NCBCP Election Day Command Center Michigan Melanie Campbell asked the callers on the Media Conference call what was happening in the country in key states. Catherine Martin with the A. Phillip Randolph Institute. Long lines, machine broke downs, voters at wrong polling locations. The lines are moving well. Pittsburgh Dewitt Walton with the Pittsburgh chapter of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute mentioned that there are no major incidents. There are isolated spots of long lines. There are also some reports of machines broken. The Secretary of State promised that they would have emergency paper ballots if machines were broken. The elections board has been responsive. Atlanta, Georgia Helen Butler mentioned that they have had problems with machines and the polls are using paper ballots. Long lines are widespread. Some people are not on voter rolls when they arrive due to not receiving their voter cards. Northern Virginia Precincts are 2 long. Some are not given paper ballots and they are turned away at the polls for no valid reasons. Coalition partners with water and snacks are helping people in the line. The average wait has been an hour to 2 hours. Richmond Southside Baptist Church only has one machine. St. Petersburgh, Florida There are very long lines at smaller precincts. The turnout is heavy. Many first-time voters are turning out as well. Orlando, Florida Voters started lining up at 4 a.m. to vote. There are a lot of first-time voters. Black Youth Vote! is conducting exit poll surveys.
NCBCP Election Day Command Center Michigan Melanie Campbell asked the callers on the Media Conference call what was happening in the country in key states. Catherine Martin with the A. Phillip Randolph Institute. Long lines, machine broke downs, voters at wrong polling locations. The lines are moving well. Pittsburgh Dewitt Walton with the Pittsburgh chapter of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute mentioned that there are no major incidents. There are isolated spots of long lines. There are also some reports of machines broken. The Secretary of State promised that they would have emergency paper ballots if machines were broken. The elections board has been responsive. Atlanta, Georgia Helen Butler mentioned that they have had problems with machines and the polls are using paper ballots. Long lines are widespread. Some people are not on voter rolls when they arrive due to not receiving their voter cards. Northern Virginia Precincts are 2 long. Some are not given paper ballots and they are turned away at the polls for no valid reasons. Coalition partners with water and snacks are helping people in the line. The average wait has been an hour to 2 hours. Richmond Southside Baptist Church only has one machine. St. Petersburgh, Florida There are very long lines at smaller precincts. The turnout is heavy. Many first-time voters are turning out as well. Orlando, Florida Voters started lining up at 4 a.m. to vote. There are a lot of first-time voters. Black Youth Vote! is conducting exit poll surveys. Houston, Texas Carmen Watkins reported 750,000 voters voting early.
Okay so we just got a call from Senegal asking how things are going. They are gathered around cheering us on! F
Tiffany Brown with Black Youth Vote! in Philadelphia is seeing her share of long lines and waits. Near Temple University's' campus, voters can be seen waiting to vote in the rain. Neighbors are bringing out umbrellas, water, etc. Persons with special needs have been transitioned to the front of the line to avoid the long wait. Balloon artists are engaging voters in the line. Nobody is leaving the lines. The excitement is heavy in this particular precinct, but Tiffany is continually on the lookout for voter disenfranchisement.
Unity 08 GA - reported by Helen Butler written by Ja'net Y. Carter 11:00 a.m. There are precincts that opened late due to polling machines that were not functioning properly. They have resorted to using paper ballots. There is also a problem with people who have voted, but are not showing up as voted. A husband and wife casted their votes together, but only the wife is showing as voted, while the husband is showing as not having voted. There is concern about whether these votes will be counted. Voters are also experiencing extremely long waits in line. VA - reported by Cynthia Downs-Taylor & Jerry Hebert written by Marjorie Innocent 10:30 am - Chesterfield County: Cars being towed for no apparent reason at Iron Bridge Road Baptist Church 12:00 pm - Machine breakdowns reported in Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Newport, Richmond & Fairfax. Some precincts are moving to paper ballots and in others people are being turned away. Considering lawsuit to extend voting by 2 hours Report provided by Jerry Herbert, civil rights attorney, to Melanie Campbell. PA -reported by Donna Frisby-Greenwood (Phila.), Nyota Brown & Judith Moore (Pittsburgh) In Philadelphia, visual observations show, large crowds and long lines at voter precincts. At Temple University, in lieu of a 1.5 hrs wait, students are in line and excited to vote. Reports of broken voting machines are currently being investigated. In Pittsburgh, smaller precincts are 100 of 300 registered voters have cast their vote. At the time of report, there were delays in resetting the voting machines. There were also incidents of incorrect polling information posted.
Georgia - Tommy Dortch Shortage of memory cards for voting machines, Southwest ATL. To re-program only 5 machines, 1 broken. 7:00 - 8:30 still waiting; lines backed up. Wait to reprocess cards. Andy Young plus Tommy plus others vote. Ppl need at least 2 hrs. or more to vote. Precincts A, B, C turnout high. Mississippi Polls open 15 mins. Late in Madison, MS.; machines down; Names not on roster; lines long. Weather's good; PPL voting in record numbers. Small precincts turning out. 12:50PM - Going to different precincts covering rides for senior citizens and nursing homes. Crew of four going from poll to poll doing Exit Survey. Trying to max out this particular precinct with more than 200 ppl voting. Have not encountered a lot of problems so far. North Carolina 12:30PM - Focusing on Election protection and providing snacks. Lines are not that long - going pretty smoothly. Reports of cars being towed at one polling location.
Looking to my left and my right there are awesome leaders assembled. We're sitting at the National Council of Negro Women on Pennsylvania Ave in DC. We are monitoring the non-partisan effort for Black America. Our youth are blogging, calling, and monitoring states learning first hand how to monitor a miracle. It is hard to be non-partisan today but we really believe in the system and the process. As the day gets underway
There seem to be problems in all the worse places. Long lines are actually a good thing, especially in states that don't have early vote. Insufficient machines, poor back up, inadequate supplies and ill-informed poll workers that is a formula for supression. Fortunately America woke with our "A" game today. No matter how long it takes folks are waiting. If the situation gets way out of hand Civil Rights groups are aligned with lawyers to rev up into Election Protection mode.
Yvonne Scruggs Leftwich reported from Florida that St. Petersburg is experiencing issues around vandalism. Car and home windows displaying Obama stickers or signs are being broken. Sheila Tyson reported from Alabama that in Birmingham lines have been long since the polls opened at 7AM. She also reported that voters who recieved thier absentee ballots after 5:00PM yesterday. They were told by poll workers that they were not allowed to cast their absentee ballots at the polling place. Sheila tried to assist the voters and sherrifs came and stopped her. She has alerted the lawyers.
Calls are pouring into the voter assistance hotline, 1-866-MYVOTE1. The top five hot spots are Cook County (Chicago), Illinois; Harris County (Houston), Jefferson County (Birmingham), Broward County (Fort Lauderdale) and Orleans Parish (New Orleans).
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