I recently got back from doing my civic duty by walking the five blocks to my local polling place and voting. I finished up about 9:00 am, and the voting stations were busy, but there was no waiting line. Here in Grand Forks we use a simple paper ballot where we fill in the bubbles. The ballot is then fed into a plastic bin using a motorized intake. No hanging chads or computer problems to worry about – just the way I like it!
Here is my election prediction, as I told Casey last night. I believe that just like the midterm election of 2002, the polls are wrong. I don’t know if this is because they are based on bad assumptions, or if they are being deliberately skewed to make the race look so close, but I think they’re wrong. They vastly underestimate the turnout of the Republican base, especially Evangelical Christians. Evangelicals by and large love President Bush and will turn out in large numbers to support him. Also, some of the recent polls show 9 of 10 undecided/independent voters breaking for Kerry, which is absurd, in my opinion. Bottom line: expect a big win for President Bush.
The one thing that concerns me is voter fraud. As noted by the RNC, the Democratic party is going to do everything they can to litigate John Kerry into the White House by changing the rules to allow fraudulent votes. Just this morning in Philadelphia, poll watchers found almost 2000 votes already planted on machines throughout the city. It’s this sort of crap we’re up against. See Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, by John H. Fund
Final note: As of 9:50 am, the President Bush’s contract on Tradesports is at 56.