polling place snapshot

i just voted in the primary here in tucson. i live in midtown in raul grijalva's district. that's maybe the safest democratic district in the state. safe enough for him to vote against funding the iraq occupation. safe enough for him to sign on for impeachment. safe enough for him to eschew the "colbert bump" & not let steve play with his moustache.
this is not an advocacy piece, we should be past influencing anybody else's vote at this late date, this is just an election day snapshot. use this diary as an open thread to post your own polling place observations.
there seems to be a palpable excitement here. i typically walk right up & grab a ballot, pretty much the same whether it is a primary or general election; presidential, or off year. today i actually had to get into a line - not huge, mind you, but at least 10 people ahead of me.

the poll workers hadn't seen this many people before either. there were a couple of unhappy independents ahead of me, folks who hadn't registered by the cut off date in january. all the ballots taken seemed to be democratic, not unusual for this precinct probably.
the interest in this primary is bigger than anything i've seen here before. this is undoubtedly a good thing for the democratic party. petitions to get on the ballot & a couple of initiatives were circulating in the parking lot.
for whatever hard feelings may have been generated by this contest, i think it will turn out to be a giant party building exercise.
feel free to post your own observations here, i would prefer them to be of the general vibe, rather than pro or anti any candidate. rec if you think this is worthwhile, be nice.

•  & now we wait for the california returns

  by rasbobbo on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:08:03 AM PDT

  •  Yes, and...

    A Happy N'Walins Fat Tuesday to you, Ras!  You feelin' homesick today?  I sure am.  Alas...

    I'm here in CA.  Waiting breathlessly for the results.  (I used to live in Tucson, too, along Alvernon.  Love Tucson!)

    by sockpuppet on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:56:31 AM PDT

    •  you lived here? you get around.

      i'm guessin the zulu must be steppin out about now tossing out those highly prized coconuts, huh?

      by rasbobbo on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 01:03:08 PM PDT

•  Polling places are full here

  I'm voting after work, but the local paper says more than a third of registered voters cast their votes before lunchtime here in Tulsa County -- that's the most populous county in Oklahoma, by the way.

  by droogie6655321 on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:08:44 AM PDT

  •  PS:

    My 8-months pregnant wife just e-mailed:

    I'm going to waddle to the polling place after work and vote and then
    home to lie down for a couple of hours.  

    by droogie6655321 on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:10:24 AM PDT

    •  Happy Waddling!

      by darthstar on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:11:54 AM PDT

•  Hoooray !!

  Disenfranchised from Michigan !

  by ArtfromMI on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:11:11 AM PDT

•  Was quiet here in

  Goodyear City Hall Center in Goodyear Arizona 20 minutes outside of Phoenix. It was a new precinct for me. This is generally a Conservative Part of the state but the neighborhood surrounding the precinct is largely Latino, lower to moderate middle class and Democratic.

  There was only one person in line ahead of me.  An elderly lady whose name did not appear on the roster despite the fact that she voted in 2006 at my old precinct as well. She is a Democrat. She ended up have to vote on a provisional ballot.

  The voting location is a little bit inaccessible.  There is few open parking spaces because they are being used by Goodyear City workers and those of a heath care clinic in the same complex.  My old precinct was a park with a community center in the middle and very open.

  by EMKennedyLucio on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:16:14 AM PDT

  •  does your congressional district

    take in sun city?

    by rasbobbo on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:31:23 AM PDT

    •  I'm not sure

      to tell you the truth, I'm in Trent Franks district which kinda goes all over the place as you can see here

      http://www.house.gov/...

      by EMKennedyLucio on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:57:54 AM PDT

•  Any idea which way the votes are going?

  Did you see a lot of signs or buttons at your polling place?

  BTW, I started a thread for everyone to share their voting stories, in an attempt to consolidate them and prevent them from getting buried. Doesn't seem to be working too well, but free to post there and recommend if you feel like it.

  by democrattotheend on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:22:56 AM PDT

  •  didn't see any repub signs

    a few signs up for hillary & obama & a couple of obama people holding signs & handing out stickers. two people circulating petitions & handing out invitations to grijalva's "kick off" party at the el casino ballroom.

    by rasbobbo on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:29:23 AM PDT

•  I'm usually one of the first in line ...

  at my out-in-the-country rural precinct. I like to get it done before work. Most of the time in a large election there may be five or six folks waiting with me for the doors to open. For run-offs, and other minor votes, I am often the only person in line. Today there were at least 20 when I went in, and it had lengthened considerably by the time I left.

  For a small rural south Georgia precinct it was a great turnout.

  by fritzrth on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:27:47 AM PDT

  •  any sense of which party's ballots

    people were getting?

    by rasbobbo on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:38:11 AM PDT

    •  Unfortunately, no.

      We don't get ballots. We have touch-screen voting. We fill out a form where we check either Democrat or Republican and are given programmed cards. No way to tell which party a person is voting for without looking over their shoulder.

      Given that I'm in Georgia, though. And given that I'm in a rural area outside a small town, I would give you odds that the majority are voting Republican. That's one bet I would love to have to pay up on.

      by fritzrth on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:48:39 AM PDT

•  Raul Grijalva

  Why do you think the Latino vote still went with Clinton, given that Grijalva endorsed Obama? I thought he was supposed to have a huge influence on the Latino vote in Arizona.

  by Free Spirit on Thu Feb 07, 2008 at 01:18:39 AM PDT