeking the biggest upset in modern politics, McCain said he was gaining. "We're going to work hard until the polls close," he declared.

His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, kept her ballot secret. "I don't have to tell anybody who I voted for," she told reporters in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

The race was closely watched in Kenya, where in Obama's late father's village of Kogelo, residents held prayers for his presidential bid and for his maternal grandmother, who died in Hawaii this week.

CAMPAIGN THEMES

Both candidates hammered their campaign themes in the race's final hours, with Obama accusing McCain of representing a third term for Bush's policies and being dangerously out of touch on the economy.

McCain, whose campaign has attacked Obama as a socialist and accused him of being a "pal" with terrorists, portrayed him as a liberal who would raise taxes.

But he has struggled to separate himself from Bush in a difficult political environment for Republicans, who are trying to hold on to the presidency for a third consecutive term.

Victories in any of the traditionally Republican states where polls show Obama is competitive, including Virginia, Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina, would likely propel him to the White House.

Obama took command of the race in the last month as a deepening financial crisis reinforced his perceived strengths on the economy, and in three debates.

Democrats are also expected to expand majorities in both chambers of Congress. They need to gain nine Senate seats to reach a 60-seat majority that would give them the muscle to defeat Republican procedural hurdles.

That would increase pressure on Democrats to deliver on campaign promises to end the war in Iraq, eliminate Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy and overhaul health care.

(Additional reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, Andrea Hopkins, Jeff Mason, Caren Bohan and Tim Gaynor; Editing by Kristin Roberts and Alan Elsner)

    Obama and McCain await voters' decision, R, 4.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4A30UL20081104

Obama Makes Final-Hour Push in Indiana

November 4, 2008
Filed at 12:27 p.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO (AP) -- Seeking a transcendent victory, Democrat Barack Obama made a final-hour push for Republican-leaning Indiana on Tuesday after casting his own ballot with his young daughters at his side.

''It's going to be tight as a tick here in Indiana,'' Obama told volunteers in Indianapolis trying to get out the vote for the Democratic ticket with only seven hours to go in the area's balloting. ''So the question is who wants it more.''

The Illinois senator and his wife, Michelle, were among the first to vote after polls opened Tuesday at Chicago's Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School. They cast paper ballots in side-by-side booths with 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha looking on.

''The journey ends, but voting with my daughters, that was a big deal,'' Obama told reporters later.

At times while he completed his ballot Obama grinned at his daughters and whispered to them. His wife took longer to fill out the lengthy ballot with several local offices up for consideration, and at one point Sasha hugged her father's leg looking impatient. Obama later joked that he had to check who is wife was voting for after she took so long.

The family was ushered inside ahead of a line of their Hyde Park neighbors that wrapped around the block and cheered upon their arrival. Fellow voters inside watched in silence and snapped cell-phone pictures.

Obama kissed the cheek of the poll worker who took his ballot, then watched while she fed it into a machine. The crowd broke into applause when a smiling Obama held up his validation slip and said, ''I voted.''

Obama voted a few minutes after William Ayers, the 1960s radical who lives in the neighborhood and whom Republicans tried to link to Obama in the campaign. Ayers did not answer a question about how he voted from reporters waiting inside for Obama's arrival.

Afterward, Obama traveled to Indianapolis for final campaign stop to encourage voters in Indiana to support the Democratic candidate from next door. He helped about two dozen members of United Auto Workers Local 550 in Indianapolis work the phones at their union hall.

''I think we can win Indiana, otherwise I wouldn't be in Indiana,'' he said.

Obama was targeting other swing states in the final hours of voting by doing an hour and a half of satellite television interviews from a Chicago hotel room. The interviews were with local news stations in Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, Missouri.

Later he planned his voting-day game of basketball with friends and staff -- a habit he liked to stick to in the primaries for good luck -- before watching returns at a Chicago hotel room.

After the race is called, he planned to address supporters from a stage built especially for the occasion in Chicago's Grant Park.

------

On the Net:

Obama campaign: http://www.barackobama.com

    Obama Makes Final-Hour Push in Indiana, NYT, 4.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Obama.html

The Final Countdown: Obama Casts His Vote

November 4, 2008, 10:44 am
The New York Times > The Caucus
By Jeff Zeleny

CHICAGO – Senator Barack Obama cast his ballot shortly after the polls opened here on Tuesday morning, walking into the Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School on this city’s South Side with his wife and two daughters at 7:36 a.m.

“I voted,” Mr. Obama announced to a few dozen people standing in the gymnasium watching the Democratic presidential nominee, many of whom snapped photographs with their cell phones.

While Chicago is a big city, the Hyde Park neighborhood where Mr. Obama lives can also carry the feel of a far smaller place. And shortly before he arrived at his polling place, one of his neighbors who became an unwitting character in his presidential race also dropped by to vote.

Bill Ayers, a former member of the radical Weathermen who now is a professor at the University of Chicago, came to cast his vote, too. He was joined by his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, who also belonged to the radical Weatherman group that launched a campaign of bombings targeting the Pentagon and the United States Capitol during the Vietnam War.

Their arrival at the polls shortly before Mr. Obama put a curious coda on a truth-is-often-stranger-than-fiction moment in the presidential campaign. For weeks, Senator John McCain and his running-mate sought to draw close links between Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers, a line of criticism that seemed to fade in the final hours before Election Day.

Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn left the polling place before Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia arrived. But not before reporters and photographers arrived to watch the Obamas vote.

Mr. Obama is heading to Indianapolis for his only traveling stop of the day, a visit intended to help boost turnout in Indiana, a Republican-leaning state that Democrats hope to add to their tally tonight.

Before he stepped onto the plane, he took a couple of questions from reporters.

“I feel great and it was fun, I had a chance to vote with my daughters,” Mr. Obama said. “I feel really good.”

Asked whether he was feeling sentimental, he replied: “You know, I’m sure I will tonight, that’s when the polls close.”

“The journey ends, but voting with my daughters, that was a big deal,” Mr. Obama said. “I noticed that Michelle took a long time though. I had to check to see who she was voting for.”

The Final Countdown: Obama Casts His Vote, NYT, 4.11.2008, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/obama-casts-his-vote/

McCain Flashes a Thumbs-Up as Polls Open in Ariz.

November 4, 2008
Filed at 1:01 p.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX (AP) -- Republican John McCain showed Election Day optimism by flashing a thumbs-up sign Tuesday after casting his ballot for president at a church near his home.

McCain stepped out of a sport-utility vehicle with wife Cindy and son Jimmy as a small crowd cheered ''Go, John, go!'' and ''We love you!'' One person carried a sign that read, ''Use your brain, vote McCain!'' Jimmy McCain is a U.S. Marine who served in Iraq.

The McCains walked into the church, cast their ballots and left within minutes. The Arizona senator signed a poster and gave the thumbs-up sign before leaving without speaking to reporters.

Earlier in the morning, McCain could be seen on the patio of his high-rise condo, pacing with a cell phone in one hand and a large cup of coffee in the other.

''In a way I'm kind of sorry that it's over because it's been exciting,'' McCain told ABC's ''Good Morning America'' in an interview broadcast Tuesday. ''I mean, it's been one of the most incredible experiences that anybody can have.''

Shortly after voting, McCain flew to a rally in Grand Junction, Colo., and he planned to visit a volunteer site in New Mexico before returning to Phoenix. That's a break from his Election Day tradition of watching a movie before election results begin to come in.

The 72-year-old Senate veteran vowed to fight for every vote even as national and state battleground polls found Democrat Barack Obama with a measurable headwind into Election Day.

A blizzard of late polls showed Obama leading in most competitive states, leaving McCain with only the narrowest possible path to victory Tuesday night.

''I think these battleground states have now closed up, almost all of them, and I believe there's a good scenario where we can win,'' McCain told CBS' ''The Early Show'' hours before the polls opened. ''Look, I know I'm still the underdog, I understand that.''

    McCain Flashes a Thumbs-Up as Polls Open in Ariz., R, 4.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-McCain.html

Democrats Head for Bigger House Majority

November 4, 2008
Filed at 1:01 p.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic lawmaker in charge of increasing the party's majority in the House says he's confident of solid gains, even though there has been a tightening in several races.

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen says he's cautious because so many House races are being fought in GOP-leaning districts, so he's not predicting the 20-plus seat gains that others see. Van Hollen says that a 10 to 15 seat gain would be a solid win.

He says to expect a big night for Democrats if they pick up a GOP seat in Indiana, where polls close at 7 p.m.

But if endangered Democratic incumbents lose battles in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, Democratic gains would be more limited.

All 435 House seats are up for grabs tonight. Democrats currently hold a 36-seat edge.

    Democrats Head for Bigger House Majority, NYT, 4.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-House-Rdp.html

Obama Wins Midnight Vote in New Hampshire

November 4, 2008
Filed at 1:10 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP) -- Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, N.H., where tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied lives on.

Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday's first minutes. The town of Hart's Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns' ballots but got no votes.

''I'm not going to say I wasn't surprised,'' said Obama supporter Tanner Nelson Tillotson, whose name was drawn from a bowl to make him Dixville Notch's first voter.

With 115 residents between them, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location get every eligible voter to the polls beginning at midnight on Election Day. Between them, the towns have been enjoying their first-vote status since 1948.

Being first means something to residents of the Granite State, home of the nation's earliest presidential primary and the central focus -- however briefly -- of the vote-watching nation's attention every four years.

Town Clerk Rick Erwin said Dixville Notch is proud of its tradition, but added, ''The most important thing is that we exemplify a 100 percent vote.''

Dixville Notch resident Peter Johnson said the early bird electoral exercise ''is fun.'' A former naval aviator, Johnson said he was voting for McCain, but added, ''I think both candidates are excellent people.''

Voting was carried out in a room in a local hotel festooned with political memorabilia from campaigns long past. Each voter gets an individual booth so there are no lines at the magic hour. The votes were quickly counted, announced and recorded on a posterboard that proclaims, ''First in the Nation, Dixville Notch.''

The tradition drew spectators, including Tim McKenna, who drove with his wife 16 miles from Cambridge, N.H., to witness the event.

''Living in New Hampshire, you hear so much about it in the news,'' said McKenna. ''I think it's a very historic election this year.''

Ed Butler, a Democratic state representative who runs the Notchland Inn in Hart's Location, said, ''Being this small and being able to be first just makes it that much more special.''

Although scores of states have voted early, the two villages are the first to officially announce the results on Election Day.

New Hampshire law requires polls to open at 11 a.m., but that doesn't stop towns from opening earlier. It also allows towns to close their polls once all registered and eligible voters have cast ballots.

Hart's Location started opening its polls early in 1948, the year Harry S. Truman beat Thomas Dewey, to accommodate railroad workers who had to get to work early. Hart's Location got out of the early voting business in 1964 after some residents grew weary of all the publicity, but brought it back in 1996.

Dixville Notch, nestled in a mountain pass 1,800 feet up and about halfway between the White Mountain National Forest and the Canadian border, followed suit in 1960, when John F. Kennedy beat Richard M. Nixon. Nixon, the Republican, swept all nine votes cast in Dixville that year, and before Tuesday, the town had gone for a Democrat only once since then. That was in 1968, when the tally was Democrat Hubert Humphrey eight, Nixon four.

    Obama Wins Midnight Vote in New Hampshire, NYT, 4.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-New-Hampshire-First-Votes.html

FACTBOX: Electoral votes by state in Tuesday's election

Tue Nov 4, 2008
1:36am EST
Reuters

(Reuters) - Following is a summary of electoral votes allocated to each state and the District of Columbia for Tuesday's U.S. presidential election. A candidate must get 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538 to win.

State/Electoral votes

Alabama 9

Alaska 3

Arizona 10

Arkansas 6

California 55

Colorado 9

Connecticut 7

Delaware 3

District of Columbia 3

Florida 27

Georgia 15

Hawaii 4

Idaho 4

Illinois 21

Indiana 11

Iowa 7

Kansas 6

Kentucky 8

Louisiana 9

Maine 4

Maryland 10

Massachusetts 12

Michigan 17

Minnesota 10

Mississippi 6

Missouri 11

Montana 3

Nebraska 5

Nevada 5

New Hampshire 4

New Jersey 15

New Mexico 5

New York 31

North Carolina 15

North Dakota 3

Ohio 20

Oklahoma 7

Oregon 7

Pennsylvania 21

Rhode Island 4

South Carolina 8

South Dakota 3

Tennessee 11

Texas 34

Utah 5

Vermont 3

Virginia 13

Washington 11

West Virginia 5

Wisconsin 10

Wyoming 3
 

(Reporting by Washington newsroom; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

    FACTBOX: Electoral votes by state in Tuesday's election, NYT, 4.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUKTRE4A317H20081104?virtualBrandChannel=10112

FACTBOX: Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate

Tue Nov 4, 2008
1:36am EST
Reuters

(Reuters) - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the Democratic candidate for president in Tuesday's election. Following are some of his biographical details:

Age: 47

Birth date: August 4, 1961

Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii

Education: Columbia University; Harvard Law School

Wife: Michelle Robinson

Children: Two daughters

Religious affiliation: United Church of Christ

Family: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and a white American mother. His father, Barack Obama Sr., married his mother, Ann Dunham, while studying at the University of Hawaii. The couple separated two years after Obama was born. His father ultimately returned to Kenya, where he became a noted economist. He died in a car accident in 1982.

Obama's mother's second marriage was to an Indonesian named Lolo Soetoro. The family moved to Indonesia and Obama remained there until he was 10, when he moved back to Hawaii and lived with his grandparents while studying on a scholarship at the elite Punahou Academy.

He has seven half-brothers and half-sisters in Kenya from his father's other marriages, and a half-sister from his mother's second marriage, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a teacher in Hawaii.

Career: After finishing college in 1983, Obama worked for a New York financial consultant and a consumer organization. He landed a job in Chicago in 1985 as an organizer for Developing Communities Project, a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods.

Three years later, Obama left to go to Harvard Law School, where he became the first black president of the law review. He worked as a summer associate at the Sidley Austin law firm in Chicago, where he met his future wife. After graduation from Harvard in 1991, Obama practiced civil rights law at a small firm in Chicago, then became a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago in 1993.

Elective office: Obama won a seat in the Illinois state Senate in 1996. During his time in the Legislature, he worked on welfare and ethics legislation, as well as a measure requiring electronic recording of police interrogations and confessions in homicide investigations.

Obama won a heavily contested U.S. Senate seat in 2004, carrying 53 percent of the Democratic primary vote in an eight-candidate race. He easily won the general election. In the U.S. Senate he compiled a liberal voting record, but was one of the few Democrats to back a measure to curb class-action lawsuits. He opposed the appointment of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nonpartisan National Journal ranked Obama as the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate early this year based on his voting record in 2007. He was ranked 10th most liberal in 2006 and 16th most liberal in 2005.
 

(Reporting by David Alexander, editing by Stacey Joyce)

(Sources: Reuters, Almanac of American Politics, "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama)

    FACTBOX: Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, R, 4.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUKTRE4A317A20081104?virtualBrandChannel=10112

FACTBOX: Joe Biden, Democratic vice presidential candidate

Tue Nov 4, 2008
1:36am EST
Reuters

(Reuters) - Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden is a long-time U.S. senator from Delaware with considerable experience on judicial and foreign policy issues.

Following are some biographical details for Biden:

Age: 65

Birth date: November 20, 1942

Birthplace: Scranton, Pennsylvania

Education: Bachelor's degree from University of Delaware; law degree from Syracuse University

Wife: Jill Tracy Jacobs

Children: Two sons from first marriage; one daughter from second

Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic

Family: Joe Biden married Neilia Hunter in 1966 while he was in law school. The couple had three children -- a daughter and two sons.

Biden was elected in 1972 to his first term in the U.S. Senate. Six weeks later, his wife and infant daughter were killed in an automobile accident that critically injured his two sons. He nearly resigned his Senate seat, but was persuaded not to by the majority leader. Biden took the oath of office at the bedside of one of his sons.

He was a single parent for five years, making the hour-and-a-half trip back and forth from Washington twice each work day, a practice he continues. He met Jill Tracy Jacobs, a teacher, in 1975 and the two married in 1977. They have a daughter. Biden's sons recovered. One is the Delaware attorney general and an attorney in the Army National Guard who is to be deployed in Iraq this month.

Career: Biden graduated near the bottom of his class from both the University of Delaware and Syracuse University law school. He was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969 and practiced law for several years.

Elective office: Biden was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and served for two years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He has served in the Senate since then, being re-elected five times.

Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. He is ranked among the most liberal senators by several groups that rate voting records. He opposed the Supreme Court nominations of conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

During the war in Bosnia, Biden was one of the strongest advocates for action to protect Bosnian Muslims, from lifting the arms embargo to NATO air strikes to war crimes prosecutions.

As the Bush administration moved toward war with Iraq, he said the United States probably had no choice but to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But he opposed unilateral action and pressed for a move to war only after exhausting diplomatic options. He opposed President George W. Bush's strategy of boosting troop levels in Iraq in order to reduce violence.
 

Sources: Reuters, Almanac of American Politics

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

    FACTBOX: Joe Biden, Democratic vice presidential candidate, R, 4.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUKTRE4A317C20081104?virtualBrandChannel=10112

FACTBOX: John McCain, Republican presidential candidate

Tue Nov 4, 2008
1:36am EST
Reuters

(Reuters) - Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the Republican candidate for U.S. president in the election on Tuesday. Following are some of McCain's biographical details:

Age: 72

Birth date: August 29, 1936

Birthplace: Panama Canal Zone

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis; National War College, Washington, D.C.

Wife: Cindy Lou Hensley

Children: Seven children, four grandchildren

Religious affiliation: Episcopalian

Family: McCain is the son and grandson of Navy admirals. His grandfather, John McCain, commanded a fast carrier task force in the Pacific during World War Two and saw the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri. The senator's father, also John McCain, was a submariner in the Pacific during World War Two. He was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command during the Vietnam War when the younger McCain was a prisoner of war.

Career: After graduating fifth from the bottom of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy, McCain began a 22-year career in the Navy. During the Vietnam War, he flew the carrier-based A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft.

On July 29, 1967, McCain was almost killed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal when a missile accidentally fired from another plane hit the fuel tanks on his jet, igniting a deadly fire. He narrowly escaped, but 134 people died in the blaze.

On October 26 of the same year, McCain was shot down during his 23rd bombing mission. He ejected, broke both arms and a leg and was knocked unconscious. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war in the North Vietnamese forces' infamous "Hanoi Hilton." He was denied medical treatment, often beaten and served much time in solitary confinement.

McCain spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war and declined offers to be released earlier than longer-serving prisoners after his captors discovered he was the son of a U.S. admiral. Upon his release, he regained flight status and continued his Navy career. His last assignment before retiring in 1981 was as naval liaison to the U.S. Senate.

Elective office: McCain won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona in 1982. He served in the House until 1986, when he won a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he has served ever since.

McCain ran for president in 1999 but lost the Republican nomination to George W. Bush.

McCain's voting record is mixed. The nonpartisan National Journal did not give him a ranking on its liberal-conservative scale in 2007 because it said he did not vote frequently enough to earn a score, missing more than half the votes in the economic and foreign policy categories. The American Conservative Union gives him an 82 percent conservative lifetime rating.

Sources: Reuters, Almanac of American Politics, ACUratings.org

    FACTBOX: John McCain, Republican presidential candidate, R, 4.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUKTRE4A317B20081104?virtualBrandChannel=10112

FACTBOX:

Sarah Palin,

Republican vice presidential candidate

Tue Nov 4, 2008
1:36am EST
Reuters

(Reuters) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the first woman to run on a Republican presidential ticket.

Following are some biographical details about Palin, who was little known nationally before she was chosen as John McCain's vice presidential running mate:

Age: 44

Birth date: February 11, 1964

Birthplace: Sandpoint, Idaho

Education: University of Idaho

Husband: Todd Palin

Children: Two sons and three daughters

Religious affiliation: Christian who has attended nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church in recent years; previously attended Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church.

Family: Palin moved to Alaska with her parents, a teacher and school secretary, when she was an infant. She grew up in Wasilla, a small town near Anchorage.

Palin was a member of the state champion girls basketball team, on which she was nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda" for her aggressive play. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in a 1982 beauty pageant and later competed in the Miss Alaska contest.

Palin graduated in 1987 from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism and political science and eloped with her high school boyfriend in 1988 to avoid the cost of a wedding.

The couple have five children -- two sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Track, deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army in September. The youngest, son Trig, was born in April with Down syndrome.

Career: After her graduation and marriage, Palin worked as a television sports reporter from 1987 to 1989. She also worked in the family's commercial fishing business and was the owner of a snowmobile, watercraft and all-terrain vehicle business.

Elective office/public service: Palin was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992. She served two terms on the council and was elected mayor for two terms. She gained the attention of Republican Party officials by promoting growth and cutting property taxes.

Palin ran for lieutenant governor in 2002 but lost. After campaigning for the Republican ticket under Frank Murkowski, she was appointed to the panel that regulates Alaska's oil and gas industry.

Palin established herself as a party outsider by promoting a pipeline project opposed by Murkowski. She ran against the governor in 2006, defeated him in the primary and then defeated a former Democratic governor in the general election.

As governor, she has worked on ethics reform, sought to reduce state spending and promoted a deal that would offer $500 million in seed money for constructing a natural gas pipeline.

She ignited controversy by firing the state's respected top police officer. He charged he was dismissed for resisting pressure from Palin's office to lay off a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody dispute with her sister. A state legislative inquiry concluded in October that Palin had abused her power by pressuring subordinates to fire the trooper. The Alaska Personnel Board on Monday cleared her of wrongdoing in the matter.
 

Sources: Reuters, Almanac of American Politics

FACTBOX: Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate, R, 4.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUKTRE4A317D20081104?virtualBrandChannel=10112