Here is the breakdown by polling location:
Polling locations ranked by turnout:
2010 Early Voting Day 10 Ranking
And ranked by percentage of total votes cast up or down versus 2008 early voting:
2010 Early Voting Day 10 Ranking by Gain/Loss vs 2008
For whatever reason, I decided to visit a few polling locations in the afternoon. I started at Sunnyside – there was a steady flow of cars turning into the lot to vote but no line. There were paid workers pushing Bill White, Yes to Prop 3, and No to Prop 3 at the entrance – you couldn’t turn into the lot without them coming up to your window. I will say this – the Kubosh brothers had the best paid workers by far. The “yes” workers sat on the sidelines. The “no” workers were pushing their cards and ready to talk about the fact that the cameras do not save lives, they just take money away from the United Way. Yep, she told me that after Hurricane Ike, the camera people didn’t give one red cent to help the community and people couldn’t give to United Way because they had to pay their tickets. She also told me that she “told that white lady from the Tea Party that she has a mind of her own and no one tells her how to vote”. Told you the Kubosh brothers hired better people!
From there I went to Palm Center. There was a KTRK 13 van out front set up to interview people. Apparently they were chasing rumors of a racist flyer being passed out – ridiculous how easy it is to manipulate the media. There were paid workers for the same groups plus a John Faulk volunteer, Charles Abernathy. Mr. Abernathy told me that the flow of voters had been steady but not packed. In looking at the totals, they had their highest turnout by far yesterday.
I left there and went to the Fiesta location on Kirby. This is probably the best example of how to get voter turnout if that is truly your goal. Get ’em while they’re shopping! Plus, it is very hard to push cards on people – you don’t know who is voting and who is shopping. Only paid workers were at this location, Yes to Prop 1 and Bill White. The line was about 30 deep and it looked like they had 15 or more machines. I took these with my phone, so they aren’t great but better than nothing:
Seriously, that is the way to get people to vote.
Next I went to the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center on West Gray and it was packed – mostly with signs and reps of candidates but a steady stream of voters as well. In fact, they too ended up with their highest day – 2,463 votes cast. And I saw the only candidate I saw during my trip, Olan Boudreaux, who is running for Judge of the 190th Civil District Court. And signs. My goodness they have a lot of signs out. If you view the slides below, you’ll see reps from John Clinton, Fernando Herrera, John Faulk, Chris Daniel, Don Smyth, Sarah Davis, and Ellen Cohen. And one guy representing Gordon Quan and Bill White with a Texas Tea Party sign.
I made a quick drive by of the Harris County Admin building at 1001 Preston but didn’t stop because I didn’t see anyone campaigning. From their I went by Ripley House and saw the same people that I had seen Sunday. And no voters but even they had their highest turnout to date.
County Clerk candidate Stan Stanart sent me his numbers, which are a day behind because he has campaigning to do but you can clearly see what I’ve been saying – the Democrats are turning their people out:
Notice that the In-person advantage for Republicans is just about gone – I suspect it will be gone after today.
The message is clear folks – if you want to win this election and stop the Obamanation, you have to get your family, friends, and neighbors to the polls. Those Independents may or may not vote with us. Don’t trust ‘hope’ – make it happen.
Only two days left of early voting, today and tomorrow. Go VOTE!
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UPDATE: Stan Stanart came through with updated numbers – Dems now outnumber Rep’s by 3,000 in-person votes! Thanks Stan!
