Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

2G2K Circus :: Run On Ballots In College Precincts Keeps Polls Open

Wow. KRON-4 and KGO Radio have been reporting all night that precincts at Cal and Stanford have had a run on paper ballots due to the huge increase in voter turnout. In addition, many precincts in Berkeley, Hayward, Fremont, and Oakland are reporting similar runs on ballots. This is still a fluid situation. Barbara Lee has just asked people to stay in line to cast their vote.

A judge in Alameda County has apparently ordered polling places stay open to 10pm, 2 hours past the regular time.

At the same time, polls are reporting Clinton ahead of Obama by a 20% margin or over 200k votes. About 15% reporting, though no one knows what the actual precincts are. This one is going mad late folks.

Interesting exit polls too, more in a future post.

UPDATE 9:23 :: Contra Costa and San Mateo County also reporting a run on ballots. Voters have been waiting in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara County precincts on xerox copies of ballots.

UPDATE 9:28 :: CNN is now calling it for Clinton, she’s at a 30% lead. It’s possible, even likely, that Obama will take Alameda, tho probably not San Mateo or Santa Clara. The numbers will likely close later tonight, and the final delegate counts won’t be clear for a few hours, at best. I don’t think we’re looking at a 2000 style missed-call fiasco, but Obama may still have some good news coming from Northern California.

UPDATE 9:38 :: OK, here we go, finally some clarification. KRON reports three judges have issued consecutive orders. The upshot is that voters who were in line at 8pm will be able to vote at any time until 10pm. 14 polling places in Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward, and Fremont reported ballot shortages. Santa Clara was low on ballots because of a large turnout of independents, but voters received xerox ballots. It’s not clear if complaints from the Stanford precincts were adequately handled.

posted by Jeff Chang @ 9:12 pm | 0 Comments