I was going to vote this morning and headed to the Jewish Guild for the Blind after dropping off the West twins at school. I saw something I'd never seen in NYC in more than 40 years of voting -- a line stretching all the way from the Guild in the middle of the block nearly to Central Park West. I decided to vote on the way home instead of waiting.
I wondered what the reason was:
Cuomo Provisional ballot refugees from other parts of the city (state?)
Broken machines?
The first Presidential election in NY with scanned ballots and not the Eisenhower era machine levers?
Or maybe just incredible enthusiasm in the People's Republic of the Upper West Side, fueled by terror at a possible Romney win. This seemed to be validated by a poll I just saw that showed Dems with an 8 percent edge in enthusiasm (btw -- the enthusiasm gap seems very volatile -- switching many times during the campaign).
In any case, this was not isolated -- on the Subway, a few people commented that they had lines up to three hours. Also -- one man told me that they announced a special line for the Cuomo Proivisional ballots, and no one joined it -- casting doubt on that theory of the lines.
Does this mean anything? Since 2004 and 2010, I became wary of anecdotal stories of high turnout in Dem. areas.
What are your experiences and thoughts?