Here we go again! I voted early yesterday, the third day of early voting available in Georgia for the runoff to decide who the next US Senator from Georgia will be. I got there about 9, and there was a line! Not very long, and it was mostly the wait for someone to check your ID and guide you into the voting room.
After about 5 minutes, I ticked my JIM MARTIN button, along with some other runoffs in Georgia (including Powell (D) for Public Service Commissioner), and got my Georgia Peach "I Voted" sticker.
There were 19 voting machines, and only 3 or 4 were in use. My machine had the count at 255 voters - I assume just for that machine, but I'm not sure about that.
More Georgia info below the fold, plus some pictures from yesterday's rally with Jim Martin and Bill Clinton!
Runoff turnout looks pretty lousy, frankly, although it's still very early, and nothing can compare with Obamania in the general election. Voting day is December 2 (Tuesday after Thanksgiving), but we only have early voting until Nov 26. THERE WILL BE NO SATELLITE EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS FOR MOST COUNTIES!
Early voting closes next Wednesday (a week for today). So bundle up, pull yourself together one more time, AND GET OUT THE VOTE EARLY, so you can go GET OTHER PEOPLE TO VOTE! And in case you know any bone-heads who missed the November election, you can still vote in the run-off if you missed election day. The only requirement is that you were registered for the election.
Here's a sheet with the early voting locations.
With three days of early voting done, the total vote in this morning was at 63,934 statewide. Yesterday it was half that, so turnout has picked up. As usual, Dekalb leads the turnout with 5,414. African American turnout is back down to the pre-Obama days, as of yesterday it was at 24%, but that has dropped to 22.6% as of today. These are not good numbers, folks - we need to GET OUT THE VOTE! Here are the numbers if you want to crunch.
Hopefully these numbers will rise.
Bill Clinton came to town yesterday to warm people up with his support of Jim Martin. He gave a great speech that you can read here. I won't rehash it much, because Andre in Atlanta already diaried it here. I will say though, that it was great to see Bill - it brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how the last time we had a Democrat in the White House, we had peace and prosperity.
Here are some pics from the rally - sorry they're so crappy, I just have a little point-and-shoot, and the picture quality got bad after the sun set. Can't Bill come out for a rally during the day time?
And here's some video of Bill telling us that we can win it if we want it more than the Saxby Chambliss folks. He reminds us it's not about Democrat versus Republican, it's about Tomorrow versus Yesterday - a bridge versus a firewall for change.
Again I apologize for the crappy quality, but still it's fun to see people out at a rally!
What else can you do to help????
DONATE HERE
PHONE BANK HERE THROUGH OBAMA'S WEBSITE
VOLUNTEER HERE
This will be an uphill fight, but Jim Martin's our guy - he'll fight for us in Washington and help restore Georgia and America.