Signing off here as the 9:00 hour approaches. Total of 709 voters at Davenport precinct 62 at ten of the hour and other voters present.
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DLH — I was thinkin’ the other day about this fella, Tom Harkin. Now he’s not just another one of the Democrat party’s pretty faces. Tom’s a good lookin’ guy and I understand he’s pretty nice. Then I got to thinkin’. If Tom’s as pretty as Ed Asner and as nice as Ted Bundy but he votes like Hugo Chavez, he ain’t right for Iowa, ain’t right for America and he’d never make it in the steak fryin’ business either.
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Roy — it sounds like Gustav was trying to carry on the time honored tradition of voting Democrat early and often!
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Roy — Word is MSNBC just finished building a special padded room for Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton.
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DLH — Here is the non-story of the decade. Of course Obama has an “enemies list”
You gotta assume Sharyl has a food taster and a remote car starter. As much as I admire her, I don’t want to stand next to her on a street corner.
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Non – citizen could have voted from Davenport Precinct 6-2
RM — There was an incident of sorts earlier on my shift. A man and a women came in, his name was Gustav, and he was assisting his mother who was vision impaired. He was carrying two absentee ballot envelopes for each of them. His English was halting and both seemed of Hispanic extraction. The man presented himself with the vote by mail ballots and indicated he was there to turn them in and vote on site instead. No doubt someone told him the mailing time frame had expired. The judge went through the established process of calling “downtown” when those who present themselves with absentee (vote by mail) ballots, or who are shown on the data file at the voting location, when they give their name, to have previously requested absentee ballots. The precinct judge and “downtown” verify name and address and the absentee vote packet is nullified and the individuals are allowed to vote normally at the precinct.
The thing is the gentleman said he would not be voting because he was not a citizen but his mother was. So the admission and forbearance was to his credit, but clearly had he decided to vote and mail the ballots on time both votes would have been counted.
Where is the integrity in the process when an absentee ballot can be requested or requested on behalf of a non-citizen or otherwise ineligible person and a vote cast? The vote of his mother was not subject to challenge in my estimation because she was registered (and apparently so was he, however fraudulently). The precinct election judge indicated he would be writing up the incident. I hope that it will receive further investigation. How he received an absentee ballot is a core voting integrity matter. This particular case apparently did not involve an illegal vote and therefore require specific “intervention” by me as a polling observer, but does expose the vulnerability of the system.
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RM — The voting at this precinct is described by the precinct judge as heavy. It is 6:15 and we are probably past the “stop on your way after work” rush and my guess is we will have a more steady flow of six or so staged to vote in the ten stations available. Coincidentally the number on the vote count meter is 615.
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My apologies. My grand idea was to blog along while I sit and “poll watch” at my precinct for six hours. The problem has been that my Verizon mobile hot spot isn’t so hot, but it seems to be up for now so I will try to carry on. For some reason using the lap top I borrowed, the formatting is all screwed up making entries very cumbersome.
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Gus — Is it true that voting begins tomorrow in Chicago for 2016?
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Voter suppression in Bettendorf? You can bet Democrats would say it was if it happened in a central Davenport precinct. it is the petty kind that Democrats relish none the less. Idea is to not attract Republicans in Republican Bettendorf to the polls, or make it clear where they should pull off and park. If it is just laziness on part of the election judges the effect is still the same. From Vincie :
Had to call Auditor’s office to have them put a sign on the street outside precinct polling center on 21st and 23rd in Bettendorf . They finally got them up by 10 or so. Building is smack in middle with just signs at doors and none on street as has and should be the case. Not too friendly with me this time . Told them I go through this in every election. I was prepared to go full ballistic on them if they did not comply !
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We will have periodic comments today on this page regarding election news and maybe a regular feature or two lengthier items elsewhere on what to expect from a possible Republican takeover of the Senate. Readers should chime in with news and quips as comments to this page and we will refresh periodically and post them herein. Newest will be placed on top. Make a special effort to report or comment on matters related to the integrity of the vote.
To start off the blogging for election day —
We listened to Mitch McConnell and Rob Portman — and we thought how pathetic — those two are saying they will not even attempt much — but elect Republicans in 2016!
